The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-01-23
JANE GOES.
CHAPTER 66.

Chapter 66.
Jane had decided-not TO marry
Donald
II was the result of an evening
with him, when he was in one of his
strange, nervous moods While Lu-
Their and his mother had been at the
theatre. Donald dropped in TO sec
Jane. He had come from a hard day,
he was tired and unusually nervous,
and irritable. He walked up and down
the room, smoking one cigarette after
another, full of his annoyance against
one of the doctors in a hospital with
whom he had been in consultation
that afternoon irritated because ar
inexperienced student nurse had up
set some antiseptic over his arm
angry at the stupidity of an express
company which delayed shipping some
hospital supplies to him.
II was day when everything went
wrong and Donald, already nervously
upset at James indecision, was in G
black mood. Uusally Jane knew eX
actly how to treat him. how to quiet
him without seeming to. But today
she. too. was upset And when, tact
lessly. she brought up the eternal
You'll tire of me if you feel tied 10
me" he answered,
Il suppose | SHALL
And the result of this was James
announcement, in tone of finality,
Then | shan't marry you"
And she felt as though she had cut
herself off from everything desirable
in life. And Donald paced the floor
more nervously than before,
Il ffNIs
me very much,' Jane said, watching
him gloomily as he walked back and
forth.
His answer was to catch her in his
arms and hold her tightly against him.
+, covering her mouth and her face with
kisses, with an intensity of passion
that was rare in him, and that fairly
carried her away on a flood tide OF
emotion.
Are you going with me-" he asked.
Anywhere, anytime" she answered,
her eyes glowing as she looked up
at him.
So her decision was made to go.
But still the sensitiveness fingered
that being tied as she called It
meant for him gradually to lose his
love for her.
That night Jane and her mother
talked late about her decision.
And Mrs. Talbot made a statement
that sounded strange to her own ears
as she heard it.
Il would rather you lived unconVen-
tionally, with a man you loved, than 10
be married and live with Il man you
hated That-the marriage relation.
ship between two people who nate
each other-is the real immortality,
the greater evil.
But the whole system of society
is founded upon marriage. the purity
of the race-which is one OF your pet
subjects. Jane-is built upon that. And
who are YOU, or who is Donald, 10
break as great a law as that. 10
either of YOU think yourselves i'm
portant enough to be exceptions TO
one of the great, fundamental laws OF
the universe?
Mrs. Talbot had never put it like
that before. And Jane, sitting silent
for awhile, was impressed.
James special course was over that
week.
There was no reason why she SHOULD
not po-none but the haunting fear
that Donald would repent his desire
TO marry her.
I have heard him talk so much
about it, for years" Jane protested,
You take him much too seriously
her mother answered, remembering
something Luther had once said 10
her.
Donald is very young. in spite OF
his doctors degree and his very ma
ture opinion of himself. Most men
have tendency to accept condition.
rather than to rebel against them
You think Donald is different from
most men.
He is" Jane interrupted.
That's because you are in love.
assure YOU ne is not. once you ar
married he will be quite as contented
as the most ordinary domestic mar
In any case. my dear, samething ma
TO be risked. Better risk marriage
which may be great gamble thSl
any other arrangement, which Woulc
be greater one
Il won't have my family standlhs
around at a wedding and ] won't nav .
a satin and lace wedding dress and al
that nonsense" Jane declared. Iol
can save all that for Amy. thint
marriages as they are done today
arc positively immoral They are {
ralic of the dark ages. | don't wan
anyone TO know about it, until Ions
after it is all over
IT'S your marriage, arrange 4
whichever way pleases you best,
Mrs. Talbot answered, putting asid,
with a little pang her desire to drea
Jane just once, in the soft, feminine
carb of the conventional bride.
Jane said nothing. But she bega:
huvipp-not a trosSeau, but tweeC