The Washington times., 1922-10-01
TvERY divorce is the result Of


dancer, the most clever, generous,
fascinating person she ever met,
and when in a whirl of grand.
mothers lace and mothers silver.
and new suits. hats. stockings and
frilly lingerie, she became Mrs.
Bob.
The second hallucination 10 in
process of dreary realization today.
when Bob has mysteriously turned
into a commonplace, uninterestiny
man. who isn't going to make a
million a year. after all; who
doesn't admire Peggy's type any
more: who doesn't like her friends,
approve OF her clothes. or laugh
at her jokes; who "glooms" around
the house in the occasional even.
ings that find him there, and
whose incest manner has become
one Of civil. cool boredom.
When they meet downtown for
luncheon now Peggy doesn't flut-
ter up to him. all shy eyelashes
and violets and fragrance, and
breathe the old, adoring:
Hello. you darling old handsome
thing! Did you think wasn't
coming?"
And Bob does not reply by bend.
ing over her littleness and sweet.
ness with a sort Of intoxication,
and murmuring:
"Oh. you beautiful--you angel
my own little sweetheart!
GREATEST HALLUCINATION.
No. Peggy raises an appraising.
indifferent eyebrow now. and says
DO wear your other suit tomor.
row and send that to the cleaner!"
And Bob. who hates Peggy's
chum, Harriet Brice, answers only:
"oh, you got the hat, did you?
I'll bet Harriet helped you pick it
OUT"
SO they stop lunching together
On shopping dsys-what's the useH
And Peggy. handsome and right
eous as she pours tea. tells her
best friends that she isn't going
TO stand 1t, this way. Her life and
Bob's is simply a sham. it's ridicu
lous to keep II up.
Nobody knows. she says, how
cruel Bob can be. Just In little
ways. but-well. now for instance,
he wouldn't tell her whether he
wanted to go to the Watsons din.
ner or not. for days, and then she
meets Carol Watson, and Carol
says so sweetly. "oh. I'm so glad
YOU can come on Friday" I'm.
agine the humiliation for Peggy!
Lots OF little things like that
they don't sound 30 terrible. but
it's the way Bob does them. Life
has become impossible on his
terms: she hates his house. his
voice, the sound Of his step.
So Peggy INDUCES in third
hallucination. She sees herself
smartly established in an independ.
ent little apartment. doing-at last
what she wants to do, seeing the
persons she wants to see, free
free-free!
But a thousand--ten thousand
Peggies are proving at this exact
minute that this is the greatest
hallucination of all.
DIVORCE Is CONFESSION.
Such a divorce--and it is the
common types a confession on
.Peggy's part.
She doesn't know 1t. but she is
tacitly admitting that her happi.
ness in life is In the hands OF
other persons.
Bob, who was all handsome, ad.
mirable fineness in 1915, Is every.
thing contemplate and common.
place in 1922. But that isn't the
tragedy, after all. The tragedy is
that Peggy is letting Bob's de-
ficiencies create similar gaps H.
her own character.
As long as any woman's happi-
ness is Of another persons making
rather than Of her own, that
woman is unhappy and her life is
a failure. And the only reason
that second marriages are some.
times more successful than first
marriages Is because the woman.
or man, or both, have learned
something through the pain and
humiliation Of that first misery.
A second marriage? Yes. but
we haven't come to that. Peggy
is merely free. now, and in her
little independent establishment.
And how different 1t all proves to
be from what she dreamed!
HAS NO WRONGS"
She has no more wrongs
about which to talk. On the con.
trary, the code DEGREES now that