The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-05

know you. Miss Brown. and you seem are introduced with. I'm charmed to rather jolly, but I've a lurking sus- l picion that your hair is touched up and I hear that your father has lost most of his money in speculation; and therefore, while I'm willing to be de- cent to you, don't want to leave you i under the impression that I'm going to be serious. because you wouldn't do as wife at all. And besides I'm not a marrying man. Or saying to a nice chap whom you have just met, Of course, Mir. Smith. you can sit here i on the divan and talk to me, but please don't ask to call, because mother con- siders you totally ineligible and I don't ] like the shape of your nose or the color of your necktie or the set of your coat; and. anyway, I've heard some things about your past career that are simply shocking and" 'Oh, for goodness sake!' interrupted | Kitty impatiently, pulling thorn off a rose vine in her petulance. What are you talking about? We don't tell the truth to people whom we don | i know"
 No I sighed, we walt until we do know them"
 And until we have become intimate and friendly interpolated Kitty.
 "Or engaged" I added, holding. "oT married or desperately fond of one an | other. or have got them at our mercy | in some way, and then we rub it in. l The saddest thing about married lire 1 is the opportunity it gives two other wise agreeable people for telling each i other the disagreeable truth. A wo- man will go on for years, allowing a man to think that she regards him as model of strength and beauty, pos sessed of all the heroic virtues: and 1 the very day after they are married | she will begin a crusade against his l collars and inform him that smoking pipe makes him unkissable, and that he ought to pad his shoulders And that she never liked the way he parted his hair," gurgled Kitty 1 And that his manners are unfit for 1 a parlor," added.
 And a man." rejoined Kitty. prompt | ly. will spend months making gtrl believe he thinks her Venus, and 1 two weeks after the wedding he will begin tweaking her about the way her nose turns up, and badgering her about the fit of the back of her frock, and asking-'her why she doesn't wear be- l coming hats like some other woman l who lives down the biock-- | And suggesting that she keep her | shoes polished and put on a trifle less rouge" I put in.
 And sew some buttons on her gloves and have her complexion treated add ed Kitty. *f
 And then" I finished, dramatically, "the little game is np!'
 What gamer" inquired Kitty, sus- piciously.
 "The little game of ke-believe,' | replied, that makes love between man and woman possible and delight full and irresistible and-all the things 1t Is. When Truth comes in at the door. Love flies out of the window The moment a man and a woman reach that stage of friendship. or intimacy. or matrimony, where they feel that it Is only fair and honest and necessary 1 to tell one another what they have known all along about each other
 And what they know about them selves" put in Kitty.
 "Yes," I agreed, "and to confess all their private opinions and 'acknow1- edge all their private sins and secret failings and explain their real thoughts and feelings-that moment is the beginning of the end of that friend ship or that intimacy or that-mar- riage."
 Kitty looked unconvinced.
 Well" she protested, after thoughtful pause taking off her hat and twirling it by one string. tits bet
 
 they should go on living a-a false hood. husband and wife should know at the very beginning just where l they stand"
 l laughed. "They wouldn't stand at all if they didw I rejoined. They'd run away nine times out of ten. Suppose. for instance, that your future husband should know that he stood twentythird on vnur nronosa1 1ist-"
 Kitty dropped her garden hat
 And was fourth on your list of fiances-"
 Kitty sat up and glared at me.
 And tenth on your list of flirta- tions-"
 MT. Curtis"
 And the twelfth handsomest and the fourteenth cleverest and"
 q shall tell my husband ALL" de- clared Kitty, virtuously. That is if If ever marry"
 "ALL!" I cried in apprehension.
 "All," repeated Kitty firmly
 Then you'n never marry" sighed. with a shake of my head.
 "oh. we'll" Kitty leaned back against the rose vine with charming blush. perhaps shall leave out-some things"
 "Of course you will.' I agreed ap- provingly. Its your only chance
 T beg your pardon" For happiness" I continued calm ly. "A man may be perfectly aware that he Is not the only one a woman ever loved. but if she never tells him | about the others he has nothing to keep him awake nights and no visions of his wife in another chaps arms" "What!'
 "Or with her head reposing on an- other fellows shoulder" finished firm ly. And a woman may not be who'll 1 ly sure that her husband has not had a series of feminine-er-acqua l before he met her. but if he never makes the mistake of mentioning them to her or throwing then, up in mo- ments of anger or restrospection. she will go on serenely unconscious of their existence. It's not the truth that 1 hurts but the hearing of 1t. Every man knows that he is not the heroic | creature his sweetheart pretends 10 l think him, and every woman knows she is not the perfect being her lover | tells her she is; and each knows that