The Coolidge examiner., 1932-04-22

WIPReArT1y 1nDPsnss ia P6ris. to 6urn" HoFnPe 35e
latter teens of the Twentieth
century, was just as much part of
the world upheaval as machine
guns, trench misery, air raids and
barbed wire.
Upon this boy from the placid
world of a suburb of Cincinnati,
Ohio, there burst with the varie-
gated fire of skyrocket, the spec
tacle of plumber and death, Paris
and beauty, license and pain, vice,
cOwardice and a panorama of
bravery that, through the rockets
red glare, made mankind seem sub
lime.
Perry, at twenty, from the even
/ tenor of his fathers tool factory
in the pretty suburb outside of Gin
| cinnati, found himself something of
WOrld-war hero, two bravery cita-
tiOns to his credit; a citizen of the
world, fiOundering around the bat
tletields of France and Flanders for
two years; and finally. a disabled
soldier on extended leave while
wounds of an all but mortal nature,
slowly but surely closed their ugly
mouths.
Then what happened was just
! normal part of the abnormal condi-
! ton. He met, through a vagary
of circumstances. the usual little
French Colette. whose hair was
like a wet mop of curls, whose droll-
cries were as exciting as they were
alluring, whose constancy was pa
thetic and whose alteration healed
him more swiftly than medication.
He forgot, in the phantasmagoria
of the moment, "the girl back
home" ensconced himself with Col
ette in the traditional thatched at
tic on the left bank of the Seine.
and for months the idyllic, ire
sponsible life of man and his maid.
| flowed in uninterrupted bliss.
/ COlette! He tried sometimes to
capture the words 10 describe her.
A dragon-fy skittling over bright
waters. Popcorn dancing in its pan.
A chrysanthemum in a gale. All
to no effect. She would not be
caught in the prison of words. She
was thistledown. dancing ahead of
the wind. She was delectable
nonsense, and then strangely. para
| dOxically. the was the frugal little
French girl, conserving your inter-
ests. your furds. your health, your
well-being.
Life in that attic, with geraniums
on the window sills, cookery reek-
ing from the little improvised stove.
laughter blowing about the corners,
happiness squatting every turn. was
a dream caught in an interlude be-
tween two realities; the reality of
war; the reality of the suburb of
Cincinnati.
Life and Paris and flower stands
and holidays on the Seine and walks
in Fontainebleau and nibbles in
patisseries and kisses on the back
of Colette's darling adorable neck
were just one bouquet of irrespOn.
sible hours crammed with irrespOn-
sible joys. You awOke with a sense
| of holiday, you breakfasted with
Colette on your knees with a sense
of holiday. you galloped through the
all roo short days with that same
sense of holiday and bIessedly.
wOrnOut with fatigue of pleasure
hours, you slept that you might
awaken TO another holiday.
And so the days became the
weeks and the months and finally
the year, and then, as is the case
with all perfect holidays, there
came one day the awakening TO the
still cold dawn of reality.
II came in the form of two trum-
pet calls. Armistice! And a cable
from the girl back home. Helen.
worn with waiting; eager. home
sick. rei0iced, was arriving with her
mother for Paris wedding and a
honeymoon trip TO America.
Well. 1t fell into the midst of
thai small paradise as bombs like
that were falling into one after an
other of the transient paradises that
hOneycOmbed Paris and had been
erected out of the toll and moil of
war. Colette. who knew every
thing, and in a way had been pre-
pared for the blow before ii fell.
took it when it came in the same
dauntleSS spirit that characterized
the countless of her kind.
Norman, feeling smirched. guilty
toward both COlette and Helen,
wretched. apprehensive, and filled
with sense of the kind OF obi
CATION and responsibility that has
its mOorings in sections like rhe
suburbs outside the Cincinnatis OF
America bowed his head and mis-
heart and succumbed 70 the predic-
| ament of caring for two women and
having TO choose one.
1t was characteristic of Helen,
when she arrived. that she should
| have tolerance and sympathy and
understanding for The veiled confes-