Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-08-03
THE SIN OF AN A " LAS
By F. H. LANCASTER
toopyright. lsOl, by Daily Story Pub. Col

T vERYBUDY said that 1t had been an N, eminently successful experiment. They lived in perfect harmony, yet nei- ther tarnpered with the others individu- ality Jim Carson was precisely the Jim Carson he had been before mar riage. His wife lived the same free life she had led when single. Psychologists saw in this the triumphant vindication of the much smiled at theory of two lives in one; eptimists heralded 1t as the so- lution of that vexing matrimonial ques- ton:
 when all women realize that a wife is not the whole shooting match in a mans life, we will De done with di- yorces," predicted the masculine on- lockers.
 When all men make up their minds to the fact that a husband does not constitute the horizon as we'll as the heavens, we shall hear the last of the un- happy married woman" retorted the women. And they openly envied Helen the freedom with which she rode and read, walked and wrote.
 As for the two married people-they were merely living up to an agreement made before marriage.
 'I don't feel" Helen said, sthat the fact of my loving man gives me the right to say how many cigars he shall smoke what colored ties he shall wear, or where he shall spend his evenings. Neither should feel that 1t gave him the right to criticise or control my ac- tons I'm sane human being, and ex- pect to be treated like one"
 Jim heartily indorsed the decree.
 Sure he said; "f always thought it beastly the way wives paw over their husbands privacy Where are you going, when are you coming back; why didn't you do thus and SOP I swear; Helen, that sort of thing would drive ma as mad as halter"
 Helen had agreed, saying: Two perfect spheres can touch only at a single point" And she had been very careful not to .'paw over his privacyi ]" not to encroach beyond the point of con- tact. Their interests fused in the home life. There they met on common ground and enjoyed the easy relations of love and trust. Outside the home their lives were separate and distinct. No questions were asked, and only upon rare occasions were condolences Yciun.; teered. It is not easy to tell the news Of triumph when one has to preface 1t with long explanation. By the time one gets to 1t, all the pith has gone out of the victory. Jim realized something of this for the first time when he had been married about year.
 It chanced that friend took him home informally to dinner, and opened the door with a ringing 'Wofi out!' that was met by prompt: "Oh, Harry, I'm so glad!"
 "1f were to go home with such hail as that Helen would suspect my sanity '' Jim reflected, as he pulled his mustache and talked to Harry's wife. T suppose he talks over all his affairs with her and sh.s makes suggestions gives him ad- vice and gets unified If he doesn't take it. Good Lord!" And yet, when he en- tered his own well appointed home, took possession of his easy chair and dropped Into their usual semibooky talk he was feeling resentfully that his wife was not as near to him as his sweetheart had been. He made an abortive attempt to talk to her about his downtown affairs, but it was like beginning a tale in the middle, or rather like talking in an un- known tongue. Confidence is a thing of slow growth. Mutual understanding and sympathy is what two lives may build up day by day, but it cannot be seized upon suddenly. And Helen did not help him. It had become point of pride with her, this severe letting alone of the other sides of her husbands s life. Sue had no questions to ask; the topic was alien to her interest--it was alien to her. She had known nothing of the l struggle How could she understand the force of the failure or the flush of the triumph. These facts that were of so l much moment to him inevitably ap- peared to her as rather bare summing up of not very interesting details. She listened, of course, with that air of att l tention so easily assumed by cultured 1 people, but Jim was not deceived. He gave up the attempt after a difficult half hour and went back to books, but 1 when he sat alone with his cigar that night he found himself thinking drearily 1 of that line of Carlyle's: "The time to talk little and that little from the news ] papers, Was that the way he and Helen were drifting. Well, it was her fault. If it bored her to hear about his work, surely he could not intrude it upon 1 her. That was all.
 But it was not all A few weeks later he found himself again in Harry's home, listening to the voice of Harry's wife as 1t came to him from an adjoining room: "Oh, Harry, you are such comfort l 1 wonder if man ever realizes what 1t means to woman to be able to talk out all her troubles to him and be laughed at for her pains" Then he heard Harry laugh--a tender little laugh--and de- cided to postpone his call.
 T wonder if Helen ever has troubles or worries, or if she ever gets blue?' And that evening he surprised her with the demand:
 '.'leIl me something about your work. Helen. ''