The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-12-30
I ma Sparkling Serial of City Life
,.: s;7 &: a.,
Woman B. AM Isle
A Sparkling Serial of City Life


With . quiet tack which affection
often distates more successfully thar
education, the old woman set herself
earnestly to the task Of attacking the
dishes. She concentrated her atten
ton on the table and spared Hide
garde the discomfort Of being OBJ
served.
Coaxingly Murtha went on, go on
now-give ivirybody another chanel
That's what OF always say. Ha! Now
there's my Tim-Oi could Nv left him
amy tonne this forty years for what
he done to me-and what he didn't
do. Gwan. now. dearie, give the man
another chanel"
Merciful tears came to Hildegarde's
eyes, some tension in her body seem.
ed suddenly relieved. She looked for
q moment at the bag she was packing
and then, with a wry little smile, she
thrust in the comb and brush in her
hands. snapped the bag shut and start
ed toward the door Of her bedroom,
,sobbing in the merciful relief Of emo.
ton expressed.
With a wise and tender shrewdness
canny Mrs. Murtha went on. '"The
Lord love We, that's roight-and it's
the grand good heart ye have. You'll
not be needin these things roight
TSe door of Hildesarde's room
closed. Alone there in the quiet OF
her room she must decide what to do.
Her active consciousness had hardly
attended to the kindly and canny phil
osophy Of the old Irish woman.
MRS. MURTHA's DELlcAcY
SAVES THE SITUATION.
The girl had scarcely realized that
she was attending or hearing but hid
den away in the consciousness until
the time when she should need 1t most
was the kindly wisdom and philoso-
ply OF the old woman who had sum-
med up for the younger one the knowl-
edge Of forty years spent In making
life livable as Tim Murtha's wife:
aye can't be angry with the menfolks,
dearie. Shure they're all childthren--
iviry blessed wan OF thim-shure
they're all childthren."
Most OF us fight out life's real bat
ties behind closed doors. On the 9TH
or side there is often someone ready
to help: but scarcely ever Is that some
one the person whose help we long
for.
After all, it was Larrie who was
causing Hildegarde pain, and yet there
was nothing II all this world she SO
desired as a Larrie suddenly trans
formed by a blessed miracle into
strong man in whose arms she could
find surcease from longing!
Outside the closed door stood n $.
Murtha. whose heart fairly ached be-
cause Of the pain she could not help
Hildegarde endure. But there was
nothing for Mrs. Murtha to do except
clear the luncheon table. wash the
dishes and set the place to rights.
The fineness and delicacy which
real kind heartedness brings held e
old woman from doing what she want
ed to do. which would have been to
pass the barrier OF the closed door.
go in Ind take the sobbing young crea-
ture in her arms and say "Nivir moind.
me dear, understandable husbands
are loike that and ven have jusht to
wait till he comes back
That was what Murtha wanted to
do. But she was generous enough in
her sympathy to do instead the thing
that Hildegarde would want her to do.
So she set the place in order, put on
her shabby bonnet and shawl and
slipped out.
And on the other side OF that closed
door Hildegarde lay sobbing and mis-
erably fighting lost battle. When a
woman loves weak man she has two
tragedies to face, and face them she
must sooner or later in her life.
THE FAILURE OF IDEALS
THRUST UPON HER.
The first tragedy is when she knows
her lover has failed her; and the sec.
ond is greater. 1t comes to her when
at last she knows she has failed her
own ideal Of love.
That ideal would make her true and
loyal to her unworthy lover through
whatever pain and suffering he makes |
her endure. 1t would make her go on !
loving without pride or selfishness or
any desire for lust returns-and so on
and on with her royal gift Of love
which is her own ideal Of fine and
lofty feeling.
But in all this world nothing is alb
solute, nothing is final. nothing can be
guaranteed rs sure to last-and so at
last the woman who has loved an un-
worthy man faces what seems to her
70 be supreme tragedy. She has to
recognize the unworthiness OF her
!over and so the wavering of her own
debasing CT a spiritual
forever" into worldly and physical
" permanence.
Love is not love that dies" wrote /