The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-10
TIE HOME COMING.
BY MAURICE SMILEY.


 (Copyright, 1906, by Daily Story Pub. ont in 2 little town in Illinois the door of a little cottage closed and a man strode down the path toward the gate.
 within was the sound of a woman weeping, and against the window was pressed the face Of child. There were tears upon the child's face, for she had heard papa say that he would not come back any more. She could not understand why. All she knew was that papa had gone away.
 Perhaps Margaret Dillon herself did not know why her husband was leav- ing her. Perhaps Howard Dillon could not have given very good reason. He had gone over it all great many times. But it had all ended in the sad bewilderment of tears
 rye are not suited to each other, Margaret he had said over and over again. "It is better that we should part. We cannot live like this al- ways this constraint and estrange- rnent We shall grow to hate each other and that would be horrible. Let us end it before it gets to that"
 But the child, Howard" his wife had said.
 That was the tender spot in the mans nature. If there had been no 4 Cnft0, fL WOutQ nave DCeh edSiei
 Tt is better he said, before he turned the knob, flor her to grow up with you alone than that she should learn. as she grows older. that there is any shadow between us"
 what was the trouble? Howard Dill lon had sincerely believed that he loved his wife when he married her. They had been happy during those four years. True, there had always been a feeling on his part that she was unsuited to him intellectually. He was absorbed In his art and he longed for the sympathy and appreciation, of Understanding. Margaret was n good housekeeper She was a faithful. if undemonstrative, heTpmeet She was a good mother. Back there in the first days she had saved end helped him in many little ways. She had shielded him from the practical cares of his life. But love was nor enough for him. In his selfish vanity, characteristic of the artistic temperament, he had dis regarded the things which many hus- hand would have considered more than ali the world. To himself he prated a great deal obout not being "understood' and he justified himself to himself in seeking elsewhere than in his home for inc qualification of his seifishness. He called 1t the proper appreciation of his genius.
 But even with ali this. if Myra !, Knowlton had never come into his life the tears might never have welled UT in the blue eyes of his little one. Myra Knowlton stood for all, from hiA selfish point of view, which Mar gahet Dillon did not give him. She had what Howard Dillon's cant called soul" and spirituality" She under stood" him. She spoke to his soul fir the language of affinity" If only h' had met her before ne married Mar naret! This was the burden of the mans arraignment of Fate.
 That Margaret had made him gooC wife. that she was the mother of hi! child, that she loved him. that he wa: breaking her heart, went for nothing.
 Myra herself would have been thu ,nosk surprised woman if she hat known just how Howard Dillon re garded her Not for her right hanC would she have encouraged anything which tended to raise barrier be tween husband and wife. Pure-heart ed and pure-minded. strong of soul anC inst and generous, she had admired Howard Dillon's artistic genius. She had thoroughly enjoyed his society iT a Platonic and conventional way. Bu if she ever felt single regret that they had never been thrown together before another bond united Howard Dillon, it was a secret she kept in hei own heart
 Howard Dillon knew her too well tc presume to go to her when he "tooH ais happiness and his freedom in hi: