The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-10-19
The Eueni,,e Story

1 ne Evening ouOIV
Irma Interfefes.
(By Molly McMaster.)
In his heart John Craig longed for
the day when the footlights would
cease to be an attraction for his wife.
He was too big and too broad in his
| love for her to demand that she leave
domestic life at his side. He had
fallen In love with her az . star.
wooed and won her as such and now
| as wife and mother Sybel Craig still
shone, a Respondent star in the the
atrical armament.
John Junior was a scant three
months old when his mother began
rehearsal for her new play. It had
been a shock to Craig. He had
somehow counted on the arrival Of
John Junior as a barrier to Sybefs
prolonged stage career, but she had
laughingly told him that she could
act the better now that she had =
son to be proud of her.
"You would grow frightfully tired
F! of me, anyway" she added, III was
about the house all evening"
1T grow tired Of not having you,
not quite aware of the extent Of his
! WEAKNESS. He only knew that his
evenings alone in the house while his
wife was playing to crowded theaters
were beginning to bore him.
John Junior was four months old
when the new nurse arrived. She.
| Irma Newton, was lovely to look upon.
beautiful as to character and en-
dowed with womanly charm that en-
tered the appreciation Of John Junior.
| his mother and his father. She was
one of those fortunate women who
| oil ~
woes and administer according to
needs.
John Junior loved her instinctively.
Sybel loved her because she possessed
all tho domestic and sterling virtues
that Sybel herself lacked. And John
loved her. He only knew that even
ings of complete boredom were a
thing of the past and that his wife's
career was no longer SO severe q
thorn prick in his happiness.
! Had Sybel loved her husband in a
/ more unselfish way she would have
seen that Irma's position in the
household was nothing but tempta-
ton flung in the path of two per-
sons. But Sybel felt secure in her
husbands love, and 1t did not for q
second occur to her that he would
turn his affections In another direc-
ton.
/
it, she told herself over and over
again. 'John Craig is far too fine q
man to wreck his matrimonial craft
on the rocks and his wife il too
thoughtless to put out 9 beacon light
can save him." Irma felt that Sybel
Craig was more to blame than her
husband. and that he would have re-
manned faithful in his love had she
made the very slightest attempt to
hold him.
''she must make that attempt %
Irma told herself st shall tell her
exactly how matters stand"
It was a brave decision to come to.
but Irma was no coward. Besides
she realized that should Sybe1 Craig
display the same pride in her personal
life as she did in her public life she
would strive to maintain her position
as John Craig's wife. She would not,
1rma reasoned, like to see herself as q
/ Sybel was having her II o'clock cup
of tea when Irma knocked at her
door. 1t was not an unusual visit, so
that Mrs. Craig was not surprised.
They were wont to talk things over
at that hour of the morning.
MRS. Craig began Irma without
preamble, your husband imagines
himself in love with me. and 1 want
you to help me to prevent him telling
me so.''
!
not, however, theatrical in her private
life and her answer was Unexpectedly
calm.
why do you say he imagfnes him.
self in love with your
Because he is not really-he only
thinks SO. He and have been thrown
together continually and-he il q man
essentially fond OF feminine compan-
ionship. He has not had that from
you. It is most natural. then. that lses
nature should respond to tho presence
of any woman sensitive to his per-
sonality.'
Sybel Craig gazed in a more or less
vacant way at Irma. Perhaps for the
first time in her life she was looking
at a situation from another persons
point of view.
you are not SO selfish as you are
thoughtless," Irma went on as IL fol-
lowing out her own thoughts. your
husband loves you and wants you at
his side and you have never stopped
to realize that you have never con-
sidered his desires-cnly you'd own.
In this life we really should try to
make others happy rather than our
asked the question in a perfectly i'm
personal way. She was trying desper-
ately to retain the atmosphere of un-
emotional reasoning. She hated
scenes of any kind and felt a respect
for Sybel beyond that which she had
known because Mrs. Craig had ac-
cepted the situation calmly.
Craig, however, was only human.
/ He had married because he wanted q
home mad a wife to tread the path of
life beside him. He had regretted
that love had come to him across the
| footlights, but she would love him
more than her audience and applause.