Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1915-02-05
CHAPTER tx.

CHAPTER TX.
Thirty years of n way of living
becomes a habit-so much so that 1t
is almost a human impossibility to
adjust oneself to any other mode of
life. Mary Slade, living year after
year with Dan Slade, interested in his
work, watching him rise and succeed,
had come to think of the man as only
another part of herself. With him
out of her life she felt as II q part
of her own body had vanished with
out which she was restless and i'll at
ease.
AS she sat in the little old cottage
where with Dan she started out on
married life, she experienced a feel
ing of detachment as if either this
were not the right place, but some
sort of inferior substitute, or as though
the real and vital part of herself were
absent.
The room was just the same as 1t
was the day she and Dan had walked
out of it to take up their new life in
the handsome mansion in town. Not
a thing had been changed or disturbed.
The same crooked hatrack, with her
old knitted shawl dangling on one
hook, hung behind the door. The same
well-worn tides were carefully pinned
on the plush-upholstered chairs. The
same cheap little ornaments that so
delighted Mary's simple heart in the
old days still cluttered the mantel.
The same near-crystal crowded the
sideboard. The tablecloth remained
laid from meal to meal after the time-
saving custom of middle-class fami-
lies.
Everything was the same but the
atmosphere Of contentment that once
filled the room; everything the same
but Mary's happiness In her husbands
love. Outside the window the rose
bush Dan had helped her to plant still
nodded and blossomed in the sunshine
that poured in a food of golden Joy
through the windows of the shabby
room and emphasized all the worn
places In the comfortable old chair
where evening after evening Dan
Slade had sat reading his newspaper
and dreaming of the great future he
was confident the fates held in store
for him.
In spite of herself Mary's thoughts
were of her husband-the first bitter
thoughts she had aver harbored
against the man. She turned sick at
heart at the thought of 1t. Dan and
herself estranged, hopelessly at odds,
| n ufNffn0 aooh nthar IN the diunr0a
court, fighting even over the posses
sion Of the little cottage hat had
shared in the first happy flush of their
youthful love and happiness. This, the
only place where she could find peace
In her loneliness, Dan was trying to
wrest from her. 1t was too near to
town, too near to the scene of his
new activities, he had sent word to
her. She must vacate. She must go
Sc far away that his charge of de
sertion" would stand fire in a court
of law.
Face to face with the fact that Dan
was trying to drive her rel from this
shelter, trying to drive her out into
a strange and alien world, of which
she knew nothing and which knew
nothing of her, Mary could scarcely
believe that Dan was SO changed
that even now he would be willing to
snatch away from her the place which
held the memory of happier days.
She had not seen her husband since
the night in Senator Strickland's
library, when the awful knowledge had
been forced home to her that he not
only wanted a permanent separation.
but insisted IN having an absolute d.
vorce. Over and over again a thought
came into the woman's mind. 1t was
intuitive, instructive. Try az she
might to silence 1t, she could not put
it out of her thoughts. It was that
ev~er-recurrent feeling that another
woman had entered Dams mind and
heart. Again and again she pushed
it from her, but always and ever the
obsession chung to her like a black
shadow that haunted her during the
day and persisted even in her dreams
at night.
From the kitchen came the voice OF
her maid-of-all-work singing an old
fashioned tune.
1t vas one that in her young days
Dan had loved to hear her sing-one
whose sweet melody and melancholy
sentiment he had loved In the days
before his heart had become hard and
his mind intense on the cold, hard
problems of finances and political ad
vancement. 1t wal the song In which
all lovers from the beginning to the
end OF time find a responsive note
"Nita, Juanita, be my own fair bride.
fTo BE CONTINUED)
a NNA -@co n. ~~A