It was no fault of his own that caused a separation between Walter Clark
and his young wife. She took a dislike to him after a short matrimonial
voyage, simply because she had never sincerely and truly loved him. She
was one of those impulsive girls who are determined to have their own
way in everything, and when they can’t have things just as they want
them, they become unreasonable. They never admit that they are in the
wrong. They are always right, and all the world is wrong. Walter Clark’s
demonstrations of love and affection became disagreeable to his cold and
frivolous wife. She preferred to sit down and pout rather than go with
her husband to the theatre, or on an excursion. Perhaps there had been
a previous lover whom she lost, and no man could fill his place in her
heart.
When Walter discovered that his wife was determined to disagree with
him in everything, and to grow more disagreeable every day, he let her
pass the time as best she could without his presence, which had become
so annoying to her. One day she bundled up her belongings and went home
to her mother. Maybe she thought Walter would come after her and plead
with her to go back to the old life. But, God knows, Walter had enough of
the old life and felt relieved when the change came into his life. Every
tender feeling he had once felt toward his wife had been destroyed, and
by her own disagreeable conduct. In his heart he had deified the girl
he married, but she proved to be an idol of miserable clay. Three years
after the separation he went on a visit to the Middle West. He met a
beautiful young woman and felt himself drawn toward her by her loveliness
and most charming manner. He was hungry for the love of a good and
true woman, and in his heart he believed he had found her at last. His
attentions were encouraged, and he felt love growing deeper and fonder
every day.
He despised traveling under false colors, and frankly went to the girl’s
mother and told her that he was a married man, but hoped to be freed
from his wife before long. He told of everything that led up to the
separation, and confessed that he loved her daughter fondly and truly,
and would try to make her a good husband.
The mother was shocked. A married man making love to her daughter! All
her orthodox prejudice and provincial suspicion rebelled against Walter,
and she turned him out of the house, as though he were a criminal of
the lowest type. She could not see that he had played fair—that he
sailed under his true colors and could give her references as to his
good character from the people of his own home city. No, she didn’t
want references—a married man was an outlaw in the realms of love and
courtship. In her eyes Walter was forever damned.
The honorable, but heart-broken young man left the town, and the incident
was closed. He would not tread on that mother’s rights, even though
he realized that she was playing tyrant, and wrecking her daughter’s
happiness.
Dazed and unhappy, the young girl could not realize whether she had been
wronged by the mother’s decision, or by the presumption of Walter Clark,
who won her love while he was married to another. The whole world seemed
to be deceptive and false.
She was aroused from this condition of despair a few months later when
a young “unmarried” traveling man came to town. He had all the dash
and brilliancy of the gay world, and the disappointed girl, and her
misguided, ambitious and unsuspecting mother were captivated. He spent
many of his evenings at the girl’s home, and the mother was pleased to
see her daughter sitting in the parlor with such a promising young man.
The daughter had been in disgrace since her love affair with a horrid
married man, but now the mother was pleased.
Soon after captivating the mother the young man persuaded the girl to
elope with him. Having lost the love of one man she was willing to listen
to any proposal the lover might make, so she consented. There could be
nothing wrong about the elopement, for her mother believed the young man
was perfect. It was only a bit of romance, and every girl is romantic
when in love.
Six months later the agonized mother received a tear-stained letter from
her daughter, written in the city of San Francisco. The daughter was
deserted, penniless and without a friend, and must end it all in suicide
unless her mother forgave her and took her back home.
Reluctantly the disillusioned mother sent money to bring her daughter
back to the old home, but she did not know all until the daughter’s
return in charge of a trained nurse. She was suffering from a loathsome
disease contracted from the libertine who had dragged her from her home;
and is today a miserable invalid in her mother’s house, scolded and
abused daily for her miserable condition. The misguided mother will not
confess that she ruined her daughter’s life when she turned the honorable
lover away, and took the human vampire into her parlor. No, she blames
everything on the poor, ruined girl. Poor, blind mother—your prejudice
drove the honorable lover away.