The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-12-18
When A Girl Marries
bv ANN LESLIE

Miss Moss let me have only a few minutes with Betty and then she riars Hall. I lay there sleepless sH
 trough the long night, thinking a&
 ietty, remembering each shy giancss
 ach whispered word, each timtd
 heeks as she spoke Terry's name- How Betty loved him. How happy she was now that she dared at last
 At dawn I slipped into my cIOthel md went out to walk in the frae
 ant pine woods stretching away from
 he sanitar2um to a little lake of 5entle -blue-gray. And in the peace
 # outdoors, I stopped struggling ana decided to do what all along l had known I must do.
 I didn't doubt Terry. I didn't feel Tor moment that knowledge ot
 what Betty was facing would make him other than more tender, more
 owing. I knew the ugly truth
 wouldn't give him moments pausa
 n the marriage into which he wai rushing Betty.
 But wanted that marriage td start with good cheer and with high nopes Terry had a right to his share of uncIouded joy.
 Betty and Terry must start even loving, hoping, dreaming together. wasn't going to let Terry have a bit couldn't permit him to pity her-too much, and I refused to consider the | day when they must both find out.
 Wheg and that Teaay day wa1a farxe fs1t sure
 and would understand that had act | ed through love of them. I hadn't l promised the doctor that I'd tell Ter ry I had only said I'd tell whom Terry had a right to be saved from l knowing. And then my thoughts in l sisted on focusing on the problem [ | had been avoiding all night long. I T n1anning TIT n f | gambling with human lives-gam-
 bling as desperately as ever Jim did l at the games of chance to which [ i objected so bitterly.
 Jim! What would Jim say? How | would Jim. who had felt that he | could forbid my forming friendships,
 that he could decide who were to be
 my friends and who not, react to my | making so momentous a decision for
 myself and my friends?
 Somewhere in the back of my mind
 was the feeEng. that things could
 never be quite the same between Jim
 and me again unless he understood
 and sympathized. Somewhere in my
 heart was a little prayer that he hold me if our world criticized me for
 the silence I was going to keep. Suppose even that when the day of
 revelation came, Terry resented what , I was going to do. felt that I hadn't l trusted him, that I had been unwar- T rantedly bold in making his decision of him-wou1d Jim help me make clear to him, would Jim stand by? 5 If Betty felt that I had owed il
 to Terry to give him the chance te 3 change his plans-wouId Jim help me convince her sensstiveness and pride l that Terry never would have changed I didn't know. I couldn't be sure I had to take a momentous steI ] without consulting anyone. And ono, l it was taken there was no turnlns = back.
 t Its for Betty's happiness I saic
 to the pines and the lake. .'It fo I Terry's happiness. also. They'll hav' e their honeym oon lighted by the hop
 that he's nursing her back to healt1 Il ! again. They must face their pail
 soon enough-and it's their right t. 0 face it together. Terry has 1onge, l for happiness and served for it, an . waited for it. Now I won't cloud i f for him by telling him how Bett
 may have to suffer. He's going t believe she'll be all well. And she I | going to believe that she'll be all wei a And maybe a blessed miracle wi . | make it happen"
 Then I smiled sadly at the lake an , the pines and went in to help tn II bride make ready for her day. = But as I retraced my steps ther T was black fear in my heart Woul U JIm understand?
 u Would any one understand? ( To Be Continued)