Miss Billy

she had been just a bit unreasonable and exacting the night before. To make matters worse she chanced to run acro

ive attention at once; and, with a curiously faint

ith quotations from the book, it was such s

her husband see how hurt she is that he can want to be with any one but herself.... Then is when the husband-used all his life to independence, perhaps-begins to chafe under these new bonds that hold him so fast.... No man likes to

Billy to herself. "As if I ever could be com

quotations from the book there, she knew; and in

nt of liberty, both of action and thought, must be allowed on each side.... The family shut in upon itself grows so narrow that all interest in the outside world is lost.... No two people are ever fitted to fill each other's lives entirely. They ought not to try to do it. If they do try, the process is belittling to each, and the result, if it is successful, is nothing less than a tragedy; for it could not mean the highest ideals, nor the truest devotion.... Brushing up against other interests and other personalities is good for both

mostly the critic's own opinion of the book; but Billy did not care for this. She had read quite enough-boo much, in fact. All that s

e her rose those i

ealization that while her husband loves her very much, he can sti

yrannical and exacting"? Was she "everlastingly peering into the recesses" of Bertram's mind and "w

d, in days to come, degenerate into just the ordinary, everyday married folk, whom she saw about her everywhere, and

and read carefully every word again. When she had finishe

his mind if she had half a chance. She was jealous of his work. She had almost hated his painting-at times. She had held him up with a threatened scene only

able indifference to his comings and goings. She would brush up against other interests and personalities so as to be "new" and "interesting" to her husband. She would not

satisfactory state of mind, Billy turned from the w

ts,'" she admonished herself ste

was beautiful;

e had first seen the fateful notice of "When the Honeymo

ring at the bell which would bring his wife flying to welcome him if she were anywhere in the house. To-day, when the

table indifference to your husband's comings and goings," she

she surmised. "Here? You say she's here?" Then she heard Bertram's quic

o receive his kiss. "I thought I'd find

ddened a

I wasn'

bruptly, an odd look in his eyes. "Maybe

fact that she looked so distressed

sist on your coming to meet me," he began a

ing just in time, she amended: "That is, I did love to meet you, until-" With a sudden re

wn showed on

his face changed. "Billy, you aren't-you can't be laying up

t the root of all her misery. Already she thought she detected in Bertram's voice signs that he was beginning to chafe against those "bonds." "It

m. Bertram, who knew nothing of the "Talk to Young Wives" in the new

uch force against her paper that the not

omfortably indifferent,' I'd hate to try the u