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373 Tuesday 13 November 1945 10:15 pm (on duty) My dearest darling. Two good letters from you today, and your cable - telephoned by the Red Cross, there being no longer a communications center on this island. Received the telephone call about ten this morning, and was told that the cable was dated the 10th. Just in case, darling, I have any difficulty getting a reply off to you tomorrow morning (which I shouldn't), let me assure you that I won't make any final decisions or tie myself up on anything until I get a chance to talk it over with you. Incidentally, Barrett has just received a clipping from his wife announcing his election as Dean of Men and Director of Extension at Nebraska State Teachers College: he hasn't received official confirmation yet, but he takes that to mean that his terms have been accepted - that job temporarily and the college presidency in September, at about $5300 and a house. He is quite pleased, intends to accept but is awaiting a [pg 2] direct notification; thinks a cable must have been sent him and been delayed. Here's the story on the Williamses, sweetie, and it's a sad one. Arthur Szathmary told me about it at breakfast, reluctantly and only after I’d reminded him that they were sufficiently close friends of ours so that I felt entitled to know. Arthur saw Jack at Pearl when the latter was on his way to Guam and subsequently (he thinks) China. He said that Jack was putting on a brave front, not hiding anything from his friends, but was confused underneath: spoke of wanting to see the Orient to expand his perspective. The story is just this: Simone engaged in a series of what Arthur calls adulterous acrobatics for a period of several months while Jack was on night duty in Washington. [pg 3] She managed the whole thing beautifully so that he never had a hint of it until a friend mentioned to him that some French major had proposed to her and had received a tentative rather than a negative answer. Simone had several affairs, one of which was with a late-middle-aged man, and kept Jack satisfied and unsuspicious meanwhile. In the end, after they had gone through preliminary divorce proceedings, Jack effected a partial reconciliation for the sake of the children to the extent that they would merely separate without being divorced - as Arthur says (tho he wouldn't tell Jack so) probably a serious mistake; better to make it final. Simone did not “run off” to Belgium with a lover, but she did return there with the children. I suppose that underneath, after the first few months of married life, Simone must have [pg 4] developed a contempt for Jack's lack of aggressiveness - she kept hounding him lately about his future prospects - and as we both perceived, she had a good deal of vanity. But I was so far from suspecting her of nymphomania - these weren't real love affairs, of course - that it was really a shock to me to hear of it, much more so than it would have been to learn that she had fallen in love with and gone off with one man. It's a particular shame as far as those lovely children are concerned - for the combination of Simone with her aggressiveness and Jack with his sweetness would have made them very attractive personalities, as perhaps they may be anyway. But the bets are on their resembling Simone - unless she becomes altogether hard and they revolt from that as they grow up. Gosh, darling, I love you so. This is a subject I shall expand on at length when I see you! Warren
