The Glenwood post., 1923-11-01

If only Mrs. Thomas Balm had been
content to compare Mr.. Thomas Balm
with men about him, he for counter.
arguments, would not have been put
at serious disadvantage. Out of her
ammunition locker he might have Dor.
rowed shells to fire in his own defense.
Did she, for instance, cite the polished
beauty of Mr.. So-and-S Sos drawing room
behavior, speaking with that subtle in
Election which as good as said that his
own society manners left much to be
desired, Mr.. Bain's rehuttal would have
been prompt and ready He would
have spoken right up to point out the
fact that So-and-So notoriousIy neglect.
ed his family or that he drank entirely
too much for his own good, or that he
habitually failed to pay his Just debts.
Mr.. Balm was no scandal-monger, un.
derstand. Still a man must fight back
with such weapons as he may com
mand.
But Mrs Bain's method of attack
was entirely too subtle for him: It left
him practically weaponless. out In the
world he amply was competent to fend
for himself Beneath the domestic
roof-tree, where his wife sat in judg.
ment on him, his ways, his small short.
comings or his larger faults, he com
pletely was at a loss for proper rebut.
tai. 1t gave him such a helpless feel.
ing! 1t would have given any normal
man helpless feeling. And Mr.. Balm
was in all essential regards normal
mana good citizen, a good provider
and. as husbands go, an average fair
husband
| would do Mrs. Balm no injustice.
She was n normal woman, too. But 1t
is only natural that when destiny has
fashioned an advantage to fit our hands
that we should employ it. Her advan-
tage was very great one. Her criti-
cisms of Mr.. Balm took the form of
measuring him off against the conceived
picture of her first husband
And her first husband was dead.
man-and Mr.. Balm was an honorable
man-may not speak Ill Of the dead.
What is more, had he, under stress of
provocation, been minded to retort that
after all Mrs. Bain's first husband was
not exactly perfection either, he could
have produced no proof to support the
assertion. For he had never seen his
predecessor. He knew nobody who
had known the deceased. The present
Mrs. Balm had been for three years
widow when first he set eyes on her.
She had lately returned then from
Honolulu; 1t was in Honolulu that she
had been bereft, MS the saying is, by
the hand of death. And Honolulu Is
long distance from Brockway, Mass,
where Tom Bain's people, stay-at-
home stock, had lived these five gen.
erations past.
So. on those frequently recurring oc-
casions when Mrs. Balm, with sad
dened, almost wistful, air was moved
to remind herself of her first husbands
marvellous qualties-temperamen dis
position tact. amiablllty or what not
there was for her second husband moth
ing to do but to suffer on In an impo-
tent silence. 1t is not well that anyone
on this earth-and more especially
husband-should be required to suffer
discomforts in silence. Suffering calls
for vocal expression.
otherwise, as human beings go, Mr..
and Mrs. Balm were well suited one for
the other. 1t was that dead first hus-
band of hers, who invoked by her, kept
rising up to mar the reasonable happi-
ness which might have been theirs. The
thing was getting on his nerves. In
deed, at the time this briefened narra-
tive begins, 1t already had got upon his
nerves. He had come to the point
there frequently he wished there had
never been first husband.
There were even times when he al
most permitted himself the wish that