New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1921-07-19
CLIPPED WINGS
By Rupert Hughes.
A story Of a wife and successful star
+... entrancingly told. ..
Continued from Yesterdays Herald.)

Yesterdays Herald.)
the second was Bret's business, which
took an BILE amount of
time.
Sheila's most thrilling first night
| was her debut as mother, but her
son. instead of filing her life, rather
added new ambitions than displa ced
the old. Still she said nothing of the
stage.
She went with Bret to New York for
holiday, saw all the plays on
| Broadway and attended an all-star
| oeneht performance, at which she
| was greeted with an effusiveness
usually reserved for long lost children
There they met Dulcie Ormerod and
Floyd Eldon, the two men glared
but there was no assumptions of hos
tilities.
Two years later there was another
| baby-a uaughter-and after her
| birth a vague haze of melancholy
settled about Sheila. Her laughter
became less frequent and less clear;
| she walked idly about necessarily,
and sometimes, without apparent rea
son, would sigh frantically, leap to
her feet and pace the floor aimless-
ly.
Eugene Vickery came occasionally
to Bithevale to visit his sister. Dor
! othy, who had consoled herself for
the loss of Bret by marrying Jim
| Greeley, a manufacturer of chemi
Gals. Much of his time on such visits
| Vickery spent with Bret and Sheila
He had been changed by success
which had come to him with the play
Sheila had tried in stock and which
later had patched up and sold. Now
he was working on what he hoped
in his heart would prove a really great
| play.
| Who's going to play your hero?'
| well, I haven't read it to him yet,
but there's only one man in the coun-
try with the brains and the skill and
the good looks"
"And who might all that be?" Shei-
| la asked.
Floyd Eldon.'
| Vickery had forgotten for the mo-
ment the feud of the two men. The
silence recalled it to him. He spoke
with vexation.
| Good Lord, people, haven't you got
| over that ancient trouble yet? Eldon s
| got over it, I know. A year or two
ago he was telling me how kindly
|
didn't really blame Bret
One evening Sheila excused herself
and left Bret to smoke out Vickery
who was in midnight mood of gar
ru1lty. He turned on Bret and
| growled:
| Bret, there goes the pitifulest case
Of frustrated genius I ever saw. It's
a sin to chain a great artist like that
to a baby carriage
Home was good enough for our
I mothers Bret mumbled, sinking back
I obstinately in his chair.
| 'Oh, no it wasn't
They were contented.''
| "Contented! Hah! That's a word
we use for other peoples patience. >
lis nobody to stay at homer"
"Of course! There's Dorothy
incest girl in the world, but not tenn
permanent enough to make flea wink
But a postman oughtn't to stay al
home, or a ship captain, or a fire
man."
Bret attempted a mild sarcasm
But all the women ought to leave
home and go/on the stage, eh?"
Vickery threw up his hands. "God
forbid! But women like Mrs. Siddons
land Ellen Terry. Bernhard and Duse
and Charlotte Cushman and Nodes.
ka, and any number of others, in.
GLIDING Mrs. Bret Winfield, ought te
be travelling the country like mis-
sionaries of art and culture and mo-
rality."
Morality" Bret roared 1.-The stage
is nc place for a good woman, ano
you know it."
"Oh, bosh In the first place, what
is q good woman?"
| "Al1 right" Bret agreed. you'll
admit, I suppose, that a good woman
ought to perpetuate her goodness. A
good woman ought to have children
Eyes, if she cam
| And take care of them and sac.
rifice herself for them
| why sacrifice herself?''
so that the race may progress"
"How is it going to progress if yol
sacrifice the best fruits Of it? I think
5heila belongs to the public. I dom
see why she couldn't be a better wife
) and a better mother for being ar
, eminent artist. And I like you, Bret
SO much. You're a decent fellow a
heart as anybody know I hate te
have it you, of all men, that's crush.
ing Sheila's soul out of her. I hat
, to think that. I let you cut me out
"She wouldn't have loved me i
she'd married me; but by the Lore
Harry her name would be house
hold word in all the homes in thu
country instead of just one!'
At length Bret spoke:
| Pm not such a brute as you think
Gene. 1 don't want to sacrifice any.
body to myself, least OF all the WON
an 1 idolize. If Sheila wants to leave
me and go back I'll not hinder her