Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1913-10-08

for me or even to live IN the same
house with me. But for your own sake
you must"
IL Ia for my own sake that must
do nothing OF the sort You get your
Ideas OF life from books. Too many
people do that am not going to let
this one mistake ruin every BIT Of my
future. / won't let one moment OF folly
blot all my life. Men don't Why
should women7 There Is still much
IN the world for me And for you. too,
II you1l look at Il sanely. Oh. know
my kind Of sanity shocks you. But
II Is sanity. You are held back by
centuries Of traditions. Your father
began life as a millionaire's son. Mine
began Il In an Irish orphanBe. Your
grandfather was a supreme court
Judge. don't know who mine was.
There must be something. after all. In
this talk OF heredlty. For instance,
don't suppose there's a girl In all
your sisters set who would have con
scented to a honeymoon like ours, is
there? Your sisters wouldn't have
done such a thing. would they?"
moi" he exclaimed In involuntary
disgust
At his word and tone a faint red
showed across the WomRn's face as II
he had struck her lightly with his
open hand. But at once she recovered
herself.
Let's say goodby and part az
friends she suggested. mo irremed
liable harm is done Except for myself
you are the only person hurt. You'll
have to stand that as part OF the price
Of"
you are mistaken" he broke in
Others, besides myself. are affected.
'WhoY
Il don't know. But this I do know:
No one can live TO himself or herself
No one can say: MY fault or folly
hurts me alone. In this miserable old
world OF ours, we are all tangled up In
one apother's destinies. And when
one tears loose the cord that binds
him, the vibration of that wrench will
soon OF late reach and AFFECT people
whom he perhaps does not even
know"
THE cord you speak OF. she
Knocked, lis that holy bond known al
Conventionality, isn't It? The bugbeal
that the weak and the prim have
raised to scare the strong and the
courageous"
mo. The beaten path that ten bill
lion failures and tragedies since the
birth of Time have shown to be the
only safe one. Conventionality' path
may seem to the near-sighted to BE-
twisted foolishly, and unnecessarily
long But each Of those twists repre-
sents the place where the Man in
Front wisely stepped aside to avoid
the pitfal into which the mar
ahead of him had tumbled. And the
short cuts in the long tortuous road
are white with the bones of failures.
I'm going to walk over those samG
whltened bones in my short cut from
one point of Conventionality's twisted
path to another. I'm going to wall
back from a union that would mear
misery to me-back to the pleasan
home life and social life l love ant
don't mean to lose. Don't worry. N,
whitened bones will turn under mi
and bring me a fall. l can defy tn
bogy, Conventionality, and still liv
happy"
Others have defied the bogy. Yo
are not the first nor the millionth. T.
most of them it seemed as safe as
seems to you"
Yes? | should like to meet ther
and compare notes"
You will not meet them" he ar
swered grimly. but you will tread o
their bones-in the short cut Eve
as some future challenger Of Conver
tionality shall one day tread on yours.