The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1936-10-02
A YOUNG BACHELOR
LEARNS THE
OF A HAPPY AND
SUCCESSFUL

OF A HAPPY AND
SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE.
A ND so THEY were married,
~ whispered Leila Shane, at my
~ side, through lips that barely
L Amoved, and lived unhappily till
n lit out for Reno. I whis-
whisper well expressed the feelings Of
all 80 or "a Of us who witnessed the
marriage of Norman Fain and Mary
Hallam late chilly April afternoon
in the chapel of the Little Church
Around the Corner.
A stranger, happening in, would have
perceived in ten seconds that all was
not well at this ceremony. For one
thing, the bride, in her brown travelling
frightened, unhappy little voice, while
the groom. in his Oxford gray sack
suit, made his in a loud tone which i
ian only call hollowly optimistic. The
clergyman, obviously taken aback by
both h groom's forced cheeriness and
the brides unconcealed detection, hur-
REQ through his questions, pronounce
made this marriage seem perfunctory If
not offhand.
TO get to the point, the trouble was,
as all Of us knew, that this was a
double rebound marriage. Mary Hallam,
the day she was married to Norman
Fain, was still pining for Jack VIM
ship, who had taken it into his head
SIX weeks before to haul anchor out of
Marys life and ask a somewhat i'm
Joan Crystal to marry him, which Miss
Crystal had done with no untoward
delay. Norman Fain's heart, on the day
Of his marriage to Mary Hallam, was
SILL l n custody of Ernestine Addams,
who a month or so before had rather
clearly indicated that she didn't value
this treasure by breaking the news of
her engagement to a MI. Ross Whipple.
Hen the Norman Fain-Mary Hal
lam engagement and marriage; a com
pound, as we who knew them saw it,
OF frustrated love, wounded pride,
dashed hopes and three or four Other
ingredients which don't commonly in
teract to produce a successful union. OF
money there was little; Norman was a
g~ood-iooking, pleasant American boy,
U his resources were pretty we'll linn
Using agency, while Mary's people
(tthey lived down in the village) were
charming but not burdened with
wealth: OF love for each other, there
was only q microscopic quantity if there
was any at all. When the ceremony was
over we filtered out of the church and
down to a modest buffet supper given
by Mary's mother, all of us feeling
rather glum.
The next sentence in order begins
with Imagine my surprise" but there
is a little filling In to be done first.
I have to explain that it was a little
more than five years before this par
tlcular surprise came my way. Less than
a month after Mary and Norman were
m a T1siaH YNy firm cA~k yo@ " -Ls--
arolis to deal with what was expected
to be a short-lived burst Of trouble in
our branch offices there; and five
years and two months dribbled over
the ledge into eternity before I had
so much as another smell of New York,
The first three weeks after my re-
turn I put in most of my spare time
picking up old friendships and connec-
tons. Never having been much of a
hand at writing letters, I started prac-
tically from scratch. About Norman
F'ain and Mary Hallam Il couldn't
think of them as MI. and Mrs. Fain)
I made inquiries Of several members Of
u old crowd. but without success.
It wasn't until I tracked down that
same Leila Shane who had whispered
the Reno ,foreboding at the wedding
that I got definite information con
corning the FANS. Leila was Mrs. Rod
erick Brandon nowadays, and much set
up, though as jolly as ever, in her
Oracle Square apartment.
Imagine my surprise, then, to have
Leila answer my question thus: 1.-THE
FANS? Why, yes. Rod and I spent a
perfectly grand weekend with them
ling place up at Westport, and two of
the cutest children. You'd better give
them a ring. I'll give you their phone
number"
The matter of-course way in which
Leila broke the news startled me almost
as much as the news itself. But at once
the reflection came that I had been
my mind Norman and Mary had re-
manned for more than five years a
sadly mismatched couple who could
not possibly make a go of 1t, those who
had watched them make a go Of 1t
must long since have ceased to wonder.
I tried Leila further on the point:
E RSme Geddinr We Iei Iat together at the
She smiled amiably. $50 we did"
Remember what you whispered to
"N-no. Something about how happy
they'd be, I suppose?"
For days I. found myself unable to
toss the miracle out of mind. Miracle
was not too strong q word. Here was
oOA41CUA4AA1S W1l1S1A COo4N A1OG l1dVC AldP.
pened, but which had happened. Why?
And how? Considering the trick Leila's
memory had played her. it seemed OBJ
vious that n could get the straight
of it from nobody but Norman or Mary,
or both of them. At first I recoiled
from this notion of a ~vulgarly curious
personal probe into a married couples
affectional life, but once born in my
mind the notion insisted IN growing
there. Every of us, I suppose, Is
fascinated by romance, and longs to
track down the slightest rumor of a
romance in real life.
To cut short the story of this soul
struggle, let me simply relate that on
Friday morning following my CONVEX
sation with Leila Brandon I fished out
the FANS Westport, Conn.,, telephone
number from my notebook and put
through a call. After the usual how've-
you-beens and glad-you're- backs, plus
a slightly protracted pause on my part,
Mary Fain asked me whether I was
doing anything that weekend, and I
said no, and she asked me to spend 1t