“Need I tell you the name of the destroyer?” he asked.
“Not me,” said Mrs. Clyde in a low tone. “It is a two-headed monster, isn’t it?”
The Health Master nodded. “And because we all fear to utter the words ‘venereal disease,’ our children grow up in the peril of the Monster whose two allies are Vice and Ignorance.”
“One editor in this town, at least, has some gumption,” commented Grandma Sharpless, peering over her spectacles at the sheet which Dr. Strong had let fall. “Which paper is it?”
“None, if you must know. The fact is, I read that allegory into the newspaper, not out of it.”
“Then it was your own?” asked Mrs. Clyde. “Such as it is, mine own. But the inspiration came from this headline.” He pointed to a legend in heavy type:—
DIVORCE IN THE INSIDE SET
AFTER SEX MONTHS OF MARRIAGE, MRS. BARTLEY STARR SEEKS FREEDOM—NATURE OF CHARGES NOT MADE PUBLIC
“Do you know what is back of it, Strong?” asked Clyde.
“The ruin of a life. Bartley Starr has been a ‘rounder.’ With the curse of his vices upon him he married a young and untaught girl.” He repeated with slow significance a passage from the allegory. “The Monster entered into the house of her marriage, and from henceforth she must go, a maimed creature, sexless and childless, to the end of her days.”
“Oh, no, no!” burst out Mrs. Clyde. “Not poor little, lovely, innocent Margaret Starr!”