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Pop, who adored Miriam, didn't like Sylvia, because Sylvia was a very self-centered girl, a driving girl, and she treated Pop politely but carefully. Miriam was a Southern girl who knew how to butter up people. She would curl up in my pop's lap, you know, and take him to lunch once in a while, and Pop thought Miriam was something from heaven. He thought Sylvia was a fresh, spoiled brat. When I told him we were going to get married, he was very displeased, as were all my friends, since it was an obviously ridiculous marriage. I was a young publisher. At that time I was making, I remember, $200 a week, and Sylvia was making $4000 a week. She was a big, big star. The time we decided to marry was the time we should have been saying goodbye to each other. I had some crazy idea that marriage was going to solidify a relationship that obviously was slipping, and Sylvia still cared enough about me at that time to say “yes.” We've often agreed since what fools the two of us were. She was being nice to me, and I was trying to hang onto some kind of a dream that was already shattered. So the marriage lasted less than a year. But I regard it as one of the most wonderful episodes in my life. I have nothing but admiration and friendship for Sylvia. Phyllis feels differently. She scarcely knows Sylvia, but like most wives who love their husbands, resents people who were important in their husband's lives before their entrance upon the scene.
You think you learned from that? I mean you've been very happily married for a long time now. You must have learned--
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