The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-09-15
SANDRA WEAVES A STORY
AROUND HERSELF.
CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER X1I1I.
was Intensely imaginative at this
time. clothed all those things of
Leola's with a sentiment for Everett
that perhaps they did not possess.
And. at the same time. felt indignant
that he should have kept them.
He had no young relatives, yet it
never entered my mind that had he,
or had she, he might have given them
away. Mrs. Gray had told me Ever
ett's first wife had no one belonging
oyher, that she was an orphan:
But 1 built up a story about the
things 1 found in the attic-a story
that intrigued while 1t made me I'M
happy. 1t ran like this:
"Once upon a time there was a man
who married a woman who made him
terribly unhappy. yet he loved her
with all his heart and never found
fault with her, no matter what she did
to displease him, because he didn't
dare-he was afraid he'd lose her. He
was awfully jealous of her, but he
didn't dare show 1t or say anything
no matter what she did, because he
loved her. He bought her beautiful
clothes, the kind she wanted because
she would have worn no ether. And
where he could look at them, and love
them because they had been worn by
her-the woman he loved. Then he
married again. This time an awtully
young girl. He didn't love her like he
had loved the other wife. But he
wanted to have home and children
So he married a silly little know-noth-
ing who reminded him of his first
wife. And this silly little know-noth-
ing loved him, and he made her very
unhappy because he loved the other
wife, the first one, better than he did
Ter.
NOW this second wife tried hard
to please her husband. but he was al
ways finding fault with her. So she
made up her mind to copy the first
wife and do as she pleased without
paying any attention to him. Then
perhaps he would love her as he did
that first one who made him unhappy
and Jealous.
yet no matter how hard she tried
to please him, the second wife had
failed So she determined to be like
that first wife, the one he loved so
dearly.
"Her husband went away. He told
her she could do certain things; that
she might not do others. He treated
her like a child. and yet she was his
wife. She made up her mind that she
would no longer be classed as an in
genue. She was married. and a mar
ried woman had her rights. These
she would claim.
But there was so much OF mys-
terry surrounding her. so much she
did not understand that she did not
dare make too violent break for her
independence. Yet all the time she
envied this first wife-the one who
made him unhappy yet whom he
loved far more than ever he would
love her.
80 this second wife determined to
find out all she could Of the first wife
while she had the chance Her hus-
band might never go away again.
Then she would plan to do all the
things that first wife did. Her hus-
band then might learn to love her.
You see this little know-nothing
second wife had come to love this
man whom she had married, yet she
was not happy because he did not
love her. She hated that first wife,
and hated herself when people said
she resembled her. At times she felt
horribly guilty because she disliked
dead woman. and she never would
have dared tell anyone how she felt.
She had found many things belong
ing to wife number one."-as every
one spoke of her husbands first wife
but there were other things she
wished to see. secrets she wished to
learn. She was sure they were locked
up in a little old trunk in the attic.
But she had no key. and did not know
how to get one. Her little story prom
ised to he incomplete unless she could
open. this s'Pandora's box" and in-
stead OF ending as all stories should,