Tombstone epitaph., 1917-12-16

cukO TOT SOou.
 ''Give up your business, you mean7" he asked quickly.
 She nodded. Tt can't be done out there." she said. "All the big produc- | tiOns 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: five not asked that, Rose. wouldn't dream of asking it."
 "There's a real job there" che per sisted. "just in being successfully the wife of successful man. I can see that now. I never saw it when it was my job. Hardly caught glimpse of 1t. I didn't even see my bills: let you pay them down at the office. with all your own work that you had to do."
 Tt wasn't me" he said. "It was Miss Beach"
 She stared at that and gave a short laugh. If I'd known that w she said. Then she came back to the point. ''ft is real job, and I thi. k I could learn to do it 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 # 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. land 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 it would do if you only came down here for your two big seasons-fall and spring."
 That doesn't seem fair to you" she protested. You deserve real wife. Roddy; not somebody dashing in and dashing out"
 "I don't deserve anything I can't get" he said. "rd rather have a part interest in you than to possess. lock stock and barrel, any other woman can think of"
 She came back to him again and settled in his arms. "A man told me" she said. "John Galbraith told me that he couldn't be woman's friend and her lover at the same time any more that a steel spring could be made soft 1 so that it 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 out of dozen. Do you think it's true; Have we got to decide which we'll 1 be-"
 "We cant decide" he said with an impatient laugh. That's just what 1 I've been telling you. We've got to l 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. There'll be friendship in it, and there1l be love in it. Imagine our deciding 1 that We wouldn't be lovers, But l | 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. It won't spring quite so well, and 1t will bend a 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 its limitations and drawbacks, we needn't worry. Just go 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 a contented little laugh and cuddled closer down against him. You talk like Solomon in all his so- | lemniry," she said. "But you can't imagine that we're going to be un- happy. Reallyf"
 His answer was that perhaps he couldn't imagine 1t, but that he knew | 1t, just the same. "Even an ordinary marriage isn't any too easy; a mar | riage, mean, where it's quite we'll un- derstood which of the parties to 1t 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 the question who's got to give in will have to be decided on its merits every time a difference arises" She burlesqued a look of extreme apprehension. She was deeply and utterly content with life just then. But he wouldn't be di- verted. There's another -eason," he went on. i've a notion that the thing we're after is about the finest thing there is. If that's so. we'll have to pay for it in one way or another. But We aren't going to worry about it. We'll just go ahead-and see what happens"
 Do you remember when you said that beforeT asked Rose. "You told me that marriage was an adventure anyway, and that the only thing to do | was fo fry it-and see what han.