The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1918-03-23
Caroline
Thinks It Out
40
By Mona Cowles
Copyright, 1918. by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate.)

very well and good for girl wheI
she Is single, but to have to do thai
sort of thing is quite different wheT
one is married." Caroline had sale
with very definite air five years uge
on the memorable afternoon Wher
Horace Blair had proposed to her. 81
don't in the least mind living here il
this tW0-room apartment now and
| suppose you are quite comfortable in
| the boarding house, but to have to live
| In three or four rooms or to have &c
| go to boarding after we are married
| would be really quite impossible"
Horace fondled the hand he held and
looked dejectedly at the graceful finger
that Caroline had just permitted him
to measure for the engagement ring.
"You are very sensible girl, Car
oline," he said, "and l suppose you are
right"
'Of course, I'm right" she agreed.
AT twenty | might have been foolish
and romantic. Then l might have sup
posed that / could be happy and make
you happy on my thOuSand-dollar-
year income and your salary Of three
thousand"
'Twenty-eight hundred" Horace
corrected with sigh.
with an occasional picture / could
sell that would come TO no more than
fOrty-five hundred" She sighed and
shook her head.
m h,,% IL ~
done. I've seen other girls try to do it
and-well, perhaps they are happy
but we couldn't live the way we do.
You wouldn't want to try. 1t would
mean living Ia a suburb somewhere
with an incompetent maid and wear
ing ready-made clothes-yes, know
l have to now, but I won't always be
young. At thirty would look mess
in q ready-made suit-and we would
have to keep eternally counting the
money, and If we went to the theater
we'd have to sit in the gallery"
'We've had rather good fun that
way, haven't we?" Horace murmured.
Eyes, Horace dear, but doing 1t now
is one thing and doing 1t then is quite
another matter. You'll thank me some
time for the stand l am taking"
"Then-you mean you won't marry
me?"
mot in the least. I simply mean
that can't marry you till our income
IS doubled at least,"
Horace took out an envelope and
pencil from his pocket and began to
figure.
Mine thousand-that means that I
must have about seventy-fve hundred"
I'll relent a little" smiled Caroline.
"1'n marry you when you are making
six thousand. You can work up to
that"
1T may take five years." sighed the
unhappy sutton.
"What If 1t does? We love each
other, and we can go ON quite nicely
this way. You know marriage isn't
to be entered into emotion
ally"
You are very sensible girl" said
Horace accepting his sentence grimly.
Il think I see your point of view"
And so it was settled and Horace
and Caroline began their long engage |
nent. There were never any Quarrels |
Caroline was too sensible for that |
md never once did she weaken from |
her wise decision that to make toast |
Tor yourself was one thing, but to have
tu,
n his most impatient moods Horace
lad to admire the lofty ideal that
Caroline maintained toward marriage.
t was something that had to be under
aiken on dignttied, rather grand scale
n not at all.
And a day or so ago Caroline was
till making her own toast and draw
ng an occasional picture that sold,
quite content on her small income and
Horace was working on patiently with
he concern with which he had begun
en- years ago, grimly waiting for an
'ther chance ahead that would bring
lin the coveted six-thousand dollar
income. 1t did not seem then that
here would be long to wait, for al
eady he had reached the fifty-five hun
red mark and he had saved enough
0 make possible the prospects of
tarting In life with rather more pre-
antious abode than the suburban cot ,
age that Caroline had held In such
ontempt.
Caroline worked at her drawing .
GARD as patiently and eagerly as ever .
nd her ability as an illustrator had :
OF become impaired but owing to war .
Onditions, as the editors told her, there ,
as less demand for her particular -,
ind of talent than In years gone by.
Then she did get an order it meant
smaller check than formerly. She
Id not finch at the economies this
Single poverty was one i
ting, she insisted, and married pow {
'ty another. l
Then a day or so ago Horace came q
, spend his usual Sunday afternoon '
lin her but instead Of hurrying up the c
hen he reached the house where she T
we'd in spinSter Sedateness, he hesi- v
ted and then walked dejectedly z
'Ound the block. Again he started to I
tier and with q heavy sigh retracted a
steps around the block. 1t took |,
courage finally for him to t
send the steps he had trod so many q
mes and to give his accustomed g
1pptS ct her door