Page:The Truth about Marriage.djvu/90

 The lover is very polite and kind to his sweetheart. The girl is all smiles and sweetness and loveliness before marriage. When people treat each other so beautifully before marriage it is easy to see why they get on well as long as they treat each other politely and thoughtfully and lovingly.

But when they are married and manifest an indifference to the other's comfort and welfare that cannot but estrange, it is natural to expect that they will not get on together.

In other words, married people have themselves largely to blame for their unhappiness. We can get on with almost anyone if we try hard enough. Of course, when one or the other has to make all the effort, it is not easy.

Most of us are very selfish. After marriage, when we have won the prize, our wife or husband, we think it does not make much difference how we act. Love stories used to be occupied with courtship only. They ended, as the fairy story ended, with the statement, "And they lived happily ever after."

But after marriage too often we throw off our good manners, our polite behavior, our kind ways, our thoughtfulness and consideration. We relapse into what we really are, very selfish people.

And it is hard to get on in marriage if people are selfish. In fact, they can get on only as fighting