The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1917-08-03
Irking that. Hadn't we better be-

pipe alight, 'ft'S the first question I
asked you after-after l got my eyes
open: What are we going to do?"
II 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 your"
"Of course" he said. "You couldn't
consider anything else. But then
what?'
"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"
"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 in 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 a smile, which he answered with
one of his own. But with an instant
return to seriousness, he said: '1've
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. I can see
that now. I never saw it when 1t was
my job. Hardly caught q glimpse of it.
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. "It was
Miss Beach,"
She stared at that and gave a short
laugh. eff I'd known that :"
she said. Then she came back to the
point. SIT is a real job. and I think
I could learn to do 1t pretty well.
And of course a 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.
''We've just got to go ahead" he
said at last, "and see what happens.
Perhaps you can work 1t 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
1t would do If you only came down
here for your two big seasons-falI
and spring"
THAT doesn't seem fair to YOU" she
protested "You deserve a real wife.
Roddy; not somebody dashing in and
dashing out"
81 don't deserve anything l 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 a woman's friend and
her lover at the same time. any more
than q steel spring could be made soft
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
| be?"
"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 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'H be friendship in it. and therell
be love in 1t. Imagine our deciding
! that we wouldn't be lovers! But
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
we'll, 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 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
fo1 Ion
and cuddled closer down against him.
You talk like Solomon in all his So
lemnity," she said. But you can't
imagine that we're going to be un-
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; mar
riage. l mean, where it's quite well un-
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 a
look of extreme apprehension. She
was deeply and utterly content with
life Just then. But he wouldn't be di-
verted. There's another reason" he
went on. 1--WE 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.
Wen 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,