The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-12-02
Nature Versus Theory.
Ioriginall

divorce. He believed that no marriage
should take place without a mutual
love, that no couple should live to-
gether without perfect and uninter-
rupted harmony and that if such har,
mony did not exist both husband and
wife should be free to marry again.
Marjorie Hays fell under Engleman's
influence. and he won her heart as
well as a passive assent to his theory.
He feared that she would be that
counterpart in his life a wife should
be. He finally decided to take the
risk, and they were married.
When the couple had been married
five years the result of the experiment
was a beautiful boy four years old
and a elimination of friction arising
from the fact that the husband init
mated that in their case marriage had
been a failure. He proposed a sep
| aration.
Marjorie concealed the pang the an
nouncement cost her. She was a proud
little woman-too proud to hold a man
who wished to be released Besides,
she had given a tacit assent 10 her
husbands views For herself. she was
| content TO live as one of united
trio getting over marital stumbling
blocks as best she could. But her hus-
band did not consider that holy matri-
| mony and insisted on carrying out his
theory. The wife consented to the in
evitable
Then came Eunice Shattuck, an an
gular woman of thirty-two years-En-
gleman's senior-with as many theories
as he on love and marriage and a far
| stronger will. She convinced him that
they were afinities who had been
brought together by an invisible love
current and whom, once met, no power
could keep apart. Under her influence
Engleman proposed to his wife not
only separation, but divorce
Marjorie stood up bravely under this
demolishing of all hope. Two consid-
erations guided her. pride and desire
to shield the father of her child from
blame. She gave out to her friends
and acquaintances that she and her
husband were of one mind on the i'm
portant subject between them, that
she fully assented to his plan to marry
| the right" woman, and she would
leave him that he might secure the
necessary divorce on the ground of de
| sertion. She even went so far as to
call upon Miss Shattuck and wished
her much happiness with the man
whose soul and hers were in such per
! feet harmony.
The retiring wife fixed upon the Pa
! cifc coast for a residence. On the
morning of her departure the husband,
wife and son went to the station to-
| gether. the child trudging along hold
ing to his fathers forefnger. all I'M
| conscious of the break in the home to
which he had been born. Neither the
| man nor the woman spoke except of
! some matter connected with the Jour
ney.
/ SO great was the wife's self con
/ troll that she appeared outwardly far
more content with the change than her
husband Before leaving the car in
which he placed his family Engleman
stopped to kiss his wife She submit
/ ted to be kissed passively. Then he
| took his boy in his arms and held his
lips to the child's cheek till the train
started.
"Goodby," said Marjorie. within a
year he will have forgotten you"
1t seemed that some unseen being
had touched Arthur Engleman's cheek
with an icy finger. driving every yes
| tige of color from it.
go! You will be too late"
He turned and hurried from the car.
He stood looking after the train,
never moving until it had turned a
curve; then he went to his home. He
found no one there, yet there seemed
to be some one-a spirit of loneliness.
1t was in the hall. the living room.
the bedroom. everywhere. When he
found it in his boys crib-the boy who
was to forget him-he gasped and gave
sharp cry.
Then he remember the woman
who was to fill the void. She was not
there. but her likeness was in the
library. There he hurried for consola-
ton.
From its frame on the wall above
his desk. where he had often gazed al
it with rapture, an ugly face looked out
at him.
Great heavens! Had he been dream
ing? And was this all that was left OF
his dream?
While he had been nursing his theo
~ a bond had been slowly weaving
itself about him-the bond of family
love- The consciousness of It's ex
istence, of its strength. had come upon
him with the suddenness Of a whirl
wind. There was no deliberation, Nc
/ reasoning. no hating. His theory OF
marriage he saw vanishing in the dis
lance like q kite with a broken string
driven before a storm. hooking him
with its fantastic motions. With g
blow he broke the glass that covered
the square jaw of his affinity and
rushed from the house
Twelve hours after Marjorie had
reached her destination she was trying
I - ra~va ba~uolF m urpoc tx her 4rrrrL