The Globe-republican., 1903-03-05
Just Like The Play

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Fiction Is no more strange than truth
10 twist that hackneyed phrase about a
bit and make 1t seem less trite,
There was performed in Washington
theater last week little comedy Of
French manners and morals that certainly
amused, ii it did not instruct those who
sat through 1t with no tenlperamanLal
hostility toward the easy view which the
French people on the stage take OF the
marriage tie. UIU
Ii was a story Of a young man and q
young woman of Paris who had married
according to the French rule of cthrenl-
ence. After seven years Of married llte
the wife finds that her husband Is addict
cd to little firtations, He has never pro-
tessed 10 be madly In love with his wife,
even from the first, hut lie lbs been
good provider and all that surt OF thing,
and they have got on fairly well. But
when she discovers his iirtntlons sbe be-
comes Wrathful and divorces HIM. His
protest against this proceeding On her
part Is feeble. 1t seems 10 be all one to
him, divorce or no divorce. After year
Or so Of separation the young people aecl-
uohtoiJ iiieel III d al 10 l0olauiN Ht, hlielo
the young woman Is dining with her par
ents. The divorced husband drifts over
to their table and there Is a merry time.
He resumes his calls at the home of the
wife who has divorced him-she Is living
with her parents, He finds, when lie as
certains that she Is going 10 marry an
other man, that for the first time he Is
actually In love with her. iie asks her TO
remarry him. She Is obviously willing to
40 this, but she holds back declaring her
intention to marry the other man. Then
she catches 1.-THE other man. the one
she is engaged to marry, in n bit of an
affair In which the man is made to appear
guilty, although he is entirely innocent,
and she denounces him. Just then OPP
portunely enough, her first husband ap-
pears on the scene, and she takes him
back, She concludes, she says, that all
men are just about the same, and that,
therefore. If she Is to marry again at ALL
she might as well rcmarry No. /, for
whom, she confesses, she retalns par
TALLY, anyway. Thus the little play ends
neatly enough.
Now 1t happened that on Christmas
night two young Washington pei pie, a
man and a woman, were present at the
theater and saw that play, They were
married five years ago, when the youth
had barely attained his majority aid the
girl hadn't long graduated from short
frocks They lived together happily
enough, 1t seems, for couple Of years,
Then the young wife began 10 exhibit
jealous traits, and one day she suddenly
returned to the home of her PARENTS in
this city, the home from which she had
marriage with her youthful admirer,
On Christmas night then, the young
woman sat In theatar box With her
father and mother and some friends, wit
Messing this little French comedy, and In
one OF the front. seats In the orchestra
sat her husband alone.
The eyes of the young man and Of his
former wife met furtlvely several times
during the progress of the play.
Along toward the finish Of the comedy.
when the stage husband and wife were
sparring, so to speak, for a resumption OF
their married bliss, the eyes Of the Two In
the audience met smilingly US number
of the humorous points Of the stage story
were made
After the play the young woman and
her parents ana the other members q her
party went TO one OF the motel supper
rooms Tor a bit 10 eat Curlously enough,
the young woman s former husband went
TO that same supper room after the play
for grllied bone ana q sup OF ale ne
sal, not far away from hls former wife
and the merry party. re did not JON MS
VIE anQ the merry party AT 'nelr table.
TINS IS washington ana not Parls, ana
perhaps stage llcenSe coesn 80 IN real
NE even IN Pafls But ne caught fis 1or-
mer wlies eyes several times and She
seemed to be glad that he caught her
chances, Tor her eyes were smiling. They
had not seen each other for more than a
year, ana then her eyes had frozen him.
80 the melloWlless Of ler sly chances IN