The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-08-16


 day Margaret found GIendeninp awaiting her. He told her his wife had been very i'll. She was expect. ing n child.
 T could not understand. dear pr George. what Harry was trying tc voice solemn when I asked him what he meant by saying he never expect ed to be father.
 "'"I mean that Doris was so deter mined not to become mother that she has nearly killed herself in carrying out her resolve"
 -" Poor womanr
 "9"Why, Margaret, do you say poor woman?' I have no sympathy with her at all This Is the last straw that has killed all my love for Doris Surely you know, Margaret that all my life I have wanted child ren. Every man does--he wants to perpetuate his name, It ticlkles his egotism. This terrible thing which she homecoming upon other self ishnesses on Doris part gives me the freedom to tell you what I have had in my heart all the years have known you"
 "'As he said this he stopped sud cenly, and we motored silently along to the inn which looks out on the palisades and the river.
 "The sun was just setting, and Harry sat with his back to the win dew. l could look beyond him to the everlasting hills-quiet and calm and cool while my blood was seeth ing hot; my mind was flaming, and my heart was burning.
 "I could not have shown my emo tion, however, for as I was seated and Harry dropped into the opposite chair, he said:
 "."Each time I see you, Margaret, you bring to me an exquisite peace which I cannot understand. Before l look upon your face I may be over come with anger. with fatigue and with unrest. but immediately l look into your eyes my heart is quiet ed I only know that the world is beautiful when I am with you. When you are away from me it is howl ing wilderness.
 I am not only surprised but astounded that this recurs again and again. It is the mood which yau al- ways bring to me and the mood that insists upon leaving with you"
 "'Our dinner order given. Harry looked at me moment. As the walt CT passed out of sight, I started to talk. He raised his hand slightly. then said:
 "'No Margaret Today I'm going to babble. and I hope sometimes you will smile and that perhaps some times your eyes will grow misty with sympathy for me as mine did while I lived over the story I am go- ing to tell you"
 Of course you know I went back to visit my mother. I had not seen her since Doris and I moved away. I found my father and mother very happy, because, in his old age, my father had become comfortably sit- uated through some investment made early in life.
 They would no longer need my help. my mother told me, and Dad wrung my hands as he confided how he had always hated to take the small sums I had sent them from time to time.
 OI course QIQ not tell them Tow hard 1t had been at times to of an income that no matter how much larger 1t grew. was never enough to cover Doris expenditures.
 "I sometimes think. Margaret" Harry said. that it is not well to go back to the town where ones child hood and youth were spent, especi- ally fit were not happier than mine. I remembered my school days and how poor we were; my childish sweethearts and I wondered where they were now. thought of my marriage and wondered why l had made such great mistake until remembered that most men spell opinquity--affinity. I looked over the household goods that Doris and had left behind when we moved away and through it all there ran vein of sorrow.
 "'It seemed to me that all my life I had just missed the supreme thing T had just missed happiness-I had just missed success Tn anything l wanted to do.
 Margaret. I never was so sorry for anyone in my life as I was for that boy who had started out in that little village and who had made a failure of his life from beginning to end.
 They were dead.
 "'That boy had splendid health.
 "'That boy had great ambitions was broken. !.
 ".That boy had capacity for limit less love. It had been bound and cir 
 That boy had faced the world with eager anticipation--and he had found reality a blasting of every joyful hope.
 "'And then. Margaret. your face came before me, and although you did not look as beautiful as you do today. yet seemed to see your white soul beckoning to me. and determined to begin anew.
 All my life I had been weighted down with the inhibitions that Ill health, an ailing wife and compar-