UNIVERSITY WIVES
Sia,—Will you allow the wife of a very recent graduate to quarrel just a little with Mr. Townsend over his picture of married life at Cambridge ? There are other pictures, and it would be ungracious and ungrateful if I allowed the Fellows of Peterhouse, at any rate, to lie for another instant under Mr. Townsend's general charges of unconcern and indifference.
It would be grievous if Cambridge men of an earlier generation, recalling their own golden days, were to marvel and lament that undergraduates now take theirs so solemnly. But do tlf01 Married men are not always avoided, as staid and middle-aged, by their single contemporaries. They are all equally hard-up and hard-working, and there is never quite enough time for the multitude of crowding pleasures which is Cambridge. There is a great deal of fun to be had, and we certainly had it. If Mr. Townsend quarrels with my picture I can only confess to him that I am no realist like the ladies of his imagination, but- romantic as they come.
The undergraduate's wife is not even,-altogether barred from the lecture room. She may attend "open" lectures to her heart's content. Who would not be forever grateful to a fate which led me to the feet of the Provost of King's during one of his incomparable performances of all parts in Tamburlaine ? If the undergraduate's wife cannot be an initiate, at least she knows that the mysteries exist. She does not leave the university with a degree, but incalculable happiness can be hers for
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