Show KATHLEEN NORRIS Husband Forgives Indiscretion HERE HEnE is A DISTRESSED bus bus- band writing you ou says a aletter aletter aletter letter In hi my mall this week I am asking you an old age question Hugh Von Ahlm's Ahm's note goes on but the question Is Is the answer age old age old too I love Edith my wife very dearly I am five years older we have three very small sons Edith is kind capable devoted to me and the boys altogether a splendid person Because of her extraordinary nary understanding and patience we have never had a quarrel in our seven years of married life lite About two weeks ago Edith told me that a man whom I never had met but had heard her mention as one of her bel college crowd was going goIng go go- going ing to call caU on me in the e hope bope of ot selling me three letters of hers She distinctly recollected that she had bad written him but three times for they had seen each other constantly constantly constantly con con- during the last lat months of her college year after which he had left for tor his home in hi a distant state She wrote three times under the most agonizing stress a girl of 19 18 can know He never answered She never has baa seen him since I need hardly sa say gay that he is tada today a contemptible and that m my myone myone one interview with him will be my last Blackmail My wife told me the situation quietly saying that this man wanted wanted want want- ed apiece for each of these three letters and asking me to buy them She said she had told him to toW W s o I I 1 if SIX freedom om n sums lImS mt come to me and he came I identified Identified fied fled the letters paid for them and burned them unread before his eyes For Edith's Edith sake I horsewhip him as I 1 might otherwise otherwise otherwise other other- wise have done dont When I went home borne Edith asked me It if I wanted a divorce I said ald no I wanted nothing but that our life lite should bould go on as it has ben been for all aU these happy years year She told me that she bitterly regretted having kept these things thIna from me at the time tune of our engagement and asked ask uk- ed if U m my knowledge of them would havo have made a difference in m my feeling feel teel feeling ing Ine for lor her bet I said Id that it might nave done so 10 but that we had proved our devotion and compatibility bUlly toda today land and nd I wanted it all for to gotten Edith bowe however er had bad moved herself her he self eU into a I ma small room roam next ext io o 0 the nursery professing concern for the middle boy bOT who had bad a bronchial i cold and lib the she is staying there She his has changed chanced Iran firm the cheerful busy mistress of the house bouse to a nervous silent client woman who shows show altogether too much willingness to enslave and sacrifice herself and of late she he has baa been asking me again alain if it 1 I do not want a divorce Ive I've told her bee that I 1 was no saint as a. a kid It 1 doesn't help This T seems to me to rather reverse re- re reverse re verse any anything thine I would have bavo expected ex u- of ol this state of affairs I find myself the one who is 11 suing for Cor r reinstatement 1 t I Iam am of Dutch descent undemonstrative and si sl silent lent b by nature Edith is or is-or or was was- the light lIht an and warmth of the rho house boue To have bave her ber tearful aad and shaken and evasive breaks break us all aU up Am AmI I treating this problem tightly lightly and aud what wha els else eb should I dot do the Ule Price Irle To this good load bewildered bus hus band I say in answer your wife is only paying the price or rath rather a small part of the price of irresponsibility irresponsibility In hi college days Sex freedom freedom free free- dom seems thrilling and natural to girls then as indeed it is is But Sl so is playing with matches In hi the hands of small boys and so is taking out the powered high-powered car or the unfamiliar millar little power boat In hi a boys boy's later years Fifty thousand lives a year is it g what we pay for tor these escapades In hi car accidents alone and in fire c casualties and serious burns bums and blindness and lameness you yO can multiply that by 10 No matter bow how salacious a and n d suggestive our learned advisers are in hi the current current current cur cur- rent magazines they all aU come out at the end with the same old law girls and girls and boys too too must must be controlled con con- controlled trolled by character If It Edith hadn't had to pay through the revolting channel of blackmail she would have paid anyway She would relive every ever hour of that old association with shame and regret If she had discovered discovered dis dis- discovered covered that you paid your last last- year college bills bUls b by forgery shed she'd feel as you do that do-that that is wasn't you who did it lt It was that t confused and undeveloped boy who was going goIng go go- ing tog to be you Put that to her some some- day And put it to her that you admire admire admire ad ad- mire as I do do the simple courage with which she sent this rat of a 8 blackmailer straight to you |