, 1925-01-26

Freedom

BY CYNTHIA GREY

@g
found him alone In the library
room he was quite dead.
According to the o 1t w~
a case of heart failure.
But that official never knew the
whole of 1t.
The body was siumped In a
chair.
Ono hand clutchcd q crumpied
letter.
1t was this letter which illumin.
ated the tragedy.
1t was addressed to the woman
who had been his wife up to the
day before.
The pronounced shading eyi.
denced the emotional stress
Under which It had been written.
ssDEAREsr May" 1t began.
mo doubt you will be
surprised at this from me after
what has just happened.
But ! feel the end drawing
lear. Positively this time. A pre-
sentiment tells me that. This eve
ming I have had two sinking spells.
My old trouble came back to haunt
me. Perhaps It is Just r%etributIon.
You know about 1t. though.
Let this, then. serve as a last
goodbye II the foreboding proves
true. Let 1t say for me that I
loved you at the end when the
light came.
"All yesterday in court while
the lawyers were haranguing I had
time to think 1t over.
IN losing you and the baby I
realize that I have lost everything
worth while.
But we paved the way for this
very disaster-you and I. Maybe l
was more to blame because l was
the stronger and should have
shown the way.
Our marriage. dear sirl. You
remember what It Yves? Remember
how we planned to make 1t differ
ent?
You were to have your free
dom. I was to have mine. Matri.
mony to US was to be only a word.
Just q symbol.
But our plans for happiness by
this new departure method did not
mature.
Yes. I have been faithless.
Some memories OF what has been
r particularly painful.
I'VE have experimental with L
fragile thing. Matrimony is na,
laboratory for the giddy.
TOO late now. I have found that
out.
my heart aches beyond telling.
Black despair grips me when I
think OF what might have been.
THAT little place out in the coun.
try. 1t is but the dream Of a fool
ish mind. It can never be! Not
nowl The end has come for US.
1t is settling upon me forever.
But the fault for everything I
shoulder myself.
Remember how we both laughed
at that first affair OF yours with
that chap from Fordman'sr
ut was in the bargain. you said.
And I agreed with you.
Remember what came Of my
affair with Marie? 1t was innocent
enough. But somehow you thought
the bargain didn't take It in.
Liberty we planned in a grand
new twentieth century style. But
our liberty turned to license. Even
the baby failed to restrain us in
our mutual selfish indulgences.
1T drew us apart. May. Can't
you see 1t now?
Behold. now. the modern ruins
of a modern marriage.
Surely we must have been
wrong. The old sort of matrimony
In bee
y~.~nS ana e-rehe. That
-~.pre of Dad and Mc'h-- here
on the mantle tells me that
Their lives were normal. lnsio
was no place in their scheme OK
things for the constant kick we
demanded from life.
But the light grows dim. Think
sometimes with charity OF me. Oh,
May. II only I could have seen
things before 1t was too late +. .
A sMUDGE on the paper at
n tested the CONFUSION that had
seized the writing hand.
Just the h~alf.nnished letter. Bus
the papers got hold of 1t.
They spread It dark across their
front pages.
Broken Heart Ends Modern
Marriage Tragedy" the headlines
screamed.
There was another broken heart
in the city that night. The wife
had read. The message had caught