The Glenwood post., 1924-01-31

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ages Of their children might have much
to do with the steadily increasing in.
clemency Of their life together. The
fact of the matter was that the chill.
dren had passed babyhood in safety.
They were in school; no longer were
they monopolizing the attention of
their parents, and, consequently, after
all these years, Jane and Mcdonald
had time to think. about themselves.
Jane was not the sort of person to
think and analyze, but she felt. Her
emotions were headstrong and she was
undiplomatically frank In describing
them. She knew that some essential
element had gone out of their mar
riage, some element she craved. With
she did not love Mcdonald. The urge
which had swept her into marriage
with him, and made their first years
together very sweet and wonderful,
had vanished. This discovery was fol-
lowed by period of active revolt She
worked herself into state of mind
in which she believed her husband
and, in her headstrong way, she told
him In storm of tears.
Mcdonald stood aghast. That such
thing could have happened to him
was unbelievable. It was Incredible
until he sorted over his own feelings
toward his wife and found that he had
reached a state of Indifference toward
her. The glow was gone forever.
!! They had reached point which
every married couple must reach-the
moment of readjustment when they
must rebuild upon new foundation
or see their structure swept away by
the rising storm. They seemed un-
able to locate a stable foundation upon
which to lay new cornerstone.
Mcdonald considered the practical
side of the question. The thing. he
told himself, was a fact. Apparently
| 1t could not be mended, so there was
nothing to do but try to make the
| best of 1t. The children made any
other course impossibles sand finances
| made this course necessary. 1t was
| all he could do to support one estab-
| lishment in comfort, therefore, even
had he been willing to do so, he could
| not have allowed Jane to leave him as
| she seemed to wish to do. He had
not the money to allow her to live
separately in Independent depend
| ence.
James reactions, however, were
purely emotional. She no longer loved
| Mcdonald, and to love seemed to her
| the one essential to life-to love and
| to be loved. She awoke bitterly to the
realization that the love which she
loved had not been present in their
home for years. She craved the up
lift of love, remembering how she had
been borne along blindly upon a warn
rushing wave of love during the frs
years of her married life. She want
ed that again. wanted it to continue.
The idea of the commonplace was alb
horrent to her; the thought of contin-
uing to live with Mcdonald as his wife
was repulsive. She was young, vivid,
/ lovelier even than she had been ten
years ago, and she felt somehow that
her loveliness and her life were going
to wasite: that she was being cruelty,
bitterly cheated.
Which, If you stop to think of it. is
n dangerously fertile state of mind.
The first sharpness of realization
became somewhat dulled. Life con
tinued. The household remained in
tact. but always it perched upon the
brink of disaster. Everything was
commonplace habit. humdrum. It
was maddening, wearing, a constant
source of irritation. Chickering's were
inevitable.
Mcdonald settled down grimly to
the task Of holding his family togeth-
er, Of holding his wife. He was es-
sentially fair-minded. He perceived
regretted, and tried to make the best
Of it-but 1t was not easy. certain
testiness of disposition added to the
difficulties. AS for Jane, she went
along thinking of herself, holding
herself more or less in suspense, crav-
ing, always craving for the return OF
that which had vanished forever.
Jane had always done much as she
pleased, and Mcdonald had inter-
fered little with her whims and
amusements. She had her friends,
both men and women, but, John saw
with alarm, her men friends were
narrowing down to one. She golfed
with John Firth. Mcdonald was log
ical enough to realize the danger of
1t, but also he had the self-rebellious
strain which drove her, sometimes
against her own will, to do those
things which she was extremely for
bidden to do, or to accomplish that
from which authority sought to re-
strain her. Mcdonald knew his inter-
ference would only make a bad mat
ter worse.
He was more or less of a fatalist,
too. "If she's any good, he said to
himself "she'll stick. If not. she'll
60" And there he rested, hoping for
the best
These things happened in those un-
pleasant days Of 1920 when business
was III with that epidemic which