Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1913-05-06

| consequently safe.
That's what his marriage has done
for him, and that's the state that WON
an has ground him down to. Shed
worked on him ill she'd got him to
come up here and ask for it a few
minutes before the people began to
arrive! That's what she made him
| dol"
And you wouldn't give it?" he sn-
CURED mildly, inwardly surprised, as
he had been often before. at the ram
cor displayed by women In their quar-
rels.
Give it?" she exclaimed well. I
guess not. 1t would have been my
surrender. I'd have thrown up the
fight forever If did that" And then
as il she had read his thoughts: tits
not natural meanness either. There's
only one hope for me-for me and for
Dominick, too, Divorce"
He did not move its chin from Its
resting-place in his up-curled hand,
but made a slight asserting motion
with his head, and said:
SupEOoC AIdL TIC OLlJ I0lQR.
That's been my hope since the day
when l first saw her. didn't know
then she'd been anything to Dominick
before the marriage, but knew the
| first look | had at her what she was.
That long, mean nose and those sly
eyes, and seven years older than the
boy II she was a day You didn't
have to tell me any more | saw then
just like flash in the dark what my
son had let himself in for. And then,
not month after, l heard the rest
about her. and l knew that Dominick
had started in to ruin his life about
the best way he knew how"
Cannon gave another grunt, and
this time 1t contained a recognizable
note of sympathy. She went on, alb
sorbed in her recital, anxious to pour
out her griefs, now that she had be-
gun.
Right there from the start |
thought OF divorce. | knew it was the
only way out and was bound to come
in time. The woman had married
Dominick for money and position. ]
knew that, saw it in her face along
with other things. There was no love
In that face, just calculation, hard and
sharp as a meat AK l shut down on
the money right there and then. Dom.
mick had three thousand a year, SO
| knew he couldn't starve, but three
thousand a year wasn't what she'd
married him for"
She's got along on it for over two
years"
That's it, She's beaten me so far
I'm the keeper of Con Ryan's fortune
and just closed my hand on it and
said to her in so many words, Not a
cent of this for you. I thought she'd
tire Of struggling along in fiat with
one Chinaman and not a soul to come
near her. But she's stood it and she's
going to go on standing it. Where
she's concerned, I did something the
smartest men and women sometimes
do-underrated the brains of my en-
envy"
She's pretty smart, l guess said
Cannon, raising a gravely-comment.
ing eye to his companions face.
That's what she is-smart and
Ilong-headed. She's more far-sighted
than women of her kind usually are
and she's got her eye on the for.
tune. She's not going to give us a
chance for divorce. She's not going
to make any breaks or mistakes
There's not 6. more respectable WON
an in San Francisco. She doesn't GO
with any one but her husband and her
own sisters, two decent women that
you can't believe have the same blood
in them. She's the quietest, most do.
nestle kind of wife. 1t don't mat
ter, and nobody knows, that she's
making her husband the most miser-
able man in the country. That doesn't
cut any ice. What does is that there's
no ground for divorce against her II
she had the kind of husband that
put up with anything from a woman
| all he could do would be to leave her
and she'd go around then getting ev-
erybody's sympathies as a virtuous,
| deserted wife"
The Old man gave his head an ap-
preciative jerk, and murmured:
"A pretty smart woman, all right.
She's all that-that and more. It's
the future that she's banking on. I'm
nearly seventy years of age, Bill Can
non, and this has broken me up more
than anything that's gone before. I'm
not the woman l was before my boy
/ married. And what's going to hap
| pen when, | die? I've only got two
! living children. Outside sthem there's
nobody but some distant relations that
Con made settlements on before he
died If left all I've got to Cornelia.
or divided it up between Cornelia and
charity, cutting off my son because
he'd made a marriage | didn't like,
would such a will as that stand? Why
| had | left nothing to my only son =?
| Because he'd married a woman |
didn't think good enough? And what
was there against her? She'd been a
| typewriter and her husbands mis-
tress for six months before he mar
| ried her, The mistress part of it had
been condoned by marriage and GOOD
conduct-and after all, how many
families in San Francisco and other
places were founded on just those
beginnings? AS for her being type
writer, Della Ryan herself had been
a washerwoman. waShed for the min
ers with these hands; she held out
her blunt, beringed hands with one of
those dramatic gestures natural to
the Irish-"when Con was working I'M
| derground with his pick l was at the
wash-tub. and l made money chat way
for him to run the mine. Where's the
California jury that would hesitate to
award Dominick, and through him his
wife her part of the fortune that Con
ard I Ilade?"
Wei that's all possible" Cannon
said slo Wy, "but it's so far of. It's
all surm,se. You may live twenty
years yet fancy she'd find twenty
years wait under the present condi-
tons rather wearyiNg."
The old woman sncck her head,