The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-10
LIE t TIERS OF
TWO WOMEN
Kate Feels a shadow.
BY ZOE B.ECKLEY.
New York. Friday EveninI

Dearest May:
l understand all about the break
and the coming together again. And
1 rejoice with you that it all happened.
The only sad part of it is my really
deep disappointment at not seeing
you. oh, Maizie, the gabfests and in
innate confessions had planned for
you and me. For. as 1 have said a
hundred times. no matter how sympa-
thetic a husband is, he can never quite
take the place of an understanding
woman friend. 1 bet that's why so
many women who live in mining
camps and isolated ranches go crazT'.
1t isn't hardship. Or lack of love. Or
sympathetic companiopship It's the
craving for another woman to talk to!
There is something very special /
/ long to talk to-you about, Maize. Yet
I it's little hard to put on paper.
Written sentiments become so bald
and clumsy Try not to read too
/ much weight and significance into
what 1 say. The whole thing is no
more than a tiny shadow which the
! writing of it should dispeI I have
seen c. ]. again.
Maize, it was not of my doing. My
undivided thoughts of late have been
on my worF-such delightful work,
dear. different from any I've ever had
have stayed long after hours some
times, getting acquainted with details
ana working out problems InaI DOln-
cred me. And three or four times, as
walked thru the dark streets on my
way nome 1 have seen him. Twice
he has spoken to me at some length.
But it was not so much what he
said. as how he looked, that struck
NV heart like a physical blow. Maizie.
he has gone down hill. He has no
longer that look of crisp smartness
used to admire much. Nor the air
of super-refinement that was his
chief charm. One of the times saw
him he had even been drinking and
it gave me sense of the nastiest kind
of guilt-the lit that robs fellow
creature of his fighting strength.
He said he had been i'll again. had
had touch of pneumonia and was
sensitive to cold There was a cruel
wind blowing, and as he touched my
elbow to steady me at a crossing. his
hand trembled-I couldn't say wheth-
er with chill or-or with something
else. 1 only know that when he left
me at the corner of my street my
spirit was like dead.
I could not force myself to eat.
Nor could I feign gayety and a
sprightly welcome when lot of
Paufs friends came in to spend the
evening 1 pleaded a headache and
went to bed. only to lie there staring
into the dark and living over thous-
and memories that tortured me.
What have I done to c. J.. Maize :?
Had / any right to buy my own hap
piness with anether's pain? Will he
and his failures and his haunting
pity-arousing personality never dis
appear from my world? Shall I al
WAYS feel like a mother who has
thrust her child into some stony
asylum" 50 as to be free to find her
happiness unhampered? Isn't it her
fault if he loses his hopeful outlook
on life? If he becomes surly-man-
nered and bitter and suspicious and
hard?
Well May. I am haunted: 1 can
not get c. J. out of my thoughts L
am always expecting to meet him all
ways afraid I shall and vaguely afraid
when I do not.
1t is worrying me sick.
Talk to me. shake me, scoId me
sympathize or laugh or jeeri But for
goodness sake. May. tell me l won't
be forever shackled to this specter of
my outliyed years.
Thy loving and troubled
KATIE.