Omaha daily bee., 1902-07-06
THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER.
Pointing ont Better Path for the
Jealous Married One.

Pointing ont the Better Path for the
jealous Married One.
Now and then one turns from the wilder
ness Of new books-recollection OF which
seems like passing through those dead for
ests one sometimes meets in mountain
travel, all OF one gray sameness-to some
OF the old books out Of fashion for no rea-
son. II, among these old books, one takes
up that marvel Of artistry, BLEAK House."
one comes in certain chapters upon a pre-
sentation Of one Of the great shadows of
married life depicted faithfully as the sun
himself paints. II is where Mrs. Snagsby-
her head in a perfect beehive Of curl-papers
and nightcap-makes nocturnal examina-
tion OF Mr.. Snagsby's pockets, secret pc
Tusals Of his letters, private researches into
his books and ledgers; and by day, swift
and dark and silent and wretched, watches
at windows, listens behind doors, and gets
her mind into a wide mist where no one
could see the way to anywhere in a gen
eral putting of this and that together by
the wrong end" And Mrs. Snagsby stands
for every Jealous wife the world over
though she be little and ignorant and ILL
bred and obscure-in cottage or in palace,
who makes her husband miserable by her
huHRASAOha dhu OhN llbuAOS " NhC bltdhlnk
Of her own heart by searching for what she
does not wish to find.
Once let this evil-eyed power get posses
sion Of the mind, and every fact of lire and
Of the universe twists itself round to its
support. all the same as II one were pos
sessed by a madness. For It is a madness
before which one is helpless, and from
which one longs to be delivered as one
longs to wake from a alf Unconscious night
mare.
To doubt the man who swore faithfulness
TO you alone of all women, and whom you
have honored as you have idolized, to doubt
the woman who has seemed a creature Of
white innocence-it puts the world out OF
joint and all the rest OF creation in as
false a light. The earth r~evolves on a new
axis, the heavens have another pole, and
the light has gone out Of them; there is
left only the lurid green light that trans
forms all things into unseemliness with it's
evil glow.
How much better would it be at the FIRST
suggestion Of doubt to face it and defy it,
to declare to ones self, The man l love is
too noble for this or THE woman I love
Is too spotless to be sullied with such
thought" to trust, to refuse entrance to the
base suspicion, and to go ones way con-
tentedly. Even II there is doubt, one is not
going to be any happier for making sure.
One would be wretched II one found the in
eliminating letter in his pocket, in her
ldesk-then why search? Why not take the
goods the gods provide and not insult hap
piness by a question?
But II there come incidents that, all be-
yond your own agency, turn doubt into as
surance, the fact is not annihilated by out
bursts, by accusation. by gloom or by
poorraanaaa Pannanhar tho nars0n 0f
whom Michlet speaks, who, when he saw
his wife too strongly attracted by a dark
eyed young Gascon, took her on a trip to
Gascony, where that especial dark-eyed
young Gascon was lost in the multitude Of
dark-eyed young Gascons there. Remem-
Der, in one of Bulwer's stories, the man
who, when his wife was pleased with a
bunch of rare flowers sent her by an in
truder, simply and smilingly filled her
whole balcony with banks of them.
The time of suspicion is the time for the
husband not to be sullen and watchful, not
to be stormy and imperious, but to redouble
his attentions, and by his devotion to OBJ
scure the thought OF the temporary and
casual intrusion on his province; 1t is the
time for the wife to make herself more
lovely, more sunny and sweet-tempered.
more rich and gay on occasion, TO point
the contrast between innocence and guilt,
to exert her every charm, and eclipse the
rushlight by the steady shining Of the
hearth fire.
And in the meantime a woman should
reflect that, in marrying her, a man does
not shut his eyes on the rest of the world,
and that although he has chosen her for
time and eternity, yet not being blind or
insensible. he must see that other women
are not without attraction; and 1t should
be enough for her that he has chosen her
for time and eternity; and a man should
say to himself that II has been his fortune
to be exalted by his wife's choice above all
others, but he does not compass in himself
the whole Of knowledge or power, and he
did not marry her to distrust her or to
shut her up In a harem or to condemn her
to life on a desert island. And II they
meet the accidents and events of life in
this spirit of confidence and proud and
trustful affection. it is tolerably sure that
neither will afford the green-eyed monster
any hospitality.