The Benson signal., 1918-02-23

ard-I waited for you to come.
wasn't, as you thought, trying to hurt
you. But can see how 1t must have
looked like that"
He said quickly: "You're not to
blame at all. remember how you Of
fered to tell me what you intended to
do before you went away, and that
wouldn't let you."
Silence froze down upon them
again.
II can't forgive myself" he said at
last. II want to take back the things
said that night-about being dis
graced and all. I was angry over not
having known when the other people
did. 1t wasn't your being on the stage.
We're not as bigoted as that.
'Tve come to ask a favor Of you,
though, and that is that you'll let me
let us all-help you. I can't-bear
having you live like this, knocking
about like this, where all sorts Of
things can happen to you. And going
under an assumed name. I've no
right to ask favor, know, but do.
I ask you to take your own name again
Rose Aldrich. And I want you to
let us help you to get better posi-
tiOn than this, that is, if you haven't
changed your mind about being on the
stage; a position that will have more
hope and promise in it. want you to
feel that we're-with you."
"Who are 'weY" She accompanied
that question with q straight look into
his eyes.
"Why," he said, "the only two peo-
pie I've talked with about TIRED
erica and Harriet. thought you'd bs
glad to know that they felt as did,"
The first flash of real feeling she
had shown, was the one that broke
through on her repetition of the name
"Harriet!"
"Yes," he said, and he had, for about
ten seconds, the misguided sense of di-
alectical triumph. II know a little
how you feel toward her, and maybe
she's justified it. But not in this case.
Because it was Harriet who made me
see that there wasn't anything-dis-
| graceful about your going on the
stage. 1t was her own idea that you
ought to use your own name and give
us a chance to help you. She'll be
only too glad to help"
During the short while she let elapse
before she spoke, his conviction-car-
rying power of this statement ebbed
somewhat, though he hadn't seen yet
what was wrong with it.
eyes," she said at last, ~ think I
can see Harriet's view Of it. 'As long
as Rose had run away and joined
fifth-rate musical comedy in order to
be on the stage, and as long as every
body knew it, the only thing to do was
to get her into something respectable
so that you could all pretend you liked
it. It was all pretty shabby, Of course,
for the Aldriches, and in a way, what
you deserved for marrying a person
like that. Still, that was no reason for
not putting the best face on it you
could And that's why you came to
find mel"
'No, it isn't" he said furiously. His
elaborately assumed manner had brok-
en- down anyway. II wanted you to
know that I'd assent to anything, any
sort of terms you wanted to make that
didn't involve-this. If it's the stage,
all right. Or if you'd come home-to
the babies. wouldn't ask anything
for myself. You could be as independ-
ent of me as you are here. :"
He'd have gone on celebrating this
program further, but that the look Of
blank incredulity in her face stopped
him.
II say things wrong" he concluded
with sudden humility that quenched
the spark of anger in her eyes. II
was a fool to quote Harriet, and I
haven't done much better in speaking
for myself. I can't make you see.
|. :"
ooh, can see plainly enough,
Roddy," she said with a tired little
grimace that was sorry reminder of
her old smile. II guess I see too we'll.
I'm sorry to have hurt you and made
you miserable. knew was going to
do that, of course, when went away,
but hoped that, after a while, you'd
come to see my side Of it. You can't
at all. You couldn't believe that was
happy, that thought I was doing
something worth doing; something
that was making me more nearly
person you could respect and be
friends with.
$50 guess" she concluded after
silence, "that the only thing for you
to do is to go home and forget about
me as well as you can and be as little
miserable about me as possible. I'll
tell you this, that may make 1t little
easier; you're not to think of me as
starving or miserable, or even un-
comfortable for want of money. I'm
earning plenty to live on, and I've got
over two hundred dollars in the bank"
There was long silence while he