The Glenwood post., 1924-01-17

Eliot had been married seven years
and he was bored; not bored with
the temporary languor that came over
him Of Sunday afternoon when he
wished for enough energy to go and
play golf-but actively bored so that
every action Of his life as far as he
could see was ugly and lusterless. And
yet he loved his wife and his two good
little girls. Mary was pretty, good, de-
voted, and-though his mind hesitated
a little over the last tep-intelligent.
Her mind was as alert and vigorous
and quick to understand his thoughts
as it had been when, the autumn after
he left college, he had married her.
1t was matrimony, he told himself,
not Mary, that bored him; but he was
aware that the line was a fine one
Nevertheless he had been careful tc
draw it, when, the evening before, Sam
Francis and he had been discussing
the advantages and disadvantages of
the married state. Sam was bachelor
He had come over to dine, and after
dinner the two friends had gone to
moving picture. Mary was busy put
ting the children to bed The picture.
as 1t happened, dealt with the life of
young married couple; and though
all the walls were of rough plaster, all
the doorways were arches, and all the
trees eucalyptus, breakfasts and babies
and bills seemed to be much the same
on one coast as on the other.
Its dull picture" said Sam the
bachelor, lightly.
Its dull subject" said Eliot. the
married man, bitterly.
This opened the door to a discussion
none the less frank and Intimate be
cause 1t was carried on in generalities.
Eliot began by quoting that terrible
sentence from Middlemarch: 'I never
loved anyone well enough to put my
head into moose for them-it Is
moose you know" Sam agreed, but
wondered whether every man as he
grew older (Sam was twenty-six) did
not want home of his own, and at
this point an irresistible desire for
self-expression came over Eliot. He
remembered how he had once been
free-free not for evil things but for
adventures that were often nothing
more than intellectual-free to miss q
dozen suburban trains. If he wanted
to finish book at the club-free to &c
to the theater without asking himself
whether the money would not have
been better spent on the children's
shoes-free to wander all night on the
bridges, thinking of some futile para
doxical philosophy, without owing any
one an explanation of his irregular
hours-free even to give up his job II
1t became intolerable to him-free to
hazard his future In any way he felt
inclined. This was the aspect of mat
rimony that no one explained to you.
You were told about giving up your
club or your favorite cigar, and per.
haps a good tailor but no one made II
clear that your privacy and your
leisure and your liberty to choose must
90, too.
"And to some people," Eliot said
judicially, as II he had nothing in
common with people like that, ''to some
people life becomes an intolerable bore
when those things go. OF course that
does not apply to us, because Mary is
an exceptional woman"
"Oh. very" said Sam smiling to him.
self In the darkness Of the theater,
over the fact that anyone could call
Mary exceptional.
The conversation made little impress
sion on him, but in Ellot's mind 1t ere. !
ated clear mental picture Of his |,
situation that he could not forget
Never, 1t seemed to him the next !
morning nt breakfast, had his two
daughters asked why and when so
often. Mary, neat and pretty at the
head Of the table, smiled and poured
out coffee.