Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-07-31

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news to Rodney's friends would rec
ognize her. 1t was risk that had TO
be taken. At the same time sheu
protect the secret as well as she could.
There were two people, though, II
| cOuIdn't be kept from-Portia ana ner
mother. The story given out to hod-
news friends being that Rose was In
California with her mother and Portla,
left the chance always open for some
cOntretemps which would lead TO ner
mothers discovering the truth in sur
prising and shocking way.
| But the truth itself, confidently stat
ed. not as a tragic ending, but as the
splendid, hopeful beginning OF LIE OF
truer happiness for Rose and her nus
band, needn't be a shock. So this was
what Rose had borne down upon her
in her letter to Portia.
I.have found the big thing couldn't
be had without fight" she wrote. ~ gu
| shouldn't be surprised, because you Ve
probably found out for yourself that noun
ing worth having comes very easily. But
| you're not to worry about me, nor pe
afraid for me, because I'm going to WIN
| I'm making the fight, somehow, for you
as well as for myself 1 want you to
know that. / think that realizing was
living your life as well as mine, Is what
| has given me the courage to start
1--WE got some plans, but I'm not going
| to tell you what they are. But III write
/ toyou every week and tell you what i've
| DONE and want you to write to Rodney
| | want to be sure that you understand
th I'D ISN'T m hlamp what
| happened We haven't quarreled, and l
| believe we're farther in love with each
! other than we've ever been before. L
/ know 1 am with him. Break this
! thing to mother as gently as you like, but
tell her everything before you stop.
This letter written and dispatched,
she had worked out the details OF her
departure with a good deal of care.
she had tried to act, just as she would
have done had her pretended telegram
really come from Portia. Her bag was
packed, her trunk was gone, her motor
waiting at the doer to take her to the
station. when the maid Doris brought
the twins home from their airing. This
wasn't chance, but prearrangement.
"Give them to me-" Rose said, "and
then you may go up and tell Mrs.
Ruston she may have them in a few
minutes"
She took them into her bedroom and
laid them side by side on her bed.
They had thriven finely-justified, so
far as that went, Harriet's decision
in favor of bottle feeding. Had she
died back there in that bed of pain,
never come out of the ether at all,
they'd still be just like this-plump,
placid, methodical. Rose had thought
of that a hundred times, but it wasn't
what she was thinking of now.
The thing that caught her as she
was looking down. on them, was
wave of sudden pity. She saw them
SUDDENLY as persons with the long road
all ahead of them, as boy and girl,
youth and maid, a man and a
woman.
Shed never thought of them like
that before. The baby she had looked
forward to-the baby she hadn't had
had never been thought of that way,
either. 1t was to be something to pro-
vide her, Rose, with an occupation; to
make an alchemic change in the very
substance of her life. The transmuta-
ton hadn't taken place. She surmised
now, dimly, that she hadn't deserved
it should.
you've never had mother at
all, you poor little mites" she said.
But you're going to have one some
day. You're going to be able to come
to- her with your troubles, because
she'll have had troubles herself. She'll
help you bear your hurts, because
she's had hurts of her own. And
she'll be able to teach you to stand
the gaff, because she's stood it her.
self"
For the first time since they were
born, she was thinking of their need
of her rather than of her need of them.
and with that thought came, for the
first time, the surge of passionate ma
ternal love that she had waited for
so long in vain. There was, suddenly,
an intolerable ache in her breast that
could only have been satisfied by crush
ing them up against her breast; kiss
ing their hands-their feet.
nose stood there quivering, giddy
with the force of it. "Oh, you dar-
lilgsw she said. But wait-wait I'M
/ til deserve it," And, without touch
ing them at all, she went to the door
and opened it. Mrs. Ruston and Doris
were both waiting in the hall.
81 must go now" she said, "Good-by.
Keep them carefully for me-" Her
voice was steady, and, though her eyes
were bright, there was no trace of
tears upon her cheeks. But there was
kind of glory shining in her face
that was too much for Doris, who
turned away and sobbed loudly. Even
Mrs. Ruston's eyes were wet.
"Good-by," said Rose again, and
went down composedly enough to her
car.
She rode down to the station, shook
hands with Otto, the chauffeur, al
lowed a porter to carry her bag into
! the waiting room. There she tipped
the porter, picked up the bag herself,
and walked out the other door; crossed
over to Clark street and took street
car. At Chicago avenue she got of,
and walked north, keeping her eyes
open for placards advertising rooms
TO let. 1t was at the end of about half
d mile that she found the hatchet-
faced landlady, paid her three dollars,
and locked her door, as a symbol, per-
haps, of the bigger, heavier door that
she had locked upon her past life.
Strongest among all the welter of
emotions boiling up within her, was a
perfectly enormous relief. The thing
which. when she had first faced it as
the only thoroughfare to the real life
she so passionately wanted. had
seemed such veritable nightmare,
was an accomplished fact. The week
Of acute agony she had lived through
while she was forcing her sudden res
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