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At first he felt like a failure, but what else was new? Marriage was just another item on the long list of Things Stede Couldn’t Handle, along with Running Father’s Business and Being A Man’s Man. Check it off and then it’s on to the next disappointment.
But something wonderful happened. If their marriage had been a too-tight shirt collar, clinging to his throat and making it difficult to breathe, then the divorce was a pair of scissors cutting across the neckline. He and Mary suddenly had space to breathe, to be friends. He had always appreciated a nice deep-V.