Grand Forks herald., 1917-01-29

your own work that you had to do"
ut wasn't me-" he said. 1T was
Miss Beach,"
| She stared at that and gave short
laugh. IF I'd known that I"
she said. Then she came back to the
point. "It is a real Job, and I think
could learn to do it pretty we'll.
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
II shouldn't mind the money end
Of it," she said. 1T mean living on
yours. / know I can earn my way,
and ] know you know it. So that
wouldn't matter. I'd never feel like
beggar again, Roddy."
| II know" he agreed. "But that
isn't it. 1t isn't a question of what
you'd like to be, or are willing to be.
something more than just my wife.
You've got certain talents-certain
proved capacities. That's as true as
that 1 am something besides-just
your husband. There you are! Try
1t on, the other way around. Suppose
] should offer to give up my practice
and come down here to live with you
.pe JUST your Husodno anu, say, your
business manager. You can see that
that's preposterous. Or for that mat
ter, We could both quit I've made q
devil of lot of money lately. I've
an income from my investm ents. of
from twenty-five to thirty thousand
a year, that we could live on, and not
do blessed thing but be husband and
wife to each other. Like the Nc
Creas. But it wouldn't work. You've
| n va yx-n "a ,of' 1,a
point. and, somehow or other, cut
your life to fit. I expect that's one
of the things that's been the trouble
with us down here. We've both been
trying so damned hard to be some-
thing. And that won't work.
What will work, them" 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 it out SO that
you can do part of your work at
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"
|
get" he said It'd rather have part
interest in you than to posses, lock,
stock and. barrel, any other woman
can think Of"
She came back to him again and
settled down in his arms. You used
to posses me. lock, stock and barrel" :"
she said. You can do it again, If
He shook his head That's just
what I can't do" he told her. And
I don't believe ia have it back If I
could. For one thing you can't pos
sess. without being possessed. I know
that back in those days you're talk
ing about. used to fight you out of
my thoughts. Used to stay down late
not to think about you. Trying to
save out part of myself from being
saturated with YOU. 1t was the fact
that I was SO terribly important to
you that used to make me feel like
that; the fact of your DEPENDENCE
don't mean for money-on me. I
used to think it wasn't your lover
that thought that, it was the other
man: that it would be a perfectly
wonderful relief to me if you could
just get some interest that left me
out. And all the while the lover in
me was trying to have all Of you
>there was. It's hard thing to talk
sense about"
"A man told me-" Rose said-"John
Galbraith told me that he couldn't
| be n woman's friend and her lover at
the same time, any more than a steel
spring could be made soft so that it
would bend in your fingers. like cop
per, and still be 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'll be friendship in It, and
there'll be love in it. 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 ex-
pense of the other. 1t won't spring
quite so we'll. and 1t will bend a lit
| tle"
She was still disposed to rebel at
| this conclusion, II don't see whv il