The Tacoma Times

Margie Almost Bares Margie's Love Secret

"Margie," said Mollie, bursting into the sun room where I was sitting, "isn't mother a scream!"

"Mother is a scream," I answered, "but does Chadwick aid you in your horrible use of slang?"

"Chadwick is like all other men," said Mollie with a little pout, "He fell in love with me for the very characteristics he now thinks he would like to change."

"But surely you are happy, Mollie?" I asked anxiously. It seemed to me, little book, if Mollie and Chadwick Hatten were not happy after their mad courtship, one must put it down irrevocably that marriage is a failure.

"Of course I am not unhappy." she answered. "But what hurts is I am not happier than before I was married. Chad is a dear, Margie, but he is also a man, and, what is worse, a man made up of a bundle of nerves. Mother makes him alternately crazy and sick.

"Of course, Margie, I won't let even Chad say unkind things about mother. That is something I reserve for myself," she added with a smile.

"Last night we went to the restaurant and there was mother dancing with a boy of 20! Chad nearly went up in smoke. Mr. Trent explained the boy was his nephew and he was teaching 'Sallie' some new steps.

" 'You young people have not reached the age where the joys and enthusiasms of youth seem the only distraction of life,' he said. 'Poor Sallie always wanted to play.' she told me. For years she was busy rearing her children, with never enough money to do what she wanted, so now she is trying to make up for it.'

"Sometimes, Mollie," I said, "I think we take life too seriously. We try to do too many things. I think it is the selfish woman who is happy, after all."

"Please don't say that, Margie. You and I are unhappy because we are not mothers. That is my great worry, and while Chad has never mentioned it to me, I am certain he is eating his heart out in disappointment. But you, Margie, surely as soon as you are well, you will have a baby?"

"I don't know, Mollie dear, I don't know."

Mollie looked at me a moment in silence and then asked, "Margie, what is the matter?"

"I don't know, Mollie. Perhaps it is because I have not yet fully recovered, but I feel as though I wanted to get away from Dick--at least for a while--and see where I am and what I am."

"Dick has done something you cannot forgive, I know it," exclaimed Mollie.

"No, Mollie," I said, "I can forgive, but I just don't care any more."

"Poor Dick," sighed Mollie, as she kissed me good-bye, and I echoed in my heart, "Poor Dick."

(To Be Continued.)