Newspapers / Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.) / Aug. 13, 1937, edition 1 / Page 14
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/llustr cited by .1. .. lw.* * Henrietta McCaig Starrett jflßgl |1 I HBBpI »w 31111 ini «■ b *3 ii s v\' <*£ “ WHBiff JiiKlfflrii -||||>Bi ,'lfT_ v#|BPx ax iilf \>. iJI mk :ii i ,SJBf JBz _ 1 iHISpPiHHyHk mUL jul .. *vwLhs' -%ff 111® 11l It Vwf r KEOfisk*. -J&. 1 I^^BFM mm - ■■” mMII * JSSeoBL -ai;' AHMF* JHBi :ia— wm m mar '■> iHK l Jtigr - *®s&ii ' mM 1 wllwl iMfci PrJBHr <^% r V * ~-• , * .i i / „■ \ \ tl,;! 1 1 < Jr? y- / aW" ++l ROMANCE IN THE FORTIES - CAROL 81.. D What Happens When a Man * Who Has \ Reached Middle Age Thinks He Is in Love With a Young Girl? Q»TEPHEN CRESSMORE looked ap- pralsingly at his wife, Brenda, across his birthday cake He thought: How old she looks! Lines around her eyes. Fur rows at the corners of her mouth Her cheeks sag. The next moment he re proached himself for the unkind inven tory. He decided that the blinking yellow candles on the cake accentuated facial defects, that his wife was actually quite comely for her age. She was 46. And he? This was his forty-eighth anniversary. Almost a half century of living Forty eight years! Twenty-five of them spent with Brenda. The span of his marital existence stretched out before him like a roll of tape. Brenda nagging him about his health. His rubbers. His diet. Forcing lettuce and coddled eggs on him, as though he were a child. Insisting that he spend a month in the country each Summer Urging rhubarb and sul phur in Spring. The gymnasium in Winter. Niggling. Eternally niggling him about something. She had kept him in good physical trim that was true, he thought, but she had played too strongly the role of mother. He had never known a sweet heart during all their years of married life. "Well he knew one now Joyce Sherrill. Her caressing voice seemed to sound in his ears now: “Stevie You're so clumsy with a cocktail shaker Let me fix the drinks You Just sit there and charm me with your smile.” Tha'da^ngi* 1 She could make even a reproach sound endearing. He had met her four months ago at a party given in "Yes, I agree with you that men o t the theatre are temperamental, and usually too egotistical to make good husbands. But I cannot understand how you can think of Cressmore as Stable. He's a married man. you say. with a wife and children. A <fcble married man doesn't break up his home tn order to marry another woman. And. Joyce — she rea % love him deeply? She must, oi she would not be casting her lot with* him like this. m Wfe looked iiround the big living room for her, but she was nowhere In sight. The party had become noisy. Little BHL% c , j* ywvvfi& / W y ,3aSflßßßßy ' Viw * W '&>' drank casually Kissed casually. They were so casual with their "darlings” and their "dearests.” 4heir "sweets.” all their other pet names They drank and smoked and Jollied * without cessation. Half of the time he did not understand their conversation; it was so studded with trivial reminders, felt slowly drawn into a web- -the web of husbandly and fatherly duties He groaned aloud He felt trapped. Caught. Snared A pris oner forevermore The deadly monotony of it all! The Octopus of marital duties and responsibilities was wriggling its tentacles toward him „ * "What's the matter. Stephen? Leila r un get Daddy some bicarbonate of * soda ” <
Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.)
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Aug. 13, 1937, edition 1
14
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