The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-01-10
Married Life
the Third Year
By MABEL HERBERT URNER.

BY MABEL HERBERT URNER.
The envelope had only the check
and blank sheet of paper! The pa
per was folded about the check so it
would not show through But there
was not one word of writing.
And last week it had been the
same-just the weekly check and tho
blank paper. Helen had tried to think
then that it was mistake or that
he had been hurried-but now she
knew it was deliberate. And to Helen
that blank sheet of paper was more
terrifying than the most wrathful let
ter.
So this was to be her punishment.
This was Warren's answer to the let
ter in which she had refused to send
Mrs. Morrison away, insisting that
she could see no reason why she
should not rent the spare room while
he was gone, That had been three
weeks agO-and not one word had
he written her since. Just the two
checks with the blank sheets Of pa
per.
1t was the first time she had de-
liberatelv refused to obey him-and
he was Furnishing her with silence
And to a sensitive, imaginative mind
nothing can be more cruel than ST.
lence There was nothing he could
have written over which she would
have anguished more. For whatever
he might write at least the MEDl-
ATE thing. And to telegraph was she
suffered from imagining every posi-
BILE thing
And was this silence to continue
Was this the way he was to force her
to submission? Was she to receive
next week 5 check with Il blank sheet
of paper and the week after that?
Was he going to keep this up until she
wrote that she would do as he wished?
Or what was more appalling still-was
he never going to write her again
was he never coming back.
Before night Helen had worked her
self into a state Of feverish anxiety. 1t
was her nature that when she brood
ed l0ng enough over anything she lost
all sense of proportion. The thing
about which she was worrying be
came distorted and exaggerated and
assumed an Importance out of all rea-
son so now she hrOOded over this
blank sheet Of paper until the fear of
it Ohsessed her.
She studied every pen stroke on
the envelope and the check. trying to
get some idea Of his mood from his
writing. But he always wrote in bold
free hand and the writing on this en-
VelOpe was the same as on any other.
Oh. if he was only not so far away
if she only dared try to reach him
by phone, She took down the tele-
phone book 10 look up the rate to
San Francisco 1t was not listed, but
it would be at least SO, for Kansas
City was S725. She would call up
Central she wanted to know exactly
Perhaps there would be some special
night rate.
Central connected her with 'infor-
nation" and information with
"Long Distance" and Long Distance
with the chief operator, And he in
formed her CURLY that, You cant tel
ephone to san Francisco or any point
in California;
She hung up the receiver with a
sense of shock. So is was impossible
to reach him by phone. Now he seem
ed farther away than ever Yet even
If She cOuld-shc would not have dar-
ed to telephone. Only once had she
called him up on Long Distance
the time she was visiting her moth
er in Missouri and he had not written
for days. But II" had been furious and
had rOared at her never to do such a
foolish. eXtraVagant thing again
But even though she would not have
telephoned, the fact that she could not
that there was no wires, that what
ever her nee Dis she could not reach him
that way-gave her a desperate sense
OF remOtenesS.
That blank sheet Of paper seemed to
menace her with a future desoate and
destitute. She was consumed by the
fear that unless She did something at
once to make things right" he
would never return And this fear