OCR Text |
Show KATHLEEN NORRIS 'Adultery' Awful Word To Face I he takes it all as settled, he feels, as he says, that it will 'justify' our love affair. I am worried, almost distracted, by it. In fact, I can't eat or sleep for nervousness. Roger wants my immediate consent, and talks as if our love were still in the stage it was two years ago. I don't mean it isn't, exactly, but these things do grow less, and one does not see them in the beginning as one does later on. I have argued that my love for my children, my home responsibilities, and my position posi-tion in the community are all against my making any such change, but Roger regards all this as only one more evidence of my unselfishness and perfection, and sweeps it away as nonsense. "I am quite confident that there will be no real trouble about this," Ethel's letter concludes, "but I would be glad of your opinion." If Ethel is really confident that there is no real trouble here I can only marvel at her obtuseness. If ever there was real trouble in store for a woman who quite obviously wants to hold on to home and husband hus-band and children, this is it. Between Be-tween the lines I can read a certain uneasiness; Ethel may begin dimly dim-ly to suspect that home, husband, children, position, and very likely like-ly material comfort have all been jeopardized by her sin. "J AM in a very serious dilemma," writes Ethel Wilsey, from Roanoke. "Time, which you so often say heals all wounds, may solve this for me, but meanwhile I would be glad of your opinion. "Would you ever advise a woman to divorce her husband for no particular par-ticular reason, and marry another man? I don't think you would. But let me explain the rather unusual circumstances. My social and club circle is large, but I can't consult anyone here. "I am 29. Ten years ago I married mar-ried a man 12 years my senior. I liked Hart, I loved my new name and my house, and we really had some good times. Then my two children were bom, and things quieted down. Hart had a small salary; my father died and that source of hospitality ended, and I began to feel that life was a pretty steady drudge. Hart began to travel a good deal three years ago, and then my days were duller than ever, even though there was more money. World Upside Down "Then I met Roger. Just a quiet fine man at a card party, at first. Then fireworks. Neither one of us had ever really been in love before and it turned the whole world upside up-side down. During Hart's absences, when my mother was with the children, chil-dren, I was free to come and go, and in the first radiant happiness of our finding each other we were ". . . affair with Roger . . ." both deeply, truly heart-satisfied. Roger and his wife had meant nothing to each other lor years! his only daughter was away at school. No one was hurt, and everyone every-one at home happier for the change in me, for I seemed suddenly alive after so many years of slipping deeper and deeper into a rut. "But six weeks ago Roger's wife died. It was only two days after her funeral that in a talk with him I realized that he expects me to divorce Hart and marry him. He takes the situation for granted and wants to talk to Hart about it. "Now the absolute truth is that I never stopped loving my husband, hus-band, and I adore my children. My affair with Roger may have been foolish, but 1 cannot see that it was wrong. Nobody was hurt by it, for no hint of it ever reached Hart, his mother, my mother, or the children. chil-dren. It would be simply impossible, impos-sible, no matter how much I wanted want-ed to do so, to tear my life apart now, and go with Roger to another town, for he has just changed his job. Hart and I have been doing over my father's old home, arranging ar-ranging rooms for the children and changing things about, and all our friends are looking forward to a housewarming there. It would completely com-pletely disrupt five lives, not counting count-ing my own, to have me agree to Roger's proposals. -He Is Insistent "At the same time, he is Insistent, |