The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-10-02

(WNU Service.l
n ARION JOYCE did not realize
NH that there was nothing I'M
Nv i usual about her predicament.
Analysing it, it used to seem
to her that no one had ever been har-
assed and narrowed as much as she in
her peculiar circumstance.
The peculiar circumstance was that
there was particular person. who
ever since Marion Joyce could remem-
Der, had been in her way. Not that
there had been ever the slightest de-
gree of conflict between Marion Joyce
and this unconscious party to her dis
content. They had grown up in the
same town together, they had attended
the same schools and occasionally had
met socially. But from her earliest
memories of Alice Laidlaw, there had
been something about this attractive
vigorous personality. that had set to
gnawing within Marion, dull pangs of
jealOusieS and resentments.
1t is true that in way Alice Laid
law had always been leader, yet
Marion, in her way, had by no means
been an inconspicuous or incompetent
student or member of the social life
OF her community. While their paths
had crossed only casually, each of
these girls, Marion Joyce and Alice
Laidlaw, had been endowed with the
gifts of personality and charm.
OF the two, Alice Laidlaw had more
of the quality of aggressiveness which
makes for general popularity. She
was president Of school-and-social or
CARNATIONS, where under the same cir
cumstances Marion would only have
been an active and respective member.
Alice Laidlaw had an executive ca.
pacity for running things. Even when
she was sixteen and in high school,
she had been potential club woman.
She was then already frequent fea-
ture in the newspapers, president of a
literary society, member of debating
team, leader of conspicuous student
rebellion against faculty restrictions.
That was probably where the shoe
ninched Marion. Although she would
never admit it, even to herself, 1t must
have been, that incorporated in the
capable and intelligent figure Of her
colleague Alice Laidlaw, Marion be-
held qualities that she herself yearned
TO possess. That was why. again with
out even admitting it to herself, Alice
Laidlaw was in Marion's way. Every
conquest Of the Laidlaw girl was ana
thema to Marion. Without even her
nearest and dearest friends suspect
ing it. Alice's election to this and
that presidency, her graduation with
honors, her subsequent prominence as
club woman, political woman, social
worker, world traveller, were actually
elements in making Marion Joyce's
life, even after she was married to the
man of her choice, Fred Markus, one
of ranking discomfort.
Curious how seldom the paths of
these two women crossed, and yet
come to think of it, by no means In
explicable. 1t was doubtless due to
the fact that Marion could not bear to
look upon the attachments and achieve
ments Of this girl who had always
walked in paths that Marion yearned
to tread.
To pick up the sevening paper and
find Alice Laidlaw's photograph con-
fronting her. was sufficient to spoil her
dinner and make her querulous with
Fred. And with a logged kind of
perversity, 1t seemed to Marion that
the successes of Alice Laidlaw took
pains to thrust themselves under her
very nose. A chance newspaper
dropped in public place would fall
in position to reveal photograph
Of Alice Laidlaw to Marion. With
frequency that seemed to Marion al
most psychic. scraps of conversation
which she overheard in theaters or in
public conveyances, were as often as
not. about Alice Laidlaw, her brilli-
ancy, her success, her prominence.
seldom. if ever, was it Marion's good
fortune to hear slurring word or
behold a slurring line spoken of Alice,
and then, even when that happened,
it only seemed to enhance her position
among the great.
Unimportant people had no enemies.
Fred Marcus, who loved his wife.
had no even the slightest inkling of
this canker at her soul. If there were
in her makeup certain human delin-
quencies, certain shortcomings, it
seemed to Fred that she had fewer
of them than the run7of-the-mill of
wives, and it never occurred to him
that even these few delinquencies in
the woman he loved, such as her Oc-
casional irritabilities, were due to the
subterranean fact that woman
named Alice Laidlaw was in her way.
To Fred Marcus, Alice Laidlaw was
just local woman of prominence
He had met her few times and had
even discussed her upon occasion with
his wife, admiring her accomplish
ment without knowing that he was
/, turning knife in the heart of
Marion.