The Pleasantville press., 1914-04-18

course she does not mean anything by
it, She Is Just thoughtless. he says to
himself. but somehow-does not like It,
the beach for week or so himself, but
he cannot afford the time or the
money. and he gives up the idea.
His long evenings at home alone may
soon become unbearable. He seeks
distraction from this battle with time;
he joins little parties of friends. goes
to the theater, takes up the threads of
old acquaintance of his bachelor days
and seeks to enjoy himself as best he
can. In the beginning he may do 1t
as one takes opium to dull pain. but
there is danger that he may learn to
like the taste again. How far he may
drift depends on the man.
And she, down near the ocean, may
wonder vaguely why his letters. which
ran seven pages long in the first two
weeks of her absence. have dwindled
down to brief notes like telegraphic
messages, written in short. hurried
sentences with no details-just one un-
expanded fact in each sentence. like
caramels in separate wrappers. In the
old days she used to reread his letters
until she knew them by heart. Then
the mere facts they contained were of
minor import. They were merely the
excelsior in which the terms of en-
dearment were packed. At that time
she used to go over his letters, picking
out the adjectives and nouns of loving,
like child dislodging raisins and cit
ron from cake
When she finally returns In the early
autumn she finds that he is not so ef-
fusively glad to see her as she expect
ed. She feels in subtle way some
shade of loss that may elude express
sion in words. He may not thrill with
enthusiasm at her story of the per
fectly delightful tines she had; he
may not be melted into his old lover
like mood when he hears again how
lonely she was and how she just tried
to seem to be happy because of the
Others"
He listens and thinks, and of what
he thinks he may say little. Then she
grows suddenly and acutely desirous
of knowing just how he spent the sum
mer. He feels that her fusillade of
questions and shots of intense interest
are coming little late in the day, and
all would have been unnecessary and
they would be nearer and dearer to
each other were it not for her self i'm
ln ftop
Perhaps next day she looks over the
summer gas bills, and If they be small
she grows reflective and wonders how
they could possibly be so small if he
really sat every night alone reading
till midnight $50 he would be tired
enough to Sleep" If the gas bills loom
larger than the amount her housewife
ly instinct tells her is just right she
feels confident he has been having card
parties up to unearthly hours and that
he has been having a splendid vaca-
ton of his own.
Innocent or guilty. on this or some
other charge, he is lucky if he be not
caught between the upper and the
neither millstones of her whitening
doubt and criticism. She. too, may
have to stand the brunt of his protests,
and in the face of some unwarranted
jealousy, tortured out of perhaps inno-
cent trifles. she may find it difficult to
prove that convincing alibi that leaves
no slightest residue of doubt The re-
suit is often the distressingly unsatis-
fyingly Scotch verdict, mot proved"
Vacations in the household are good,
stimulating and reyivifying for hus-