The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1917-09-06
rking that. Hadn't we better be.

1
gin?"
"well," he said when he'd got his
pipe allght, ats the first question
asked you after-after / got my eyes
open: What are we going to do?'
"I told Alice Perosini," she said,
"the day before we left to come up
here, that I'd come back In a month,
and that I'd stay until I'd finished all
the work that we were contracted for.
I felt I had to do that. You under
stand, don't you"
"Of course" he said. "You couldn't
consider anything else. But then
whatT
"Then," she said after little ST.
lence, then, If it's what you want me
to do, Roddy, I'll come back to Chi.
cago for good"
"Give 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, 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: "Pve
not asked that, Rose. wouldn't dream
of asking it."
"There's a real job there" she per-
sisted, "just in being successfully the
wife of successful man. / can see
that now. I never saw it when 1t was
my job. Hardly caught a glimpse Of 1t.
didn't even see my bills; let you
pay them down at the office, with all
your own work that you had to do"
ut wasn't me-" he said. ut was
Miss Beach,"
She stared at that and gave short
laugh. "If I'd known that ~
she said. Then she came back TO the
point. "It is real job, and I think
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 1t
wouldn't work.
"What will work, then?" she asked.
And this he couldn't answer.
| NIUnityn ittct 20 ohnaIp ha
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 a 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 woman's friend and
her lover at the same time, any more
than steel spring could be made soft
so that II would bend in your fingers,
like copper, and still be spring. He
said that was true of him, anyway, and
he felt sure 1t was true of nine men out
of a 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 relation-the Rose
and Rodney relation. It'll probably
be a little different from any other.
There'll be friendship in it, and there'll
be love in it. Imagine our deciding
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. 1t won't spring quite SO
well, and it will bend little"
After a 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 it's limitations and
drawbacks, we needn't worry. Just &C
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 a contented little laugh
and cuddled closer down against him
"You talk like Solomon in all his so
= lemnity," she said. "But you can
= imagine that we're going to be un
> happy. Really?'
His answer was that perhaps h,
, couldn't imagine 1t, but that he knew
l 1t, Just the same. "Even an ordinar.
= marriage isn't any too easy; mar
rlage, mean, where it's quite well TN
derstood which of the parties to /
= shall always submit to the other an,
y which of them is the important on
I who's always to have the right of way
y There's generally something perfect
: unacceptable that decides that ques
ton. But with us there isn't. So tn
?. question who's got to give in will hav
e to be decided on its merits every tim
e n diffnrnnnn nrlcnSn ~ She hnrlaSnnel