The Benson signal., 1918-03-16

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cagO for good"
"Give up your business, you mean?"
he asked quickly.
| She nodded. ''It can't be done out
there" she said. "All the big produc-
tions that there's any money in are
and just be your wife. I'll keep your
house and mother the children, and
maintain your status, if you don't
think I'm spoiled for that"
That last phrase, though, was said
with smile, which he answered with
one OF his own. But with an instant
return to seriousness, he said: "I've
not asked that, Rose. wouldn't dream
Of asking it."
There's real job there" she per-
sisted, "just in being successfully the
wife Of successful man. I can see
that now. I never saw it when it was
my Job. Hardly caught glimpse Of it.
didn't even see my bills: let you
pay them down at the Office, with all
your own work that you had to do"
ut wasn't me-" he said. 'It was
Miss Beach"
She stared at that and gave a short
laugh. "If I'd known that ~
she said. Then she came back to the
point. 1T is 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 II
wouldn't work.
"What will work, then?" she asked.
And this he couldn't answer.
"We've just got to go ahead" he
said at last, land see what happens.
Perhaps you can work it out so that
you can do part Of your work at home.
We could move the nursery and give
you Florence's old studio. And then
1t 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 a real wife,
Roddy; not somebody dashing in and
dashing out"
II don't deserve anything I can't
get" he said. "I'd rather have part
interest in you than to possess, lock,
stock and barrel, any other woman ]
can think Of
She came back to him again and
settled in his arms. "a man told me-"
she said, "John Galbraith told me that
he couldn't be a woman's friend and
her lover at the same time, any more
than steel spring could be made soft
so that it would bend in your fingers,
like copper, and, still be a spring. He
said that was true Of him, anyway, and
he felt sure it was true Of nine men out
of a dozen. Do you think it's truel
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 little different from any other.
Therell 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 expense
Of the other. It won't spring quite so
well, and it will bend little"
After a while he said: Here's what
we've got to build on: Whatever else
it may or may not be, this relation be-
tween us is permanent thing. We've
lived with each other and without each
other, and we know which we want.
If we find it has it's limitations and
drawbacks, we needn't worry. Just 60
ahead and make the best Of it we
can. There's no law that DEGREES
we've got to be happy. When we are
happy it'll be so much to the good.
And when we aren't :"
She gave a contented little laugh
and cuddled closer down against him.
"You talk like Solomon in all his So
lemnity," she said. "But you can't
imagine that we're going to be un-
happy. Really?"
His answer was that perhaps he
couldn't imagine it, but that he knew
it, just the same. "Even an ordinary
marriage isn't any too easy; a mar.
riage, mean, where it's quite well un-
derstood which Of the parties to it
shall always submit to the other, and
which Of them is the important one
who's always to have the right Of way.
There's generally something perfectly
unacceptable that decides that ques-
tion. But with us there isn't. So the
question who's got to give in will have
to be decided on it's merits every time
a difference arises" She burlesQued a
look Of extreme apprehension. She
was deeply and utterly content with
life just then. But he wouldn't be di-
verted. "There's another reason" he
went on. "Tve a notion that the thing
we're after is about the finest thing