Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-01-11
MYRA's IDEAS.

he Law fiat in bed. and he looked almost
n lifelcss as tho morning when Ruth rush
hd home Mt her mothers summons But
The big soul in the little body was outward
bound, and even rs inexperienced an
rye AS Ruths could see that.
But affairs returned more or less
TO normal There were 10 boarders IN the
lhouse now, their noise and their presence
had always annoyed the sensitive nerves
Of the man, and now that he was I'LL the
isyhole place was kept quiet Tor hin. he
nurse stayed on some weeks.
Though don't see as she's any good
ard she costs S25 n week." Mrs. O'Nlel
was apt to Crumble.
'Sbe is useful. and DR.. Lane wants her,
and | can manage the money, Ruth
answered
But bv and by even she could be dis
pcnsed with, and Mrs. O'Niel could take
her place.
Meantime the autumn had gone and
winter had set in. The building OF the
cottages was delayed by bad weather,
but some progress was made. BY Spring,
the whole dadditlon' was to go through on a
a big scale The cottages now under way
were TO help house the very builders who
were to construct the model factory town.
And Duncan O'Niel lay iii the huge
bed, a shrunken little figure under the
A,edclothes. Ruth had bought him
table TO hold books, that tipped up,
supporting the book so he could see it,
land that extended over the bed so the
ipage was convenient to read, and he need
not hold the volume This ingenious article
of furniture was his constant Joy.
For though the body was failing rap
(,dlv, the mind was as keen and clear as
ever and for that Ruth was eternally
Thankful. Three evenings week she was
reading law with the one prosperous law
yer in the little town, but rs this did not
bake more than an hour or so, there was
nIways time 10 chat with her father and
IN read to him after she got back.
They read a great deal together. Long
before. when she was a child they had
gone through the youthful classics;
Ppsr thev had readthe best of the standard
men, from Scott and Thackeray, to some
-of our own earlier men. Fenimore Coop
@r, Hawthorne, aud of course, the best
of the poets. He had trained her IN Shakes
p~ars since she was a child when she read
Lambs Tales, and later the plays them
selves. and lately she had been getting
she other Elizabethan dranatists from
che library and reading Bea umonet
aud Fletcher. John Ford, and Others.
Ono summer day they had read French
writers. though the library possessed
but few translstiOns. and once they had
purchased tho best of the Russian novel |
lists works
30 tho girl had an extraordinarily good |
fund Of culture and knowledge from her |
fathers bookish traInIng-a culture |
that gave her an impatlence with the /
literary taste. or lack OF It, that existed |
among her comrades.
Duncan decided IL was time they /
Il
Ruth. glad she had the money. sent for /
kiplne, Moore, Conrad, Wells, Chester
ton. Harrington. and Others of what her
father called 'the moderns;" delighting
in the fact that she could afford this gift !
e. him.
So, living in constant anxiety, al
most dreading the ring of the phone
bell in her office, she read and worked /
and planned. and occasionally danced
and rode, while Christmas came and
went
And once more Myra wrote
I've been thinking how dull 10 must
be at home. was one of her first SEN
tences. Mother doesn't give much news
she saws she hardly secs YOU, that you're
busy working and that your fathers
worse.
I'm pretty busy myself. I suppose
but as she says she hasn't seen you and
As I've STOPPED writing 10 everyone else
AT home | thought YOU mightnt know !
1t a bow. it was born In November and
We called him Tim. of course. ! think
I'll call him Junior. instead of Tim. ]
think that's quite smart, don't YOU?
| believe all the fashionable people Use it,
when the sons are named for the fathers. |
He looks like Tim, too, and when he
laughs his eyes squint up IN such funny
fashion"
The girl had to stop reading for q
moment. She thought she had stlfled
her love for this man until Myra's letters
brought it up again. And always the let
ters brought it up in new form. One
letter had come when they were engaged,
when Ruth felt like an outsider, and
bitterly resented the fact that her home
necessity had made her lose the CHARGE
TO keep TINS love. She was, indeed, love
hungry when she read that letter.
Then came the letter about their
home. after they married-and she was
heart hungry again, but hungry this time
for q little place OF her own and the love
and protection and comradeship that
true marriage always means
And now her heart ached and her
arms ached for the child, the month
old baby whose eyes squihted up when
he laughed. She would have given up
everything, every plan, every ambition,
every hope of career, TO have held IN !
her arms the baby whose eyes laughed,
The baby she wanted to call her own. n
But she had taught herself repression,
and she stihed, or tried TO stifie, these
thoughts, and went on with the letter.
There's not much to tell We live
near 125th street and there's a lot of
movies near. We go often to pass the
evening and hire someone to watch the
baby. There's a theatre near here and
real vaudeville, TOO, and we go sometimes.
But j don't get about much, the baby
takes time now, and it costs money. Still, |
there's plenty of life. The citys the place.
II s a shame you have to stick around in a
little one-horse town. ] wouldn't live
in a little town again for millions"
Ruth laughed suddenly.
Tomorrow-Invitations