WHY I MARRIED AGAIN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 25, 16 December 1919, Page 3

WHY I MARRIED AGAIN.

•By a War Widow. (From the "Daily Mail")

People seem to fee shocked at the war widow who marries again. And yet when she receives another proposal, is it, for some mysterious reason, her duty to say "No"—as though a "Yes" would be in some way both an unfaithfulness to her soldier horo and a slight upon the cause in which be had sacrificed his life'? This is what critics contrive to imply—even while they are, with their lips, congratulating the war .widow who has announced her new engagement. So I discovered, when I plucked up courage to accept my present husband. I was a war widow. And those same friends who—some of them, at least—had hardly concealed their opinion that my first marriage was unjustifiably rash, were extremely gushing ovor my 'second engagement. Hove I detested their gush! Gush, I perceived, win .be,dreadfully spiteful.

Bu'.i you may be sure I had foreseen criticism. Indeed, I had refrained ,for many .months from accepting Jack's offer—Jack is my present ..husband--. because I feared what my circle would think of.me.. That, was cowardly.

And another cowardly thing was that J always shrank from mentioning Tom—my first husband—when talking to Jack. •rtVhich was absurd, for Jack had known Tom, and it was foolish to think that, my new lover and I should pretend that Tom -had never existed. . ; ;

As long as-we timidly ignored the fact °f m y .previous . marriage, Jack and I never got into real touch, with each ot«ier. The moment we began talking simply and naturally of Tom one evening, I knew that the ice was broken.

It is not because she Is forgetful of the first husband that any woman weds a second. Like me, she may have been very happy with, her first husband and passionately fond of him. But that- does not prevent her from truly loving a second—as long as he is not jealous of the. first.

;j TJ:at is the secret, I am convinced, of the lacfc/thatyj|ic couple,aren't tacitly :.preLteyding marriage. r ( «, | fv> , Had I ,UQ K *.beeii: previously, married;' I don't believe I could ever have fah* leu, in ,-l.ove with my present husband, nor, if I d(id, could I .have made hiht happy* 'Sfa% flwy sound a queer .statement!,, but it is true. I was an ignorant girl when I married' jFom, and though .his death canio very soon I can see now that he taught me much. To be the wife of a good man was so than, I had,guessed. It is niore than merely being a cross between a mistress

and a mother to a boy who sometimes ■has to be spoilt-and sometimes scold-' If Tom had lived, our marriage might have been very wonderful; but because of what I learned from him I know that my marriage with Jack will bo very wonderful too—and will have far more chance of serenity and beauty, trustfulness and understanding, than would have been the case if I had met and married Jack without having previously loved and lost my soldier' husband.