Middletown transcript., 1917-05-05

gesture with his head took in the table
= caramel diet beginning to go
against his teeth?"
He had to work tonight" Rose
said. "He was awfully sorry he could
MT come" She smiled just little
ironically as she said it, and exagger-
ated by hairs breath, perhaps, the
purely conventional nature of the re-
ply.
"Yes," he observed, "that's what we
say. Sometimes it gets us off and
sometimes it doesn't"
"Well, it got him off tonight" she
said. "He was pretty impressive. He
said there was ruling decision
against him and he had to make some
sort Of distinction so that the decision
wouldn't rule. Do you know what
that means? I don't"
"Why didn't you ask him?" Ran
dolph wanted to know.
Il did, and he said he couldn't ex-
plain it, but that it would take a
month. So of course there wasn't
time"
Il thought" said Randolph, "that he
used to talk law to you by the hour"
The button wasn't on the foil that
time, because the thrust brought blood
"a bright flush into her cheeks and a
sudden brightness into her eyes that
would have induced him to relent if
she hadn't followed the thing up of
her own accord.
81 wish you'd tell me something"
she said. 81 expect you know better
than anyone else 1 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.
81 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, if husband and wife can meet
those terms, they can talk. But the
joker Is, as our Legislative friend over
there would say"-he nodded down the
table toward a young millionaire of
altruistic principles, who had got
elected to the state assembly mn "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 don't know much, and 1 simply
don't understand. Will you explain it,
in short words" - she smiled - "since
we're not married, you know?"
He grinned back at her. "All right"
he said, ''since we're not married,
will. Wen take 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.
''It's 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 q perfectly enormous superstruc-
ture of ideas and iAhibitiOns, emo
tional refinements, and capacities, and
the attraction is so disguised that they
don't recognize it.
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
arc 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 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 little hard on her, don't you
think, if 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 a
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 discouragement."
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 kissedY"