The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-27
THE NEGLECTED WIFE"
Chapter II-"W Weakening"
Copyright, 1917 Mabel Herbert Urner, Joseph
 he Chapterl

Horace Kennedy, a prominent law
 yer, Is drifting away from his "set-
 tied down" but loyal wife, Mary He
 makes an enemy by disbarring Doyle,
 an unscruplous attorney, on charge
 lodged by Margaret Warner, a strug-
 gling writer. Margaret is employed
 by Kennedy to help write series of
 newspaper articles. On the last even-
 ing they are caught in an accident and
 Kennedy realizes he loves her.
 In the narrow hallroom Margaret faced her disheveled image in the mirror. Her pallor was emphasized by Ter loosened hair and the black streak on her fore head.
 Still unnerved, she dropped on the bed, her confused mind trying to bring order out of the breathless events of the past hour. She still felt the encircling strength~ of Kennedy's arms as he held her. A hot flush dyed her pallor when she glanced at the folded slip she was nervously creasing. Her purse lost In the wreckage, Kennedy had insisted on her taking this check Only her urgent need had made her finally consent to the loan, for it was only as a loan that she would. accept it.
 Too excited to sleep, she knelt by the window until long after midnight. For months she had been terrified by the thought that no one in the great city cared, but now for the moment her des- olation had fallen from her The throh- ping consciousness of Kennedy's near ness, the refuge of his strength was still with her.
 Kennedy hurrying home was relieved that this wife was not waiting up for him, for just now he shrank from the thought of being questioned.
 The sense of Margaret's nearness, the pulsating moments he held her in his arms, shattered the quiet conservatism of his life.
 Mary was not asleep. Hating herself for her suspicious, she tried to vanish them in sleep. Was she becoming a shrewish. jealous wife? For sometime there had been a subtle withdrawal in his attitude. He was becoming daily more absorbed and absent-minded. She tried to attribute them to his work, but there was always the lurking fear that it was something more.
 In spite of her almost sleepless night Mary was at the breakfast table dressed for a weekend trip to their houseboat when Kennedy came down. It was with increasing misgivings that Mary clung to her husband as she told him good-by Siio hHeW luSIS WOulu De no rest Tn thlS trip alone.
 At the houseboat time hung heavy on her hands. It was the first time that Mary had ever come down alone Always Horace had been with her But now that he was coming only for the week-ends the place seemed to have taken on a dreary emptiness.
 It was with real pleasure that she greeted Frank Norwood the energetic editor of BlackwelPs Magazine, an old friend of the Kennedys, on one of her infrequent excursions from the house. boat. He was vacationing at the River Bank inn.
 As they strolled to the houseboat Nor wood discussed his work. He had cou- pie of manuscripts.
 Its a pretty poor lot" Norwood lit cigarette. All sleep producers, ex- cept one-the one you have there. It's corking story, His Wife and the Oth- CT Woman" by Margaret Warner
 Mary recognized the name as that of the girl who helped Horace with his