The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1921-02-04
PHILIPS LOVE
BY JACK LAYTON
10. 1921. Western Newspaper Union.)

pectancy in his coming was gone
Sadly the young wife wondered how
long this life of strained indifference
must go on. For surely Philip had
grown Indifferent in marriage, after
his undated devotion before. Con
stance looked back on the years before
her marriage with a sigh. Philip,
earning his way in her fathers en-
ploy, had been a difficult lover, even
now she was not sure that he would
have asked his own hearts desire had
she not TREMENDOUSLY prompted him.
And might she not, after all, she
thought with a catching of the breath,
have read his heart Alright?
Could it be that Philip had married
her for pity? Truly, she had shown
her heart to him, with all it's love.
The fact of her fathers wealth, and
Philips humble position had seemed
such foolish barrier between, but
Philip in his stubborn pride had been
unable to brook that barrier. So she
had done 1t for him.
She remembered the night, with the
starlight on the snow, and Philips
dear arm through hers, steadying her
against the breeze, and when she
looked up into his face to see there
the pent up love of years, that love
which Philips brusque manner had
resolutely denied, Constance half
laughing half crying, had challenged
him to deny his love as she told of her
own.
Now in the calm of her sitting room
the madness of that hour came back
to her with the memory of his eager
surrender Their walk together had
been but an accident; Constance had
stopped at her fathers office and her
father himself had put her into the
forbidden Philips care. The night
was dangerously stormy, she would
have to take the street car home, her
father expected to be detained at the
office and would need his own car
there. So Philip was installed her
escort.
Later Constance had married him
against his own unselfish protesta-
lions. Stoutly she proclaimed her con-
tempt for the luxuries of life as COM
pared with the gift of love-and Philip
accepted the gift.
Her father had not yet forgiven the
misalliance; Philip was obliged to
seek work elsewhere, and to begin at
a lower rung of the business ladder.
But Philip would rise, and Constance
was happy uptil-that indefinable
something came to fill her with
strange apprehension.
She found Philip looking at her as
time went on in detached, specula-
tive way, and all her merriment could
not bring an answering smile. When
later he took to working evenings at
the office, Constance determinedly dis
couraged the ambition with the assur-
ance that they could manage on his
daily salary, and that she preferred
his companionship to extra dollars.
So, though Philip desisted, he was Ill
at ease during their evenings together,
and Constance in her discouraging at
tempts to entertain on the rafting old
hired piano, subsidized after a while be-
fore his absorbed dependence.
Then Philip rising abruptly one
evening, announced his intention of
departing for the club. Constance had
not heard of this club before, and was
grieved by his desertion. Then as
night after night passed in loneliness,
she too cultivated an apparent indif-
ference to match his own. But as the
street lights flared out and she watch
ed from her window, 1t seemed no
longer she could bear this suspense.
If she had been mistaken in her |
reading of Philips heart and he had |
married her through pity, she must |
know at once, and no longer impose |
herself upon him. Her eyes were wet |
with tears, as she started upon the |
walk to her husbands place of bust |
ness. The air would calm her, she /
hoped, she knew that she would find |
Philip there, and alone. An Office girl |
who responded to her telephone mes
sage told her that her husband would |
be delayed at least an hour. II was |
more than an hour later when Con-
stance stepped from the elevator in
the deserted corridor of the building. |
and as she entered an outer office she
heard voices in the room within.
One voice was Philips, nervously
impatient. the other was her fathers.
at was little enough to do" Philip
was saying, giving up a few weeks Of
comfort In order that / might buy a
piano for Constance. And quite as
fine a one as that you provided. If /
cannot yet give to my wife all those
things TO which she was accustomed,
some day in my great love for her I
will.
"Yes," her father answered. some
day, after you have worked yourself
to death bending over a desk until
when you have left her re-
peatedly alone with that lie about
spending your evenings at the club,
then you may be able to restore to
Constance those things which she
willingly discarded-for yourself.