Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-29
MY
PROBLEMS
Adele Garrison's
New Phase or
A
OF A WIFE
THE HESITATING WORD OF AD.
VICE MADGE'S FATHER or
FERED HER

Remember Lillian whispered. as
after Katie's delicious luncheon, /
stood on the side veranda while my
father brought the car he had given
me to the door, don't be hasty in
your judgments. That's all l ask of
you"
'1Il remember" I replied, kissing
her warmly, and hoping that she would
not notice that / had promised only
my memory, not my actions. But |
knew from the troubled look which
flashed into her eyes that she had
caught my omission. In all honesty,
however, | could not promise and kind
ly feeling toward Dicky, l was too
angry at him for any other feeling to
sway me, and i climbed into the car
beside my father with the knowledge
that her eyes were sorrowfully and
worriedly watching me.
The knowledge as well as my sombre
thoughts concerning the ridiculous er-
rand on which l was bound kept me
silent during the drive to the station. /
felt subtly that my father was ~covertly
watching me, and l was not surprised
when we had drawn up at the station
to have him turn to me and say hest
tatingly:
Daughter, dear, you won't be Of
Tended if your old father sounds just a
note of warning"
To myself | said rebelliously that /
could very well do without advice from
him. Lillian or any one else. But
could not hurt him by even a hint of
my feeling, and my answer was prompt
and earnest.
"You know that you could not pos
sibly offend me-" / said, and he laid
his hand. over mine in a swift caress.
Let me tell you first, dear child ne
said. and there was the hint of repress-
ed anger in his voice, that L am your
champion in this thing. Your husband
is absolutely in the wrong and he has
no reason to expect any leniency from
you. | am glad / am not younger or l
would give him the thrashing he de-
serves for subjecting you to this I'M
desirable publicity
I sfivered q bit as he came to a sud
den stop, for there was something IN
his voice and manner which made me
realize that beneath my fathers gen
tfeness there was q man | never had
seen. a man of tempered steel, who
had participated in many wild and
hard scenes of which | knew nothing.
blL While Ill THIS Is IIuV. hV "Sht
on in q more softened tone. Il am very
sure az one thing. There is nothing
really wrong in this %escapade, nothing
which should cause you to shut your
husband away from either your for
g~iyeness or your confidence. Discipline
him as much as you like, my dear, and
/ imagine your feminine r%esourceful-
ness needs no hints as to methods
Did | imagine the ghost Of a smile
twisting his lips?
But let me beg Of you not to make
the fatal mistake of dealing with a
foolish indiscretion on your husbands
part as if it were q real wrong against
your marriage vows. Such an attitude
might drive a tempermental, high
spirited, sentitive man like your hus-
band. almost without his WI volition,
to some irrevocable act which he other
wise would never have dreamed of
committing.
II" he hesitated. 81 once knew
such a man, and ne expiated his wrong
in a lifetime of lonely anguish, and l
think his wife also regretted-here
comes your train dear child. Forgive
me If / have hurt you"
You haven't hurt me- | whispered,
as he helped me from the car and es-
corted me to the train. "And I'll try
my best to do the right and generous
thing
That's my brave girl" he whisper
ed back. and then with his good-by
kiss upon my cheek and the remem-
brance of his tragic eyes in my mind |
boarded the train and started on my
journey to join Dicky.
Too well I knew what he meant by
that last tremulous revelation. He must
have been the man who had been driv-
en- to an irrevocable wrong by his
wife's severe judgment OF innocent IN
discretion. ] never had known the
real story of that long past tragedy in
the lives of my parents.
That my father had deserted my
mother for another woman when | was
four years old-this bald fact I knew.
and | was familiar with my fathers
long and bitter atonement and his
search for me. But my mothers side
of the story had never been told to me.
She had kept it bitterly locked In her
own heart, although in my trunk there
was a record which upon her dying bed
she had told me to read if ever in my
life with my husband I should need it.
Was it possible. l wondered. that my
mother had once faced the same prob
lem I was now confronting and had
made the wrong decision?
Next-The Almost Panieky Fear
that Followed MadQe.