Part 48 (1/2)
Finally I thought of dropping entirely out of the social, religious and charitable activities of the town, investing in a typewriter and subscribing to a correspondence-school course in stenography I could at least help Carl prepare his lectures and relieve hi hi jobs, which were not only delaying his own book buthim burn the candle at both ends in the strenuous effort to make both ends meet
I knew Carl would object, but I had not expected such an outburst of profane rage as followed my announcement The poor boy was dreadfully tired, and for hbred he was, he had repressed his true feelings under a quiet, quizzical s up and pacing the floor
”Haven't you already given up everything you were accustomed to--every innocent pleasure you deserve--every wholesome diversion you actually need in this God-forsaken, ed you down--you, a lovely, fine-grained, highly evolved woman--down to the position of a servant in my house? And now, on top of all this--No, by God! I won't have it! I tell you I won't have it!”
Itconfession, but I loved him for that wicked oath
He looked so splendid--all fire and furious determination, as when he used to rush up to the net in the deciding ga
”You are right, Carl dear,” I said, kissing his profane lips; for I had learned long since never to argue with hie It's an econo to be your secretary and save you tiet and keep a competent maid”
”But I tell you--”
”I know, dear; but what are we going to do about it? We can't go on this way They've got us down--are we going to let them keep us down? Look into the future! Look at poor old Professor Culberson Look at half of the older row; their usefulness is over; they are all gone to seed--because they hadn't the courage or the cash to develop anything but their characters!”
Carl looked thoughtful He had gained an idea for his book and, like a true scholar, forgot for the moment our personal situation
”Really, you know,” he mused, ”does it pay Society to reward its individuals in inverse ratio to their usefulness?” He took out his pocket notebook and wrote: ”Society itself suffers for rewarding that low order of cunning called business sense with the ultimate control of all other useful talents” He closed his notebook and smiled
”And yet they call the present econoht of truth on it--dangerous theorists! Can you beat it?”
”Well,” I rejoined, not being a scholar, ”there's nothing dangerous aboutyour wife, your wife becorapher--far safer and saner than the usual order Men are much more apt to fall in love with lively little typewriters than with fat, flabby wives”
Though it was merely to make a poor joke out of a not objectionable necessity, my plan, as it turned out, was far wiser than I realized
First, I surreptitiously card-catalogued the notes and references for Carl's ”epoch-ue wives of the Faculty always called her husband's volumes, which she never read Then I learned to take down his lectures, to look up data in the library, to verify quotations, and even lent a hand in the book reviewing
Soon I began to feel more than a mere consumer's interest--a producer's interest--in Carl's work And then a wonderful thing happened: My husband began to see--just in time, I believe--that a wife could be e to a ent partner in it And he looked at , but very dear
He haddiscovery that his wife had a ers nirateful to the fah I fear they did not appreciatethe holidays, I was laughingly boasting, before souests invited toof Carl's History of Property, which had been dedicated to h our guests in the social world had never heard of it
Suddenly I saw a curious, uncomfortable look come over the faces of the family Then I stopped and remembered that nowadays wives--nice wives, that is--are not supposed to be helpmates to their husbands except in naer spin They can help him spend At that they are truly better halves, but to help hi--namely, that my husband could not afford a secretary Well, he could not What of it?
For aparaded arity that Carl and I detest as heartily as a display of wealth
The family considerately inforht me brave to sacrificebrave I was not being cheerful I was being happy There is no sacrifice in working for the man you love And if you can do it with hiht it quite a distinction Feomen have the ability or enterprise to attain it!
One of my sisters who, like me, had failed to ”marry well” valeted for her husband; but soht For my part I never could see why it is more womanly to do menial work for a ht to know Can it be merely because the one is done strictly in the home or because no one can see you do it? Or is it ht for the superior sex to do skilled labor, but a true womanly woman must do only unskilled labor, and a fine lady none at all--so clothed as to prevent it and so displayed as to prove it, thus advertising to the world that the man who pays for her can also pay for secretaries and all sorts of expensive things Is that the old idea?
If so I aive up the old-fashi+oned expensive pose of ladyhood and join the neomanhood!
Well, as it turned out, ere enabled to spend our sabbatical year abroad--just in tiive Carl a new lease of life e of breaking down before we left