The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1937-09-03
.BEAUTYS DAUGHTER
by KATHLEEN NORRIS
Q Kathleen Norris
WNU Service.

"You know why?" she demanded
in surprise.
~ suppose so," Magda said re-
luctantly and uncomfortably. She
jerked her head in the general di-
rection of the Morrison house.
Don't take it so seriously, Vic!"
her mother urged, after a silence
in which she had obviously been
casting about for something to say.
Seriously" Vicky blew her nose,
wiped her eyes, spoke in calmer
and quite determined voice. 'I'm
not going to make any fuss" she
said. "But if that's what Quentin
wants, I won't stand in his way"
"Oh, but you can't ever be sure.
Quentin doesn't seem to me like
man who'd go very far in anything
like that. Look at the lovely way
he is with the children" Magda
argued.
81 know" Vic's eyes watered.
That's what makes it so CHASTITY"
she said in whisper. "What have
you seen, Mother?" she asked, after
pause.
"Oh, well, that he liked her."
Magda answered somewhat eau
tiously. "And certainly that she was
after hirn" she added with more
confidence.
well, she's got him!" vicky said
grimly.
"Vicky," her mother presently
began placatingly, in real uneasi-
ness, 'you wouldn't break up
home like this just because Quentin
happened to look at another wom-
an?"
What else can woman do when
everything she's ever loved and
trusted" Vicky stopped abruptly,
choked by the tears that rose in
her throat. AFTER all, one has some
pride!" she added, in lower tone.
"Oh, it's all so horrible" she said
bitterly, half aloud. cts all such
a nightmare"
''She'd marry him, like a shot,"
Magda predicted. "She'd get di-
vorce and a big settlement from
Spencer Morrison, and then she'd
marry Quentin"
"She can," Vicky said, trembling.
''She knows Quentin is going to
be the biggest of them ALL" Magda
went on.
cts like a DEATH" Vicky said.
cts worse than a DEATH"
ooh, Lord, no, it isn't, Vic. It
happens all the time"
"But it never seemed as if it
would happen to me-" Vicky fell
into brooding thought. "It ends ev-
erything-everything that I ever
built into my life," she said. "And
perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps men
like the sort of women who go right
on in marriage and have their own
affairs! Perhaps a home and chill
dren and woman who loves him
aren't enough"
ooh, wouldn't say that" Magda
said soothingly. But something in
her completely false tone made
Vlcky laugn suddenly.
"But you think that, don't you,
Mother?" she asked, looking up, her
haggard cheeks suddenly scarlet.
"Well, yes-and no." Magda said,
bordering. II think most men would
like a mother-wife and "a show
off wife," she formulated it slowly.
"They love home first, and to find
a big steak ready, and a fire, and
kids all washed and fresh and ready
to be shushed off to bed, and some
one to love them in a quiet sort of
way. And then they like another
woman to flatter them, and meet
them places, and be admired"
Vicky considered this, a faint
scowl between her heavy brows.
"And what would man think Of
a wife who felt that way?"
ooh, well, you can't go by that,
Vicky!" Magda assured her hastily.
mo, you can't 60 by anything"
Viciky lifelessly agreed.
''In the old days, you see, it was
harder for 'em!" Magda presently
observed, as II thinking aloud.
Harder for wives?"
''No, harder for the other wom-
en-"
''How d'you mean harder?"
"Well, before there was so much
DIVORCE" Magda offered simply. "A
woman had to be mans mistress
then, and that wasn't so good. 9th
er women wouldn't speak to her,
and the man himself got pretty sick
of it after while. Then he came
back to his wife,
eff she was a spineless fool" sup
piled Vicky.
"She didn't have much choice.
That's the way things were"
"That isn't the way things are
nowl Women have changed all that,
at least. God knows it's not fair,
even now, that men can do what
they do, and get away with it! But
at least woman doesn't have to
make a doormat of herself"
'In the old days she forgave him,
and in a few weeks he forgot all
about it." Magda said.