South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-03-07
THIRD YEAR OF
MARRIED LIFE.

The envelope had only the check
and blank sheet of paper! The paper
was folded about the check so it
would not show through. But there
was not one word of writingi
And last week it had been the same
just the weekly check and the blank
paper. Helen had tried TO think then
that it was a mistake or that he had
been hurried-but now she knew it
was deliberate. And to Helen that
blank sheet of paper was more terri
flying than the most wrathful letter.
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 paper
1t was the first time she had delib-
erately 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 mediate
thing. And to telegraph was she suf-
fered from imagining every possible
thing.
And was this silence to continue?
Was this the way he was to force her
to submission Was she to receive
next weeks check with a 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
brOoded long enough over anything
she lost all sense of proportion. The
thing about which she was worrying
became distorted and exaggerated and
assumed an Importance out of all rea-
son, SO now she brooded over this
blank sheet of paper until the fear Of
il obsessed her.
She studied every pen stoke on the
envelope and the check, trying to get
some idea of his mOOde from his writ
ing. 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. Ii was not listed. but 1t
would be at least SO. for Kansas City
was 1925. She would call up Central
she wanted TO know exactly. Per-
haps there would be some special
night rate.
Central connected her with "Infor-
anton, and Information with Long
Distance. and Long Distance with
the chief operator. And he informed
her CURLY that You can't telephone
10 San Francisco or any point IN cal
ifornia."
She hung up the receiver with a
sense of shock So il was impossible
TO reach him by phone. Now he
seemed farther away than ever Yet
even If she cOuld--she would not have
dared 10 telephone. Only once had
she called him up on Long Distance"
the time she was visiting her mother
in Missouri. and he had not written
for days. But he had been furious
and had rOared at her never 10 do
such a foolish. eXtravagant thing
again.
But even though she would not have
telephoned. the fact that she could
not-that there were no wires, that
whatever her need she could not
reach him that way-gaVe her a des-
perate sense OF remoteness.
That blank sheet Of paper seemed
TO menace her with a future desOlate
and destitute. She was consumed by
the fear that unless she did something
at once 20 make things right he
would never return. And this fear
weakened her into all her old abject-
ness. All her plans for independence
and for trying 10 face life alone. IL II
came TO that. fell from her.
She was dashed on By the feverish