The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1917-08-24

ard waited FOR you to come. =
wasn't, as you tho2ght, trying to hurt
you. But ! can see how IL must have
looked like that"
He said quickly: you're not to
blame at all. i remember how you Of
fered to tell me what you intended to
do before you went away, and that l
wouldn't let YOU"
Silence froze down upon them
again.
Il can't forgive myself" he said at
last. II want to take back the things
said that night-abOut being dis
gracea and all. I was angry over not
having known when the other people
did. II wasn't your being on the stage.
We're not as bigOted as that.
1--we come to ask favor of you,
though, and that is that you'll let me
let us all-help you. / can't-bear
having you live like this, knocking
about like this, where all sorts Of
things can happen to you. And going
under an assumed name. I've NO
right to ask favor, ! know, but do.
ask you to take your own name again
Rose Aldrich. And I want you -
let us help you to get better posi-
ton than this, that Is, IL you haven't
changed your mind about being on the
stage; a position that will have more
hope and promise in it. want you to
feel that were-with you"
"Who are 'weT" She accompanied
that question with straight look into
his eyes.
"Why." he said, 'the only two pao-
pie I've talked with about TIRED
erica and Harriet. thought you'd be
glad to know that they felt as did"
The first flash Of real feeling she
had shown, was the one that broke
through on her repetition Of the namo
Harriet"
"Yes," he said, and he had, for about
ten seconds, the misguided sense of Ill
alectical triumph. II know a little
how you feel toward her, and maybe
she's justified it. But not in this CO se.
Because 1t was Harriet who made eae
see that there wasn't anything-dm-
graceful about your s7lEx on the
stage. 1t was her own idea ksat you
ought to use your own name ana give
us a chance to help you. She'll DO
only too glad to help"
During the short while she let elap7e
before she spoke, his conviction-cAr-
rying power Of this statement ebbed
somewhat, though he hadn't seen get
uyhot xxyoC xypnnn NTH
EYES," she said at last, 81 thinN
can see Harriet's view of 1t. AS long
as Rose had run away and joined a
fifthrate musical comedy in order to
be on the stage, and as long as every
body knew 1t, the only thing to do was
to get her into something respectable
SO that you could all pretend you liked
1t. 1t was all pretty shabby, of course,
for the Aldriches, and, In a way, what
you deserved for marrying a person
like that. Still, that was no reason for
not putting the best face an II you
could And that's why you dcsae to
find mep
mo, 1t isn't" he said furiouSy- His
deliberately assumed manner had kstk-
en- down anyway. II wanted yOA 70
know that I'd assent to anything, any
sort of terms you wanted to make thst
didn't involve-this. If It's the sr,Gs.
all right. Or II you'd come home-tc
the babies. I wouldn't ask anything
for myself. You could be as independ-
ent Of me as you are here. :"
| He'd have gone on celebrating this
program further, but that the look Of
blank incredulity In her face stopped
him.
II say things wrong" he concluded
with a sudden humility that quenched
the spark of anger in her eyes. x
was a fool to quote Harriet, and I
haven't done much better In speaking
for myself. can't make you see.
|
"Oh, I can see plainly enough,
Roddy," she said with a tired little
grimace that was a sorry reminder OF
her old smile. II guess see too well.
I'm sorry to have hurt you and made
you miserable. knew was going to
do that, of course, when went away.
but hoped that, after a while, you'd
come to see my side of 1t. You can't
at all. You couldn't believe that was
hopny, that 1 Thought was doing
something worth doing; something
that was making me more nearly q
person you could respect and be
friends with.
$50 guess" she concluded after q
| silence, shat the only thing for you
to do Is to 60 home and forget about
me as well as you can and be as little
miserable about me as possible. I'll
tell you this, that may make it little
easier; you're not to think Of me ~
starving or miserable, or even un
comfortable for want of money. I'm
earning plenty to live on, and I've go,
over two hundred dollars In the bank.
There was long silence while he
sat there twisting the newspaper In
his hands, his eyes downcast, his face
dull with the look Of defeat that had
settled over Ii.