Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 82: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

552 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “ Didn’t you want to take her riding in that big yellow Stutz of yours?” * Well?” “You were planning to go completely to the devil. Was that it?” “T tell you,” Teddy snapped, ‘“ when anybody’s been as disillusioned as I’ve been—”’ Javalie stopped him with a comprehend- ing nod. ‘““ Now we have a few facts to work with. You have been using that word ‘ disillu- sioned’ pretty freely. We are back again to the man-and-wife business. standings, rows, separations, divorces, and what is colloquially known as ‘ cheating.’ The victims generally explain their actions on the ground of disillusionment. It has a pleasingly cynical sound, hasn’t it? Do you suppose there is a cure?”’ “Ts there?” his listener demanded ea- gerly. ~“T have been puzzling over it a good many years,” Javalie answered, “and [ have come to the conclusion that there is at least a preventative. ‘There is no use look- ing for a cure if a man is a hopeless cripple or a woman loses her attractiveness prema- turely. Generally there isn’t. Tm not dealing with the exceptions. Generally the hopeless cases are biological, and there is no cure. We won’t consider them. “Unhappy husbands and wives—the ones you might call normally unhappy ones —speak of disillusionment as if it were something that they had been poisoned with. I mean, they speak of being disillu- sioned when they mean they have been de- ceived, bitterly disappointed. But a person who is actually disillusioned is one who has simply lost his infantile fancies, his beliefs in the perfect man or the perfect woman, and so on. ‘“Such a person has learned to see facts as facts. He no longer colors them—or discolors them. <A properly disillusioned man or woman is not bitter or resentful, but intelligent and steadied. Bitterness and cynicism are parts of the process, but they aren’t the final result, as so many vic- tims—yourself, for example—would seem to prove. “The whole trouble is that those who Misunder- . think they are disillusioned are not actually disillusioned—they are only bruised and ir- ritated because they don’t understand. They blame without learning. They don’t know. They don’t understand. That is because all women and most men do not reason things out logically. When they think they are thinking, they are only let- ting their emotions carry them to some de- cision. “Of course, if you are devoted to some one—for example, as Jeanne is devoted to you—and you are dropped, no longer loved, neat reasoning does not help much, any more than it helps when you suddenly see a bomb exploding at your feet. You can only wait for time to make a readjustment —and meanwhile keep faith.” Ted Banning gazed thoughtfully at the waves curling in and collapsing in smothers of creamy foam. ~““You say the cure is knowledge. Just what do you mean? Give me a specific instance.” * Know thy wife.” “And know thy husband? Well, I know Jeanne like a book.” “ That’s a beginning. Does Jeanne know you?” ; “If she doesn’t, it’s because she hasn’t the capacity.” “Ts it?” Ted flared up. “TI don’t see your argu- ment at all. I can apply it next time, though.” * Don’t be in too much of a hurry. You are not through with Jeanne yet. Let’s start in from the other angle. Your father has not played square with you, has he?” “He certainly has not.” “ He tried to get you a rocking chair majority in Washington during the war.” “You bet he did! But it didn’t work. I went to France, anyhow.” “And when you came _ back—with Jeanne—you had visions of going into busi- ness, either with your father or for yourself. But you wanted to live your own life. You and Jeanne were going to live in a little white house on a hill—”’ “Yeh,” Teddy interrupted dryly, “I heard Jeanne handing you that line.”’ “And,” Javalie went on, “ your father Gomichbooksreom