Judge, 1913-05-10 · page 11 of 24
Judge — May 10, 1913 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This story-cartoon illustrates the early friction in a six-week-old marriage. Jellaby, a man of leisure, grows restless during the honeymoon phase and invents an excuse to visit his club—really to see Tilly Tiptoe, a dancer he admired before marriage who claims her heart would break without his attention. Mrs. Jellaby, sensing his departure, emerges in a negligee and casually mentions that Billy Johnston—a rival suitor who "ran second" for her hand and fortune—is coming to read her his new play. This immediately cancels Jellaby's plans; jealousy trumps his desire to see the dancer. The satire targets both masculine restlessness in early marriage and the social games couples play. The "postponed" affair occurs because each spouse weaponizes a potential rival to keep the other's attention, suggesting that matrimonial tedium and wandering eyes are inevitable—only redirected, not eliminated—by jealousy.
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PLFEUOWS ® POSTPONED "THE JELLABYS had been married six weeks, They were going abroad for the summer, and in quite a matter-of-fact way had spent the honeymoon at their new house in town. In seclusion, perhaps, the Jellabys had been as loving as young couples always are for a period. But not even their servants would have suspected—if they had not known—that this pair were fond and new to matrimony. An austere propriety had ruled steadily when they were not alone, though there are few loving couples that do not relax a bit from strict decorum in their early days of conjugal association, no matter who may be about. So much for sacvir faire. But it is in the order of things human that honeymoons should wane. At dinner this evening Jellaby suppressed a yawn. “Care for a night at the opera?” he asked. “No, dear” “What do you say to a glimpse of some of the goings on at the Cabaret de Naples 2” “1 wouldn't care for it, dear.” In fact Mrs. Jellaby still cared for nothing so much as Jellaby's presence. But a man of an evening a month and a half after mar- riage lacks repose, no matter how tranquil he may be at other times. “Well, little woman, | haven't been to a club in an age. Do you mind if 1 go out a bit 2” “No, dear, of course not.” And they separated. An hour later, as Jellaby passed into the hall, Mrs. Jellaby ran lightly down from her boudoir in a bewitching negligee. He looked at her closely with something of indecision. He really had no pur- pose to visit any of his clubs. Before marriage Jellaby had clandestinely admired Tilly Tiptoe, a dancer who was now creating a furore at the Theater of Varieties in spite of the fact that she had told Jellaby her heart would break if he should withdraw from her the light of his countenance. There had been a peculiar zest in the friendship of Tilly Tiptoe that is lacking in matrimony, and Jellaby was this night impulsed to see how so unusual a woman could dance so sensationally with a broken heart. He had read that heartbreak has artistic results on the stage, but had not before been concerned personally in such a psy- chological marvel. “| hope you may happily renew old acquaintances at the club,” purred Mrs. Jellaby, caressing his shoulder and standing so close that he could feel her heart beat. “Billy Johnston just called on the ‘phone. I told him you were going out. He asked if he could come over for an hour. He has written a one-act play which he says is terribly dramatic. He wants my opinion of it. You don’t mind, of course, if he reads it to me?” Billy Johnston had run second in the race for Mrs. Jellaby’s hand and fortune. “Why, my dear,” said Jellaby, trying to look unconcemed, “I'd like to hear the play, too. I"ve nothing calling at the club.” And so the repair of a broken heart, with its sentimental and possibly other consequences, was postponed, J. A. Waldron. comicbooks.com