Show kathleen nor norris ris says the unluckiest luckiest Un wife always the unluckiest luckiest Un woman bell syndicate service 11 9 it alje hw her husband told her that his assistant pr professor olessor a handsome girl of 23 loved him as deeply as he did her by KATHLEEN NORRIS PT THE ahe Un unluckiest luckiest lest wife in the world of course the un luckiest woman there are thousands of women in this country and hundreds of thousands in other coun countries tries whose lot is harder than that of Mar marjoree Marj Jorfe orle mason there are women in your town and mine who have been fighting fightlin 9 poverty all their lives long living along the boundary line of wants want able to give their children only the barest necessities of life and worrying constantly for fear that those necessities might not be always available women who have never known even a few days a few hours of luxury and beauty of plenty and security women who have to refuse their small babies the freshness n and comfort and safety small babies need who have to refuse their growing children the toys the clothes that more fortunate children take for granted who suffer a thousand deaths as the young men and women of the family demand cars and pocket money and college education as their right this in america in europe and in the orient the situation is infinitely worse civilized christian countries still see barefoot children begging in winter streets china knows that every winter a million of her people will starve slowly to death and a million more tall fail victims to the diseases that weakness malnutrition cold and hunger bring comparative misery so when I 1 speak of the bitter trial that hat marjorie mason has been called upon to bear I 1 am treating only of the comparative misery and humiliation that can come to a woman who has a comfortable home icene fine children a car a club friends a good cook in her kitchen books boks leisure enough money good health and she says a real trust that god will help me through this difficulty if I 1 am wise enough to heed his guidance not much material from which to construct an appeal to your pity is it and yet there is no wife alive that wont feel pity tor for mar jorie orie when she hears bears her story marjorie is 32 she has been married for nine years to i a man she deeply loves he is a professor handsome popular successful with a comfortable little income of his own to supplement his salary the masons live in a roomy house on a beautiful campus there are three children in the family a girl of seven and boys of five years and one year marjorie has as assistant the ie fine colored mother of one of the undergraduate girls she is free to do dd her part in campus work mothers and alumni groups he hospital s convalescent home shakespeare study club dramatics she not only teaches her daughter but she belongs to a little circle of college mothers who take turns in amusing and watching the younger children on different after afternoons afternoon noo ns marjories Mar jorles life was all sunshine until some four weeks ago when her husband in one of those luxuries of confession that weak men so enjoy told her that his assistant professor a handsome girl of about 23 loved him as deeply as he did her lie he was exultant over his conquest and fatuously related to his wile wife the details of the a affair in which the girls great love iad overcome her scruples bitter injustice this ibis sounds as nauseating to me as it does to you writes marjorie but arthur was like a crowing boy averit ov over erit it I 1 did what I 1 could told him that he must be out of his senses to jeopardize his position his whole lifes work in this way to say nothing of the bitter injustice to M me 1 and to the children I 1 tried to P pm my own heartbreak aside it was too late then for any outbreak of mine to do any good for days I 1 seemed to be in a bad dream for the thing lad had come upon me like a thunderbolt and the past was all spoiled as well as the future arthur as completely oblivious of any feeling of mine as he had been of ordinary decency and duty asked me it I 1 would have the girl at the house now and then so there would be no talk this 1 I told him was a physical as well as moral impossibility I 1 simply do it on this point we had our first serious quarrel since then I 1 have not spoken to arthur directly but for the childrens sake a certain amount of civility must go on arthur continues to show nothing but complacency ency and high spirits he tens tells me that if he be and the girl had resisted temptation or love as he calls it then all three of us would be unhappy As it is I 1 am the only miserable one and they dont expect me to understand the girl came to see me and was tearful and explanatory and heroic I 1 dont think I 1 spoke at all in the 10 m minutes in I 1 endured her company arthur would be dropped d ro aped from the faculty it if this were w ere known H his 1 fine old father president emer emeritus I 1 tu of another university would die of grief and how would my children be bettered battered by the shame of their father but I 1 cant go on as things are these few weeks have shown me that tell me what to do advice to marjorie marjorie MarJ orle the first thing to do is get out and take the children with you but not noi with any bitterness or threats say to your few close friends that you are taking the baby to the mountains or that the small daughter had two chest colds last year and you think it wise to try the shore share not far from you there are lakeside summer cabins which rent in winter for as little as 10 a month find one and move this will have a triple advantage it will get you away from the immediate contemplation of an insufferable state of affairs it will scare the complacent philandering arthur out of his wits he will be lonely disorganized and possibly brought to a realization of what wealth he be had and has donell done all he be could to destroy and lastly jt it will terrify the girl she may suddenly awaken to the truth that she has given everything for nothing and is in a fair way to lose position and reputation when arthur comes to his senses or rather having obviously very little sense when he appreciates that he has made an expensive and foolish mistake then come back forgive him and resume the outer shell of the old happy loving life you may never want to share his room or his affection again lie he could ha hardly i adly expect that but tor foi cherest the th erest rest take the blow that fortune has dealt you as every woman must in one way or ano another pick up the pieces end and face the future stronger in your own soul if sadder in your heart |