Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-04-03

and swamp it, They say that absence
makes the heart grow fonder," but it
is not always fonder of the one left
behind. Brief separations may be
loves tonics. but long ones are often
loves narcotics.
When one member of the home firm
voluntarily takes a long solitaire yaca-
ton and the other stays at home in
loneliness. Cupid. though blind. sees
trouble ahead. With two who love
each other the temporary separation
may be the thin edge of the wedge OF
a permanent growing apart.
These unnecessary solo vacations
force each into a new environment In
which the other has no part. They
lessen the sweetness of mutual depend
ence. They break the continuity of
loving conference and constant conf
dence. They make it easier for each
to face life's problems alone instead OF
| hand in hand with the other. They
add in many ways to the complexity
of home life. often creating a restless,
vague sense of doubt. 1t is not always
easy to piece again the broken threads
into the old fabric of absolute unity,
trust and dependence. Some note of
discord creeps into the music of life
for them both. and neither may be
quite able to silence it.
The danger of these summer vaca-
lions apart is not when they are taken
reluctantly and regretfully because of
the pressure of compelling conditions.
when business calls the husband away
on some necessary trip. when the wife
takes the little mes out for a visit to
the old folks, when either is i'll and is
forced to go away and circumstances
forbid both going. when a sicbly child
requires change of air, a breath of pine
woods or the invigorating tonic of the
sea. The very in%evitability of a yaca-
ton. accepted under protest, may not
lessen for an instant the constant heart
hunger of eacn for the other; it may
really intensity 1t.
But the regular exodus of the wife
because she has a restless desire to
get away somewhere, because she has
friends who insist on her accompany
ing them or she fears the neighbors
win think she cannot afford to go
away or her selfish desire for personal
pleasure throws into the shadows all
thought of the loneliness and other
hardship 1t may entail on her husband.
These are the forms of voluntary sep
aration for weeks and months that are
dangerous. Sometimes they ven prove
a short cut from matrimony to ali
mony. OF the twenty-seven explana-
tons by which she may finally secure
his consent twenty-five are merely
weak excuses, and the other two are
shaky reasons that would MOI eve have
deceived herself for a moment in the
6rst year or two of their married life.
These separations are always hard
est for the one who is left. He in the
city, still attending to his monotonous
round of daily business and duties.
goes home at night to a lonely house,
eats where he can and walks through
empty rooms until they grow unbeara-
BILE in their grim isolation. If be real
" cares deeply for her he pictures
uCI WaAh4bS VII tHC OC0( IA nCA 0aAAk
ty new dress with the parasol to
match. sitting ON the wide veranda of
a summer hotel in the evening in the
midst of a merry group. laughing and
testing at trifes. or, in Imagination.
sees her rowing across the silyerec
waters of a moonlit lake with a gay
party of friends.
There is a feeling of restless rebel
lion that now he forms no part of her
living. In his honest heart he may try
to make himself believe that he is glad
she is having a good time and that he
does not begrudge her a single hour of
happiness. sunshine and new joy that
may come to her. but down deep In
his heart there is a note of insistent
protest that she can possibly be happy
away from him when the separation
is of her choosing. s
If she writes of the loneliness she
cannot peal apart from him he invoi-
UNFAIRLY wonders why then does she
stay away week after week with nc
word of return. why does she thus
condemn herself to the misery ,of the
continued absence, the awful days she
pictures? He may have a pride OF love
that keeps back his pen from urging
her return. He may feel that II her
heart does not make her cut her visit
short and come back he does not carr
for his words to do SO.
He may study her letters with undup
criticism. reading new meanings INTO
words and phrases. He does not Ike
the references to 1.-THE young man fremi
Boston who is stopping here = week