Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-08-21
And So They
Were Married
BY HAZEL DEYO BATCHELOR
Copyright. 1919, bv Public LEDGER Co.
START THIS STORY TODAY

TANE came into Ruth's life through
81 Helen Townsend. She was an odd
little thing who might have been thor
oughly fascinating but for certain draw
backs. She simply did not realize her
possibilities, nor play UP to her attrac-
tions in any way.
Ruth had been down at Helen's one
evening when Jane came in. Her round
face was flushed and full Of life. When
she smiled her eyes deepened and huge
babyish dimples played everywhere In
her face. Her hair was short, but 1t
was not the kind of short hair. that
Ruth had ever seen before. In Green
which village there is a fad for bobbed
hair. Jane Knowles's hair was nothing
like this. It was black and very curly
and fiuffed away from a part down the
side which gave Jane the most fas-
cinating boyish expression. Ruth fell
quite in love with her.
Jane did not come into the room
ordinarily, she blew in, and the ex-
preston on her face was that of a
naughty elf.
They've taken me on" she an
nounced dramatically to Helen.
''Oh, my dear, that's splendid,
Helen said heartily. Come and sit
down and tell us about it. This is Mrs.
Raymond; she'll be interested"
And so Jane proceeded to tell how
she had landed the position of her
heart, that of assistant in a publishing
Office.
"You see," she explained to Ruth,
''I love to write, and have had few
l.,l Grnry
technique Of the thing at all and have
been trying to find a job where 1 can
get what need"
"But to work in an Office" protested
Ruth, "I tried 1t for a while, and it's
deadly, the routine. Are you sure you'll
like it?"
Jane opened her eyes wide. "Why,
I've worked in an Office for three
years. she explained simply; "this
work will be simply heaven compared
to the dull tipping I have been doing,
and think what I'll learn. y
When she had gone 1t seemed as
though a fresh breeze had blown out OF
the room. Ruth turned to Helen i'm
pulsively.
"who is she, Helen? Tell me about
her; she's utterly charming
isn't she? I don't know when l
have met any one so naive and yet so
far she has made an utter mess OF her
life"
80, I know you're surprised, every
one is who knows her; II she hadn t
had ambition, don't know what would
have held her up. She has baby to
support, you know, and she has been
making fifteen dollars a week. Ihis
new position will pay her twenty, but,
as you know, that isn't great deal
these days"
Ruth gasped. "Do you mean to say
that that child has a baby?"
Helen nodded. ''Two years old. Do
you want to hear about her?'
And that was when Ruth first heard
the story of Jane and it read like n
COX.
Jane had been very wild few years
ago. She would listen to no one who
tried to give her advice, and because she
was wild. joyous thing, every one
who loved her knew that life had some
hard knocks in store for her. Her
great piece of folly came when she
cloped with a handsome boy who had
nothing in the world but his looks,
anu WHO WIS SlllL anu CIuei W DooI'
But she was game. When any one
tried to interfere, to get her to admit
that life had defeated her, she would
throw back her head with something
of the old defiance and laugh. She might
be defeated, she might be unhappy,
but the world should never know, not
if she could help it, and 80 she lived
in miserable poverty with the man OF
her choice, enduring all manner of
degradation, for he drank and abused
her horribly. Through it all, however,
she maintained something of her old
manner, and it had tided her over until
the baby came.
Jane did not want the baby. She
would sit for hours with her hands
held loosely in her lap, just brooding.
Near the end she did make some baby
things in a listless fashion, not as
mothers generally do, setting in fine
stitches with loving fingers, but in a
helpless fashion, to keep herself occu-
pied. Jane was only nineteen at the
time.
Before the baby came Jane scraped
together every cent she could and went
to hospital. She had a horror OF
having the child born where its father
lived. Jane tried not to think OF what
would happen when her short hospital
term was over, but mercifully the W.
came, and before Jane came back hr
husband had been caught In the dratt
Weak and i'll as she was, with no
money, Jane felt some OF the org
oIt.t;on return to her. She was iree
To he s,,re. she had the baby to support
,,,'. thers was no one to bully her, no
ous @ to terrify her with rough words and
rougher blows.
,Touorrow-Jane and the Baby.)