Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1922-09-14
The Fathers
Custody
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
By JUSTIN wENTWooD
70. iS2a. wsHru Newspaper UnIeu.l


"By the order Of the court the child
was given into the custody Of the
father"
1t was six years since Marion had
read those words In the newspaper,
and she had smiled bitterly at them.
As II she wanted little Elaine. She
was not the maternal type Of woman,
and was quite frank about II. She
wanted a good time with Jim. They
had had hard struggle. He was only
clerk, he had neglected her, and
Dan had come along with his roadster,
and
Well, there had been that night at
the roadhouse. and the one irrevoc-
able step, and-Marion had written
Jim that she was never coming back.
Dan had not followed the tradition
al path; he had been more and more
devoted to her, and when he died he
left her ninety thousand dollars.
AS she stood outside Jim's house she
thought how strangely ironical the sit
uation was. Jim had divorced her
and here was Jim, still struggling
along on forty q week, or whereabouts,
to Judge from the appearance OF the
place; and here was she. who should
have been In poverty and humiliation,
with her fine house In Seabury, and
standing there in her expensive furs,
wondering whether, because she had
always had a sort of tenderness for
Jim. she should offer to take him into
her life again.
1t was decidedly ironical, and the
proper situation reversed In such
deadly manner for moralists.
And she wondered us she stood there
who had been the more TO blame, she
or Jim. She had always suspected
that there was another woman In the
case. And she had loved Jim.
1t was odd, but in way she loved
him still.
She went nearer to the door, for II
was very dark, and there was no fear
Of discovery. Then she saw Jim in
the lighted parlor, and woman near
him-Janet Sylvester
All her old suspicious were con-
firmedl So Jim was carrying on with
Janet-living with her, evidently,
openly, as If they were married. For
Janet had a husband in Utica.
Then her heart beat little more
yIx, oh or
the room, and heard Janet's scoldlng
voice:
"Come here, you child Didn't 1 tell
you to go to bed?"
eyes, but"
"Yes, who?'
The child remained stubboruly ST.
lent.
"Yes, motherH"
II won't say 1t. You aren't my moth
er. My mothers in heaven!"
you will say it Now then! Well,
I'll have to teach you, will II"
The sound of n blow. 4 whininer,
Nov, thcn!"
The child remained silent, save for
slight, restrained sobbing. There
were more blows, scoldli,g. elm, that
chiId's willis got to be broken. Why
don't you do something's"
ooh, I don't know" said Jim lazily.
81 wish you'd beat the kid somewhere
else, Janet"
You'll say It"
20
kill mel"
Marion set her teeth hard as she
listened at the door. A new sense Of
motherhood was dawning in her. And
with it there came a startling discov-
cry. 1t was the trinity of father,
mother and child that would have
made life and home complete for her.
It was because Jim had never really
cared for little Elaine that she had
grown callous, gone out with Dan.
Now a furious resentment against
the man and the woman, against the
past, stirred in her. And she clenched
her firsts as she listened to the drawn
out conflict between the woman and
the child-her child.
"You stubborn little thing, TIL break
your will yeti" said Janet, "Now go to
bed"
With catch of her breath the child
ran from the room.
At the same time the hall door
opened softly. Elaine saw the furred
figure standing upon the threshold, the
reckoning hand. She ran toward it,
and something impelled her to fling
her arms about the woman's neck.
Marion drew her out into the street
and softly closed the door. She
clutched the sobbing little figure to
her breast, trying to quell the spas
modic sobbing.
There, there, don't cry, honeyl"
ooh, they hate me, and I won't call
her my mother, 'cos she isn't. My moth
er's dead"
"Not dead, honey, but here-hereP'
Marion opened her fur coat and drew
the child inside. "She's come for you,
dear-to take you away. VIII you
come with met"
They hurried down the street to-