Show kathleen norris says one way to lose your man bell features feature I 1 r I 1 I 1 paul got into the habit of stopping it in at usa lisa Mc Breens after office tours kours lisa supplied th the sandwiches he the liquid refreshment they sat and chatted for a hall half hour it was restful by KATHLEEN NORRIS tr CT is is a small word and to many good JL wives it seems a small thing but atom is a small word too yet weve we ve all learned in the last tremendous years that an atom can smash a great city to pieces in three minutes flat and change the history of the world tact has changed the married history of thousands of women or rather the lack ot of tact has it changed emily rogers life and she never knew it and know it to this day and I 1 do doubt abt it if paul rogers her husband realizes it either realizes that it if emily h had d had any tact at all still be together a happily married man and wife the rogers had been married 11 years and their boy was nine years old when the break came paul met lisa mcbreen lisa was three years older than paul widowed not nearly as pretty as emily not living in a charming eight room house as E mily emily was no lisa was close to 40 and she had a two room apartment but she had tact when paul went home to emily he was often tired fired and depressed emily never saw it often she there when he got home always a discouraging thing for or a husband paul used his latch key and lighted the hall lights and waited tor for her when she did come in it was to say that she was dead tired to ask it if that was his new suit it looked terrible to say that bill was taking marion with him to new york to praise enthusiastically the headmaster at juniors school a man and a school paul like and to observe that she would go to the billings auction if she thought she could afford a couple of chairs tor for the rumpus TOOM room but that as she she would stay home and from the top of the stairs she might call did you telephone stella and if paul emily would go into lamentations that lasted well through the dinner hour A well cooked nice ly served dinner but it would taste like ashes to paul lisa was soothing so paul got into the habit of stopping in at lisa Mc Breens after office hours he supplied the liquid refreshment lisa supplied sandwiches they sat and chatted tor for perhaps half an hour it was restful lisa was affectionate responsive soothing she make a superman of paul but she liked him after a while he be began telephoning transparent excuses to emily he was delayed downtown he had to go up to stockton tor for a business dinner emily suffered she reminded her friends that she had always been a faithful wife to paul done her own work since the depression struck given him a son g given him the tha best years of her life she scorned lisa of course what paul could see in that middle aged woman who had bad a daughter married and who was plain dressed so badly emily simply understand her friends sympathized with her ber but that keep thet them in due time from liking the new mrs rogers rogera but of course the situation entirely satisfactory to anyone emiles young son Is miserably divided between loyalties his HI mother jv she bad newe I 1 Is patiently complaining and injured his father buoyantly happy and assured he Is III at ease with both and paul has two households to support now which means money stringency besides the fact that old friends are continually put in the uncomfortable position of choosing which family to ask to weddings and parties kindly interest sympathy tact would have saved this situation as it could save a thousand more divorces this year tact does not mean flattery battery or fawning or lying it mean acting a part it does mean extending to your partner in life just that kindly interest that sympathy that you would give to a perfectly strange man met casually a at t a luncheon ot or cocktail party it does mean that it if your ausba husband d to is worrying about r noney money or bu bills you dont fret him with ambi ambitious lous schemes for doing i over er the he bhole lower floor it does mean that it if he says his head aches you dont instantly n respond that it if he and jim stewart sit up all night talking business his head ache it means that you refrain from telling him bad news or hu humiliating news or worrying news until he has his slippers on until his good hot soup is inside him until he 1 is somewhat for fortified tIled alter after what was perhaps a long and lonely day and when you do tell it it means that you dont interlard it with I 1 told you sos and why dont the stewarts ever get into these th ese jams yes tact sounds a small thing but it it is based in something tar far deeper than just the gift of saying pleasant things and suppressing unpleasant things of look ing on the happier side of life for tact is tenderness tact is sympathy and love men leave beautiful women and rich women and smart women and successful women but women with tact hold their men right through to the golden wedding and beyond |