Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-03-14
Fifty Eighth Chapter.
w TITHIN the next few days the
wv house party arrived There
Would he twenty Of them n t

w TITHIN the next few days the
wv house party arrived There
would be twenty of them at
least, not counting Wallets and ladies'
maids so that large as Castle Raa
was the house was full.
They were about equally divided as
to sex and belonged chiefly TO my
husbands class, but they included
Mr. Eastcliff's beautiful wife, Camilla,
and Alma's mother, who much 70
Alma's chagrin, had insisted upon be-
ing invited.
My husband required me to receive
them, and l did so, though | was only
their nominal hostess. and they knew
it and treated me accordingly.
l should be ashamed to speak of the
petty sights they put upon me, how
they consulted Alma in my presence
and otherwise wounded my pride as
a woman by showing me that I had
lost my own place in my husbands
house.
know there are people of the same
class who are kind and considerable,
guileless and pure. the true nobility of
their country-women who are de-
voted to their homes and children,
good-but my husbands friends were
| not of that kind.
| They were vain and proud. selfish,
| self induigent, thoroughly insincere,
utterly hammered, shockingly i'll
| informed, astonishingly i'll educated
| Capable of speaking several LAM
guages. but incapable of saying 4:
/ sensible word in any Of them), living
and fiourishing in the world without
! religion, without morality, and Gf ii
/ Is not a cant phrase to use) without
1 God
| What their conduct was when on;
shooting, picnicking, driving, riding,
motoring and yachting (for Mr.. East
cliff had arrived. in his YACHT, I 30
not know for doctors orders" were
Alma's excuse for not asking me to
accompany them
| But at night they played bridge
! (their most innocent amusement),
/ gambled and drank. banged the piano,
| danced Grizzly Bears" sang duets
! from the latest musical comedies, and
| then ransacked the empty houses OF
| their idle heads for other means of
| killing the one enemy of their exist
| ence-Time
Sometimes they would give enter
| tainments in honor of their dogs,
| when all the animals of all the guests
! Cthere seemed to be whole kennel Of
/ them) would be dressed up in coats
| Of silk and satin with pockets and
/ pocket handkerchiefs, and then led
where Alna's wheezy spaniel and my
| husbands peevish terrier were sup
/ posed to receive them.
Sometimes they would give freak
| dinners" when the guests themselves
/ ha IN
women's clothes, the women in mems,
the male initiating the piping treble
of the female voices, and the female
! the overvoweled slang of the male
until, firing of this foolishness, they
would end up by fiinging the food at
! pictures on the walls. the usual pellet
| being softened bread and the favorite
target the noses in the family por-
traits which hit and covered with a
sprawling mess, looked so ridiculous
as to provoke screams of laughter
The talk at table was generally OF
horses and dogs, but sometimes it
was of love, courtship and marriage
Including conjugal fidelity. which was
a ravorite subject OF ridicule with
both the women and the men
Thus my husband would begin by
saying Che often said it in my hear
ing) that once upon a time men took
I their wives as they took their horses,
on trial for a year and a day, and
! really with some women there was
something to say for the old custom. -
| Then AR vivian would remark that
it was "a jolly good idea, by Jove,"
! and if he ever married. by the Lord
that's just what he would do
Then Mr.. Eastcliff would say that
| II was a ridiculous superstition that
woman should have her husband all
! to herself. "as if he were a kind Of
| toothbrush which she could not share
| with anybody else,'s and somebody
would add that she might as reason
ably want her dentist or her hair
dresser TO be kept for her own use
| only,
After that the ladies'. not to be left
behind, would join in the offhand rat
| tie, and one Of them would give it q
her opinion that a wife might have
| an incorrigibly unfaithful husband,
| and yet be well off.
"Ugh'" said Alma one night. shrug-
! ging her shoulders. Think OF n poor
woman being tied for life to an en-
tirely faithful husband"
- adore the kind Of a man who goes
to the deuce for a woman-Parnell,
and Gambetta and Boulanger and
that sort" said a smart" girl Of
three or four-and- twenty. whereupon
! camilla Eastclin (she was Rus
siam cried.
That's Why the correspondents in
| your divorce courts are so sharming
They're like The villayus in the plays
| always so -lightfully wicked"
] To Be Continued Monday.