New Britain herald., 1924-09-25
Why, Dicky Tenderly Said to Madge, "Thcre Are some Married Players Who Cans Throw
 Down Their Cards"

boWn lner IdfuS."
 Marriage is a game" heard these worus but few minutes age rom the lips of the man nearest and dearest to me of all the world and have been pondering them wondering how much truth there is in his assertion--as l write in this my confessional-the little book into which pour my heart each day.
 We are on the veranda of the farmhouse home which both Dcky and love so dearly resting after days automobile outing, and watching Junior apparently tircess' playing on the lawn. am really too fstigued for philosophy hut my husband has sounded a note that galvanizes my brain into action.
 T tell you Madge, it is gigantic game he says. suddenly sitting up straight, "the greatest ever played, with the highest stakes and with each set of two players sentenced for life to sit opposite each other in endless contending for suprem- acy. There is small wonder that so many couples kick over the board upon which the game Is played and irretrievabIy scatter the pieces with which they are playing.
 He relaxes again in his fayorte ohaise tongue and closes his eyes. fervently hope that he will not open them for little while for his odd phrasing has startled ne and I feel that I must carefully con- sider tho potentialities of joy or sorrow for us which lie in the thoughts behind his words.
 Is this all that our marriage means to Dicky-a game, an end less contest for supremacy
 His phrases echo themselves in my heart mockingly. Some of them would be errifying-"se sentenced for life" has an especially ominous sound-were it not the fiippancy in his tones which tell me that the words are simply part of my hus' bands facile volubility.
 Like Mariners Becalned
 I find it in my heart to wish not for the first time-that Dicky'' viewpoint of life-especially that cross section of it which l share were a more serious one.
 To me marriage is not a game but stern reality softened only by the knowledge of the love DickS and I bear to each other.
 If I were to liken our marriage to anything, it would be to long sea voyage. with stretches of sunshine and heavenly calm, and other periods of darkness and ter rible storms. Sometimes our matri' monial craft rides free and clear on a peaceful sunlit sea. At othel times it creeps fearfully betweer jagged rocks with overwhelming odds against its gaining safe har' bor again.
 Just now we are sailing througl SO especially long a stretch O peaceful waters that I do not won der at the note of levity in Dicky'' voice. I have studied the moods and lenses of my Peter Pan so long that I know the premonitory symp' toms of restlessness in him, ant flirpancy of speech concerning things vital to me is one of the very first.
 We are like mariners becalmed Dicky and I, in these Septembe1 days on the farm. Long 1slanC autumns are famous and l do no thing that anywhere on the islant are they lovelier than in this farm stead on the slope of a hill looking out over meadow and woodland tt the blue ocean beyond.
 Backward Glance
 But 1t is not only the autumn that we have enjoyed this year ol the farm. We have been here sinc' early spring. I almost constantly Dicky most of the time, leaving only for necessary trips to the cit! for conferences with the art editor for whom he makes the illustra tions which are steadily growing more popular.
 The experiment of maintainint an apartment in the city that Dick! might have other headquarters thai his studio came to a sudden enc with the climax of the exciting lit tie drama staged there whicl brought triumphant happiness tt winsome Mollie Fawcett, vindica tion to the man she loved and re tribution to the evil man who hat concocted, so villainous pio against their love.
 From an altruistic point of vieV it was most successful coup, MT Lowell the elderly owner of the fu factory was so grateful 10 Lillian for her part in the exposure of tn foreman whom he had trusted s' implicitly and foolishly that he fol lowed her suggestion 10 put hi young kinsman, Hal Pangborn ol his feet financially without fur ther delay. And in an incredibl, short time Mollie Fawcett was happy bride on her way to Pari with her husband, who according to Dicky. is the most ambitiou embryo artist in seven countries,
 But though we are pleased witl their happiness, neither Dicky no I have been able 10 bear the though of the apartment since. We cam too near the shipwreck of our owl happiness in my misunderstandini of his interest in Mollie Fawcett and also grazed death by as close margin as will ever fall to us.
 We lost no time in giving up th apartment and hurrying 10 tn farm. If Dicky felt as I did, he hal the sensation of reaching ssnctuar