Far be it from us to dispute with a talkative lady or enter into argument regarding the merits or demerits of her case. But the public in Los Angeles grew almost afraid to glance at a morning paper for fear that the fair Mildred has broken loose again with a new brand of dope regarding the elusive Charles.
Along about the time that stomach settlers were being called into use as a result of the slush credited to the comedian’s storm and strife, people began to reflect that, though many crimes had been charged against his curly head, Chaplin himself remained cloistered in a cloud of silence so far as mention of the fair Mildred was concerned.
Millie did all the talking, or at any event the sob brothers and sisters placed her in that light. One minute she was calling Charles a tight-wad and the next stating that she loved him. Just how a woman can love a man and simultaneously inform the wide, wide world that he is a cheap skate passeth understanding.
Several million or so perfectly good white columns of newspaper space were spoiled with the most wanton brand of domestic prattle ever dished out in a city already weary with the frothy doings of its ultra frothy society.
Then Chaplin’s attorneys announced that if Mildred shut up and quit using the Chaplin name that she could take a couple of hundred thousand shekels and call it quits.
The worst thing Chaplin ever was heard to say about his wife hasn’t been printed, probably for the reason that the bepestered young man didn’t say it. Chaplin may be a cheap skate, a nickel counter, and own but two automobiles, but his closest friend and most persistent interviewer never drew from him a word against the unfortunate partner of his domestic woes.
Chaplin has admitted that he had no business getting married in the first place. He declared frankly that he wasn’t made that way. He said that marriage interfered with his work and many believe that his sudden dropping from the pictures was done with the deliberate intention of not returning to it until his bread had been buttered on the other side.
It was more a surprise to Chaplin’s friends that he married in the first place than a shock at reports of trouble that sounded their fanfare thru the newspapers. Everyone thought he’d marry Edna Purviance, if he married at all; though Miss Purviance’s feelings in the matter may not have been given due consideration or interrogation by the gossip mongers.
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Mary had a Thomas cat,