Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-06-26

| N@N'N AhN0NCu nm " IClCuL IL
she hadn't followed the thing up OF
her own accord.
L wish you'd tell me something"
she said. Il expect you know better
than anyone else / could ask. Why
it is that husbands and wives can't
talk to each other? Imagine what this
table would be if the husbands and
wives sat side by side"
The cigarettes came around just
then, and he lighted one rather de-
liberately, at one of the candles, before
! he answered.
Il am under the impression" he
said. that husbands and, wives can
talk exactly as well as any other two
people. Exactly as WELL and no bet
| ter. The necessary conditions for real
! conversation are a real interest in and
knowledge OF common subject (;
ability on the part Of both to con-
tribute something toward that subject.
Well, II husband and wife can meet
those terms, they can talk. But the
joker is, as our legislative friend over
/ SAANAN "OOAA SaJ uOWH
table toward a young millionaire of
altruistic principles, who had got
elected to the state assembly - "the
| joker is that a man and woman who
aren't married, and who are moderate
ly attracted to each other, can talk,
or seem to talk, without meeting those
conditions"
Seem to talk?" she questioned.
Seem to exchange ideas mutually.
They think they do, but they don't.
| It's pure Illusion, that's the answer"
I'm not clever, really" said Rose,
"and 1 don't know much, and 1 simply
don't understand. VIII you explain it.,
in short words" - she smiled - "since
were not married, you known"
He grinned back at her "All right, !"
he said, "since we're not married, |
Will. Wen take a hypothetical case.
Wen take Darby and Joan. They en-
counter each other somewhere. and
something about them that men have
written volumes about and never ex-
planned yet, sets up. They arrest each
others attention-get to thinking about
each other, are strongly drawn to-
| gether.
TITS not quite the oldest and most
primitive thing in the world, but near
ly. Only, Darby and Joan aren't prim-
tive people. Each of them is carry
ing a perfectly enormous superstruc-
ture of ideas and inhibitions, emo
tional refnements. and capacities, and
the attraction is so disguised that they
don't recognize 1t.
absence of common knowledge and
common interests only makes Darby
and Joan fall victims to the very dan
gerous illusion that they're intellec-
tual companions. They think they're
having wonderful talks, when all they
are doing is making love-"
"And poor JOAN" said Rose, after
a palpable silence, but evenly enough,
''who has thought all along that she
was attracting a man by her intelli-
gence and her understanding. and all
that, wakes up to find that she's been
married for her long eyelashes, and
her nice voice-and her pretty ankles.
That's a little hard on her, don't you
think, II she's been taking herself
seriously?"
mine times In ten" he said, "she's
fooling herself. She's taken her own
ankles much more seriously than she
has her mind. She's capable of real
sacrifices for them. Intelligence she
regards as a gift. She thinks witty
conversation. or bright letters to q
friend. are real exercises of her mind
real work But work isn't done like
that. Works overcoming something
that resists; and there's strain in it,
and pain and encouragement"
In her cheeks the red flared up
brighter. She smiled again-not her
own smile-one, at any rate. that was
new TO her. "You don't solve an in
tellectual problem then" she quoted,
by having your hand held. or your
eyes kissed?"
and observed that evidently he wasn't
as much of pioneer as he thought.
She did not rise to this cast, how
ever. "All right" she said; admitting
that her ankles are serious and her
mind isn't, what is Joan going to DO
about itf'
"It's easier to say what she's not to
do" he decided, after hesitating mo-
ment. Her fatal mistake will be to
despise her ankles without disciplining
her mind. If she will take either
one of them seriously, or both for
that matter - it's possible - she'll do
very WELL"
He could, no doubt, have continued
upon the theme indefinitely. but the
table turned the other way just then
and Rose took up an alleged CONVEX
sation with the man at her right which
lasted until they left the table. and
included such topics as indoor golf.
woman's suffrage, the new dances,
Bernard Shaw, Campanini, and the
political parties; with a perfectly
appropriate and final comment upon
| each.
Rose didn't care. She was having a
wonderful time-a new kind of won
! derful time. No longer gazing, big
| eyed like little Cinderella. at a pag-
cant some fairy godmother's within had
admitted her to. but consciously gazed
upon; she was the show, tonight, and
she knew it. Her low, finely modu-
/ lated voice, so rich in humor, so varied
! in color, had tonight an edge upon IL
I that carried it beyond those she was
/ immediately speaking TO, and drew
looks that found it hard TO get away
again. For the first time in her life,
with full Self-consciouSneSs she was
I producing effects. thrilling with the
exercise of a power as 0Dedient to
her win as electricity 20 the luanipu-
lator of a switchboard.
She was Ike person driving an
| airplane, able TO move in all three