WOMEN I’M NOT MARRIED TO WOMEN I’M NOT MARRIED TO BY FRANKLIN P. ADAMS [Illustration: colophon] GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1922 COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY IN THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. TO MRS. FRANKLIN P. ADAMS BUT FOR WHOM THIS BOOK MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN WRITTEN, BUT FOR WHOM IT WAS CONTENTS PAGE ELAINE 2 MAUDE 7 ANNE 11 FLO 15 BELINDA 16 BLANCHE 19 MARGUERITE 21 WOMEN I’M NOT MARRIED TO “Whene’er I take my walks”--you know The rest--“abroad,” I always meet Elaine or Maude or Anne or Flo, Belinda, Blanche, or Marguerite; And Melancholy, bittersweet, Sets seal upon me when I view-- Coldly, and from a judgment seat-- The women I’m not married to. Not mine the sighs for Long Ago; Not mine to mourn the obsolete; With Burns and Shelley, Keats and Poe I have no yearning to compete. No Dead Sea pickled pears I eat; I never touch a drop of rue; I toast, and drink my pleasure neat, The women I’m not married to! Fate with her celebrated blow Frequently knocks me off my feet; And Life her dice box chucks a throw That usually has me beat. Yet although Love has tried to treat Me rough, award the kid his due. Look at the list, though incomplete: The women I’m not married to. L’ENVOI My dears whom gracefully I greet, Gaze at these lucky ladies who Are of--to make this thing concrete-- The women I’m not married to. ELAINE