The Road to Understanding

s a girl, her vision had pictured a beauteous creature moving thr

ng young wife who lays up no malice against an unappreciative father-in-law. Even when, still later (upon their return from their wedding trip and upon her learning of John Denby's

magnificent success. She would be guide, counselor, and friend. (Somewhere she had seen those words. She liked them very much

en in due course he had won out, great would be her reward. With what sweet pride and gentle dignity would she accept the laurel wreath of praise (Helen had seen this expression somewhere, too, and li

y the sweet-and-gentle-dignity-wife part. She found it particularly soo

to think of things as they would be was a pleasant distraction from thinking of things as they were.

bout the best results never occurred to her. If Helen had been asked to take a position as stenographer or church soloist, she would have replied at once that she did n

sband to a well-kept home," before that husband appeared at the door, she still did not doubt her own capabilities. It was only that "things hadn't got to running yet." And it was always somebody else's fault, anyway,-frequently her husband's. For if he

here was t

ng-that old cookbook! I haven't got a thing out of it yet that's been real good. I've half a mind to t

aid yourself yesterday that you forgot the salt in

e other things. Besides, if those rules were any good they'd be worded so I couldn't forget part of the things. And, anyhow, I don't think it's very nice of

of the unappetizing concoction on his plate, which his wife said was a fish croquette. Afterwards still further to show h

and they laid wonderful plans of how one day they, too, would build a big stone palace of a home up there-though Burke did say that, fo

sorry he would be that he had so misjudged his son's wife. And Helen uttered some very sweet and beautiful s

cheap little Dale Street living-room looked wonderfully dear. And Helen said that, after all, love

alize it at once. But unfortunately she overslept the next morning-which was really Burke's fault, as she said, for he forgot to wind the alarm clock, and she was not used to

did not say much, this time, except to observe stiffly that he would like his breakfast, if she would be so go

yeing their every move, but she could not. Burke declared then that he really did not want any breakfast anyway, and he started to go; but a

the somber r?le of martyr wife, and wondered if, after all, it would not be really more impressive and more soul-torturing-with-remorse for the cruel father-i

wreath of praise due her later. She had almost forgotten that. On the whole, that would be preferable to th

rst month of housekeeping. Everywhere she found pitfalls for her unwary

e was th

shine-something she was entitled to; something everybody had. She learned the fallacy of this, of course, when she attempted to earn her own living; but in

r with a nervously quick, "Why, yes, certainly! I don't mean you to have to ask for it, Helen"; yet she thought she detected a growing irritation in his manner each tim

r fault that that horrid cookbook was always calling for something she did not have, like mace, or summer savory, or thyme, and she ha

her husband, simply as a matter of self-justification, when ther

rocer who po

ilingly one day, in reply to her usual excuse that she could not

accounts-good ones and bad ones. He kept a store, you know. But I never knew what they were, exactly. I never

ntil the end of the month," smiled the grocer. "We'll charge

ave to ask him

The man's lips

"I'd like that. And it's something the way we're buy

s lips twit

e send a bill for

he'd have to pay some time, anyhow. And this way he wouldn't have to have me bothering him so much all t

by. So we'll call that settled. And now

es and pears and plums, and the g

grocer, throwing the last six words as a sop to his

know, only I didn't have enough money to pay for them. Now it'll be all right because Burke'll pay-I mean, Mr. Denby," she corrected wit

e money in her purse! She was radiantly happy when she went home from market that morning (instead of being tired and worried as was usually the case); and the glow on her face lasted all through the d

the fishman and the butcher were equally kind, and allowed her to open accounts with them. Coincident with this came the discovery that there were such institutions as bakeries and delicatessen shops, which seemed to have been designed especially to meet the needs of just such harassed little m

open an account; and with the disagreeable necessity eliminated of paying on the spot for what one ordered, and with so gre

ask her husband for money. She accepted what he gave her, and t

lf. "Then I'll show him what a lot I've saved from what he has given me, and he'll be

gmatically, when he said one da

t be getting low. But I'm glad you d

would be when he found out that she was

to do that. She tried to save, too, a good deal of the money Burke gave her; but that was not always possible, for there were her own personal expenses. True, she did not need many clothes-but she was able to pick up a few bargains in bows and col

active.) She got lonesome and nervous, sitting at home all day; and now that she had systematized her housekeeping so beautifully by buying almost everything all cooked, she had plenty of leisure. Of course she would have preferred to go to the Olympia Theater. They had a stock company there, and real plays. But their cheapest sea

deed, she told Burke one day that Mrs. Jones was almost as good as a movie show herself. Burke, ho

pertained to being a perfect wife better than to be careless about matters like that! Mrs. Jones was not always so particul

the superiority, for somet

et over it. This lovey-dovey-I'm-right-here-hubby b

-you see!" Helen always laug

and got her potato salad and cold meat, or whatever else she needed. And t

ttractive home? There was even quite frequently a bouquet of flowers on the dinner table. Somewhere she had read that flowers always added much to a meal; and since then she had bough

ayed at home and played games, or read-Burke was always wanting to read. Sometimes they just talked, laying wonderful plans about the fine new house they were going to b

d, before this second month of housekeeping was ove