The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-27
A CRADLE AND A SONG.
BY HAYS nLAC<MAN. yright. 1905, by Daily Story Publish

Copyright, 1905, by Daily Story PupNsn- ing Company0
 Tho woYnau~~-her name was Dotores and Dolores means sorrowful--stocd before the mirror in her bedroom ana studied impartially the face that the glass reflected. Once upon tune tt had been the face of laughing, care free girl Where the dimple had twinkied in the girls cheek was now a hollow. The cupid's bow of mouth was set in lines of weariness and of patience. The delicate oval oi the face had sharpened with time and trouble. and the eyes were hard and cold. She wondered that any man could love her as she was now, least of all the man who did love her. xe' she was wise enough to know that woman may fascinate without beauty if she had those other gifts which often beauty lacks.
 The woman had married to become disi1lusioned. The man whom she mar ried was not brutal He had none of the vices which are commonly supe posed to cause misery in married life. Yet he lacked just those qualities which make happiness. He had certain sort and languorous fashion of making love. He was good looking after fashion. the type of man who wins womens hearts easily. And so he won the love this woman and married her. Within six months her love for him had waned to indifference Within year she looked upon him with disgust. In time his wife grew to know that he was a human Jellynsh. without -albi- tion, without energy. without any of the aggressive vices or the militant virtues. If he had been forced to work or starve, so indolent was he. so needless of what tomorrow might bring forth, that he would have starved, and his wife with him. But he had an ample income, so that the woman was saved from poverty There are worse things than being poor. and there were times when the woman felt that she
 musk go to the housetops and shriek out to the world that she would not, could not. endure her existence any longer. It was at one of these times that the other man came into her life.
 The other man was everything that the husband of Dolores was not. He was aggressive. He was poor. But because he was accustomed to getting what he wanted. 1t was a settled fact that he would not always be poor. He loved Dolores His siege of her heart and of her prudence was not an easy one. Perhaps she pleased him the better that she made surrender doubt full She had always chung closely to the conventions. If she had ever thought of divorce 1t was to remember that her husband had never been guilty of a single sin upon which the grounds hung And she would not seek a divorce because she was tired of the man whom she had married
 This evening before the Girror in her bedroom she began to think that this was the last time she would ever look into that mirror, the last time she would ever sit in the safe refuge of that room. For that night she was to meet the other man and they were to go away together to begin life among strangers where no one would know them for what they were. The woman felt no pang of repentance for what she was about to do. She had fought the battle and love had won. All else was past and done with. But as her eyes went seeking the familiar objects about the room they fell upon the little wicker cradle which always stood near the bed where she could put out her hand in the dark and touch It. Once. long ago. the cradle had rocked a little child. and the memory of the boy whose coming had brought sunshine into her life and whose going had left the shadows darker. was the sweetest and most sacred of the memo rteS that Dolores nad. The boy nad lived only a year. but she could have told you what happened in each of the three hundred and sixty-five days that he had dwelt with her. She was leav- ing the cradle behind. Into the life to which she was going she would take none of those holy things that held beauty and love. none of the belong ings of the baby whose mother she was.
 The house fell into quiet and the noises of the street pulsed up without her window. It was time to go. The woman was ready dressed. She went to the closet and took from the hook her hat and coat. She pinned the hat on before the mirror and picked up tho suit case ready packed and standing by the door. She stepped into the hall. The house was dark and quiet. The gas turne low fiickered to point of flame. She opened the hall door softly. It was early evening as yet and she had but a short walk. two or thrOe squares to the little park where the man would meet her with cab. She stood in the door a moment, dumbly saying goodby to the past to it's purity and its sorrow, to its ideals and it's buried hopes before she set her. feet upon this new and unTied road And aa she stood there. vaguely