Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-03-20
heir Married Life
By MABEL HERBERT URNER

doctor to be examined-but you know
your father.
Now Helen, if you feel you cannot
ask Warren, don't hesitate to write
and tell me so frankly. l do not want
TO ask you to do anything that will
De too hard, or that will make things
stralned between you and him. But
thought now 1 ought to let you
know.
With love- as ever,
MOTHER.
Helen opened a drawer in the desk
and took out her check book. Forty
three dollars and eighty cents. That
was all she had of her own!
With bitter resentment she thought
OF the twenty-five she had loaned
Mrs. Thurston. For the moment she
telt like calling her up and demand
ing the money. 1t had been over a
,, month, and she had not heard a word
from her. She would wait until the
ilrst-not a day longer. If Mrs.
Thurston did not return the money
by then she would ask her for it.
A Slight Relief
Tearing out a check, Helen now
filled it out to her mother for $40.
She would send this by special de-
livery. Hurriedly she wrote the
letter.
Dear Mother:
have only s43 in the bank and
am sending you a check for $40. This
VIII help out until l have time to
think what / can do. Your letter
Just came and l am still bewildered.
did not dream things were so bad.
You should have let me know sooner.
just loaned a Mrs. Thurston s25-
1t makes me wild to think of It. I
will 4 r
may have to wait-and l could have
sent it to you now.
L feeI very guilty when | think Of
the money'I've spent on clothes lately.
GU see warren makes me an allow
ance of $50 a month for myself
that is for my clothes. carfare, etc.
OF course, everything for the house
he pays for, and he's often very gem
erous about getting me an expensive
gown or coat. While we were in
Paris he gave me a lot of extra money
ularly.
The worst of it is that in the last
few months he's complained of busi-
ness being very bad and we've been
trying to cut down our household eX-
penses. So you see how 1 dread to
ask him for anything just now.
Mother. If 1 send you TWENTY-FIVE
dollars-half of my allowance each
month-do YOU think you could
manage on that until Warren's bust
ness is better? If you We're sure of
that much every month, besides what
rather may make, don't you think YOU
could get along. And Warren need
not know. l have plenty of clothes
now. / got so many in Paris last wear
that ] VIII need almost nothing this
Spring.
Oh, I'd much rather do this than
ask Warren for money now. He
might be very willing to give it to
me; he might even send you so much
month himself; but l don't know
ana I'm AFRAID to ask him. You know.
IN some ways he's most generous; yet
In other ways he is very, very hard.
] suppose I've always been and al
ways will be afraid of him, but 1 can't
help that. And now chat things have
been going very smoothly for the past
year can't tell you how l shrink from
doing anything that might make CON
ditions strained. So I'll try first every
possible way of helping you without
asking him.
If | could only make some money
myself! Perhaps there's some way
| can. At least, you can be sure Of
twenty-five dollars a month until I
can find some way of sending Won
more. I'll write again this week.
Lovingly. HELEN
IT was with slight feeling of re-
lief that Helen mailed this letter. Ar
least the forty dollars would helm
some. It would give her time to
think
A Big Shock
Somehow she had never thought of
hera father as not being fairly pros
porous. The possibility Of his ever
needing Warren's help had never oc
CURED to her.
That there were many men who did
help their wives families, she knew.
but she had never dreamed that
Warren would have to helps hers.
She felt that he had a sort of con-
tempt for dependent people His own
family were all well off, which would
make 1t harder for him to understand
and sympathize. His creed always
was that every one should work and
save while young, SO there would be
no need for dependency in old age.
But Helen knew that her father
HAD worked; his years as a village
physician had been full of hardships
and self-sacriflces. But he had al
ways been over-generous, giving
much of his services free. and now at
stxty-two, he had almost nothing to
show for his life's work.
Twenty-Five dollars month! Would
that be enough to help them? Must
she force down her pride and show
this letter to Warren? What would
he do? What would be his attitude? 4?
What If he should say that he had
all the expenses now that he could
meet that he could do nothing? II
he said that, she knew that for
months things would be strained be-
tween them. There would always be
the feeling that she had asked him
to help her father-and he had re-
fused.
No; she COULD not ask him She
was AFRAID to ask him She must
manage to help them in some other
way