FALLING IN LOVE WITH ONE’S WIFE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18019, 6 November 1920, Page 10

FALLING IN LOVE WITH ONE’S WIFE

By JANUARY MORTIMER. A few years ago a married pair, known to me, parted for a time by [mutual agreement. The wife was I fond of travelling, and the lure of I foreign caused her to prolong [the separation from her husband. Her spouse became restless and lonely. He fell in love wtih another woman. Then th e lawful wife returned and sued for a divorce, which was granted. A short time since the wife wished to reunite with her divorced husband. He was perfectly willing, and the couple have married one another for the second time and are living happily together. Guy de Maupassant has a story of a husband who met his wife in the train after a lengthy separation. The woman appeared more charming than ever in the husband’s eyes, and he proposed to her.

To some men and women love comes mysteriously and wanes without any apparent reason. A state of “white heat” in the first few months of marriage may be followed by a period of coolness and indifference. This reaction is not uncommon in the case of ardent, sensitive persons who are over-idealistic. If their affection is not completely reciprocated they suffer tortures of doubt and cruel pangs of disappointment. A mere suspicion of irresponsiveness in a wife will chill the affection of some husbands.

Separation for a spell often stimulates a new passion. ’’After all is said and done,” said a husband who had.been abroad for a year, “there’s no woman to compare with my wife. I have seen hundreds of women, but they all left me cold.”

Before he started on his travels this man was not perfectly sure that he had married the right woman. Absence had aroused a deep admiration, and he came home to a second honeymoon. A discontented husband became despondent through the reflection that his love for his partner was dying. This brooding began to affect his mind for he had a sensitive conscience, and he felt that he was somehow to blame for the situation. Having made his bed, he thought it was his duty to lie upon it for the rest of his life.

During medical treatment for depression and sleeplessness this man’s mother became seriously ill. His wife willingly undertook the duties of nurse and atended the patient with great sympathy and devotion.

In a sudden access of admiration and gratitude the husband realised that he had fallen in love again with his wife. His nervous symptoms disappeared quickly and the pair began a new stage* of married love.

After an enumeration of the causes of disappearing affection between the wedded, an Oriental seer says, “And love goes sometimes without any reason.”

This is, 'however, impossible, because there is a reason for every mental manifestation. Every bodily

symptom has a cause. Every psychic phenomenon has an origin, though the discovery may not be easy. Married folk who are beginning to have doubts about the stability of their love should not sink into despair. All the great forces of nature tend to be rhythmic. They ebb and flow like the tides.