ABOUT BOOK

No less thoughtful a critic of men and manners than Joseph Conrad hasremarked recently that a universal experience "is exactly the sort ofthing which is most difficult to appraise justly in the individualinstance." The saying might have been made the motto of this book, forin its pages Miss Colcord--with all the eagerness of the newer school ofsocial workers, bent upon understanding, upon making allowances--seeksthat just appraisal to which Conrad refers. Marital infelicities andbroken homes are not universal, fortunately, but some of the humanweaknesses which lead to them are very nearly so.