The Clio messenger., 1917-09-14

lence, "then, II it's what you want me
to do, Roddy, I'll come back to Chi
cago for good"
"Give up your business, yCu meant"
he asked quickly.
She nodded. "It can't be done out
there" she said. "All the big produc-
tons that there's any money in are
made in New York. I'll come back
and just be your wife. I'll keep your
house and mother the children, and
maintain your status, if you don't
think I'm spoiled for that"
That last phrase, though, was said
with smile, which he answered with
one OF his own. But with an instant
return to seriousness, he said: "Tve
not asked that, Rose. wouldn't dream
Of asking It."
There's a real job there" she per-
sisted, "just in being successfully the
wife OF successful man. can see
that now. I never saw 1t when 1t was
my job. Hardly caught glimpse Of 1t.
l didn't even see my bills; let you
pay them down at the office, with nll
your own work that you had to do"
1T wasn't me-" he said. "It was
Miss Beach,"
She stared at that and gave a short
laugh. IF I'd known that !"
she said. Then she came back to the
point. ut is real job, and I think
could learn to do II pretty well.
And of course wife's the only person
who can do It properly"
Still he shook his head. But he
hadn't, as yet, any reasoned answer to
make, except as before that 1t
wouldn't work.
"What will work. then?" she asked.
And this he couldn't answer.
"We've Just got. to go ahead" he
said at last, "and see what happens.
Perhaps you can work 1t out so that
you can do part Of your work at home.
We could move the nursery and give
you Florence's old studio. And then
1t would do II you only came down
here for your two big seasons-fall
and spring."
"That doesn't seem fair to you" she
protested. "You deserve n real wife,
Roddy; not somebody dashing in and
dashing out"
~ don't deserve anything I can't
get" he said. "I'd rather have a part
interest In you than to possess, lock,
stock and barrel, any other woman I
can think Of"
She came back to him again ana
settled in his arms. "A man told me-"
she said, "John Galbraith told me that
he couldn't be q woman's friend and
her lover at the same time. any more
than steel spring could be made soft
so that 1t would bend in your fingers.
like copper, and still be spring. He
said that was true of him. anyway. and
he felt sure it was true Of nine men ont
OF dozen. Do you think it's true2
Have we got to decide which we'll
be?
1--WE can't decide" he said with an
impatient laugh. "That's just what
I've been telling you. We've got to
take what we can get. We've got to
work out the relation between our
selves that Is our relation-the Rose
and Rodney relation. It'll probably
be little different from any other.
Therell be friendship in 1t, and therell
be love in 1t. Imagine our deciding
that we wouldn't be lovers! But I
guess that what Galbraith said was
true to this extent: that each of those
will be more or less at the expense
Of the other. 1t won't spring quite so
WELL and it will bend little"
After while he said: "Here's what
we've got to build on: Whatever else
it may or may not be, this relation be-
tween us Is permanent thing. We've
lived with each other and without each
other, and we know which we want.
If we find it has it's limitations and
drawbacks, we needn't worry. Just -
ahead and make the best Of it we
can. There's no law that decrees
we've got to be happy. When we are
happy it'll be so much to the good.
And when we aren't :. :"
She gave q contented little laugh
and cuddled closer down against him.
"You talk like Solomon in all his so-
lemnity," she said. "But you can't
imagine that we're going to be un-
happy. ReallyT
His answer was that perhaps be
couldn't imagine it, but that he knew
IL, just the same. seven an ordinary
marriage isn't any too easy; a mar
riage, mean, where it's quite well un-
derstoOd which Of the parties to II
shall always submit to the other, and
which Of them is the important one
who's always to have the right of way.
There's generally something perfectly
unacceptable that decides that ques-
ton. But with us there isn't. So th>
question who's got to give in will han
to be decided on its merits every time
a difference arises" She burlesqued
look of extreme apprehension. She
was deeply and utterly content with
life just then. But he wouldn't be d.
verted. "There's another reason" he
went on. 1--WE notion that the thing
| we'ro after 10 ahout the finest thinp