HIS SECOND WIFE.

Franklin Times, 3 January 1923, Page 3

HIS SECOND WIFE.

Six months. ago I thought Agatha was very .foolish; now I think she was wise. Being Agatha, that is ; I still think that most women would commit a plunder by following her example. She has endeavoured to find out just what place she holds'in her husband's affections. is a-second wife; first wives seldom engage in this perilous enterprise. After much skilful probing of her husband’s heart she has\re.aehed certain definite conclusions; First, Agatha is convinced that it was only for his children’s sake that her husband re-married. During their engagement : she Look a more flattering- view of herself, but experience has clarified her vision.

Looking back she sees, or thinks she. sees, that her husband was. never deeply in love with her; that there were times when he shrank from remarriage. She might have discovered £his often had she not been the sort of woman who scorns to put those- whom she. trusts in the confessional. For'that he was no doubt grateful, and valued her affection the more.

Agatha has faced the truth that when a man resolves to marry again he must bury a great and sweet part of his life. It is as it would be for a man to decide to go into a 'foreign land and occupy a position of trust and honour. He may be glad Ire is going, yet he regrpts leaving his own country for ever, and the last few days in the old home hold many a heartache. ,

There must always be concealments from the new wife. She must be allowed to think that she is the on*ly woman be ever loved with all tho depth of his nature. 'Some men tell the second wife this.

Agatha’s husband did not say it, but lie implied it, and so practised a perfectly justifiably piece of deception; - ■ i '

Agatha _ has received exceedingly generous treatment from her husband. Most second wives do. Reparative generosity, Agatha calls it. She has a theory that away down, in the heart of many a widower is the knowledge, unconfessed even to himself, that he canot . give his second choice the “first':

was, hi«..-tirst wife’s, and for this reason be makes up in gentleness, generosity and demonstration of affection for that which the first wife, and she only, ever can receive. 0 r it may be that, having known the anguish of lonliness, the husband wants to do all he can to promote the happiness and health of the present dear ■ one in the hope o| keeping her with him all his-life through. When the second wife is ill lie is torn with anxietV such as he could, not have known had he not seen how-easy it is for the joy of one’s- existence to be snatched away. - ■ This, Agatha thinks, explains her husband’s- present tenderness to her. The -conclusion does not make her ■miserable, as fit would many -women. “I ■am cpnlent,” she i-jays. “Why. shouldn’t I .be ? Whatever Ire may have thought of ,m.o in the beginning,

I am how to,his happiness, Isn't hat ’enough?” .', 1 ; . t ' But; then Agatha is aAplfilpSoplier Ail women are not philosophers. N ■ —-E.MAV.