Lower East and Lower West were both rented to brides. The brides sat in their living-rooms with only a wall dividing; they looked out at the same view. They did not know each other. In the East flat, the young husband was trying to accommodate himself to a difficult and neurotic wife. In the West flat a middle-aged groom was trying to slow a bright young girl down to his dullness. The girl drooped,…
There were four western maple trees growing in the lot upon which I built my house. Two were in the strip of front lawn, clear of foundations, but when the builders came to overhead wiring they found one of the trees interfered. The line-men cut it down. The other front-lawn maple was a strong, handsome tree. I circled her roots with rock and filled in new earth. The tree throve and branched so…
I had never before had the opportunity of observing the close-up of married life. My parents died when I was young. We four spinster sisters lived on in the old home. My girlhood friends who married went to live in other cities. I did not know what “till-death-do-us-part” did to them. Every couple took it differently of course, but I discovered I could place “Marrieds” in three general groupings–the happy, the indifferent, and the…