Middletown transcript., 1906-04-28

love. But somehow itsuits your
masculinity to pretend to her
that you do not care.
Won't you miss me just aw-
fully? she queried, hoping that
you say yes.
Not a bit! you assert, with a
kiss to belle your words.
Well, then I'll not come back
at all! she pouts, to appall you
into soberness.
Whereat you laugh teasingly.
You feel that she understands
that you are only joking in your
bravado; but she never is quite
satisfied, and over and over she
beseeches:
Won't you miss me?
And again and again you gibe
OF course not. Not bit!
Even occasional lapses into
your genuine self do not make up
for those times when you are
pretending. Answering her ap-
peal you may: in atonement, clasp
her closely and say, to her re-
proachful eyes:
Yes, indeed, dearest. I'll miss
you every minute.
Yet she is always greedy for
more. She wants you to miss
her. The greater your lonesome
ness and misery, the gladder she.
To tell the truth, We'd from be-
fore, that visit of hers does not
appear to you-gallant young
husband though you are-the
perfectly frightful, desolate
chasm such as she would make
out.
You are to be a bachelor again.
For a temporary period you will
smoke your pipe, and regel in an
Independent, unkempt existence.
You are not knowingly disloyal
to your wife. Sweeter and more
levely, within and without, does
: she grow to you as the weeks
pass by. But the realization that
although you have eaten your
cake you are to have it too, exer-
cises over you a peculiar fascina.
ton.
Well, she is gone-a suspicious
deWiness in her eyes, a pathetic
droop to her mouth, and an en-
treating little quaver in the voice
with which, 10 all your CHEEKY
endeavors to buoy her up, she
replies:
But | don't w-want to go!
And at the crucial moment you
find, suddenly, that you don't
want her to go, either! AS the
train pulls out you turn away
with a strange sense of desertion
tugging at your heart. You
would fight it back; nevertheless,
as you trudge from the station
you feel as though somebody was
dead.
That evening you proceed to
be a bachelor. Now is your op-
portunity to enjoy the license of
the hour.
When you entered the cottage
that only a short time previous
had been SO snug and cosy, how
large and empty itseemed. Your
key ratified in the lock and gave
you foretaste of loneliness even
ere you had opened the door.
Your steps fairly echoed amid
the rooms.
But you-you resolutely slam
med things about, by the noise
you made striving to show your
defiance. The fact is, you were
blufing, already; yes, you were
blufing.
With swagger you decided to |
stay at home, for this evening. |
and take solid comfort; the solid
comfort of a man. You laid upon
the library table the packet of
Golden Leaf" your favorite
brand Of oId) which you had has
tened to purchase on your way
home from down town; you res
urrected from its drawer, where
it had been regulated since she
came tolive with you, your trusty
pipe; you donned slippers and
loose jacket, and into your easy
chair beside the table you plump
ed. Easy chair, slippers, pipe,
late magazine, all under the even
ing lamp-what more could be
desired here below!
The scratch of your match
sounds Ike powder explosion;
the house is SO blamed quiet.
Puff, puff-a-a-a-ah This is
luxury, indeed-and you care
fully blow your smoke toward
the fire. place SO as not to scent
up the portieres.
Puff. npff-and vou nause tn