Evening star., 1951-08-09


ore being reprinted todoy.
meeting, this girl who passionately
loved him. Then, in the spring
of 1908, she was to visit him in
his home.
Before he allowed her to do so,
he sent her stern warning of
the sanctity with which he regard
ed the legal and social ties of
marriage.
No eternal triangle for him, no
matter how much she desired 1t;
that Is his theme. The first part
of the letter refers, of course, to
the advice he was giving the girl
about her writing:
10 Adelphi Terrace, w. c..
22nd April, 1908.
My dear I should have at
tended to the incloSed for you
sooner but for very bad bout
of the influenza. In sending it
to the New Age, you need not
put it forward as your own device.
Anybody else in the world but
you would have either paid a
guinea subscription to the Au-
thors' Society and got the help of
the secretary, or else got your So
licitor to negotiate for you.
You understand, of course. that
this is only a draft, and that it
would be we'll to keep copy when
you send it to them for their ap-
proval. When you have agreed
upon it, then two fair copies can
be made. Each party signs one
and sends it to the other; and
that finishes the job.
Now that l have taught you
some respect for business and the
law, let me assure you that mar
riage is more sacred than either,
and that unless you are prepared
to treat my wife with absolute
loyalty, you will be hurled into
outer darkness forever.
Privilege Is Wife's Only.
The privilege of paving me,
such as it is. is hers exclusively.
She has to tolerate WorShipping
females whose efforts to conceal
the fact that they take no interest
in her are perfunctory, and who
bore her to distraction with their
alteration of me; but it is my
business to see that her patience
is not abused.
You are a luxurious young devil,
with the ethics, and something of
the figure, of an anteater g.. =.
but if you dare to try Crawling
all over me in my Wife'S home
you will be very Startlingly
awakened to the iron laws of
domestic honor.
Also, it is not sensible nor
decent to write about such dem
onStrationS except to men of your !
own time of life, and with some
assurance that they are equally /
infatuated, and will read it all as
tOucnlng poetry.
Whenever I get anything in the /
nature of a love letter 1 hand it
straight to Charlotte, and l am
not at all sure that this may not
be the explanation of the fact ,
that the lunch here and the meet
ing with Mr.. G. B. did not come
off.
Remember that your best be-
havior will not be too good for
me. as you hardly yet know how
to behave yourself at all, being
the very worst brought-up young
woman I have ever met in the
course of my half century of "tak-
Ing notice" G.. B. S. /
This letter aroused in the girl
a violent emotional protest. There
seems to be no trace of her reply
it was one of the letters of
which she did not keep a copy, |
and doubtless Shaw soon destroyed
the original.
Reply Hints Contents.
But what it contained is obvi-
GUS from the beginning of his next
letter to her-and from the fact
that he broke off from a busy
period in the London theater to
write second long letter within
a few days, even while protesting
that he had no time except to
write curtly:
10 Adelphi Terrace, w. C. 2.
9th April, 1908.
My dear -: I am so hard /
pressed for time by my rehearsals
that I can write only in the curt
est and boldest fashion.
I do not accuse you of propos-
ing to act wrongly and indecent
1y'': I tell you that your proposal
was unlawful.
1t is entirely natural for a hun
CRY man to take loaf of bread
and eat it. 1t is entirely natural
for an adult woman to kiss man
she likes. People who do these
natural things are socially i'm
possible.
There is no more intolerable
nuisance than the man who makes
love to other mems wives and the
woman who makes love to other .
women's husbands.
Unless when you walk into the
house of a married woman you
accept the obligoti ton "a highly /
unnatural one) to consider her
husbands person as sacred, you
break the covenant of bread and
salt, and are thief, a libertine
and a betrayer.
If you say that you mean no
harm, you are a fool as we'll.
The reason is very simple. !
When an adult woman and an
adult man caress one another, the
result is entirely different from
the result of your kissing your
mother.
Creative Force of Universe.
The whole creative force of the
universe suddenly leaps into ac-
tivity in their bodies. They lose