The Glenwood post., 1924-01-03

Sne adOred him without restraint, ana
for days and weeks together he was
frankly bored with her. Why? Was
1t the everlasting law of things that
a relation can support only SO much
love, as bucket holds so much wa
ter? Certainly her efforts to charm
ly thoughtfulness and sweet subjec-
tions, had but increased his ennui.
There had come the inevitable day
when she, with floods of tears, had
packed her trunks and gone off on the
usual indefinite visit to her mother.
So far their story had followed a
familiar course. Would that have been
the end Of it, right there, but for An
ders Carthew? Nothing seemed to her
more certain. Beyond doubt Anders.
who was twice her age, and had taken
an interest in her, paternal or other
wise, from her sixteenth year, had
penetrated her with new and star
tling concept. For Anders wouldn't
accept, he would hardly listen to,
her own ready formula, long since
smoothed by women of all ages. "Oh,
no." he had said, in his merciless kind
way. "It isn't that you love him
too WELL That's letting yourself down
too easily. It's simply that you love
him with too little pride-and no
good sense at ALL" And little later,
when she had conquered her first fu-
rious indignation and sat down again,
he spoke words which she took at last
for TRUTH and which filed her in the
end with an overmastering purpose.
For Anders had said that mans
necessity is not to be loved, but to
love; and that, to love, his fixed need
is to pursue-and conquer.
So, she, because she had will, and
it seemed that her whole life was at
stake, had actually achieved this i'm
possible. She had warped her nature,
she had broken her heart to pieces
she had recovered the reserves of
maidenhood, made herself again mys-
terious to this once familiar; she had
famed the last flickering ember to
flame. Now here he stood suing her
in the romantic night-her Horace,
bored no longer, and still, and still
Was 1t not ironical that, here
in the instant of her tremendous tri-
umph, her mood should be so skeptical
and cool? . How large was Hor-
aces nose, she unsentimentally con
sidered, how halting his tongue, how
really small his vanity and caution.
Had something then permanently
passed away? In the long process of
repression, of moral separation, so
painful at first, had she wrought in
herself an irreparable change?
She wondered. smiling shadowily, In
that second of thick silence. Now the
man, having drawn back a step, spoke
abruptly:
Look here, what's come over you?"
Come over me?"
you've changed so much-just in
this last year-that you're like an
other persona stranger"
To be sure, her heart swelled lit
tie at that.
But you hardly offer that as COM
plant, Horace? Hastily recalling our
past, l feel sure you must find any
change in me an improvement"
''That's just the tone l don't like
evasive manner. Flippant, am bound
to call it, and-and provoking. 1 think
the times come to remind you that a
husband has some rights-and I'm not
getting mine"
'.But-why, all this is news to me,
my dear. Your rights. I'd thought
you We're frightfully fatigued with
them, whatever they are, years ago,
and GLADLY"
"Never no! Ridiculous. L"
"Ah, that poor memory of yours,
failing you again, 1 see" said she,
shaking her finger in manner in
sufferably satirical; and resumed de-
murely: "But of course I'm glad that
you've forgotten that day-when, l,
sobbing like a deserted village lass.
most crudely taxed you with having
ceased to love me, and you, poor dear.
could only reply, There, therei'-
most soothingly, I own, yet 1t morti-
fed me at the time. remember. You've
forgotten explaining to me that life
wasn't meant to be an unending song
Of romance, that 1t was normal and
necessary that the disturbing heyday
Of love should descend to afternoon,
to twilight"
$50 that's It'll" he interrupted sud-
denly. you've never gotten over that
one little scene-a mere incidentT
=. "Oh. remember-rve been
thinking back good deal, here late
ly," he went on, rather thickly. "You
went of on visit to your mothers
then, and when you came back. the
change had come-that was the time.
You'd assumed this singular and un-
wifely attitude. This unfair"
What adjectives. my dear Horace.
Was 1t unwifely or unfair to learn the
lesson my own husband set meT
"Thats more fiippancy-you know
1t Is. Look here-I wish to know. Did
you then-or have you at any time