First published in 1929 and now public domain in the US and Canada, Ursula Parrot's "Ex-Wife" begins: ''My husband left me four years ago. Why I don't precisely understand, and never did. Nor, I suspect, does he. Nowadays, when the catastrophe that it seemed to be and its causes are matters equally inconsequential, I am increasingly disposed to the belief that he brought himself to the point of deserting me because I made such outrageous scenes at first mention of the possibility.''