Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-08-25
CHAPTER TX Continued.

y
returned Algernon quietly. "But
don't see how you are going to DO 1t
unless you explain things to him."
Molly blushed and shook her nead
confession, like medicine SAID sne
should only be taken after meals.
Gwen then it's apt to gag If it's toe
big a dose,' said Algernon grimly..
The car was barely creeping along
thu sun.kissed highway, the sound OF
Its engines drowned in the shrill hum
az tha crickets in the fields on either
aide Of the road. Molly had forgotten
the fact that the present conversation
was anything exceptional, that she and
Algernon were comparatively strang
era and Algernon had made his first
appearance In an informal way that
was unusual. to say the least.
She laughed now bit angrily. Argu.
ments with ones conscience were bad
enough without being forced to nave
one with long-legged good-looking
how whose eyes she for some reason
preferred to avoid. joe she teaseo,
trying to tighten the subject, should
I be too big q dose?"
II shouldn't want you to play with
my love, Molly, as If it were jig-saw
puzzle"
"But my love is true Joe-for his
money"
Alrernon grunted and said nothing
for some time. his eyes on the road
before him. She glanced at Kim now
and then from under the brim OF her
big hat and once. as Algernon turned
suddonlv to look at her, their glances
met and they laughed.
'What do you plan to do?' asked
Alsenron. "Have him run away with
your"
She nodded. II shall tell him it is a
joke, joe"
* joke! I hardly see the humorr
in it. He will think you love him ana
when he comes to his senses 4
"He will be married to me" and she
laughed gaily, to hide her vexation .
"How can you square yourself Win
him afterward?
"The same as so many Of you men
do who marry girls for their money"
"Not men," contradicted Algernon.
Gan expensive suit Ct clothes and
high silk hat, that's ell, kit uphol-
sNtered probably, but no man about 1t. =
Vie looked down at her as she sat
beside him and his heart was full OF
pityink tenderness. She was scarcely
more than a girl, and yet in her eyes
and on her mouth were the bitterness
and hardness loft by a woman's I'M
equal struggle hand to hand for her
own existence.
Don't do it, Molly" he said gently.
81 would hate to have woman play SO
lightly with my love-"
BAH" said she. II shall be a GOOD
wife to him. am doing him no wrong
If he loves me as he will say he does"
"You are wronging yourself, Molly
"Not seriously, exchanging an un'
stable salary for an allowance five
times as big, out of which I shan't
have to pay for board, lodging or
wash"
There it is again, money. 1t OBJ
scures your whole horizon, Molly"
1T won't, when have It," said she.
Algernon shrugged. II never was a
good hand at ethics" said he. Right
and wrong depend mostly on the point
of view from which you happen to see
them but somehow, from my point OF
view, 1t doesn't seem right to juggle
with your own honor and decency like
that, Molly"
TITS not my funeral muttered Al
sernon. "Only-money may be good
thing, little girl, but whichever way
you look at it, it only takes us to the
subway of eternity, after all. Decency
is the only ticket that will see us
through the whole way. Give yourself
q show for the last grand change OF
cars, say"
"You are fool" said he girl shortly
Algernon shrugged.
81 am not wronging him any. How
am I? Tell me If you can
Algernon shook his head. ~ can't. >
"You would have me condemned to
poverty all my life that he might not
have his love fooled with. his tender
passion" Her voice was low and in
tense and now and again it broke
She was nothing but girl and girls
ceaseless longing for youth and beauty
and gaiety, for pretty clothes and
dainty surroundings, a girl worn out
with the endless struggle merely to
keep respectable and be neatly
dressed. "You men are at the bottom
of all our troubles. If you were de-
cent, we might be- You don't ask for
anything in a woman but inanity, fool
ish giggles and pretty clothes. A
woman looks for more in man than
clothes and good looks, but a man
never looks for more in woman. To
hold our own. we have to be silly
have to dress as we'll as possible You
make vanity an absolute necessity with
us. Marriage is woman's life, and tc
be married, she has to care terribly
about her clothes. Don't you see how
the supply always answers the de
mand? We make ourselves silly and
pretty, because you men demand it
Don't you see? If Hancock cares sc
little for me that his love can't sur
vive my confessing the fact that an
an O'Toole and not Todd, though my
face is the same and my character is
the same, then he won't suffer very