Show kathleen norris norms says nancy Is the most unhappy of wives bell syndicate features feature j V j I 1 met of at a canteen dance the man who seemed everything wonderful in the world to me our attraction was ivas mutual paul was a second lieutenant handsome and popular by KATHLEEN NORRIS X TANCY ANCY ROBINSON con N siders herself the un happiest young wife in all the world she that but she has indeed a sad problem to solve and one that probably wont be the only one of its kind as these war years go by last february s rewrites she he writes 1 I met at a canteen dance the man who seemed everything wonderful in the world to me our attraction was mutual paul was a second lieutenant handsome and poo popular pular old friends of my family knew ajl 0 about his people and there seemed no reason for our delaying our marriage which took place in april I 1 was then the happiest girl in the world as I 1 am now the most miserable shortly afterward paul was sent away to central america it was a hard parting for we had had five wonderful weeks in a little beach home borrowed from a friend and felt ourselves an ideally companionable couple but I 1 had expected it it and bore it as heroically as I 1 could in a few weeks a long letter came from paul then a shorter one and several cards and notes in my heart I 1 felt that something was wro wrong 9 but nothing to really prepare me for the shock I 1 received this morning when a long letter arrived in it my husband writes me that he feels that our hasty marriage was a mistake that we were both too young he Is 28 20 1 I will be 21 in december that does not seem too y young ung to me wants his freedom ile he assures me that there is no other woman in the case but says he would like to be free he says that since our marriage was a very quiet one and I 1 live in a small nevada town there need be no publicity as he be has not told any of his bis new friends that he is married and I 1 live alone with my mother things can be sort of hushed up until every one loses interest paul has met some friends at his bis new post they are eviden evidently tl by making a great deal of him for he speak dinners and dances and that in one spanish american family there are lots of brothers and sisters and cousins and they keep things moving beach parties and singing every weekend week end that sort of thing g he says he is very glad that a little scare D I 1 had bad about a baby coming turned out to be nothing and that he will always think of mother and me affectionately I 1 will give you the actual words with which he be finishes his letter it is up to you of 0 course nancy to do as you think best but under the circumstances I 1 can feel that nothing but divorce is the solution you may be sure that I 1 will send you au all the money I 1 can as much as your lawyer thinks right and more and always remember those happy days at beachwood we surely had a terrible crush on each other but as we grew older we would be sure to grow apart and the best thing is freedom for both now no matter how badly we feel at breaking up things this way so a big kiss and a hug from your ex hubby and write me that you think this is the wisest way it if I 1 had been at home it would have been different but as it is I 1 feel that my whole interest should belong to my country without any distractions from home after the war I 1 intend to settle somewhere down here so we may riot cot meet again for a long long lone time PASSING FANCY when the first thrill of far places has been dulled by the reality of their distance from home when the he seductive effective of soft tropical moonlight is sharpened by the conflicts of war when t hen the memory nemory fi of fried chicken and church on sunday and thick clear ice on the neighborhood pond cannot be shaken by the sights and sounds of a foreign land then paul robinson may inay understand why t hy kathleen norris has his wife to refuse him a divorce lie he may see the things ile he thinks he wants they really are mere passing fancies 1 A bitter blow to a loving lonely woman woma n only six months a wife this letter might well be a thunderbolt nancy to be blamed for almost collapsing when she received it somehow she Is keeping its contents from her mother who works in a garment factory and somehow she is managing to act before her friends and neighbors as if nothing was wrong my advice to nancy is to put her chin up summon her dignity to her aid and write paul as if she were vere twice her 20 years he has so evidently lost his head in an atmosphere mo sphere of tropical sunshine leisure and enjoyment that all his values of honor obligation decency character have gone up in smoke or rather evaporated in silver moonlight and the music music of the sea she must write him that tails of 0 separation or divorce is ridiculous that she will wait for him as his wife of course and that she has entered into correspondence with his mother and father who live in kentucky it seems that out of shyness and diffidence nancy get in touch with them until after her marriage ariage but that then they wrote her cordially glad that their boy had found a good young wife it if she can she ought to visit them in every way she can she ought to strengthen the tie that paul would break make marriage a success it Is highly possible that these two really are not congenial mates that their hurried young marriage wa was s a mistake but even so when the war is ended they may decide to make it a success as any man and woman may by resolutely building a life together and with patience and courage learning to depend upon each other but it is more likely if nancy can be strong enough to forgive to overlook this youthful cruel selfish letter that paul will come home to find that he be loves his young wife after all that the glamour of the southern beaches and the charms of the dark eyed enchantresses enchant were not permanent things that after the war he be wants to come back to his hii own country and live the life his father and his ancestors did before him it if paul had a sister and some man wrote to her the letter he just sent nancy he would perhaps be able to get some idea of just how brutal it was if as I 1 definitely suspect paul asin is in love again and had the courage to tell his new friends that he has been less than a year the husband of a girl in the united states then he may be in fora tor a rude awakening for span ish american mothers have their firm arm religious convictions too and pauls paul s conchita will be locked in a remote upper bedroom and himself forbidden the hacienda entirely the moment the family getsche gets the news |