The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1917-09-06

asked you after-after l got my eyes
open: What are we going to do?"
81 told Alice Perosini," she said,
"the day before we left to come up
here that I'd come back In month.
and that I'd stay until Id finished all
the work that we were contracted for.
felt l had to do that. You under
stand, don't your"
"Of course" he said. "You couldn't
consider anything else. But then
whatT
"Then," she said after a little ST.
lence, then, If it's what you want me
to do, Roddy, I'll come back to Chi
cago for good"
"Giye up your business, you mean"
he asked quickly.
She nodded. "It can't be done out
there" she said. "All the big produc-
tions that there's any money In are
made I'm New York. I'll come back
and just be your wife. I'll keep your
house and mother the children, and
maintain your status, IL you don't
llllIh Il III SDOlltu lOI tuut.
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: "Fve
not asked that, Rose. I wouldn't dream
of asking It,"
"There's a real job there" she per-
sisted, "just In being successfully the
wife of a successful man. / can see
that now. / never saw 1t 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"
at wasn't me-" he said. ut was
Miss Beach,"
She stared at that and gave short
laugh. "If I'd known that E. /"
she said. Then she came back TO the
point "It is n real job, and I think
l could learn to do It pretty well.
And OF course wife's the only person
who can do 1t 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 It 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"
81 don't deserve anything T can't
get" he said. "Td rather have part
interest in you than to possess, lock,
stock and barrel, any other woman I
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 n wOman's friend and
her lover at the same time, any more
than steel spring could be made soft
so that IL would bend in your fingers,
like copper, and still be a spring. He
said that was true of him, anyway, and
he felt sure 1t was true Of nine men out
of q dozen. Do you think it's true?
Have we got to decide which we'll
be?"
ave 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 reation-the Rose
and Rodney relation. It'll probably
= be little different from any other
There'll be friendship in it, and there1
, be love in it. Imagine our deciding
= that we wouldn't be lovers! But
3 guess that what Galbraith said was
true to this extent: that each of those
q will be more or less at the expense
y of the other. 1t won't spring quite S,
{, well, and it will bend little"
q After q while he said: Heres wha
we've got to build on: Whatever els,
. it may or may not be, this relation be
&? tween us is permanent thing. We'v,
lived with each other and without eacl
h other, and we know which we want
Il If we find it has It's limitations an,
drawbacks, we needn't worry. Just g
ahead and make the best of 1t W
) can. There's no law that decree
4 we've got. to be happy. When we ar
n happy it'll be so much to the goot
a And when we aren't :"
She gave cOntented little laug
and cuddled closer down against hin
"You talk like Solomon in all his 81
" lemnity," she said. "But you can
l' imagine that we're going to be III
% happy. Really?"
.o His answer was that perhaps h
II couldn't imagine 1t, but that he kne'
II, lust the same. "Even an ordinar
70 marriage isn't any too easy; q ma
riage, mean, where it's quite well III
{ derstood which of the parties to
~ shall always submit to the other, an
~ which of them is the important or
III who's always to have the right of wa
W. There's generally something perfect
IL unacceptable that decides that que
ton. But with us there isn't. So Il
y. question who's got to give in will hay
ne to be decided on its merits every tin
ke difference arises" She burlesqued
look of extreme apprehension. 81
is was deeply and utterly content Wi
ng life Just then. But he wouldn't be
is verted "There's another reason"