Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980, 1922-05-23
BY Idah McGlone Gibson

31 marrying Tor l still tried tc
keep vestige of common sense
In a way l realized such a thing
under the circumstances, was
wrong.
1 just drifted. l caught my
breath at the thrill OF the touch
of her hand l drank into thirs-
ty eyes her fragile beauty and-as
l always have done-I drifted out
to sea with never a thought OF
where l should land.
Long sunny afternoons, spent
on the winding river with the
long gray festoons of moss which
hung from the cypress trees al
most touching our heads and max
ing slowly dancing shadows on
the waters mirror, were ours.
Nature was weaving her SPELL
Jim, the old, old spell which she
has been perfecting since the gar
den of Eden days. And l, well
did not try to resist, even though
[ knew it was all so impossible.
Day after day we would take a
sandwich or two and start out for
a midday picnic. because 1, by
doctors orders. had to be back be-
fore the twilight shadows fell.
AS usual, she did most of the
talking. / did not realize that
was taciturn, for was happy and
| knew that she was happy also.
One day my thoughts had gone
astraying into impossible conJec-
lures when suddenly was
brought back from my day-dreams
and realized that she had asked
me question, to which 1 was CIV
ing the same sterotyped answer |
had given to a number she had
asked before: Il do not know" .
1t was then that she raised hel
eyes to mine and asked coquetish
ly, What do you know, Harry?
Without volition wi t h o Il t
thought, l blurted out the though
| had kept concealed in the secret
fairyland where men-and wom-
en-, too-hide their unspoken de-
sires: 81 only know love you
love you with my whole being
love you, love you, until know
nothing else!"
The next moment 1 felt her
yielding body in my arms and
then, for me the world stood still
while heaven opened to my sight.
l came back to earth at the
sound of her voice. She had been
murmuring things with her lips
close to my ear but this sentence
arrested my attention. 1t had end
ed in the word marriage"
1 felt myself suddenly grow
cold. What had marriage to dc
with love? In all sincerity / ask
ed myself this astonishing ques-
ton. To me, up to that time, they
were two wholly unrelated things.
The girl-Doris, as you know OF
course-began to talk about oul
marriage as the natural sequence
of love. l was almost overcome
with the sudden change in the sit
uation.
cannot write the truth, Jim,
without saying some things a gen
tleman does not usually say about
his wife. But l shall not elabor-
ate on those unpleasant thing
further than the case requires. Tt
paraphrase an age-old epigram:
''De femina, ii nisi bonum."
At that time-yes even then l
tried to be a little wee bit sane
l tried to tell Doris that l loved
her too much to saddle myself up
on her; a man who had hardly
enough money to care for himself
"a man who, probably had only
short time to live.
She answered that she did not
care for money. Oh, love, love,
what lies have been told, and sins
committed in your name,
"If you live but few months
Harry" she pleaded, give me the
sad privilege of making the rest
of your life as comfortable and as
happy as l can. have little
money and we can live here for
the time in which we will come to
know whether it is life or death