Consider the Consequences!

Front matter

Consider

the Consequences!

by

Helen

Section I

Helen

Section I

HELEN

Should a girl marry against the advice of her parents? Helen Rogers faced this problem. The circumstances were as follows: Helen, a slender, vibrant girl of twenty, with soft, sleek, honey-gold hair and honest gray-green eyes, was madly in love with Jed Harringdale, the only son of a very rich widow. The two had grown up together in Franklin, a small New England town. Helen's parents, with middle-aged prudence, opposed her marrying him, in spite of his mother's wealth. They admitted that Jed was a charming young fellow, but, not being in love with him as Helen was, they could see his faults clearly. They pointed out that he had never really settled down to work, although he made a pretense of selling bonds; that his health was poor, and that he took no care of himself, drinking more than was good for him, staying up all night at poker games, and living on coffee and cigarettes. Helen's brother Simeon—who always did exactly as he wanted to, himself, but from the very highest motives—called Jed a light-o'-love and said he should think a sister of his would have more pride than to go around with a man who had already been engaged to two girls.

But Helen knew the better side of Jed's nature. The eyes of love see virtues more clearly than failings. She knew that Jed loved her with his whole heart, that he was thoroughly dissatisfied with his drifting, wasteful habits, and that he was looking forward toward a very different kind of life after they were married. She shrewdly suspected that some of her parents' opposition rose from the fact that Mrs. Harringdale, his mother, had refused to recognize Helen as a possible daughter-in-law. Helen had heard that Mrs. Harringdale said she would rather see her son dead in his coffin than married to "that Rogers girl." But everybody knew that Mrs. Harringdale was an unreasonable woman, who excused her irrational jealousy by calling it mother-love.

Helen's family had their own candidate. They wanted her to marry Saunders Mead, holding that it is wiser to marry a man who is capable of earning money than one who may inherit it. The worst that can be said of Saunders is that he was exactly the kind of man parents would pick out for a son-in-law—prudent, unromantic, hard-working, and devoted to Helen. Helen did not love him. Not an atom. While when she thought of giving up Jed it was as if she were trying to tear her heart out by the roots.

Helen had to admit that there was truth in what her family said against Jed. On the other hand, her whole heart responded to his devotion, and she was sure that after they were married he would stop drinking and settle down to steady work. He had, moreover, a delicious whimsical charm, so foreign to the serious Rogers family that Helen was captivated by it.

Helen now faced a momentous decision. Should she defy her family and marry Jed, following the dictates of her heart, or should she be as prudent as her parents would like her to be and refuse a marriage which presented difficulties, as well as romance, from the beginning?

The reader is to make the choice for Helen. If the first course is chosen turn to paragraphs H-1. If the second course, turn to paragraphs H-2.

H-1

H-I

H-1

When in a painful scene with her parents Helen had refused to break her engagement, she wasted no time in arguing. She telephoned Jed from the corner drug-store and he was there in his racer within five minutes. Helen's heart leapt at the sight of Jed, as it always did. He was as dark as Helen was fair, and as mercurial as she was well-balanced. The sterling qualities of Saunders, her parents' candidate, stood no chance against Jed's charm. There was no pretense about Jed. He did what he felt like doing and didn't see any reason why he shouldn't. He found life pleasant, and went out of his way to make it equally pleasant for other people. If Helen had more than her share of the hardy virtues, he had more than his share of the sunny ones.

Once in the car with Jed, Helen, in the relief of having made a long deferred and difficult decision, felt as if all her troubles were over. She told Jed what her father, her mother, and her brother had said, the story measured by mile after mile of moonlit road. Jed assured her that her parents were entirely wrong about him, and that it wasn't any of Simeon's business, anyhow. He admitted that he was not worthy of her, but cried in a burst of emo that no man was worthy of the love of a good woman. He talked about her influence over him and said that she was the only person who had ever understood him. He would have gone on thus forever, but Helen's practical mind was on realities.

"Your mother will never consent to our marriage," she reminded him.

"She shall not interfere!" he cried vehemently.

"Helen, let's steal a march on her. We'll drive straight to New York State and be married by a justice of the peace right now. When it's done, she'll forgive us."

Helen, who had only just caught her breath after making one decision, now faced a second. She knew that Jed's mother was insanely jealous and that she would selfishly do everything she could to stop the marriage under the pretense that she was acting for Jed's happiness. On the other hand, Helen disliked anything clandestine.

The reader who thinks she will be wise to avoid argument and trouble by eloping turns to paragraphs H-3. The one who thinks she would better decide to return home, determined to face the music and go through with her marriage in spite of opposition, turns to paragraphs H-4.

H-2

H-2

H-2

Helen's head was stronger than her heart. Her intelligence told that her parents were right in their contention that though Jed might be a charming lover he would make an unsatisfactory husband. Nevertheless, after she had definitely broken with him in a painful interview, she was miserable when she caught a glimpse of him—and miserable when she did not see him. Her passionate desire was to get away from Franklin and start a new life full to the brim with work amid new surroundings.

Marian Cole, a friend of hers who had gone to New York to work, had long been begging her to come to live with her, and had promised to find her some sort of business opening. Helen's parents bitterly opposed the idea of her going away. Her brother Simeon was to be in South America for two years on an engineering project. Her mother, a sweet woman of the dependent type, devoted to her daughter, was grieved at the thought of losing both her children at once, and Mr. Rogers pointed out that now that her school days were over it was Helen's duty to give her mother a few years of her help and companionship. They asked her to stay at home for two years, when Simeon would be back. In the meantime she could take a business course in Franklin.

The reader who thinks she should stay turns to paragraphs H-5. The one who thinks she should leave home turns to paragraphs H-6.

H-3

H-3

H-3

Having telegraphed their respective families of their clandestine marriage, Helen and Jed enjoyed a perfect honeymoon. After their money gave out, they sold the car to pay their fare back to Franklin. When Mrs. Harringdale, a black-eyed, firm-mouthed woman who had all the determination that her son lacked, had been as disagreeable as she could, which is saying a great deal, she invited them to live with her, but refused to help them otherwise.

Jed was anxious to go to his mother's home, and he explained to Helen that his mother had done everything for him and he felt deeply indebted to her. Helen knew that he really did love Mrs. Harringdale in spite of her peculiarities. She also realized the practical advantages of this course even better than Jed did. His income from bond-selling was precarious and not enough at best to afford them a comfortable home. While she herself was able to face poverty, she hesitated to subject Jed to unaccustomed hardships to which he might not be physically equal.

The reader who wishes Helen to accept her mother-in-law's offer turns to paragraphs H-7. He who wishes her to face hard work and actual poverty on Jed's precarious and meager salary turns to paragraphs H-8.

H-4

H-4

H-4

In the uplifted state of emotion of the moonlight drive, Helen had thought it would be a simple matter to compel her family and Jed's mother to acquiesce in their marriage. So far as Helen was concerned, she could have put it through, but it takes two to make a marriage. After a heartrending scene with his mother, ending in Mrs. Harringdale's collapse, Jed was firmly convinced that she would die if he married Helen. He dared not take the risk of opposing her. All his life he had given in to her and he could not change now. He begged Helen to wait a year.

At the end of the year he begged her to wait another year. When Helen pointed out that he was sacrificing her to his mother, she realized at last how torn he was. He put his head down on his arm and shook with restrained sobs. When he had regained his self-control he said:

"Helen, it isn't right to ask you to wait. The doctor has told me that any undue excitement may kill my mother. But there is no reason that your life should be ruined with mine. I release you from your promises."

Helen foresaw that the situation would remain unchanged indefinitely. She still loved Jed and she knew that she was the love of his life, but it was clear that he would not marry until his mother died.

The reader who thinks Helen should stick by Jed until her problem is solved by the death of Mrs. Harringdale turns to paragraphs H-9. The one who thinks she should definitely break her engagement to Jed turns to paragraphs H-10.

H-5

H-5

H-5

At the end of two years, during which Helen had spent her spare time learning stenography and typing against possible future need, she found that the same problem had to be decided all over again, and circumstances now made it more difficult to solve.

In the first place, Simeon (still doing the thing that was "right," and, incidentally, to his own advantage), was to be at home for only three months, after which he was to go to Alaska for an indefinite period. In the second place, Mrs. Rogers had become a semi-invalid. She was unable to do much of the housework and she needed cheerful companionship. Helen was anxious to join her friend Marian Cole in New York; she felt that if she was to have a business career at all she must get started on it. On the other hand, she was truly attached to her mother. The fact that her father's earning capacity was lessening made it a serious matter for him to hire some one to take Helen's place, yet at the same time made it important for Helen to earn money.

Marian telegraphed her of a good opening in the magazine office where she was employed, which Helen could fill because of her business training. Although she would start at only twenty dollars a week, there was the chance of rapid promotion. Marian herself was now earning fifty. But there was also a stenographic position in Franklin open to her at twelve dollars a week with a probable increase to fifteen. If she took this job she could continue to live at home, thus eliminating the expense of board and at the same time affording her mother the companionship of a daughter.

The reader who thinks Helen should take the Franklin job turns to paragraphs H-11. He who thinks she should take the New York job turns to paragraphs H-12,

H-6

H-6

H-6

Helen's lack of business training was a distinct handicap in getting a good position when she joined her friend Marian Cole in New York City. She was obliged to take what was available to an untrained person and work up slowly. The place Marian found for her was that of copy-holder in a struggling new printing-plant, with long hours and low pay. Nevertheless Helen was thrilled by New York and the small apartment she shared with Marian.

The one great advantage of her printing-plant position was that she was on the spot, and when the switchboard girl in the business office left unexpectedly, Helen was called in to fill the gap. The intelligence with which she did this work attracted the attention of the boss, who was harassed by the problem of securing capable office workers at the low wages he was forced to pay. He had to pay union wages to his printers, he had to support a family of little children, he had to put money back into the plant. There was little left for the office force.

He advanced Helen rapidly, making up with kindness and business education for the lack of good pay. In two years Helen became a capable business woman and a person of some importance in the office, and though her boss never took her advice, he always asked for it.

She had gone in this business about as far as she could. Marian came home one night with the good news of an opening in her office for Helen at fifty dollars a week, and probability of still further advancement. When Helen informed her employer of this opportunity, she was surprised to find that the prospect of losing her was a calamity to him. He told her frankly that matters were in a crucial condition and he did not know how the work could go on without her. Helen realized for the first time what a heavy burden he bravely bore and that he actually leaned on her.

The reader who thinks Helen should stay in the printing-house turns to paragraphs H-13. The reader who thinks she should accept the position in the magazine office turns to paragraphs H-12. (Note: H-12 is the same situation resulting from one of her other possible decisions, for fate occasionally leads by different routes to the same point.)

H-7

H-7

After Helen and Jed went to live with Mrs. Harringdale, Helen understood better the influence which had made her husband what he was. Mrs. Harringdale loved her son so much that she had never let him grow up. She was after him incessantly with overshoes, advice, and endearments, all three of which offerings irritated him unduly. He snapped at his mother, and then as if in unconscious apology to her he snapped at his wife. He became a bone of contention between the two women who loved him devotedly, though neither admitted that she was desperately jealous of the other. Jed dropped into the habit of escaping from home to the club, where there was altogether too much smoking, drinking, and gambling to be good for a man so high-strung and physically delicate.

The birth of a child brought a brief armistice between the two women, followed by even worse conditions. Helen made up her mind that Jed and she must move, but the decision was now not hers to make, for Jed definitely refused to leave his mother's home. This was partly because of his increasing ill-health. His death came suddenly, leaving Helen financially dependent upon her mother-in-law, who would give her a home but refused her separate maintenance.

The reader who feels that Helen should stay on in order to spare her frail child the dangerous hardships of poverty and insure his inheritance turns to paragraphs H-14. The one who thinks it Helen's duty to leave the mother-in-law's house and the demoralizing influences which Helen believes ruined Jed's life, and attempt to earn a living for herself and her child, turns to paragraphs H-16.

H-8

H-8

Helen found that Jed was unable to stand up to the hard circumstances of their life. His charming play-boy spirit vanished before financial worries, over-hard work, and lack of the physical comfort to which he had always been accustomed. He grew even more harassed when the birth of a delicate child increased their living expenses. His mother refused all aid, hoping to force him to return home, and Helen's parents were unable to spare any money, the mother having become an invalid.

Jed, who had almost stopped drinking after his marriage, again fled from the harsh realities of life into the splendid fantasies of drink. As a direct result he lost his job and after months of idleness was glad to take one as an automobile salesman. The reéstablished drink habit held, however, and he met with a serious accident while driving under the influence of intoxicants. Although Mrs. Harringdale now came to their aid, it was too late; Jed's weakened constitution hastened his death. Helen was left a widow with a frail child dependent on her. Mrs. Harringdale offered to adopt the little boy and bring him up as her heir, provided Helen would relinquish all legal claim upon him.

The reader who advises Helen to sacrifice her mother-love in order to give her delicate child expert medical attention, financial security, and education turns to paragraphs H-15. The one who advises her to keep him and attempt to earn a living for the two of them turns to paragraphs H-16.

H-9

H-9

The hardest part of Helen's engagement was that Jed's mother was always taking him off on long trips to warm climes on the plea of his ill health. Yet, dissatisfied with himself and his life, he became a habitual invalid, and Helen's family told her that it was lucky she had not married him.

Helen was forty-six when Jed's mother died, and Jed almost fifty. His invalid habits were firmly set, and although Helen became his wife she often thought that she might just as well be his mother. The couple continued to follow the schedule of travel which the dominating old lady had worked out, because Jed was accustomed to it.

But though Jed was an invalid he kept something of the whimsicality that had always charmed Helen. The consequence was that Helen had a delightful old, age. All that she had lost was twenty-five years of life.

H-10

H-10

At this moment Marian Cole, a former Franklin girl, telegraphed Helen of a good opening in the magazine office where she was employed in New York. Helen, who had prudently been putting in her time taking a business course, realizing how unsettled was her future, was anxious to go where she would not constantly be meeting Jed Harringdale. But her mother had become a semi-invalid and begged Helen to take a stenographic position which was open to her in Franklin at a much lower salary.

The reader who thinks that Helen should take the Franklin job turns to paragraphs H-11; the one who thinks she should take the New York job turns to paragraphs H-12. These are both situations in which she finds herself in other potential lives; for one may occasionally reach the same point by different paths.

H-11

H-11

Within a year after Helen had taken the Franklin position her salary was raised to eighteen dollars; far more than she had expected. She was saving a little money, but burning her candle at both ends, for although the rough housework at home was done by a woman who came in twice a week, there was plenty for Helen to do before and after business hours. Her office work was heavy and uninteresting.

Then her father suddenly died, throwing additional care upon her shoulders and precipitating a nervous collapse which used up her savings. It was clearly impossible for her to keep on working. Saunders Mead, who had never ceased to love and worry over Helen, begged her to marry him and let him take care of her. But Helen did not love him. At this time her brother Simeon visited his home on his way from Alaska to Africa. He offered to support his mother and sister if Helen would stay at home and take care of the mother.

The reader who thinks she should marry Saunders turns to paragraphs H-17. He who thinks she should accept Simeon's offer turns to paragraphs H-18.

H-12

H-12

Helen lived with Marian Cole in a tiny apartment called a studio on the top floor of a Greenwich Village walk-up to which came artists, writers, minor playwrights, actors, musicians, communists, college girls—young people from every nation and every walk in life. They had a casual way of dropping in and eating whatever was on the table, and helping wash the orange-colored dishes and green glasses.

Helen had not known that life could be so gay. But eventually a time came when she had to decide which to put first, her job at the magazine office or her social life. A telegram came from the editor, Paul Merritt, who was out West addressing a convention, directing her to remove a certain article, found to be libelous, from the issue about to go on the press. It was five o'clock, but the foreman of the printing-plant said that if Helen would stay to proofread the new matter to be substituted, make the readjustments in make-up and O.K. the press proof, he would keep part of the composing staff there until twelve o'clock and the magazine could come out on time. If Helen worked overtime correcting the proofs she would impress Mr. Merritt and really help the business. On the other hand, her hours were from nine to five and she was under no obligation to work longer. Only those higher up had to worry about emergencies. Moreover, there was a party on that night, an important party, and Helen had bought a new dress for the benefit of Phil Burns, a young artist whom she was beginning to find extremely congenial.

The reader who would advise Helen to go to the party turns to paragraphs H-19. The one who would advise her to do the overtime work turns to paragraphs H-20.

H-13

H-13

Helen found it difficult to keep up with the young intelligentsia whom Marian gathered about her. She could not afford their extravagances, mild as they were—opera seats in the gallery, week-end excursions into the country, tourist-class European trips, and impromptu celebrations when somebody's picture was hung or book was published. She discovered that it is the little extra money that counts.

There was, for example, the time when she could not buy a Chinese-red evening gown for a party where she knew she would meet a young artist, Phil Burns, who had shown her some attention. She always had a feeling that the long-sleeved georgette in a serviceable shade which she sensibly bought instead failed to show her off to the best advantage. But she said to herself that if it was her clothes he cared for and not herself he was better lost.

She was not unhappy. Her interest more and more centered around the struggle of the printing business, and her employer's constant appreciation, generously expressed, was a source of great satisfaction. Every year she spent her two-weeks vacation at home with her widowed mother. She could do no less, since Simeon was bearing the expense of their mother's support. The occasional proposals of marriage which she received from men who were allured by her strength of character and her devotion to duty did not interest her any more than had the courtship of the good, sensible Saunders of her Franklin days. The thought of Jed returned to her sometimes and she found his pale and charming memory easier to love than flesh-and-blood men, impatient, demanding and likely to grow stout.

The consequence of Helen's inability to take chances and be moderately selfish was that she had no failures in her life, nor had she any hard-won triumphs from which to draw strength for further struggles.

H-14

H-14

Helen felt that she was more like her child's nursery governess than his mother, in the years that followed Jed's death, when she lived with Mrs. Harringdale and was dependent on the generosity in which that lady was sadly lacking. The grandmother had the power because she had all the money. She dictated the child's life to the slightest details and gave him all his treats. Consequently it was to her that he naturally turned when he wanted anything. Any opposition on Helen's part threw him into a tantrum that was considered bad for his heart. Helen could not see much of the young people of Franklin, because she had no clothes, no pocket money, and no liberty, and her friends were not welcomed in the old lady's home. After a few years of this she was too discouraged to care about good times.

Mrs. Harringdale exerted her tyranny for twenty years, when she died, leaving all her money in a trust fund for the grandchild. Young Jed had no great affection for his home town, where he had had an unhappy childhood, and after settling an allowance on his mother he went abroad, married, and never again stayed for any length of time in Franklin. Helen picked up what loose ends she could, in- terested herself in civic matters, and learned to play an excellent bridge game. Her active unhappiness had ceased, but excepting for her honeymoon with Jed she had never known what it was to live joyously.

The consequence of Helen's choosing the prudent course was that she was safe.

H-15

H-15

Helen's desire to have her child back after she had given him up to Mrs. Harringdale became an obsession, She had allowed the grandmother to adopt him because that course had seemed to her for the child's good, but during her visits she saw that the grandmother could deny him nothing and that he was fretful, selfish, and bullying. Helen herself lived at her own home with her widowed mother, who was now an invalid, and the atmosphere of their home was anything but happy because of Helen's constant harping on her grievance.

When she appealed to the law-courts they decided that she might have the child for brief visits in spite of the agreement that she had signed. But these visits turned out to be extremely disappointing, for Helen undertook to correct at these times the bad habits which the grandmother had encouraged. The indulged child resented correction and flew into tantrums that upset Helen's invalid mother. He missed his pony, the servants at his command, and the motor-car.

When Helen appealed to the courts a second time for the permanent return of her child, the little boy himself turned the case against her by passionately begging the judge to let him live with his grandmother. When the boy grew up and inherited his grandmother's property he made his mother an allowance but seldom came to see her. The brief visits he made in response to her entreaties were as unsatisfactory as those of his boyhood and Helen drifted into invalidism because she had no reason to exert herself.

The consequence of Helen's timid attitude toward life was that she lost everything—except tragedy.

H-16

H-16

Helen took a short business course and got a job as secretary at twenty dollars a week. Because her mother was a nervous invalid and unable to have a child around, she moved into a boarding-house where the landlady was willing to look after the little boy during Helen's working hours.

Helen was up against it; she worked all the time and worried so that she could not sleep. The child was unruly under the landlady's good-natured but casual attention. Helen could see no way out until Saunders Mead, her old suitor, again came into her life and once more asked her to marry him.

Saunders was a man to lean on. He was affectionate, reliable, enterprising, and prosperous, but to Helen uninteresting. He was rather thick-set, with a strong jaw and kind blue eyes. He loved children, animals, and anything he could take care of.

The reader who thinks she should marry Saunders turns to paragraphs H-21. The one who thinks she should not, turns to paragraphs H-22.

H-17

H-17

Helen went to see her mother every day after she married Saunders, although sometimes the visits had to be brief because there was more and more to take up Helen's time and attention. There was the new house that Saunders had built for her on Western Boulevard, the business of learning to drive the car, an active social life among the young married set, the excitement of the first baby, the second baby, and then more babies and the supervision of an increasing staff of servants

Helen became very good at bridge, took up golf, and joined the garden club. Several of the papers which she read at the Women's Civic Club were published in the Saturday edition of the "Franklin News." She became interested in Chinese missions through the agency of a Mr. Montgomery who spent some months in Franklin on leave from the field, and became president of the Franklin Missionary Society.

The consequence of Helen's whole-hearted, sensible attitude toward life was that Saunders, who was becoming a leading citizen, was very proud of his wife.

H-18

H-18

For a while it was paradise to Helen just to stay at home and not have to go to the office. Her mother made it easy for her to get out now and then, and urged her to see something of her old friends. But Helen no longer fitted in with them. They had become the young married set, and a woman with no man attached was a problem at their evening parties. She interested herself in girls' club work and other social activities of the church.