The Press., 1917-08-23
 Fred BOWerS' Scheme It Worked h a Way He Had Not Counted On
By ETHEL HOLMES


 shrew has never been explained. We have stories of men who have com mitted this paradOxical folly, one only giving an account of what kind of life the husband lived after marriage. PetruchiO in Shakespeare's play of Flaming of a Shrew" brought his wife Katherine to subjection by sim ply out Heroding Herod, but this is not realism: it is rather extravaganza. Shakespeare wrote the play during the period that shFews in England were brought to terms by the ducking stool and it Is questionable If they remain ed conquered even after promising to be good.
 Ward Stanley was a young man of independent means. He had nothing to do but amuse himself. This he did from May till November in his yacht. the Eaglet. Stanley was at home on the water, his own sailing master. and never gave up the command to any one else. Had he been thrown on his own resources he could have secured a berth as master of vessel. FOrtu' nately, he possessed the means to run his own ship.
 It would have been better for Ward Stanley had be kept his yacht in com mission all winter. for in that case he would probably have been removed from the temptation of falling In love with a shrew. AS it was, during the GsaZ. lao met Sophia Wartrace, and in a very short time she was leading him about with a hook, turning now and again to give him & cut with her sharp tongue
 Nor was it with her tongue alone that she abused him. Skating with him. she led him across an air hole and when he scrambled out dripping with cold water laughed at him. Sail Ing with him in an iceboat, she pur- posely upset it, shooting herself and him a hundred yards over the smooth surface. Rather than fOregO the de light of risking his life, she risked her own.
 There Is no denying that Sophia was
 
 trim figure. snapping black eyes and rosy cheeks, which latter fairly glOwed when she was enjoying winter sports. But whether or no she would have dominated Stanley had she been as ugly as her tongue was vicious Is a question. Many hOmely women have dominated men. Yet Miss Wartrace's beauty was doubtless an important ele- ment in her influence over Stanley.
 It was said that she accepted him because a betrothal would enable her to prod him more virulently. This was the opinion of her sister Gwen. who was supposed to know her better than any one else. Certain 1t is that as soon as the engagement took place Stanley's misery was greatly enhanced. Doubtless Sophia occasionally whiskel about and coddled him, but she was never seen by others to treat him even with fOrbearance.
 Now and again the poor man turned like the worm. During the first month of their engagement he broke 1t five times. After the fifth he found so much misery in his endeaYors to re new 1t that he gave up this method of asserting himself and settled down to the abject position of a slave.
 Wards chum, Fred Bowers, aware of his friends suffering, tried in vain to inject into him a spirit of resistance After continual failure Bowers advised Stanley to be married and, having once got his ianeee in his power, to try the PetruchiO game. The infatuated man assentef to the first part of the prop ositiOn. though he expressed no conf denee in the second. When he asked Sophia to fix day for the wedding she did so without any urging. but just before the final preparations were tO he made she cancelled the agreement.
 Several times she named n day, only to ignore it. This was the hardest parl of all that Stanley was forced to en. dure. Bowers tried to induce him to go abroad. leaving the shrew to re pent her treatment of him and doubt less to be more kind to him on his re turn. But this was entirely beyOnC Wards power to achieve. SeveIal months of such tantalization passed.
 
 signs of d nervous breIkdO VII.
 "I'll tell you what you do. Ward. said Fred "The Eaglet is in commis. sion. Invite your fiancee to take a cruise, and. having her out at sea some method will suggest itself of get ting a grip on her. Once without pro tectiOn, she'll have to give in
 ''I can't invite her without inviting other women. can I?"
 ''I have it. Ask my sister. Helen"
 We must have a chaperon."
 My aunt. Mary Campbell. She's only five years older than I, and we're quite ehummy. l can let both Mary and Helen into the secret, and they'll play into our hands beautifully"
 We'll said Ward after some thought. your scheme is we'll enough and the party is all right. but have no confidence in its success. Rather than bend the knee the little devi will blow up the yacht and send her self a we'll as the rest of us sky high.
 Don't you believe 1t. I'm thinking cut a scheme to put in practice wher we're once out on the high seas that will scare the life out of her"
 The party was made up as Bower: proposed The Eaglet was provisioneC and wined. When Miss Mary Camp bell and Helen Bowers learned the Ob ject of the cruise they were deeply in terested. Both agreed to keep the SC cret from Sophia, though 1t must b' admitted that, she being of their sex they sympathized with her rather thaI with her fiance.
 The Eaglet sailed from the yacht clubs docks of an afternoon, and after dinner and an hour or two of pleasant chat on the afterdeck the ladies re tired to their stateroOms, and Bowers eonfided his plan to Stanley.
 'What propose" said Fred, ''is that we lay to in a. cove somewhere. Dur ing the night I'll take a part of the