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Show If I Dorothy Dix Talks I THE LOVER'S CATACHISM l.'al "The other night." said a middle flr ngod woman. "I was waiting in a ' Mb hotel lobby for a friend, when 1-in- advercntly became an eavesdropper M on tho billing and cooing of a pair of IK T . pair of young lovon. a The first thing that I hoard was r" the youth asking tho girl if she was j sure sho had never loved before, p , t' Then sho Inquired of him if he was really, truly true, certain ho had . navor cared for another woman in the g ; " wide, wide world. Then he asked her f if she was sure that she wuld novor love again, nnd she questioned him f j oa to the deathlessness of his af- ; ' rectlon. Then he Inquired of her If I 1 ' 1 'ho should die was she certain that I1L' she would never love or marry again, & and she asked him If Go1 should tnke hef was he sure that 'no othor W woman would ovor fill her place in I his heart and life. m "Lover's Catechism 1 "And then they started it all ovor again, and T got up and strolled away, iukI I smiled to think that thol lovers' catechism never changes from generation to generation, for those wero Just tho selfsame questions that i( I recalled that my husbnnd' and I i had asked each othor whon wo wore J courting some thirty odd years ago. ! "And 1 wondered if we had It all to do over again, how many mlddlc-ugod mlddlc-ugod people, with the experience of matrimony behind them, would waste much time on asking each other hypothetical questions about love, and i what they might, would, or should do under some suppositious circumstances. 1i "For as we grow older we find out Uhat lovo Isn't tho whole of existence. It is merely tho meringue on the' lemon pie of life, and there aro aj great many things that make more for our peace and comfort than tho Htnlc of affections of oven our husbands hus-bands and wives, nnd a lot of things are more important to us while wo arc allvo thnn whether thoy would marry, or not after we are dead. "If I wore going to bo married again, for Instance, I should not ask tho man if I was his first love bo-causo, bo-causo, in the first place, I should know that I was forcing him to lie like a gentleman. And, in tho socond place, I shouldn't care how often ho had loved before, provided I was his lust love. It doesn't really matter to a woman what other previous tenants ten-ants havo'had temporary leases of ; her husband's heart providod, in tho end, ho bestows upon her tho title ' deed to it, properly., signed and i sealod. j wtfc "Nor woUld 1 usIc a ma whether '"I3 hill ho wouhl CVOr lovo again, or not, ' W wMi i0V 1 wou,d that was a ques- a WZ& tlon Ulnt no human being can an- H mi I' Bwcr honestly. Moreover, as long as I Blf 1 Uvo 1 fcel thn-L lhe job of keeping jl P I him reasonably enamored of myself : 13 0,10 lhat Fcnn attend to, and after Ik ' :': La :i :I am dead if ho can find concolatlon 'in another lovo I would not keep him from It If I could. Things Unappealing-"1 Unappealing-"1 cannot think that It would add to my jo3 in my heaven to know that the man 1 loved, and whose happiness and comfort had been tho chief thing I had striven for in life, was lonely, and old, and neglected, with no one to see that ho had the food that agreed with him, or that he changed his shoes when he came home with damp feet. The idea of an angel playing on her harp with one hand, and holding on with a death grip to her mortgage on her ; ex-husband, has never been one that appealed to me. "Now, if 1 were going to be married mar-ried again I should let tho sentimental senti-mental Inquiries go and trust to luck thnt tho man who was going to assume as-sume my board bill and shopping ticket entertained an affection for me that offset the liabilities ho was assuming, as-suming, and so I should get right down to brass tacks. "I shouldn't question him so much about the state of his heart as the state of ills liver, for it's a man's 1 ver that makes him livable, or otherwise. other-wise. 1 should want to know if ho sung while he shaved of a morning, morn-ing, or If he was one who got up with a dark brown taste In his mouth and who kicked the cat, and grouched over his food, and whom it wasn't safe to speak to until' he had had two cups of coffee, and the eggs and bacon had gotten in their molll- "And I should ask him how ho intended to treat his wife. I should Inquire whether his idea of a wife was a show window that he could deck out with Jewels and fine clothes to exhibit the state of Ills prosperity. Or whether his conception , of a wife wns a combination cook and seamstress, seam-stress, and nurse and baby tender, nnd a goneral utility light running domestic machine, or whether ho wnntod a wife who would he a friend and companion nnd business partner. More Things to Find "Yes, before I married again I certainly cer-tainly would find out whether my husband was going to parade me around to show mo off, or leavo me at home while he went out to en-Joy en-Joy himself, or pal around with mo at home and elsewhere because he enjoyed ' my society. ' "And if 1 were going to marry again I should certainly try to got a lino on the temper and disposition of tho man with whom I was proposing propos-ing to spend the next forty or fifty years. "I would want to know what he was likely to say to mo when ho quit telling mo I was the most beautiful and wonderful thing on earth and how he worshipped me, and had to BMSBSSSSSst&iJB 1 discuss the bills with me. I should want to know if he was the sort of man that would take out on me all the temper, and nerves, and Irritation Irrita-tion that he dare not expend on his clients, or his patients, or his customers cus-tomers becauso my whole happiness as a wife would depend on the answer an-swer to that question. Views on Flnnncfnl Question 'And I would ask the man 1 was going to marry for his views on the financial question and whether he thought a wife was entitled to an Individual pockctbook, or should be grateful to her husband for permitting permit-ting her to toll for her board and what clothes ho chose to give her. "And I imagine If my husband wore going to marry mo again ho would skip lightly over the love stuff, and try to ascertain whether I masqueraded mas-queraded my temper under the alias of nerves, and whother I had the curtain lecturo habit, nnd what sort of n cook I wns. "Perhaps widows and widowers do put their number twoes through this sort of u sane lovers1 catechism instead in-stead of tlio old fool one, and that 13 why second marriages are generally gen-erally happier than first. oo |
