Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-03-14

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
MIR. Eastcliff's beautiful wife. Camilla,
and Alma's mother, who, much TO
Alma's chagrin, had insisted upon be-
| ing invited
My husband required me to receive
| them and | did so, though l was only
their nominal hostess, and they knew
| it and treated me accordingly.
/ 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 | 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 indulgent thoroughly insincere,
utterly ill., hammered, shuckingly Ill
informed astonishingly educated
| Capable of speaking several Ian.
guages. but incapable of saying 4
! sensible word in any of them), living
and ilOurishing in the world without
! religion, without morality, and (if 1t
is not q cant phrase to use) without
God.
What their conduct was when out
shooting. picnicking. driving. riding,
motoring and yachting (for Mr. East
cliff had arrived in his YACHT, | 10
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 amusemenD,
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
(there seemed to be a whole kennel Of
them would be dressed up in coats
of silk and satin with pockets and
pocket handkerchiefs, and then led
downstairs to the drawing room.
where Alma's wheezy spaniel and my
husbands peevish terrier were sup
posed to receive them.
Sometimes they would give freak
dinners when the guests themselves
would be dressed up. the men in
women's clothes. the women in men $.
| the male initiating the piping treble
| of the female voices, and the female
! the overvoWeled slang Of the male,
! until, firing or this foolshness, they
would end up by fiinging the food at
! pictures on the walls. the usual pellet
| being softened bread and the favorito
| target the noses in the family por-
! traits which, hit and covered with a
| spraying 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
favorits 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
! their wives as they took their horses,
on trial for a year and day, and
really with some women there was
something to say for the old custom"
Then Mr. 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 ridiculous superstition that a
woman should have her husband all
to herself, "as il he were a kind Of
toothbrush which she could not share
with anybody else" 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 as
her opinion that wife might have
an incorrigibly unfaithful husband
and yet be well off.
"Ugh," said Alma one night, shrug-
ging her shoulders. Think OF a pool
woman being tied for life to an en-.
tirely faithful husband"
Il adore the kind OF a man who goes
to the deuce for woman-Parnell
and Gambetta and Boulanger and
that sort" said smart" girl OF
three or four-and- twenty, whereupon
Camilla Eastclif (she was a Rus
siam cried:
That's Why the correspondents in
your divorce courts are so sharmng
They're like the villayns in the plays
always SO dee-lghtfully wicked"
Ta b Continued Monday.