Should She Have Left Him? — page 172: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

166 SHOULD SHE HAVE LEFT HIM? They say women can’t keep a secret. What rot! Give them a secret of their own and they’ll preserve it under the rack. Poor Elsie!” Again that note of tenderness and defense. “You say,’ asked Adams, “that the woman Tres- cotte married this year is a fine woman?” ‘““Qne in ten thousand,” said the lawyer. “A brave, loyal, true-hearted woman.” ‘I’m sorry for her,” commented Adams. “TIT presume,” said the lawyer, ‘Trescotte could straighten out all this confusion by suing Mrs. Adams for divorce, but that would involve every- body—you, Mrs. Adams, the Trescottes, the Hal- locks—in a scandal.” ‘““D—— the Hallocks,” cried Adams energetically, “but I wouldn't like Elsie to be tortured by it. You see, Mr. Magrane, the trouble is, that to the world Elsie would come out of such a suit the worst of all, and yet no more to blame than anybody else who is mixed up in the confounded muddle.” He rested his head on his hand as he thought. “She'd be all right,” he went on, as if answering | his own thoughts, “if it wasn’t forher family. They keep her stirred up all the time.” “Do you mean to say,’ asked the lawyer, pur- pose sounding in his voice, “ that it was her family which made the trouble between yourself and wife?” “You keep saying my wife,” laughed Adams, “ but I suppose she must be distinguished someway. No, I can’t say that and be truthful. They contributed 3 Comicbooks.c©