Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1948-03-05
BY KATHLEEN NORRIS

IN EY HUSBAND has left
MI me behind-oh, he
1 v i is generous, he is kind
and loyal" writes May Miller
from Kansas, 'but just the same
I know, and he knows, that he
has outstripped me socially,
mentally, every way. I began
to feel this some three years
ago, but it has taken some time
for me to realize it fully. Now
that I do realize it, I believe I
am the most miserable, and
feel myself the most useless
woman in the world.
Troy was a struggling young law
clerk when I married him II years
ago." the letter goes on. II was
bookkeepper in shoe store, and I
kept my job. Roy earned $40 a
week, worked daytimes in the office,
studied all day Sundays and every
evening, helped me cook, wash
dishes and save. Our baby came
before we were ready for him, but
we managed somehow, though how
we did it don't know. Both Roys
had pneumonia one winter, and I
went from 140 to 103 pounds.
Modest But Happy
"But those were happy years, and
presently Roy was asked to join
law firm, at very modest salary.
But it meant a start, and I gave
up my job and devoted myself to
my home. That's the way things
were when the big war started seven
years ago. Roy went into a naval
training camp, made splendid rec
ord for himself, came home COM
mander, and settled down to law
practice again.
"But how changed he was!
Most of the time he'd been in
England, had been invited to
join a fine club, had had
chance to study international af-
fairs and International law. He
was no sooner home than he
was drawn into politics, and
now, as write, the chance Of an
important nomination seems to
be drawing very close.
81 am SO, always have been
quiet woman, fond of home, hus-
band, child, neighbors. do not
dress smartly, play bridge, frequent
beauty parlors. I do not know how
to talk to men at dinners, nor to
women either, for that matter. I
hate purely social affairs and poll
teal meetings. Roy, of course, is
now in whirl of them.
ut does not seem to me fair that
Roy, who was perfectly satisfied
with me for so many years, should
be constantly making. suggestions
now about my figure, clothes, man.
ner, the words 1 use, and my re-
luctance to undertake Inequalities
and entertainments for which I
really am not fitted. Yet I feel I
cannot entirely withdraw; there are
too many attractive women about,
with their eye out for second or
third husbands Am justified in
asking Roy to give up his political
ambitions, or shall 1 just 60 ahead
being my natural self-the unin-
teresting, drab little wife of the man
of the hour?"
My answer to May Miller would
be neither" 1t is just as foolish
and shortsighted to ask Roy to sac
rifice his life, as it is to subside
into a snubbed little forgotten out
slider, looking meekly on at his sue
cesses, and letting other women en-
joy his friendship and his triumphs.
Revamp Your Life
What you have to do is rise to
the situation, take yourself in hand
and catch up with Roy. I suspect
that you have been putting on
weight; begin unobtrusively to take
1t off. Don't talk about it all the
time, or moan over tempting dishes
at dinner, but gradually get good
figure back. Get good corsets, and
keep your hair waved and brushed.