NORTHERN WISCONSIN ADVERTISER, WABENO, WIS.

Pharisee you deny It to meT’ passenger the pavement. I disapprove this “Do “From another woman that mlgnt descended to particularly you wife has something give crushing given moment woman, I felt like a cad when “A to hvt be a retort. I’ve you At that a whom he business. apol- But you— What is it you very little. But, happens, recognized as one Unity’s familiars, caught us over there. I want to husbard. as it it’s of though it have to say? By your manner I judge been all you wanted. You wouldn’t approached. He lifted his hat and ogize for my part in it, you think it important.” take, you never wanted, the only bowed. She looked squarely at him wasn’t a speaking part.” worth his cigar. “It is. You’re too ill to work, but while thing I had to give.” He paused and passed on without greeting. Red “All right.” Mark lighted it seems not too ill to go driving In again, his manner hardening. “How- surged into his cheeks. “You’ve done your duty.” duty. the park w ith striking looking wr omen.” ever, all that is ended. I go away to- “Cut!” he muttered. “I suppose “But this is a little more than r hang The Ambition i With effort kept his morrow morning. given our I—” Baker hesitated. “Ob, it of Mark an he voice I don’t think I shall Unity’s version of Truitt her painful cold. “And you object, is that it?” ever see you again.” smash-up. Unity would.” all! Some things become so plain speech serves, hou don t By Author of “I do.” Even then he might have relented, He paid his fare and entered the only of stories going “ “Very well. You’ve registered your if she had given him excuse. But she portals from which no rich man had need to be told the THE m P hI[SRISE to me HENRY RUSSELL MILLER protest. Is that all?” gave him no excuse. ever been excluded. At the desk a around. Lately it’s occurred To"oTer.” eL‘ them “No, it is not.” She leaned sharply “You’re asking.for a divorce?” well dressed and usually very polite that you’ve been letting us take forward, forgetting to pose and to “Yes.” young clerk so far forgot himself as at face, without trying to contradict myself smile, the delicate prettiness of face “I suppose,” she sneered, “you want to look his amazement. them. That’s the thing I’d do right. But it can be by eclipsed by a cloud of vixenish tem- to marry that woman, your mistress.” “Mr. Truitt! I supposed you were —if I were in the (Ccpyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company) your per- 9 per. “It is not. I have some self- He held himself under rigid self- out of town. I thought—” He stopped carried to extremes. Have I SYNOPSIS. came awkward, self-conscious. Neither respect and regard for our position, control. "She isn’t my mistress, in confusion, remembering that it was mission to say that the stories are seemed able to break it. if you haven’t. Do you suppose a though I lovo her. She was the girl no part of his business to think. let us say, overdrawn?” Mark Truitt, encouraged by his sweet- Rounding a curve in the tortuous nothing to me but a I gave up years ago out of loyalty to Mark hard at “You “You have not. Life’s too short to heart, husband means looked him. Unity Martin, leaves Bethel, his driveway, they met a a beau- you.” into with rumor. native town, to seek his fortune. Simon landau, name?” thought?” enter a contest Truitt tells Mark that it long has been tifully enameled affair drawn by high- He glanced hesitatingly towr ard the There wr as nothing lovely about “I thought you were out of town,” “But your silence—” his dream to see a steel plant at Bethel stepping horses in elaborate silver- Then, Unity Truitt affair,” gruff- and asks the son to return and build door, meditating retreat. with just then. stammered the clerk. “Is my Mark answered one If he ever gets rich. Mark applies to mounted harness. In it sat two a grim tightening of his lips, he re- “And now you want to renew the “I was. And now I’m back,” Mark ly, rising. “You may say to your Thomas Henley, head of the Quinby Iron women. They bowed to him, the turned his gaze to her. broken romance. Very pretty! But,” answered dryly. “So I think I’ll ar- meticulous friend that I’m about to works, for a Job and Is sent to the con- younger pointed struction gang. His success in that work with a smile. “You really want an answer? Then, she laughed in vindictive pleasure in range for rooms here indefinitely.” resign from this club.” wins him a place as helper to Roman Kazia heard him mutter: “I had for- I had supposed a husband means to her fancied ability to thwart his de- Nor was this all of the city’s greet- Baker, too, rose, looking at Mark Andzrejzski, open-hearth furnaceman. He gotten'.” sire, becomes a boarder In Roman's home and you a name—and a check book. With “you shan’t have her. I don’t ing to the returned wanderer. The keenly. began, assists Flotr, Roman’s Bon, in his studies. “Who was she?” inexhaustible leaves.” choose to be a divorced woman. And rooms arranged for, ha turned away “Oh, come, Truitt,” he Kazia, f.n adopted daughter, shows her “The older? w as Mrs. Thomas money know you get —” gratitude in such a manner as to tkror.se That r “So you begrudge me the I I can’t a divorce without "that’s Henley, you may —” least Mark’s Interest In her. Heavy work in of whom have hoard.” spend! You grow my consent.” But Mark cut him short. “At the intense heat of the furnace causes “Yes? But I meant the other.” fully “I think you his sort the ne- Mark collapse and Kazla for “Your expense account, met, Is will consent,” he said it will save him and to cares dry him. Later Roman also succumbs and “That,” he answpred in a con- the best answer to that, I think.” quietly. cessity of setting a precedent that Mark gets his Job. Roman resents this strained voice, “was Mrs. Mark Truitt.” “But I want more than money. Do “I will not. I don’t choose—” would decimate the club. Good eve- and tells Mark to find another boarding Five years elapse during which After a while: “Ah!” she breathed you think a little money—a little pal- “The choice is with you, of course. ning.” \ Blace.lark has advanced to the foremanshlp, “She is lovely.” try money—can repay me for your But you must understand it. You’re Henley, wTho had been out of the while his labor-saving devices have made “That makes unanimous,” he said through city returned, came back him Invaluable to the company. In the it neglect and selfishness?” with me In any case. But if when Mark meantime Kazia has married one Jim shortly. “So you scorn money? It’s news to you consent to the divorce, I’ll make soon after the latter took up his resi- Whiting. Mark meets with an accident It had ceased to be pleasantest you’ve nothing to a settlement that will satisfy you. If dence in the hotel. Mark approached which dooms him to be a cripple for life. the me. But I think He returns to Bethel intending to stay time he had had In years. A heavy complain of.” not, I will make only the allowance I him with the inward shrinking that there. He finds Unity about to marry an- cold cloud had settled upon their inti- “Is think you’ve preceded every new’ meeting just then. other man and wins her back. Unity “Nothing!” she cried. it noth- earned.” urges him to return to his work In the macy. Why dream of the possibility ing that I have to go everywhere alone, She went pale at that, the one threat “You’ve picked up physically,” Hen- city. Mark rises rapidly to wealth and of a mighty primitive passion! It was always having to listen to whispers which could reach her. “Why,” she ley remarked after a cool handshake. power in the steel business, but the so-

. cial ambitions of his wife make their mar- not possible. . . But it was a char- behind my back of my husband’s fool- gasped, “you couldn’t do that. Even “Six months in the woods accounts ried life unhappy. The big steel Interests acteristic of the man to want most ish attempts to play the man about you couldn’t be so brutal—” for that.” are secretly anxious to get hold of stock things away, things keep “Choose.” doing you so In the Iroquois Iron company, supposed the farthest the town? You see, you couldn’t “I’d think, if it was to be worthless. Timothy Woodhouse forbidden. your escapade of last year from me. “But you couldn’t. You—I must have much good, you’d have stayed.” seeks financial assistance from Mark and “We’ve gone far enough,” she said. you’ve turned the set time to think—” “In other words?” buys Iroquois Or that old the latter Woodhouse’s “why stock at a small figure. Henley forces True words, however she meant them! against me by cheating poor Timothy “You must choose now." He was “In other words,” said Henley, Quinby to let Mark have stock in the “And it is getting too cold for you. of his last property?” inflexible. did you come back now ?” Quinby company. Mark finds Piotr mak- Woodhouse out r ing a socialistic speech on the street and Let us turn back.” He winced and flushed painfully at She sat transfixed, beginning to Mark laughed hollowly. “I didn’t the boy shows that he is still bitter He made no protest. that. She saw and believed she had comprehend the reality of his purpose. know I’d become a notorious char- against Mark. Mark finds Kazia. who Is divorced and Is now a hospital nurse, He swung the team around and pierced his armor. She rose again, Her confidence suddenly melted. Fear acter.” caring for Roman who is near death. drove toward the hospital; at a reck- that she might deliver her final thrust shone in her eyes. She rose, and with “How, in heaven’s name,” Henley Mark Is advised by his physician to stop piteous pleading too fright- you get taking drugs and take a long rest. less pace, that he might not have to most effectively. a gesture, exclaimed, “did let yourself talk. He had no wish for common- “Do you call it nothing that you, ened to be conscious of her hypocrisy, caught in a divorce court scandal? I’d CHAPTER XVll—Continued. place speech with her. From other who have no time or thought to spare she went to him. “Are You Going ti> Add to the Scandal have thought that you, of all men, Woman?” speech the habit of self-repression your wife, brazenly flaunt your women “Why, Mark—Mark, dear! You can’t by Marrying That if you had to play the fool, would at “It did,” he answered. "But you saved him. the and in the mean that. You couldn’t cast me off have used finesse.” in public, on streets from the desk, to come face to face least But wholly. For they parks, city gos- like this. Why, w*e’re husband and Henley the didn’t invite It. You weren’t the sort not as were for all the to see and with a man whom he had used to like So even believed rumors! girl nearing hospital, wife any myself of that needed to invite it—you the he drew the sip about?” and—I know I haven’t been fair and who, he had reason to believe, had “At rate, no one but is Eyes, gait. rigid, you, but you go. Let aren’t that sort of woman now!” horses down to a soberer He was standing both hands to I can’t let not been without interest in him. hurt.” eloquent “When,” he asked, you gripping make up this last year to you. Let no less than tongue, were of “will drive his cane, his gaze fixed un- me “Why, hello, Baker!” Mark held “That’s not true. Every one who looking with again?” waveringly tightened lips us go away, as you say, and begin anything his admiration; but she was me on her. The out a friendly hand, with a genial had to do with you is more away, “Not again.” over. We can be happy—” “But most women wouldn’t be had become the merest line. smile that was part of his new resolve. or less hurt. The company is reflected known, The stammering incoherent cry so ready to forgive They would re- He had even before she “If you refer to Mrs. Whiting,” he Baker took the hand, but released it on. I,” Henley concluded with an air halted, by unrelenting member only hurt vanity. I’m at your spoke, what her answer would be. began at last steadily, “you will please silenced the quickly. "Ah! How are you, Truitt?” that declared the indictment to be And he knew had given it— quality of his steady eyes. The out- feet for your charity. I’ve seen little —so she use more respectful terms.” "Bully. back from a long stay complete and unanswerable, “I am be- limply Just of it in my life.” that it was irrevocable. “You reprove me on her account! stretched hands fell to her in the woods. Dine here with me to- smirched, because we’re known to be step “Have you looked for it?” “I wonder why you came today.” This,” she cried tragically, “this is too sides. She shrank back a from night, won’t you?” in so many things together.” “No. Nor had it. Nor valued It— “I’d been thinking of you. And I much. I suppose this Mrs. Whiting—- him. “Thanks, no. I’m probably not din- “That,” Mark returned coldly, “can was — “I —you and it.” until now.” —curious. To see what sort of if that’s her name—is your mistress believe ing here. Excuse me. Some men I be easily cured. We can wind up our waiting “And now?” man you had become.” perhaps I should say, your latest mis- “I’m for your choice.” must see—” affairs. And I’m ready to resign from hospital After little came, gaspingly. “Why now I—need It.” They swung into the tress.” a it Baker broke hastily away, passed a the company.” grounds and to the entrance. “I have I—l must Somehow the confession, an uncon- up Over “Why, you—” no choice. con- few words with a nearby group and “You can’t cure the fact that wo protest help choking Bldered remark that, however, had the her he descended to her The storm burst, back sent.” went out. The ruse was obvious. have been together. And you can’t ring of sincerity impulsive sayings are to the ground. He took a queer pleas- speech, but finding an outlet through He turned away and without another Mark, feeling as though he had re- resign. Are you going to add to the word glance for her, limped heavily apt to have, seemed to establish even ure in the pain the needless little his eyes. He reached out swiftly and or ceived a blow in the face, stared after Ecandal by marrying that woman?” more firmly their intimacy. It nerved service gave him. caught her hand in a cruel clutnh, out of the room. the retreating figure. The genial smile “What woman?” Mark’s voice was sought her “Was only him to his next remark. He eyes. it crushing the soft useless member un- faded. Then he went to the rooms cool and steady. “Kazia, don’t you think you could tell curiosity, Kazia?” til her rings bit into the flesh and she CHAPTER XIX. he had engaged. Passing the group “The one that turned your head and me what has happened to you during Her answer was not in words. cried out in pain. that had helped out Baker’s ruse, he your wife was smart enough to dis- all these years?” Slowly she mounted the stairs to the “Let me go,” she gasped. “You’re Bond Though Free. was conscious of their furtive curious cover.” “You’ll be disappointed,” she began doorway, and turning, looked steadily hurting me.” The Truitt divorce sensation had glances. “You’ve heard names, then?” abruptly, “because there isn’t much down upon him. Her face was white, He released her and sank back into reached and passed Its height. Arrived in his rooms, his first act “No,” growled Henley. “She’s as and it’s commonplace enough. I mar- but her eyes were lustrous—and un a chair. One day, when the decree was was to have back newspaper files sent mysterious as the rest of your di- ried Jim and lived with him a year. speakably sad. “I think we’ve come to the end of scarcely two weeks old, a man alighted up to him. For two hours he read does.” —” Then I left him. Not because he wasn’t “Kazia our chapter, Unity. But I’ll give you—- from an incoming express train. He how, while he was winning back health “As mythical, you mean,” Mark an- kind—he was, in his rough way. But “Good-by.” us—one more chance.” did not look like a roue or the villain in the wilderness and planning a life swered in a voice that did not betray he was shiftless and he drank too He had had the answer he wanted. “You’d think I were a criminal!” of a famous scandal; he himself did of amity with his fellows, his name his relief. “There was no woman.” much. He had no ambition and—I But he received it with a heart as “We both are—but let that go. Here- not know that he had been heralded had been bandied about on the tongues “What! You mean these stories wasn’t happy with him, so I left him, heavy as lead. He wanted her as he tofore you’ve made our life. And you’ve in such a role. His doctor would hardly of slander and gossip. As he read in aren’t true?” though I knew it hurt him.” had desired nothing since life began. failed. Since our first month we’ve have recognized him. He was still the light of what had just happened “You’d seen me almost every day for “A woman can do that,” he inter- And he could only stand and, help- never been really happy, at least In thin and the cane had not been dis- the amazing accumulation of suggested years. You might have guessed that.” rupted quickly. less, see her leave him. each other. Now let me choose. Let’s carded, but he was clear-eyed and filth, only here and there brushing the “But last year—those women—” “Some women do it, you mean. I’ve go away somewhere—” healthily and the limp outer edges fact, utter bewilder- “An experiment in idiocy—nothing CHAPTER XVIII. bronzed was of always been ashamed, though I never “To New* York or abroad?” far less noticeable than at any time ment filled him. Shirley's brief com- worse. There were no women, except went back to him. Later, I got a di- Sundered Bonds. “Not to New York or abroad. To since the accident. munication, making mention of “some at arm’s length.” vorce. I went to live with Uncle Dinner, on the rare occasions when Bethel or some place where we can Six months he had spent in the talk,” received at the edge of the wil- Henley surveyed him keenly. “Then Roman, but Piotr, who had hated Jim, the Truitts dined together and alone, northern wilderness, living In the open, derness, had not prepared him for how did these stories get out? But made it so unpleasant I had to leave. was marked by a careful formality sleeping under the stars, with no com- this. you needn’t answer. I can guess. A He hated me, too, I think.” that was but a thin disguise for their pany but his own thoughts and a taci- “It’s all a pack of dirty lies,” he woman is never clever except when “Or loved you, in Piotr’s peculiar mutual dislike. At no other time, turn half-breed Indian. But they had cried. “How could theso men, who’ve she’s up to mischief. fashion. But go on.” save by. hastily cured accident, were not been lonely months, nor did he seen me go in and out every day, be- "However,” he went on, “this puts “After a while I found work in a they apt to confront each other. The think them wasted. For they had lieve it? What rotters they must be a different face on the matter. As you tobacco factory, rolling cigars. Not quarrel of the night of their first in- brought him to what he was pleased themselves to be able to believe it! say, I might have guessed the truth.” the kind you smoke, but cheap vile vitation to Henley’s house had never to call anew birth. By God! I’ll—” He stopped, with a This, for Henley, was abject apology. things. It—it wasn’t nice.” been healed. Each had gone a sep- The first news of the Truitts’ sep- sudden feeling of dismay. “Why—- Mark shook his head. “My resigns “I’ve heard of those holes,” he mut- arate way, ignoring as far as possible aration had evoked scant interestfrom why, I can do nothing.” tion holds just the same.” tered. “You there—why—” the other’s existence. the gossip 3. But as the time set for He was helpless. “Are you going to let a little talk “1 was one of many,” she went on. With Unity the dislike had been gen- the trial approached it began to be “Then lam not free! She has put drive you out?” Henley demanded. two years I was sick and In the believed that when her whispered about that more than the a mark on me that a lifetime can’t rub “It isn’t that. I had decided “In uine. She / before hospital, a heavenly place where there easy husband had so suddenly and usual stale story of domestic disagree- out. Must we pay forever for our I knew of it. I’m tired of the scramble.

to . was ventilation and nothing do and definitely put an end to her suprem- ment lay behind the affair.. The whis- mistakes? . I want—peace.” Mark laughed dis- good things to eat. I used to pray I’d acy, Bhe had been robbed of a right per became an audible chorus. It was One evening, when bis residence at cordantly. “And I’m getting it with a never get well. that she, a woman and therefore a a dull season in a year when no impor- the club had continued about three vengeance.” “There isn’t much more. I didn’t superior finer being, should enjoy. tant election impended, there was a weeks, the affair came to a climax. “As much as you’ll ever get it,” have to leave the hospital. One of Fear, of him and of what the man she dearth of spicy news; the newspapers He was entering the grill for dinner. Henley returned promptly. “I know the internes took an interest. He had now perceived him to be might do if avidly seized this chance to give flavor At the sound of his name from a what you want. Who doesn’t? Some influence and helped me to register as unduly provoked, kept dislike alive to their columns. From some source, nearby group of diners, he halted in- time or other every man wants, or a nurse. I’ve a knack for surgical and hot. which might have been identified as voluntarily. thinks he wants, peace. And if we work, and since I passed my examina- With him it had been rather con- Unity’s lawyer, reporters were fur- “That’s all well enough,” one of the had it, we’d want to die. I told you tion I’ve always had cases. For the tempt for her airs and vanities, for nished material for innumerable sug- diners was saying. “A club’s a club once before—things are. Accept them, rest. I’m not educated. I’ve merely the uselessness to which, even in a gestive rumors. Vague but deftly and, of course, we have to allow a fit yourself to them, rorget theories read a little, here and there, as I’ve woman, he could not become recon- worded innuendoes of Truitt’s cruel certain latitude. Still, when it b€>- that lead nowhere. Pick out the thing had time. ciled. But on this night it was both treatment of his wife appeared, of his comes the refuge for a man so no- you want most and fight until you get “That’s all and not what you seemed contempt and a rising bitter resent- sly profligacy, of the one strikingly torious we couldn’t have him in our it. Then fight to keep it. Besides, you —” to <*xpect. Just cruel selfishness in ment that heightened the emotional handsome woman who had captivated homes The speaker was checked aren’t a misfit. The trouble with you the beginning and a little luck after- tumult. his fancy and whom it w*as supposed by a warning kick. is, your strength is your greatest ward. Which is not the success you She chose this ho lr to lay aside the he would marry after the divorce. Mark, sweeping the group with eyes weakness—you’ve too much imagina- “Even You Couldn't Be So Brutal—” momentarily worship.” cold, somewhat theatric hauteur It From Truitt, who had completely dis- from which the mask had tion. And you’re not a well man yet. “But I see more than that I read was her wont to assume before him. live a quiet, decent, natural life. Let appeared, came no denial. His flight fallen, met Baker’s embarrassed gaze. Go back to your woods until you’re between the lines.” Long afterward, In its stead she donned an air of tri- us begin over again and try to re- and silence w*ere taken as an admis- With a contemptuous smile, he passed cured. Then you’ll feel the Itch to recalling this scene, he remembered umph, of smiling aggressiveness that cover what we’ve lost—or rather what sion of guilt. on to his own table and ordered a get Into the scramble again and break Jtier quick questioning glance, but then he was quick to connect with their we never had.” At the trial, to be sure, the testi- dinner which he made such show of a few heads.” pain he gave it no thought. “I see the cour- meeting in the park. She criticized "You are absurd!” mony was a distinct disappointment. eating as inward rage and al- But Henley the philosopher had age to make a fight the will to rise the knot of his necktie. Several times “Is it absurd for a man to ask his It proved merely commonplace deser- lowed. done. He resumed his usual crisp cigar and being equal to the opportunity she contradicted him wantonly. wife—you’ve claimed the title—to tion and touched but lightly on only His coffee and had Just been manner. brought when crossed the when it came. And I’ve heard that Finally he rose abruptly and left the share the life he wants and needs?" one short-lived period of dissipation Baker room “Moreover, you can’t resign. The really charitable are never so to room. “You forget to consider what I would during which Truitt, at certain mid- and stood by his table. new agreement with the men comes the —” began uncertainly. Unity, too, rose and, following, over- have from such an arrangement.” night suppers, had shared with other "Truitt he up next year and the Quinby company themselves.” Mark's upward glance if you will—” She broke off took him in the flrelit drawing room. “You would have me.” men the more or less interesting com- “Well?” was faces the fight of its existence. We’ll “Oh, welcoming. with a shrug. “Let us talk of some- “You are rude. I wish to speak She answered with a contemptuous pany of sundry nameless women. The not need every good head we’ve got. And "May down for a minute?” thing else.” with you.” chrug. “I will do nothing so silly. public, deprived of the scandal for I sit if that isn’t enough, your withdrawal When at length he broke the silence, “I’m going up to my study.” You ask too much.” which its mouth had been watering, "Aren’t you afraid of catching the would leave me to fight Quinby alone. had been plague?” his voice was a caress. “I wouldn't "You're supposed to have given up “Ah! You’re franker than I thought decided that Mrs. Truitt And—I made you, don’t forget th ar overly magnanimous in thus sparing “I’m more afraid of being kicked for have you different. What you’ve lost work, I believe.” you could be. I'm glad you’re frank.” You’ve got what you wanted out of let Its imag- my impertinence.” Is nothing compared with v;hat you’ve “I wish to be alone.” He rose, looking curiously down at her husband and heated the company and me. You can’t drop supply lacking understand,” said Mark grimly, gained.” “Now*, perhaps. You weren’t alone her. “If you look back, you’ll find I’ve ination the details. “I out easily now and shirk the respon- Truitt defense and a decree “I’m a pretty tough customer, but I She turned her heard slowly toward this afternoon in the park.” never asked you anything until now. entered no sibilities.” handed down. Mrs. Truitt don’t commit assaults in public. Sit say, For a long minute their eyes “I didn’t want to be then. What is I’ve been content to take—at least. was quickly “You can’t?” him. —only your at once sailed for Europe. down.” say, Then with one accord they that to you?” I've taken what it suited "I can’t. You’ve got & sense held. hailed a gave the came Baker sat down, looking earnestly of away. Not the heart of a boy “A wife has some right to consider- whims to give me. And you've given He cab and obligation, haven’t you?” looked cabby brought - at “Look here, have more ation, I think.” exactly nothing.” of a club that to vis- across the table Mark. “If I have," said Mark grimly, of twenty could beaten things sides “It’* “A wife—yes. You’ll hardly claim “And what,” she flung back, “have ions of a liberal tip. In a few minutes Truitt. There are on both the last proof that I am violently. approve. But a misfit.” you given the destination was reached and the of your fence 1 don’t (TO BE CONTINUED.) As they drove on, the aUence be- the title.” me?**