Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-03
And So They
Were Married
BY HAZEL DEYO BATCHELOR
Copvrtpht, 1919, bv Public LEDGER Co.
START THIS STORY TODAY

NtlNGS nau Deen Salu DeIWeen NUN
L and Scott and both were dissatisfied.
Neither, however, knew what to dn
about It. Scott would sit in the Office,
absent minded and worried about money
matters. He wondered what they
would do about moving out of their
apartment.
In the meantime. Ruth had persuaded
Alice to write to Bert. She had writ
ten one letter, a defiant. rather hard
little note, that Ruth had promptly
insisted upon having torn up.
'Do you think you could do anything
with him by taking that attitude?' she
scoffed.
And so Alice sat down again and
humbled herself She wrote in that
letter all the agony that she had con
fded to Ruth. She told Bert that she
had been wrong from the beginning
She confessed to him that she had
known in her heart of hearts that never
before had he really cared for anyone
and that she had persisted in making
them both miserable just so that she
could show her power over him. She
told him. too. that if he would give her
another chance she would be different.
She would trust him: that nothing else
mattered but that he forgive her.
1t was a letter full of tears; it had
taken great effort on Alice S part to
write it. If Ruth hadn't held over her
head the possibility of losing Bert alto
gethcr. Alice couldn't have written the
letter in Just that way.
Bert opened and read the letter in an
attitude Of indifference. His mind
hadn't had time to thoroughly ADJUST
itself to life as yet. aud he was still
entirely influenced by present conditions
without thinking of the future at all.
For the first time in several years he
was experiencing what it meant to be
entirely free. The old sense of oppres-
sion had been put aside. He got up in
the morning with no one to tell him what
to do. he went TO the Office untroubled
by the memory of Alice's extreme sensi
tivcness which perhaps he had mad
vertently wounded He worked better
than he ever had before. and best of all
there was woman who cared for him
a woman to whom he could talk freely
who was always willing to listen and
who did not nag He would drop into
her apartment in the evening and they
would sit in the semi darkness, he
smoking, and she very quiet in som'
soft summery dress. Bert was not at al
in love. he was simply contented. lii
was living entirely in the present. thu:
= far he had not missed Alice at all
Sometimes it is given to n man who has
lived in torment to snatch few carefrc'
B moments from the gods.
Therefore when he received Alice's
letter full of self rcproach, full of prom
ises for the future, it awakened moth
ing in him but distaste. 1t plunged hin
back into the turmoil of their lives to-
gether. it awoke memories of other times
when Alice. deeply sorry for something
horribly unfair. had gone to the sam'
lengths i'll asking his forgiveness.
He threw the letter on his desk with
out visualizing Alice at all. lie merely
felt the hostile atmosphere which always
surrounded them. and he wanted to toss
it aside. He thought of the pleasant
evening that he had planned with thu
other woman. an innocent enough eve
ming, dinner and Il talk afterward at he
apartment, and he resolutely put Alice
out of his mind altogether. That wal
why Alice in New York watching th
mails, failed to hear from him. Eacl
morning she would awake hopefully. ex
pectantly and each day the mails woult
bring her nothing.
Ruth began to invent all kinds o
things to keep up her spirits. The fac
that he might be out of town which ha'
instantly aroused Alice's suspicious.
''If you're going to feel suspicious o
him all the while your letter did no
mean anything - scolded Ruth severely
whereuppn Alice instantly crumbled.
Alice had now been with them severa
weeks. Her visit had caused grea
deal of trouble and Ruth unconsciousl
began to wonder how much longer sh
would have to be iuconvenienced thi
way. Every night the living room ha
to be entirely made over into bed
room, and every morning everything ha
to be put away and the room put il
order. Alice was naturally selfish. an,
at this time she was more than ordi
narily so. She thought of herself con
stantly, and Ruth was too sorry fo
her to do anything but wait, althoug
she longed for Alice to go so that sh
and Scott could adjust their own lives.
Ruth had begun in a desultory wa
to search the paper for advertisement
of apartments. She was amazed at tn
prices asked for so little and in he
heart of hearts she began to hope tina