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

md is such jolly company" No. he
Ices not doubt her in the least. OF
course she does not mean anything by
1t. She is just th%oughtless. he says TO
himself. but somehow-does not like it.
He would like to take a run down to
the beach for a week or so himself. but
be cannot afford the time or the
money. and he gives up the idea
His long evenings at home alonem 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 it
as one takes opium to dull a 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 Geographic
messages. written in short, hurried
sentences with no details-jnst 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-
Il on v,naf-aA ~ TINT ffpnn
she used to go over his letters. picking
cut the adjectives and of loving.
like a child dislodging raisins and cit
ron from a cake.
When she finally returns in the early
autumn she finds that he is not so eff
fusively glad to see her as she expect
ed. She feels in a 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 times, 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 DESTROYS
Of knowing just how he spent the sum
mer. He feels that her fusillade of
questions and shots of intense interest
are coming a 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
posed exile on a solitary vacation.
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 so he would be tired
enough to Sleep" If the gas bills loom
larger than the amount her housewife
~ 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 thelbrunt of his protests
and in the face of some unwarranted
jealousy. tortured out of perhaps limo
cen trifles. she may find 1t difficult to
prove that convincing alibi that leaves
M slightest residue of doubt. The re
suit is often the distressingly unsatis
fyingly Scotch verdict. Not proved"
Vacations in the household are good.
stimulating and revivifying for hus-