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About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 1908)
A JEALOUS WIFE AT. ION A By ADELE E. THOMPSON (Copyright.) S EN S II 4 "Helen, dear, I have something to tell you." "Yes, Robert," and though the lip trembled a little, unseen by him, the voice was bravely cheerful, "I think I can guess what It is." "Can you?" and the happy look on the boyish, face, such a boyish face still for all its 25 years, grew still brighter. "Of course, I have written 'you about Lillian, the dearest girl in the world; but it seems so wonderful to think that she loves me as dearly as I do her, and I wanted you to be the flrBt to hear it," awl Helen lis tened while he sang a lover's praises, and smiling, hid the little pain In her heart that would come with the realization that this only brother had found one nearer than herself. f- "There have always been two of us," he, concluded, "you and I; but now there will be three, Lillian, you and I." "No, Robert," she said, even more cheerfully than before, "there will be two still, Lillian and you." "Nonsense, Helen' he protested, hotly. "Nobody is ever going to crowd you out; we have come too near each other for that When I come to tell Lillian all you have been to me, mother and sister, both, and all I owe to you through these years, I know that she will love you as well as 1 do." Helen smiled a little dubiously; $he could not say to him that some one else would have opinions and a voice concerning the home; and she had no desire by look or wqrd to mar the tew hours they were to have together fter an absence of months. Helen did not come for the wed - ding; but after they were settled in "What Has Come Between Us So?" their home, yielding to Robert's re peated letters, she went on for a visit. Lillian received her with sweet frosti- ness, so 'subtle as to be' felt rather than observed. Robert had built such hopes on the ' results of this visit, but someway, if he began to talk to Helen of the days ' when they two were alone in the world together, Lillian was apt to de velop a headache that shut her up in her room; and if Helen petted him in her old loving way, Lillian would show her displeasure by punishing him with a cold If not sulky silence, that made the household atmosphere anything but cheering. In time another guest came into the home. "I'm sorry," Lillian said weak ly as Robert bent over her and the other, the tiny head, "that it isn't a . , boy. They say that sometimes men love a daughter better than their wife; but it would break my heart if you should love the baby best. Prom ise me that you never wiil?" "What a foolish Lillian," he an swered; "of course I never will." When it came to naming the baby he had his way. "There never can be but one Lillian to me, so Helen it shall be," and he wrote "Aunt Helen' wonderful stories of the beauty and . brightness of Baby Nellie. After a little he began to catch a ' note, a something, between the lines In Helen's letters that vaguely trou bled him, and one day there came a letter In a hand so changed he hardly knew It; she was sick, would he come to her? Lillian was in her room with a cold and slight fever when he carried the letter to her. "Surely you are not going to leave me here sick," she ex claimed. "How can you be so cruel? If Helen is very badly off she could not have written herself. Well, if you go, only wait till morning; half day won t make any difference." Robert hesitated, he felt impelled to go at once; but if he crossed Lil - Ilan, it might make her so much worse that he could not go at all. In the morning, as he was stepping on the train, a telegram was handed him "Helen is dying." "You are too late" he felt the re buking accent in the nurse's tone "and she was so anxious to see you Lillian wrote him a letter full of love and sympathy; she said to every one: "Dear Helen, how sad it is." At the same time down in her heart there was a little feeling that she never put ' Into words or even concrete thought now he is wholly miuo. v But not entirely hers; there was the little Helen. And as the child grew beyond the years when she could conveniently be put to sleep or sent" to the nursery, loving, lovable, always ready to spring into her fa ther's arms, the baneful root In Lillian's heart took a fresh start Every caress he gave to Nellie she felt herself defrauded of, every fond word a robbing of her right; to her self she said she could not bear it. that her own child should come be tween them, and at times she almost hated the child for It. One day there was white crape on the door, and a white casket was car ried out of their home Lillian shed many tears, she felt the keen stress of grief; but yet deep down, far deeper than Helen's death, lay the thought that she would hardly have owned to herself, but was none the less present, that now, for the first time, Robert was hers alone, no longer was there right or claim beside. And yet, impalpable as the thinnest breath of vapor, not to be grasped or defined, but none the less present and felt, was the shadowy something that seemed to have come between her and Robert in the hour when she could claim him as hers, and hers only. At nrst she recognized this with an in credulous petulance that in turn gave place to a vague alarm. Not that he was less tenderly kind or attentive the more so, if anything; but he went his way as if no longen touched by ner moods; frequently he said he had writing to do, and shut himself in the little room that had been Nellie's play-room, now made into a "den,"-it almost seemed; but then it could not be that he was living a life of his own apart from her. At last one evening petulance and alarm flamed into speech, and as he was leaving the room on the plea of writing a little while," she threw her self before him. "Robert," she cried, holding him fast, "what is it"? What has come between us so? What are you doing?" I am writing on the book you have often heard me speak of," answering the last of her questions. "But I don't want you to write that book; I hate it," the tears beginning to gather. "You are so changed to' me, and now for that to come in. You have never been the same since Nellie died; I always knew you loved her the best; I wish I could have died instead of her. You never loved me, or you would not make me so miser able." 'Lillian," and -there was a note in his voice she had never heard before, "I married you because I loved you; I have loved you always; I love you now. You are sweet and true at heart. The trouble has been that you wanted and exacted of me what I did not ask of you, what no one has a right to demand of another, my whole and only love. Love is like a fountain, the more freely and in larger measure it flows, the purer and fuller it is; choke it up, and it either dimin ishes or becomes unhealthy. This, your selfish jealousy forgive me if I speak plainly has done for both of us. Because of it you hardened your heart to Helen, who would gladly have loved you, and loving whom would have made your own life the richer, and led me to weakly fail in the grati tude and devotion I owed to her; be cause of it you were an untender mother to Nellie; you neither gave her your own love nor allowed me to show her mine, for the lack of which her whole young life was clouded. "Do not think that I blame you alone for this;' I blame myself even more, that seeing it I weakly yielded, that I was not strong enough, clear sighted enough, to have crushed it for you as you would not for yourself; but as it is, it has spoiled my home and marred my happiness and filled my heart with remorseful memorie3. "You say that I have changed to you since Nellie died. It is because I have thought of these things since then as I never did before, and have come to some conclusions that it were well for both' of us had I done so long ago. In the future I shall give to you, as I have always had it In my heart to do, the best of my love and confidence and care; but at the same time I shall remember that I have my own life to live, and give to its duties and claims what I feel they deserve. You ask me, Lillian, what has come between us? It is the only thing that ever could have come yourself." s She had loosed her hold on him and dropped into a chair; he bent and gently kissed her and left the room. For once Lillian's usual flow of words failed her. If there had been a trace of passion in his tone but there was none it was the pitiless calmness of his words that had chilled her heart as with an icy touch. Heavy draperies at the windows shut out the wintry storm outside; in the grate the fire glowed red; warmth and light were all about her, but she shivered in their midst. And this was her Rob ert, who had used his words with, it seemed to her, as little of ruth as an executioner his sword. Listening, she followed his steps as they passed up the stairs; then the door of his study closed, and its sharp did" to her echoed: "What has , come between us? it is yourself." CL any winter Suit or Overcoat1 in this store at F I F TE E N D O ILL ARS REMEMBER REMEMBER REMEMBER the , the all HALF-PRICE CUT-PRICE BOYS' CLOTHING SHIRT SALE SHOE SALE One-Fourth OH layer BIG FIGHT COMING. Trouble Is Brewing for Building Trades In New Jersey. ' Organization of the Master Builder's Open Shop Association of New Jersey, was recently effected at a meeting of a number of contractors at Newark, j N. J. A registration office for all classes of mechanics will be opened for the purpose of helping members of the association to secure workmen. It is certain that a fight is coming in the building trades that may spread all over New Jersey. BARBERS SUSTAINED. The St. Louis court of appeals last Tuesday handed down a decision sus taining Judge Wallace of Kansas City in reference to Sunday labor, at least so far as. it applies to barbers. The Barbers' Union of St. Louis' pushed the case against a non-union shop that persisted in keeping open on Sunday. CONVENTIONS IN 1908. Where and When Trades Union Gath erings Will Be Held. Januaiy 31. Indianapolis, Ind., United Mine Workers of America. April 6, Toronto, Canada, Interna tional Association of Pur Workers of the United States and Canada. May 3, Brockton, Mass., . Interna tional Union of Cutting Die and Cutter Makers. v . May 5, Youngstown, Ohio, Amalga mated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. May 11, New York City, Actors' Na tional Protective Union of America. OTHINO OFI all blue and black Suits and all the finest Rogers, Peet & Company Clothing included. Nothing re served er held back. Come early, pick out any Suit or Overcoat and pay only b) May 11, St. Louis, Mo., American Federation of Musicians. May 11, , United Brotherhood o: Papermakers of America. May , Detroit, Mich., International Tin P.late Workers' Protective Associa tion of America. May , York, Pa., National Print Cutters' Association of America. June 1, St. Paul, Minn., Brother hood of Boilermakers and Iron Ship builders of America. June 1. Detroit. Mich., International Association of Steam and Hot Water Fitters and Helpers of America. June , Washington, D. C, Inter national Union of Journeymen Horse shoers. June, Mobile, Ala.,. International Printing Pressmen's Union. ( June 1, Columbus, Ohio, Chainmak crs' National Union of ftie United States of America. June 1, St. Louis, Mo., international Association of Marble Workers. June 8, International Ceramic Mosaic and Eencaustic Tile Layers and Helpers' Union. June 8, Cincinnati, ' Ohio, Interna t'onal Brotherhood of Bookbinders. June 8, ; International Brother hood of Tip Printers. June 8, Milwaukee, Wis., The Com mercial Telegraphers' Union of America. July 4, Amalgamated Leather Workers' Union of America. July , Atlantic City, N. J. National Brotherhood of Operative 'Longshor-?-men's Association. July 6, Buffalo, N. Y., International Jewelry Workers' Union. July 6, Cincinnati, Ohio, Brush makers' International Uinon. July 7, Baltimore, Md., Glass Bottle Blowers' Association of the Unite.l TV9 States and Canada. July 7, Buffalo, N. Y., Amalgamated Window Glass Workers of America. July 13, Toronto, Canada, Interan tional Piano and Organ Workers, Union of America. . July 13, Indianapolis,' Ind., Litho graphers' International Protective As sociation. - ' July 13, Minneapolis, Minn., Theat rical Stage Employes' International Alliance. ' July 18, Holyoke, Mass., American; Wire Weavers' Protective Association. July 20, New York City, Interna tional Steel and Copper Plate Printers' Union. August 3, Buffalo, N. Y., National Association of Heat, Frost, General In sulators and , Asbestos Workers. - August 4, Detroit, Mich., Interna tional Glove -, Workers' Union of America. ' August 6, Detroit, Mich., Interna tional Brotherhood of Teamsters. August 10, Detroit, Mich., Interna tional Brotherhood of Stationary Fire men. 'August 10, Boston, Mass., Interna tional Typographical Union. August 10, Boston, Mass., ' Interna tional Stereotypers and Electrotypers' Union. . ' ' August 11, Indianapolis, Ind., Shirt Waist and Laundry Workers' Interna tional Union. August 24, Milwaukee, Wis., United garment Workers of America. September 1, , Table Knife Grinders' National Union. September 2, Milwaukee; Wis., American Brotherhood of Cement Worker,s. September 7, Denver, Colo., Inter national Association of Machinists. September 8, New York City, Inter 31RD' national Photo Engravers' Union cf North America. r September 10, Boston, Mass., Spin ners' International Union. September 14, Montreal, Canada, Journeymen Stonecutters' Association oi North America. September 14, Philadelphia, Pa., In ternational Union of Steam Engineers. September 14, Philadelphia, Pa,, In ternational Brick, Tile and Terra Cotta Workers' Alliance. September 15, Salt Lake City, Utah. Uuited Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. . - September 17,.New,,York City, Pock et Knife Blade Grinders and Finish ers' National Union. September 21, 'Indianapolis, Ind.. United Association of Plumbers, Gas filters, Steamfitters and Steamfltters' Helpers of United States and Canad.i. September 21, Indianapolis, In, International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers. October 5, Washington, D. C, Bak ery and Confectionery Workers' In-; tCrnational Union. V October 5, St. Louis, Mo., Interna t'.onal Union of Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers. . , . : . - October 20, Cohoes, N. Y United Textile Workers of America. November 9, Denver, Colo., Ameri can Federation of Labor. November 10, Bangor, Pa., Interna tional Union of Slate Workers. , November 12, Vinalhaven, Me., Lob ster Fisherfmen's International Protec tive Association.. "December 7, New Orleans, La., In ternational Brotherhood of Mainten-ance-of-Way Employes. December 7, Brooklyn, N. Y., Na tional Alliance of . Bill Posters and Billers of America. ..