The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-02-16

give him pain.
 ''No reason at all," said he. And
 sudden suspicion famed in JuIia's
 heart with all the surety of en in-
 spiration.
 The revelation came in absolute | completeness; she had never even sus-
 pected Richie's little tragey before
 For few moments Julia sat stunned, ! then she said seriously:
 | 'I always feel myself so much Jirn's
 wife, Rich; I suppose it's a sort of
 protection to me- It never occurs to
 me that any one could think me less
 bound than I think myself"
 Sure you do!'' Richard said,
 struggling with the back log. But
 other people might not! And it would be rotten to have him come back and
 hear anything" "I suppose he'll come back" Julia
 said, dreamily. almost in a whisper.
 'I don't think of 1t much now: i used to think of 1t a good deal at first; I used to cry all night long some times, and write him long letters that I never sent. It seemed as if the long
 ing for him was burning me up. like 1 a fire!''
 i Damn him!" Richard muttered. "Oh. no, Richie, don't say that!'
 Julia protested. Richard, still on one knee, with the poker in his hand,
 turned to her almost roughly. l For Gods sake, Julie. don't defend him! I'll hold my tongue about him, l I suppose, as always have done, but don't pretend he has any excuse fer treating you this way! You-the best i and sweetest and bravest woman that | ever lived, bringing happiness and de- i cency wherever you go-- 1 "Richie, Richie, stop!" Julia pro- | tested, between laugher and tears ! Don't talk so I will defend Jim" { I,1 1,o an excuse. It seems unfair to me that
 he should have all the blame." She i held her hand out, fingers spread to ! the reviving flame, rosy and trans l parent in the glow. i Rich, no one knows this but Jim and me; not Aunt Sanna, not my own
 mother,'' she presently resumed. "But and I'm going to tell you"
 Don't tell me anything" saId ] Richard gruff1y, eyes on the fire. | "Yes, want to-" Julia answered. | But she was silent for while, a look l of infinite sadness on her musing face. l q made a serious mistake when I
 was a. girl, Rich,'' she went on, after
 an interval. 'I had no reason for it.
 not great love. or great need. I had
 no excuse. Or, yes, I did have this
 excuse: I had been spoiled; I had | been told that I was unusual. inde- | pendent, responsible to nobody. l | knew that this thing existed all about i me, and if I thought of it at all, suppose thought that there could be
 nothing so very dreadful about what
 men did as a matter of course! Per | haps that's the best explanation; my mind was like a young boys. I didn't l particularly seek out this thing, or want this thing; but I was curious,
 and it came my way--
 l Don't misunderstood me, Richie. wasn't tbetrayed.' I'd had, I suppose,
 as little good instruction, as little ex- 1 ample, and watching and guarding as any girl in the world. But I knew | better, Just as every boy knows bet | ter, and is taken, sooner or later. un- Eawares. Of course if I'd been boy all this would be only a memory | now, hardly shameful or regrettable even, dim and far away! Especially
 as it lasted only few weeks, before was sixteen!
 l And, of course, people would say that I haven't paid the full penalty,
 being girl instead of a boy. Look at l poor Tess, and Trilby, and Hetty in | Adam Beden never let any one know it; even your aunt never would
 have overlooked that. whatever she
 might say now. No; even Jim pro- tected me-and yet" Julia put her head back, shut her eyes, 'and yet I've paid a thousand times!" said she. There was a long silence, and then
 Richard said:
 | "Fve thought sometimes this might be it, Ju. Being alone so much, and reading and thfnking-rve worked | 1t out in my own mind. Aunt Sanna saw Jim in Berlin two years ago, you
 know. and gave him a horrible raking ] over the coaIs, and just from what 1 she quoted, it seemed as if there was
 some secret about it. and that it lay
 with you. Then. of course" Richie
 eased his lame leg by stretching it at
 full length before him, sinking down
 in his chair, finger tips meeting, "of course I knew Jim," he resumed. 1 'Jim's pride is his weak point. He's l like a boy in that: he wants every thing or nothing. He's like all my mothers children" said Richie. com | fortably analytical, "undisciplined. | Chil penury never repressed our noble
 rages; we never knew the sweet uses of advers:ty. I did, of course, but | here I am, childless man getting on in years, not apt to leave a deep tm- Il pression on the coming generation. It's a funny world, Julie! It's a strange sort of civilization to pose under the
 name of Christ. Christ had no dou- ble standard of morals. Christ forgave. Law is all very well, society has its uses, I have no doubt. but there are higher standards than either!"
 well that has come to me forcibly during the past few years" Julia said lthoughtfully. "I wasn't a praying ! small girl; how could I be? But after I went to The Alexander. being physi- ally clean and respectable made me
 long to be clean all over. suppose
 and I began to go to church, and after while I went to confession, Rich. and I felt made over, as if al the stain of it had sI pT,ed awayi And then Jim came. and I told him all about It,
 Before you were n1arried?"
 ooh. Richie. of course."
 ''WeN then. what-if he knew
 "Oh Richie that's the terrible part
 For I thought it was all dead and gone and it was all dead and gone as far as I was concerned: But we