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Show jlLOVE and MARRIED LIFE! Jhj. the noted author Idah M?Ctlone Gibson 1 "Perhaps I am, Charles," I said, when he told me that I was looking for something In marriage that could not be found on this earth. "Perhaps I am," I reiterated, "but whatever I find, I am not going to lot cowardice and inertia wreck my life as it has done that .of so many other women that I know. In looking for what I have suggested to you I may find a substitute. I may find' something else which will make life endurable, but I am not going to be unhappy while 1 pretend to be something else. Since we have been married John has never nev-er changed the course of .his life, the course of his actions, the course of his thought, by one lota, and yet he would change me in every particular. Liked Her Independence. "Do you realize, Charles that by no possibility would John Gordon have fallen in love with me had I been other oth-er than I am. He liked my independence. independ-ence. Why. before wo were married he used to thoroughly enjoy discussions discus-sions of nlmost any subject with me and I will say that he showed a respect re-spect for my mental powers that made me feel that ho regarded me quite as his equal. Wo were comrades and companions, but immediately upon our marriage I became only a possession, and he began to make me over Into something that he would have despised de-spised aftor he had finished tho transformation." trans-formation." Charles looked at me in great surprise. "Kathcrine," he said "do other women feel as you do?" "A majority of them do." T said. There are women, like John's sister, of phlogmatlc temperaments, who go on In tranquility, marking out new avenues of Interest for themselves and keeping their own lives separate from the life that they live with their husband. hus-band. There are other women whoso solo comfort and hope is in their children. child-ren. These women are like Ruth Gav- ord I think that Ruth Is happier now that she is separated from Bobble than she was before. There Is still another class liko Helen. A woman of this class is so desperately in love with her husband that she is willing to become be-come his slave or a plaything, just as be wishes. This type of a wolnan Is never happy, no more so than I, al-though al-though John satisfies all my primitive emotions, he outrages my feminine ego every moment I am with him. Reason for Unhappiness. "Either tho woman of todav lias grown too large a brain or man has not yet learned that feminity is some- ; thing more than one of his ribs. One or the other of those Is the reason for many unhappy marriages." "All of which," said Charles with a smile, "gets us nowhere In particular. I seem to recall that we started for that oil gusher in Texas, at least you had us on our way." "I beg your pardon, Charles. I wasn't thinking of starting for Texas, I was thinking only of your going." "Well, o'f course, I will go if you send me," ho said, "for when was tho time that I did not do your bidding since you were old enough to audibly bid" I laughed. "Am I such a tyrant." I asked. "Do you, too, Charles, think that I want my own way to tho exclusion exclu-sion of everything, else? Am I one of those exlgant females who alwavs want to be it?" "No," answered Charles slowly, "but I think you want your full share In the 'if business. If I may criticize Kath-erine, Kath-erine, I will say that perhaps you were not clever enough to keep this fact from the sex whoso members imagine that they arc the lords of creation." Sudden Light Break6. "Oh, I said, a sudden light breaking iu on me, "then the troublo with me Is that I am too frank, too sincere Perhaps you arc right, Charles. The' more I think of It the more I think you are, but alas I must be frank with myself and sincere with my husband." I said this with animated quaking of my heart, because I knew that what Charles had said, was true. If I could be insincere with John, if I could just act as though I believed everything he said and did was right. I could do anything any-thing 1 wished to do. If I allowed him to think that he was doing things his own way, he would be perfectly content. con-tent. In other words, if I had treated him as his mother did, when she arranged ar-ranged with the shopkeepers to put overcharges on his bill and give her the monty; or as did Elizabeth More-land More-land when she made him think that) he was still the only man In her life while she was carrying on two or I three other flirtations. I would probably prob-ably live a more peaceful, If nto contented con-tented life. As it was, I was fighting the eternal battlo of the sexes in my own wav, and in my own way I could fight until the end. What the end would be I could not see. (Copyright by National Newspaper Service) (To be Continued) |
