Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-09-20
Love Letters of
Divorced Couple
Continued from Saturday,
By William Farquhar Payson

qon't you preoE:ce what You preach,
eys4? What right have you to
haunt me like a ghost? If you were
really dead you might not be able
to help it, and I would probably feel
sorry for you, but as you're very
much alive you can help 1t, and I
positively refuse to feel sorry for
you.
It's a thousand times more dis
turbing to be haunted by a divorced
wife than by a dead one. Is there
no way in which I can lay you?
No incarnation that viii send you
back into yoour maidenhood? That's
the worst of divorce-it doesn't really
unmarry people.
Who, after all, was responsible for
our divorce? I think you were; I
think you were the prime mover in
deciding on it. OF course, 1t Is very
difficult to prove that a woman Is
ever the prime mover of anything,
but it's always safe to assume she is,
and that a man is the thing moved
or removed, as ] was.
Well grant, then, for the sake of
argument, that you threw me over.
Just why, In the name of all that's
rational, aren't you satisfied? What
further enjoyment do you derive
from tormenting me with repeated
reminders of your existenee2
Women seldom let a dead dog lie
or discarded lover go his way in
peace.
I really believe there's a devil in all
this | had intended to write merely
/ v
face against this correspondence, but
my pen seems to take an impish de-
light in running on indefinitely and
quite without my sanction And the
worst of it is, l can see your secret
smile of triumph when you receive
this; l can hear your purr of content
ment.
The truth is, Sybil, with all your
highmindedness and clarity of soul,
there's a terrible touch Of the wanton
about you in little things With all
your modern independence, health and
outdoor breeziness, you are simply
revised version of the old-time CO.
uuette.
If YOU had lived earlier, you'd have
been an exotic flower under glass. It's
clear that the devil as gardener has
carefully transplanted you into the
open, and developed you into a hardy
annual. Don't think you're different
because you don't recline In a boudoir
and becllon from the dark.
Sirens go about in the daytime now,
and are quite as practical as every
hodV else. They may be business
women, they may be women doctors,
thew NAV even be militant suffra-
gettes. In fact, I have heard of one
siren who was actually a college pres
identl
| tell you this that you may not be
too pleased with yourself when men
saw to you, as they always have and
always will, that you are the most
feminine woman they have ever met.
If I could be Puck at your ear at
such moments, I'd whisper:
But not the most womanly woman,
by a long sight"
Speaking of womanly women,
there's one on board who might stand
as a model for that obsolete type.
She has the face of one of Ghirlan-
daio's madonnas. She must be about
thirty, and yet she is as shy as a
child.
Her steamer chairs happen to be
next to mine. This morning Wheh
she came on deck the steward was
nowhere to be seen. You know how
difficult it is to tuck yourself In prop
erlv In these steamer chairs. After
she had sat down. she began to try It,
and her little hands did look so inade-
ol1ate that |, out of mere politeness,
offered to assist her. She smiled with
a sort of timid gratitude, and as
wrapped her rug about her l WISH you
could have seen the girlish blush that
suffused her cheeks.
She is really a dear. We have al
ready had a most enjoyable conVefsa-
tion. II seems she is half English and
half American-the daughter of some
nobleman who married one OF our flch
westerners. But she herself seems TO
have married some Impoverished
English army officer, who is stationed
in india. She has been visiting her
mothers relations somewhere IN Can
fornia. and is now returning TO hef
husband.
Pm afraid I'm a little vague as to
details. because as she talked to me
her resemblance to one of those ehlld-
ma donnas was so strong that / could
think of nothing else.
Nv the way, she is greatly interest
ed in the temples of the East, and eN-
meets to visit many of them before
Joining her husband
Most of the other passengers are nn-
interesting. There'd be Infinitely
more variety in ferryboat crossing
tha Hudson There are two or three
army officers bound for the Philip
pines, but as | am not military al
n ereuments concerning bolos, head
hunters and bloody instructions, In
stead of filing me with martial
favor sinplv bore me to extinction.
Perbans it's because I myself am
veteran of grimmer battles, compared
with which these trumpery shooting
a ffravs are as harmless as Hague
peace conferences.
There is also g. Japanese statesman
on board, but as it finally becomes
rather irksome to make conversation
through an interpreter, think we are
to avoid each other.
Another passenger is a locomotive
salesman going over to sell his wares
to the Chinese. He began talking as
If he had several in his sample case
even asked me if I'd like TO see them!
This so piqued my curiosity that l
consented in an ill-guarded moment.
He showed me photographs and me-
cbanical rawings-hundreds of them
sectional views, broadside views,
comparative weights-Fig. /, Fig. z,
Fig. 8. and so on, until / thought the
man would drive me distracted. He
talked so enthusiastically that I be-
can to fear he was trying to sell me
locomotive!
I've seen more or less of another
passenger, a woman who is the very
antithesis Of the one L have already
decribed. Do you remember hearing
of old Kenway, of Alaskan fame? He
made his money on the Yukon and
sDends 1t all over the world. The
woman's his daughter Rosalind
SARAH whose first name, her father
evnlains. is Shakespearean, and her
sacond merely maternal! She herself
sl1npresses the Sarah" as much as
nossible and is popularity known as
,tRozzie." She has already asked me
70 call her that, and she in turn calls
me kenny" as though she had
known me always and as though her
hnshand and father We're not on