The Bismarck tribune., 1919-04-03
,o Alfred Blair would never

ron one. Alfred Blair would never
huvc asked her to-.
Hut not even her most intimate
f,;nnIs hit upoH the one decisive quail
ity about him that had seen the elr,'
happily and without misgivlng, through
n three-lnoAth's erfga cement ana lne
beginnings of their married Ire. Ih1s
was touch of timidity about him, "
most revercnt, that kept him from COM
iny too close too soon
Celt was twenty-siX when she met
him, and had had experience enough
with her own amutory emotions to
h.lieve she understood them She had
becn engaged once and lalf-engaged
another time, to say nothing OF an i'll I
definite number OF young meil-three
or four anyway---whO had come up TO
sthc point where she had had to take
n line with them. She probably would
have engaged herself to marry the
second man, had not her break Wlth
the first made her wary.
That experience withher first lover
hnd been a shock. Her promise TO
marry him had transformed him un-
belevably into stranger, and her reel
in. for him, which she had confidently
liarnoscd> as true love, had .curdled
overnight into All active aversion. Inc
thing that led to her dlsmlSsal OF the
second man was Il lack of confidence
ir herself, rather than in him. Sheu
thought IL god deal and asked few
questions, and profound and disqulet-
ing misgivings were the result.
And then came Alfred Blair, who
put the misgivings to flight. The
thing he'd given her first was an un-
fathomable sense of security. All the
facts about him fitted in, of course;
that he was alder, that he was self
disciplined. and it can not be denied,
that he was prosperous. She tested
him. cautiously at first then with Il
growing confidence. The little prlvi-
leges she gave him, she freely am =
plified when she found he never tried
| TO amplify them for himself. These
restraints never led her to doubt the
senuineness of. his passion for her.
That was plain enough for the blind
to see. But the will that reined IL
in was supreme. r. .r,, b.
Her new engagement and her mar
rage were wonderful restoratives to
her confidence. She felt her attitude
to her two former lovers, which had
caused her more doubts and unhappi-
ness than she was willing to admit,
triumphantly justified. Her instincts
had not been wrong after all. Happl-
ness didn't necessarily hurt nor deface.
For while she was utterly content,
and her contentWent was spiced by
mild pity for pretty much all the rest
of the world, and especially for the
girls who married thaSc two former
lovers of hers.
1t was from an unexpected quarter
! that he Nemesis began creeping up on
her-the unruly, irrepressible growth
within herself of a passion for her hus-
band. She found the fine silken fabric
of their life imperiled by impulses of
her own terrified miild Jealousy
was one of {. them---utterly without
foundation in fact, she knew. which
made it all the more terrifying. D.
There was little Nora Brice, for eX-
ample, somewhere about twenty, whose,
people had lost all their money, and
who, as much from inclination as
from necessity gave dancing LESSONS.
The Blairs and two or three couples
| of their friends had her III, OCCASION
ally to keep them up to the minute
and she and Alfred had taken an in
nocently shameless fancy to each other
She laughed ut him-treated him like
a boy. proved to him. to his intense
astonishment. that he could dance as
well as anybody, and, under, the stimu-
lus of the phonograph, polished off
facet of him that nobody had dreamed
existed. -.
Celia's line, of course, was good-hu-
mored amusement. and she would. she
felt. have been irretrievably shamed
had any one discovered especially had
her husband discovered. the true emo
tions her manner masked. But she
could no more help feeling those sharp
stabs Of pain than she could have re-
sisted the neugralic @twinges of q bad
tooth. Jealousy was not the only
feeling. either. that shook and gripped
and dismayed her.
So, from whatever motive you like
: to name it (she tried hard not to name
it cawordice). she clung to the thing
that had once not been a mask-the
cool aloOfness. the fastidiousness, the
: kindly affectionate superiority; went
on pointing out, with humorous tOler
ance, his little mistakes; maintained
the position which he had once SO
eagerly acduiesced in and had never
tried to change. that her duty toward
him was to refine, and civilize him !:
induce him to appreciate the value of
the ornamental and frivolous aspects
of life: get him Sllppler-nlOre, us she