The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1936-10-02

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have been because both looked so much
looked on their wedding day, Several
fine lines about the eyes, for instance,
which I had noticed on kissing the
bride at the wedding supper, were
definitely gone now from Mary's face.
Norman's lips had lost a certain
now looked somehow serene, though
not in the least loose Or weak.
The Fains had, indeed, as Leila had
said, q charming place on the outskirts
Of Westport; plenty OF ground and
grass and trees, and a graceful old
colonial house, completely modernized
as to plumbing and electricity, OF eight
or nine rooms.
Norman, plainly, had come q long
years; and if any doubt had remained
that Mary and Norman were genuinely
happy together it would have been
dispelled by the two children. The boy
was a little more than three and the
girl was just two-bright, mischievous
looking little things, who one could
see got plenty Of enforced affection
parents and were afraid of neither
Mary 10 Norman.
After I had been duly shown to my
room and had washed and changed to
Stacks and a pullover sweater, we had
several highballs in fairly rapid sue
cession on the terrace. For all the
tongue ~loosening reputation of the
quest that afternoon. This, though I
left opening after opening for Nor
eyed, say, Eyes, we are happily mar
ried, we two" and proceed to tell me
why.
That evidently is not the way such
secrets are lured out into the open; at
least it wasn't in this case. This case,
as 7 was to discover, required a minor
explosion Mary and Norman merely
went on being-what shall I say?-
sweet to each other, as well as hos
pltable to me.
There is nothing more delightful, I
think, perhaps because it is not too
usual, than to see a man and his wife
being genuinely, sweet to each other.
It is more a matter of what they don't
do than of what they do do. Mary, for
example, didn't snatch half-told stor-
les out of Norman's mouth and finish
them to suit herself; she let Norman
finish them. Norman didn't fall into
arguments with Mary, or correct her
Morgenthau Il remember that one
specifically, though a little flick OF
his eyelids showed that he knew. how
to pronounce it. At dinner, which the
maid set out on the terrace on a roomy
collapsible table, the little boy was al
lowed to be present. to his enormous
qualification; and-the supreme test,
quarrel over his undeniably loose con-
duct at table or the best ways of i'm
proving it.
It was the same story at the country
club where we went to dance later that
evening. Norman had two or three
drinks too many, SO that he became
rather loudly jovial, but Mary didn't
whining tone or any other tone, please
to slow down. About 2 o'clock in the
morning she signaled to me, We poured
the now drowsy, though by no means
unconscious, Norman into the car, and
Mary drove us home and unconcerned-
ly got Norman to bed:
Poor dear" she told me, "he works
relax Saturday nights"
All of which was very lovely and
touching, but didn't tell me what I
wanted to know. I must confess to
having gone to bed feeling the least
bit cloyed with all this sweetness. Or,
perhaps, being a bachelor, I was merely
enyious Of a happily married pair.
AAAA&S
however, was on its way. It arrived at
a big noon cocktail party at one Of
the WeStport golf clubs the next day,
Sunday. It seems that golfers on that
part of the Connecticut coast are a
hardy race. loving to get in 18 holes
Immediately after IN early Sunday
breakfast and then to storm the club
house for one of these noon cocktail
parties.
Explosion is probably too strong a
word for what happened. All that did
happen was that a piece of the past
stood up in its grave and leered mo-
mentarily in my friends faces-which
is to say that at this cocktail party we
ran into Jack Winship. Jack was the
man on whose account Mary had felt
so sorry for herself the day she mar
ried Norman Fain; the man with whom
she was still in love on her wedding
day. This was the first time Mary and
Norman had seen him in almost four
years, while I hadn't seen him since
before the wedding. Jack had been liv-
ing In the Westport area almost as
long as Mary and Norman had and
was a fairly frequent visitor at this
club, so that our running across him
here was only family remarkable.
AS we stood chatting at the club
bar some one Of us thought to ask
whether Mrs. Winship was with Jack
today.
His face fell; not much, but a little.
20 Joan!" he said. "Well to tell you
the truth, Joan and I came TO the
conclusion SOM little time ago that
well, that we didn't need each other
as badly. as we'd thought we did. Got
1t all quietly Strengthened out at Reno
about three years ago."
We changed the subject as soon as
we could, and that was all there was,
OutWardlV. tn the minor exDloSiOn, But
it had its effects. THESE began to ap-
pear as we were driving home an hour
OF so later.
Seated beside me in the rear OF the
car while Norman drove, Mary said
reflectively, 80 Jack and Joan found
they didn't need each other"
My ears pricked up. the more so as
! saw q change in Norman's face re-
flected In his windshield mirror.
They were much in love when they
married, weren't they?" I asked, heed
less Of whether I mipht reopen an old