The Carlisle independent., 1907-12-26
T understand" interrupted the

q understand" interrupted the widow sympathetically.
 And, by Jove!" finished the bache Tor, q had to restrain myself to keep from going back and proposing to her!"
 "How lucky you did!" commented the widow witheringly.
 But wouldn't have" explained the bachelor ruefully, "if the gorl had restrained herself"
 Nevertheless, repeated the widow. Tt was lucky-for the girl"
 (Which girl?" asked the bachelor. ''The girl broke off with or the girl that came afterward?"
 q suppose" unused the widow .ig- noring the levity and leaning over to arrange a bunch of violets at her belt, that is why it is so difficult for a man to keep a promise or a vow even marriage vow"
 "Oh, I don't know" The bachelor leaned back and regarded the widows coronet braid through the smoke of his cigar. Tt isn't the marriage VOWS that are so difficult to keep. It's the fool VOWS man makes before mar riage and the fool promises he makes afterward that he stumbles over and falls down on. The marriage vows are so big and vague that you can get all around them without actually breaking them, but if they should in- terpolate concrete questions into the service such as, Do you, William, promise not to growl at the coffee
 "Or, Do you Mary, promise never to put daub of powder on your nose again?'" broke in the widow
 "Nor to look twice at your pretty stenographer," continued the bache- lor
 Nor to lie about your age, or your foot or your waist measures'
 "Nor to juggle with the truth when ever you stay out after half-past ten"
 "Nor to listen to things that-that anybody-except your husband may say to you in the conservatory-o I see how 1t feels!" finished the wid- ow with a sympathetic little shudder.
 And yet" reflected the bachelor, "a woman Is always exacting VOWS and promises from the man she loves, always putting up bars-for him to jump over; when if she would only leave him alone he would be perfectly contented to stay within bounds and graze in his own pasture. A man hates being pinned down; but wom an doesn't want anything around that she can't pin down, from her belt and her theories to her hat and her hus- band"
 Well" protested the widow study ing the toe of her slipper, it is sat isfaction to know you've got your hus- band fastened on straight by his promises and held in place by his own VOWS and that he loves you enough to-"
 Usually" interrupted the bachelor, "a man loves you in inverse ratio to his protestations. The lover who promises all things without reserve is too often like the fellow who doesn't question the hotel bill nor ask the price of the wine, because he doesn't intend to pay it anyway. The fellow who is prodigal with his VOWS and promises and poetry is generally the one to whom such things mean nothing and, being of no value, can be flung about generously to every girl he meets. The firm with the big gest front office is likely to be the one with the smallest deposit in the safe. The man who swears off loud est on New Years is usually the one they have to carry home the morning after. And the chap who promises a girl life of roses is the one who will let her pick all the thorns off for her self"
 Perhaps" sighed the widow, chew ing the stem of violet thoughtfully, the best way to cure a man of taste for anything, after all, is to let him have too much of it instead of making him swear off If you want him to hate the smell of pipe insist | on his smoking all the time. If you want him to sign the temperance l pledge, serve him wine with every course. If you want him to hate a woman, invite her to meet him every time he calls, and tell him how 'suita- ble' she would be-