In China, Wallis failed to reconcile with Win, so she set out touring the country
— Part Two —
The next morning I went to visit my mother, afraid to reveal to her what my heart concealed: my mother, and all the members of my family, looked upon divorce as a dreadful thing that other people did... But I found no way around telling her the truth; she stared at me in bewilderment, then shouted in my face: Wallis... you cannot be serious in what you are saying... divorce is the most dreadful thing a creature can do... But my mother treated me with logic, and so she shifted from scolding to argument and persuasion; she took my hand and said: I married two men, and neither of them was in any way better than the other... The success of a marriage depends on the woman's understanding... But my mother's advice did not enter my ears... Finally she suggested that I speak to my Aunt Bessie about the matter — and Bessie surpassed her in prejudice against divorce; nor was her position any better. She said: This is something that must not enter your mind... Try again to go back to your husband... or leave him for a while and then return to him... After a long lecture she settled on this phrase: Montague women do not divorce their men... She too advised me to consult Uncle Sol — perhaps he could pluck the idea out of my head... His position was no different from my aunt's and my mother's... He looked at me in astonishment and muttered: No... I will not believe that you would bring this disgrace upon the Warfield family... And his lectures only made me more stubborn in my opinion...
Win was not so stupid as to miss what was going through my head; our relations improved for a time, then returned to what they had been... When I told him my idea, he turned to me with tenderness and said: Wallis... if you change your mind, I am always yours...
Thereupon I moved into my mother's house, and in February 1922 Win was transferred with the American fleet to the Far East. He kept writing to me from Hong Kong, telling me about friends we knew, about China, about the loneliness he was enduring and how he missed flying, the work he loved... As for me, I was alone, for I felt true loneliness and emptiness... I could not manage to forget the times we had spent together, the things we had done, and the road we had traveled side by side... Our separation was temporary, and I could go back if I wished...
Here Corinne Mustin came back into my life... She wrote to me of the death of her husband, Henry, the previous summer, and asked me to go with her to Paris... I nearly flew for sheer joy, but the one obstacle was money... for the sum Win was paying me was not enough for such extravagance... There was nothing for it, then, but to ask Uncle Sol... despite his attitude toward me... I learned that
Her second husband, Ernest Simpson
