Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-09-30
Love Letters of
q -
Divorced Couple
BY William Farquhar Payson
Continued from Yesterday

tETN III liiDi1tS no ~
-..ssrIsaical turping away. 1t is mere
., sbat you have cut some last bond
between us which was not cut be-
fore.
only hope this isn't going to mean
the end of these letters. We must
!. not let it mean that. 1t seems to me
. THAI if there is any good in these let
tors at all we need them now more
than ever.
Since hearing from you I confess
have thrown myself pretty reeklessly
into the gayeties here. General Ca
moys said to me last night:
"T've never seen you SO brilliant and
80 dangerous. You are like a sword.
If there was any truth in that, |
knew why I had received your let
:, ter aud only woman could have un-
derstood the contrast between my
inner and outer selves. Sometimes,
when things are at their worst, q
womsns heart, You see, freezes over
and then. of course, her unshed tears
freeze, too That WAS why / ap=
pesred brilliant. And often another
thing happens to the best of us-we
become possessed of desire to right
the wrong against us by committing
a second wrong at random--some easy
and self-complacent wrong such a.
causing an innocent man 10 fall in
love with us. 7 suppose that was why
| seemed dangerous to General Ca
moys.
Through the long hours of that
night I lay awake and Thought Of
you and of him, and for your sake
and his ! condemned myself as few
women do. And yet If ever married
again feel that I could make man
very happy I'm not the spoilt child
who married you and divorced you.
I FEAR I'm already becoming the sort
of woman who knows the value Of
refuge all too well. It's not until
we've learned that lesson that we
can offer refuge 10 another.
And vet how [ boasted of my free
dom only little over a year ago
You remember how in one of my
earliest letters after our separation,
just as | was spreading my wings for
fight, I quoted Stevenson's couplet;
1.-THE world is so full of a number of
things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as
kings"
: dren quoted so inconsequently by n
child! It's rather sad. is it not, to
think how I've grown up? And yet il
is better Even though the wings are
. bit droopy and bedraggled now it
Is better They have weathered the
sharp east wind which. if we knew
it, is the kindest wind that blows.
They have encountered the storm and
found it's heart-whereas the sunshine
has no heart Yours, SYBIL.
Shepherds Hotel Cairo,
May %, 10
Dear Sybil:
You say you have found the storms
heart. Be that as il may you have
weathered it better than I so far.
Then can't you afford to say you for
give me?
have decided to go home through
Europe instead of turning back across
= the Pacific. If you address me care
the Credit Lyonnais, at Paris, your
letters will be forwarded to me wher-
s. ever may be. Yours, KENNETH.
Hotel Ritz, Paris,
June g. 19-.
4 Dear Kenneth:
What have I to forgive? You no
longer owe me any fidelity. BY bring
ing about our divorce l forever de-
llkeU lllAStlI OF Tie pin lltB6 VI IN
giving you. If women did but knoN
1t, the entire secret of their power
lies very close to this question of for
Il giveness. If we gain the right to vote
I and lose the right to forgive, we are
a lot of female Esaus selling our
birthrights.
8 The other day met a young French
cure from Brittany-the sort of priest
de MaupasSant wrote about in "Clalr
de Lune" He was so out of place in
Paris, so unworldly, that the world
liest of us could not help lionizing
him. He was indeed a new sensa-
tion-so adorable and such u con-
ftrast.
We were at reception at the Vile
nnarquais, and when this solemn
S young Breton priest entered the room
I 1t was as incongruous as if an angel
had suddenly alighted in the Sale des
JeuX at Monte Carlo. I believe Mon
sieur lie Cure, if he chose, could put
the virtue of these ladies to a pretty
serious test He is so Enthusiastically
! virtuous himself that their own vir-
i tuousness fairly trembles at sight
of him.
Can you read me this riddle why.
In the name of all that's logical and
consistent does innocence arouse such
maudlin passions? Why do angels SO
play the devil with women? | really
believe there's more havoc being
wrought by that unconscious boyish
priest than by all of the Don Juans
of Paris.
I was going to tell you what he
said to me about women's rights. We
were in the midst of the crowd-a
crowd as fashionable 'fiippant and
artificial as YOU can imagine. Con-
ceive, then, the contrast!
'Ah, madame: CONNIE c'est triste,
4 The heart of women is a garden-but
now she uproots all of the flowers
4 SHE sells them for mans vegetables
Then shall we have only cabbages in
both our llearts-man shall not find
q ever again the white lily or red rose
# All, madame, do not barter away
Gods beatitudes for the ballots OF
1 men"
Il Can you blame me, Kenneth, for
asking him to call on me?
1t is rather curious that as my eX-
Gperience with the world grows so
Urapidly the something about me
Z (which appeals to men seems to grow
'Hrapidly. too. I say this without van
& ity. It is merely a statement of fact
+ an unaccountable fact because it
a seems to me that with most women
experience rubs off the bloom and
men of taste instinctively dodge them
Il lust as bees dodge wilted flowers.
~ But with me this is not the case.
Their lips might hatter me, but ! can
kI read their eyes. Words can rarely be
Aa,eIied on nor even a tone of voice,
but there's as much difference be-
Htween the look in mans eyes which
3 tis assumed to make a. woman believe