Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-09-18

protested. "iou deserve real wife,
Roddy; not somebody dashing in and
dashing out"
I don't deserve anything l can't
get" he said. I'D rather have a part
interest in you than to possess. lock,
stock and barrel. anv 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 a woman's friend and
her lover at the same time any more
than steel spring could be made sof.
so that it would bend in your fingers.
like copper, and still be a 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
beT'
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 OF. the relation between our
selves that is our relation-the Rose
and Rodney relation. It'll probably
be a little different from any other.
Therell be friendship in it, and there'I
be love in it. Imagine our deciding
that we wouldn't be loversI But /
guess that what Galbraith said was
true to this extent: that each of those
Oh hn
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 a 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 DEGREES
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 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 I'M
happy. Really?"
His answer was that perhaps he
couldn't imagine it, but that he knew
it, just the same. "Even an ordinary
marriage isn't any too easy; a mar
riage, l mean, where it's quite well un-e
derstood which of the parties to it
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 it's 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 di.
verified. There's another reason" he
went on. tive 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.
Well just go ahead-and see what
happens" :
''Do you remember when you said
that before?" asked Rose. you told
me that marriage was an adventure
anyway, and that the only thing to do
was to try it-and see what hap
pened."
He grunted. ''The real adventures
just begun" he said.
Anyhow" she murmured drowsily,
you can talk to me again. Just as if
we weren't married"
And there is Just about where they
stand today-at the beginning, or
hardly past the beginning, of what he
spoke of as their real adventure; they
are going forward prepared to make
the best of it and see what happens.
THE END.