"It has never occurred to one of you to ask why I amdifferent from other women—to ask just what made me so!"
THE STORY OF JULIA PAGE
BY KATHLEEN NORRIS
Frontispiece by C. Allan Gilbert
Contents
PART ONE
CHAPTER I CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII CHAPTER VIII
PART TWO
CHAPTER I CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER I
To Emeline, wife of George Page, there came slowly, in her thirtiethyear, a sullen conviction that life was monstrously unfair. From aresentful realization that she was not happy in her marriage, Emeline'smind went back to the days of her pert, precocious childhood and herrestless and discontented girlhood, and she felt, with a sort ofsmouldering fury, that she had never been happy, had never had a fairchance, at all!
It took Mrs. Page some years to come to this conclusion, for, if she wasshrewd and sharp among the women she knew, she was, in essential things,an unintelligent woman, and mental effort of any sort was strange toher. Throughout her entire life, her mind had never been truly awakened.She had scrambled through Grammar School, and had followed it with fiveyears as saleswoman in a millinery store, in that district of SanFrancisco known as the Mission, marrying George Page at twenty-three,and up to that time well enough pleased with herself and her life.
But that was eight years ago. Now Emeline could see that she hadreached—more, she had passed—her prime. She began to see that themoods of those early years, however violent and changing, had been fedupon secret springs of hope, hope vague and baseless enough, but strongto colour a girl's life with all the brightness of a thousand dawns.There had been rare potentialities in those days, anything might happen,something would happen. The little Emeline Cox, moving between thedreary discomfort of home and the hated routine of school, mightsurprise all these dull seniors and school-mates some day! She mightbecome an actress, she might become a great singer, she might make abrilliant marriage.
As she grew older and grew prettier, these vague, bright dreamsstrengthened. Emeline's mother was a