The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-10-06
Married Life
the Second Year
BY MABEL HERBERT URNER.
New York, May Is, 1911,

! DcSu QulL6 pussy. nope you are ENJOY
ing your visit. Everything here is NOV
ing all right. Have been taking most
of my dinners at mothers. Glad to
hear Winifred is well. Give her my
love.
Hurriedly yours,
WARREN.
Helen had received this short note
almost a week before, and not one
word since. Every day she looked ca
gerly, tensely, for letter but none
had come.
She had been at Carterstown almost
three weeks now and in that time she
had received only two brief notes from
Warren. And this last was almost a
week ago.
Her birthday he had entirely ignor-
ed.
But at least. her people did not
know this; and she was more than ev-
er fierceIy glad Of her strategy-of the
flowers she had sent herself, SO that
every one would think they were from
him.
What could this silence mean? Had
he really forgotten her birthday or had
he remembered and not cared? This
last note was dater the 9Th, the day
after her birthday, and yet he had not
even referred TO it.
SHE RE-READ THE NOTE.
Again she read the note, hoping to
read into it some thing between the
lines. But even her vivid imagination
could find nothing underlying those
cold, streotyped phrases.
Could it be that he was really miss
ing her very much, and was too proud
10 say so? Had he purposely written
this cold little note fearing to write
more, lest she should read between
the lines? Might it be that even now,
he was wanting her to come back.
And because, in her letters, she had
said nothing of returning, he was also
rigidly refraining from any reference
to her return?
Like the foolish little woman she
was, Helen let her imagination run ri
OF along these lines. 1t is SO easy to
believe what we want to believe.
And now she brought to bear every
thing she could to bolster up this be-
lief. 1t might be that all along he had
been hurt-deeply hurt that she had
wished to come on this visit at all, and
that his seeming Indifference about it
had been only his way of hiding the
hurt. And now he might continue to
write her brief, cold notes until she,
of her own accord, came back to him.
Was that what he wanted? Was that
what he was waiting for? Was that
why he didn't write? Was he trying in
this way TO make her return? Her
heart leaped at the thought.
How many women have tried to
persuade themselves that the neglect
and coldness of the man they love is
only an expression of his hurt pride.
And how often they have let this belief
lead them to further overtures, to fur
Their concessions and humiliations!
TIE DELUSlON OF WOMEN.
1t is one Of the inconceivable things
Of woman's nature that when she is
separated from the man she loves,
however cruel he may have been to
her, she dWells not on his cruelty but
on his rare moments of tenderness.
She cherishes those moments and lives
them over and over again. And so she
feels and keeps burning the flames of
her love
She pursuades herself that in those
few gentle tender moments was shown
the real nature of the man. And that
all his selfshness and harshness is
not the true part of himself, but only
the result of an unfortunate combina-
ton of circumstances" which have
tended to irritate and exasperate and
make him not himself.
How grimly the gods must smile,
and weep too, for very pity, when a
woman tries to make excuses for neg
lect and mistreatment from the men
they love, because he is not himself
because of the worry of his business
or of his health, or of innumerable 9TH
err things.
She will never admit to herself the
truth-that the man is small and sell
fish and cruel of nature. She goes on
trying to believe, and to make others
believe, that if he seems to be all
these things. it is only because he is
the victim of unfortunate conditions
That-at heart, he is fine and big and
true, and that some day things will
"come right" and he will be himself
again"-and will give her the love and
tenderness for which she has been
starving so long.
And now, Helen strained after ex-
cuses for Warren-and found them.
He had not meant to be selfish He had
not realized that he was making her
unhappy. His GOODNESS and indiffer-
ence were only the result of worry
about his work and the responsibility
of having a family on so small an in
come.
And now she put aside all the I'M
appinesS since her marriage and dwelt
for hours on those wonderful months
before the coming of Winifred when
he had been loving and thoughtful
when he had been really himself"
A DREAM OF THE PAST.
One of the incidents she loved most
to live over. and that always brought
the tears to her eyes with a rush of
tenderness, <'as that of one afternoon
when he came home from the office,
just after dush. and she had run into
his arms and he had held her close
without speaking. She had led him to
the big chair and curled up in his lap,
burying her face on his shoulder. And
he had rested his lips against her hair
as he held her still in silence.
And at last she had whispered: "Oh,
Warren. it is wonderful It means so
much to me-!
And he answered gently. as he drew
her closer: And it means so much to
me-"
When she would think of that mo-
ment, her heart seemed to beat in ten
derness and she would feel if only she
could see him now everything would
be right" All the wretched months
since then had been only an unhappy
dream.
The man who had held her and whis-
pered to her that day was the real