Mrs. Wilson Woodrow

“ Day's laughter pealing through the house spread a contagion of youth; that her quaint awkwardness was more enchanting to the beholder than the most consummate grace; that even if her ear were defective and her singing-method execrable, her soft, husky contralto voice had power to thrill the heart strings of every man in the audience.
Billy Hampton, noticing Bertha's absorption, turned his head following her gaze.
"By Jove!" he cried, "if there isn't old Preston and 'Sonny' Day. My word! He's arriving at last. Humph!" he turned rather irritably to the consumption of his food. ”

“ In the interval between the ordering of luncheon and its serving, she let her eyes rove idly around the room when, suddenly noticing that almost everyone present seemed to focus their interest upon one especial table, she put up her lorgnette and with an almost perceptible start realized that it was occupied by Preston Walters and Miss "Sonny" Day.
This newest star of musical comedy was noticeable in this room full of elaborately gowned women, for the simplicity, almost the carelessness of her appearance; but, as Bertha recognized with a pang, it was the careless simplicity of sophistication ”

“ Well, 'Sonny' had better make short work of Preston; she's due at rehearsal now."
Then a sudden thought seemed to strike him, a thought which brought a quick, eagerly wistful light to his eyes.
"Why have you taken such a marked and special dislike to 'Sonny'?" he asked. "Honestly, Bertha, you haven't got the right idea in your head at all, at least as far as I'm concerned. Why, look here!" leaning across the table and speaking with an earnestness he rarely showed, "you don't suppose that we American men are satisfied simply to make money all the time? That's only half the game. ”

“ But Bertha," the wistfulness that had shone in his eyes sounded in his voice now, "a man don't fill up his time with second bests unless first-best interests are denied him."
She stirred restlessly and sighed with weary impatience.
"Oh, for heaven's sake, Billy! don't begin one of your tiresome, sentimental harangues on home and fireside and babes on the knee and all that kind of thing; they're more than I can stand."
She had turned so that the light fell full upon her, and Hampton suddenly muttered a low exclamation. "Good heavens!" ”

“ I'm wondering now if you ever put a third of the time and the thought into making a success of your profession that I've put into mine. I guess it's a question, after all, of what you've got to give, just like anything else. My audiences would fade away like your husbands if I didn't give them all there is in me, every day, over the footlights."
Bertha shook her head.
"I've seen women give their whole hearts, whole lives to their husbands and be utterly ignored—and worse, after the first few months."
"Maybe her whole heart wasn't what her husband wanted. ”

“ In truth she was wondering if she had been quite wise in delegating this investigation to Preston instead of pursuing it herself. She came to the conclusion that she had.
"A man can always handle these things better and discover more than a woman," she reflected; and there were reasons, imperative reasons, which she had no intention of disclosing to Preston, just now, at least, why she must find out just how deeply both Billy's heart and his fortune were involved. ”

“ Bertha knew how to discard her well-bred indirections as well as anyone when necessary.
"Then to be quite frank," she said, "I have come to see you so that I may the better decide how to order my future. It really isn't pleasant for a woman of any pride to know that her husband's infatuation for a well-known actress is on everyone's tongue."
"Sonny" regarded her thoughtfully. ”

“ Let us put it down to interest in the personality which my husband and my cousin have both found so attractive."
"Oh," drawled Miss Day, "curiosity. Couldn't you gratify that from the audience?" The softness of her tones removed the suggestion of rudeness from the words.
"Not entirely curiosity," returned Bertha smoothly. "Interest is the better word. Knowing both men as well as I do, I realized that it must be an unusual woman who could stir them to admiration."
"Sonny" looked at her with her wide, engaging, painted smile ”

“ Bertha rose frigidly.
"That being the case, I need no longer keep you from your engagements."
"Hold! on a minute," the girl's voice arrested her. "About your husband—I don't want him. The poor, bored soul really has a gift for knowing a good play when he sees one, and he's got a real taste for stage management. He's surely been a lot of help to me; goodness knows I needed an 'angel'! But—in a nearer and dearer way, I don't see him. As for your cousin,"—she jumped up, resting her hands on the table and leaning toward Bertha ”

“ Why, Bertha, if you knew all the things she's worked through, her pluck and—"
"Ah, don't, don't," she cried, in a stifled voice, her head bent on her arm. "Oh, my poor boy, I can't bear to hear you go on like that. Of course she's wonderful: I admit it. She can't sing, she can't act, and yet she's a tremendous hit. It's to be expected that Billy and his kind should go down before her; but you, you—oh, no," as he would have interrupted her. "it's only natural that you, that any young man, would be taken in by her cheap air, her odd good looks, her little mannerisms ”

“ Hampton quite into her confidence, "but we'll have to cut it, if you don't mind. Time is money to me. I've got a long rehearsal this afternoon."
Bertha did not reply immediately, but continued to regard the actress as if she were some new specimen of butterfly glued to a card, and seeing this, "Sonny" grinned like a street gamin. ”

“ She was the personality of the hour in this great New York which loves its picturesque personalities. According to the critics when writing after the dictates of their consciences, she could neither sing nor dance nor act, but possessed to a superlative degree the art of "getting over." ”

“ You seem, to view them with equanimity," she said.
"Got to," he replied, with a shrug of his stout shoulders, a cynical smile showing for a moment under his mustache. He was typical of his class and of his manner of life. A man of middle height with an increasing tendency to stoutness, which it bored him very much, to keep down by the prescribed exercises and limitations of diet, his face was broad and pink, his hair plastered and shining ”

“ The Devil's Daughter
The situation developed in this story between two of the characters—one a successful actress, the other an unsuccessful wife—is unfortunately only too common. The fact seems to be, nowadays, that more and more married people fail to consider married life a business. Success comes outside—not in the home. ”

“ Day's question: "Why don't you society women keep your men?" Mrs. Woodrow has the talent of treating every-day human relations with the insight and appreciation which make you stop and think. Her stories are not only interesting but bound to be helpful. She will henceforth be a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan.
By Mrs. Wilson Woodrow
Author of Mrs. Edgerton's Education," "The Missioners," "Sally Salt," etc.
Illustrated by R. K. Schabelitz
BERTHA HAMPTON laid down a pen and turned from her desk as Preston Walters came in, but she was not writing ”