Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1911-03-08
WHEN A. MAN
MAQQIES III
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Habit" Aunt Selma repeated,
her voice thick with passion. Then
she turned to me. GO to your room
at once!" she said in her most awful
tone. GO to your room and leave
this-this shocking affair to me-"
But if she had reached her limit, SO
had l. If Jim chose to ruin himself,
1t was not my fault. Any one with
common sense would have known at
least to close the door before he
went down on his knees, no matter to
whom. So when Aunt Selma turned
on me and pointed in the direction Of
the staircase, l did not move.
II am perfectly wide awake said
coldly. Il shall go to bed when I
And as for Jim's conduct, l do not
know much about the conventions in
such cases, but if he wishes to en-
brace Miss Knowles, and she wants
him to, the situation is interesting,
but hardly novel;"
Aunt Selma rose slowly and drew
the folds Of her dressing gown around
her, away from the contamination of
my touch.
do you know what you are say
ing?" she demanded hoarsely.
Il do" I was quite white and stiff
from my knees up, but below I was
wavery. / glanced at Jim for moral
support, but he was looking idola-
trously at Bella. AS for her, quite
suddenly she had dropped her mask
of Indifference. Her face was strain
ed and anxious, and there were deep
circles l had not seen before, under
her eyes. And it was Bella who final
ally threw herself into the breach
the family breach.
1T is all my fault, Miss Caruthers,
she said stepping between Aunt Sc
lima and myself. II have been blind
and wicked woman, and l have almost
wrecked two lives"
Two! What of mine? ;.
''You see," she struggled on, against
the CLINT in Aunt Selina's eyes. Il
did not realize how much l cared, un-
til it was too late. l did SO many
things that were cruel and wrong
O4, JILL Jill
She turned and buried her head on
his shoulder and cried; real tears.
could hardly believe that it was
Bella. And Jim put both his arms
around her and almost cried, too, and
looked nauseatingly happy with the
eye he turned to Bella, and scared to
death out of the one he kept on Aunt
Selma.
She turned on me, as of course
knew she would.
That" she said pointing at jim
and Bella, that shameful picture is
due to your own indifference. l am
not blind: I have seen how you re-
jected all his loving advances" Bella
drew away from jim, but he jerked
her back. eff anything in the world
would reconcile me to divorce, it is
this unbelievable situation. James,
are you shameless?"
But James was and didn't care who
knew it. And as there was nothing
else to do, and no one else to do it,
| stood very straight against the door
frame, and told the whole miserable
story from the very beginning. l told
how Dial and Jim had persuaded me,
and how / had weakened and found it
was too late, and how Bella had come
in that night, when she had no bust
ness to come, and had sat down in the
basement kitchen on my hands and
almost turned me into a raving ma
MAC. AS l went on l became fluent:
My sense of injury grew on me.
made it perfectly clear that I hated
them all, and that when people got
divorces they ought to know their
own minds and stay divorced. And at
that a great light broke on Aunt Sc
lima, who hadn't understood until that
minute.
In view of her principles, she might
have been expected to turn OIL Jim
and Bella, and disinherit them, ard
cast them out, figuratively with the
flaming sword of her tongue But she
did not! She turned on me in the
most terrible way, and asked me how
/ dared to come between husband and
wife, because divorce or no divorce,
whom God hath joined together, and
so on. And when jim picked up his
courage in both hands and tried to
interfere, she pushed him back with
one hand while she pointed the other
at me and called me a Tezebel.