The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-06-14
A WIFE'S LOVER,

TO assume that they are loved in return |
that Gerald Bryce was almost the last
acquaintance of Mrs. Bryce to realize
that the lady he had married had become
fond of a man who was not herhusband,
The fortunate man, as his friends re
garded him, was Mr.. Jasper Masten, and
as he had neither good looks, money nor
wit. qualities which Mrs. Bryce held in
highest regard, Bryce was very slow to
imagine he could be at all dangerous.
Perhaps Mrs. Bryce had been equally
unsuspecting when Masten first began to
seek her ont at parties or drop into her
cosy parlors once a fortnight. Mr..
Masten seemed constitutionally
dawdler, and Mrs. Bryce detested
cavaliers.
But as Mrs. Bryce was not particu-
larly pretty and her husband was not
rich, there was not many men who paid
her special attention, so she soon came
to anticipate Masten's laneuid courtesies,
enjoy them, and to do her best to increase
their number.
Although she did not know it, she was
quite tired of her husband, for. while he
had no great faults, he was only one
man: all of him that her rather small
mind could comprehend she had learned
and wearied of in the first of the three
years she had been married. Masten
talked of things. neither good nor bad,
that never interested Bryce, his compli.
ments were formal and elaborate instead
OF familiar, and he so carefully avoided
rising above the level of Mrs. Bryce's in.
tellect and tastes that he soon seemed to
the silly little woman a man after her
own heart. He never talked of unsuc-
eessful business ventures, or the prices
of provisions, or the necessity of econ
omy; he was always, when Mrs. Bryce
saw him, in full dress, whereas Bryce
sometimes lounged unshaven and in
oyer-lsrge slippers in rather shabby
dressing-gown. And he had such a way
of looking at her, as if he wished he
might say something tender, and she did
SO wonder what it was and how he would
say it if ne dared. Bryce often Said ten
der things; said them so often that fire.
quently they were tiresome; besides Mrs.
Bryce, before she was married, had en-
joyed variety of pretty speeches, while
marriage had reduced them to a same
ness that at times became almost unen-
durable.
When Bryce was compelled to see
what every one else had seen he became
puLLlcu dDSty
and finally he was all three at once. He
srh'..'er -. .--,ssS''v-wa to make love anew
sr journey to Balmoral isAit.---ly added to-
der to try whether the B wife would yawn
through an aeNvsening of his devotiops,
telling him not to be silly, and that if he
loved her he might prov, it by giving
her new dresses like some of her &C.
quaintances wore. Occasionally such
evenings would be changed in character
by the appearance of Masten, when Mrs.
Bryce would brighten with great rapidity,
even in her manner to her husband, al
though what she said to him bad gener.
ally enough acidulous raillery in it to
drive him to his room and brandy bot
tie in search of an antidote.
After finding love-making unsuccess-
full, and Gaming his brother for oficiously
suggesting quiet divorce, Bryce set to
work to devise some new method. He
thought of retaliation. but between un-
willingness to subject good women to
scandal, and reluctance to have his own
name coupled with that of any woman
more pretty than particular, he soon
found himself in q quandary. As he dis
eussed the subject with himself one even
ing at a musicale, in his intervals of feel
ing uncomfortable at the marked atten-
tion that Masten was paying Mrs. Bryce,
right before his eyes, low voice, al
most at his ears, said:
"Why don't you teach her that two can
play at that game?"
He turned quickly and saw Miss Ma
rion Albrough, with whom he had played
when they both we're children. Miss Al
brough was old enough to be called an
old maid. but handsome enough to at
tract much attention. As she had been
addressed by many suitors and rejected
them all, she acquired much reputation
rs . firt, particularly as she was very vi
vacious. With Bryce she had always
maintained her early friendship in ways
that we're hearty and entirely honorable,
70 the troubled husband, instead of re-
senting her suggestion, merely ans
wered:
You know we'll, Marion, that could
mt be mean enough to make tool Of
any woman"
"You've no occasion to do SO; all you
need to do is to pretend sudden and
violent regard for me-"
"You?"
Certainly. With whom could you
he safer? You know I'd box your ears
soundly if you were to say single word
IN earnest"
"But what will people say?"
''Oh, they'll be spiteful enough to say