The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-12
CHAPTER 4a
N HAD been terribly disappointed n
 tn dance with I Lawson McKeI


 chagrined that ,Manville had so patiently neglected me to dance with others. Had he returned to the table only so that I might have had one more dance I should have been satisfied. said something of the sort to him when we were alone and he replied |.
 You are her hostess. It was your place to remain with Aunt Cynthia. Aside from that, have no special de- sire that you dance in public places"
 But you do, and so Goes Mrs. Mark ham"
 What either I CT Mrs. Markham do is nothing to you. A man can do many things a woman cannot. Also a woman of .poise and maturer years can do many things young girl cannot do" i Potentially, he was right, of course. But then it seemed to me that it was selfish and. mean of him edo things he would not allow me to do; to admire in other. women things he objected to in me.
 My world appeared very different one than his, very circumscribed and narrow. Yet had enjoyed my evening | in way; especially the few moments which Lawson Mckee had been with me. His interest, his deference, were so at variance with the way Manville treated me that I felt soothed and com forted when I thought of him without in the least making any comparison be- tween him and my husband. Such a thing never occurred to me. Manville was my husband. As such he was en- titled to my loyalty, even in thought. was fastidious in a way; ManVille even appealed to that quality in me. Never in the slightest degree had he of- tended my sense of delicaey-which I have since learned is saying much for a man. But l was forced to an unwill- l ing comparison of him as husband with the husbands of other women I had met On the surface he would bear the comparison well; but measured by my standards he fell short as a husband while looming large and almost perfect as man.
 Have I made myself clear? I doubt it. Yet to me it was clear as crystal, this difference between man and hus- band. I was proud of his person, his wisdom, his business success. I thought him without peer in all these things. Yet, l was often resentful toward him as husband because of his domineering qualities very ones which made for his worldly success-and because of what l termed his neglect. Then I felt always that he had cared, perhaps still did care, for Ruth Markham. I had for her that mixture of curiosity and aver sion women always feel for the other woman who has in any way been mixed up with the life of the men they marry. Often when thinking of her an inner, wary self, in me forbade me to take ManYille's attentions to her seriously. Had he not married me? Might he not have married her? Had not Mrs. Nor ton said so? And whoever knew Ann Norton to give any one credit for any thing? Not that she was definitely malicious, but she invariably assigned the worst possible motives to what peo- pie did-and she had said ManYille must have cared very much for you to throw Ruth Markham over"
 But was he again in the tolls of the lovely widow How in the world was to find out? Did she want to marry Manville and had I taken him from her? recalled that old saw about "a woman scorned" and trembled at the thought that she might, because Man vile had chosen me, try to show her power over him was still sufficient to keep him from me if not to take him away altogether.
 Several things were in my mind con- corning Manyille and Mrs. Markham. I was not at all jealous of his past-as many of the women I had read of were of the past lives of the men who after ward became their husbands. That shadowy past belonged to him. I did not even know him so, of course, had no right to care about what he had done. It was only now, since he had been my husband, that what he did affected me. And it seemed to me I had a per feet right to expect his allegiance.
 was learning very slowly all about the machinery of life, how the wheels