The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-08-24
THE OTHER MAN.

Whsn che earth was sick and the skies were
And the woods were rotted with rain,
Hhe peaA Man rode through the autumn day
1o visit his lore again.
Far back In the seventies" before they
had built any public Offices at Eiinla. and
the broad. ronad Jakko lived in pigeon
hole In the r. w. ID. novels, her parents
made Miss Gaurey marry Colonel schrei-
derling. He conld not have been much
moro than thirty-hve years her senior, and,
y he lived on 200 rupees month and had
money Of his own. he was well off, He
belonged TO good people and suffered in
the cold weather from lung complaints. In
The hot weather he dangled on the brink
of heat apoplexy, but it never quite killed
him.
Understand, do not blame Schroeder
Hing. He was good husband according
70 HIS lights. and his temper only failed
him when he was being nursed, which was
some seventeen days in each month. He
Was almost generous to his wife about
money matters. and that for him, was
ooncession. Still Mrs Schrei1erling was
not happy. They married her when she
vaaDthis sids Of % and had given al her
1orRotten hts name, but we will call him
The Other Man. He had no money and
no prospects He was not even good
Iook1ng; and think he was in the COM
miwnfiat or transport, but, In spite OF all
thooe things, she loved him very badly;
ana there was some sort of an engagement
boluoen the two when Schreiderling APP
poared and told Mrs. Gaurey that he
vfahod to marry her daughter. Then the
other engagement was broken of-washed
away By Mrs. 0aurey's tears, for that lady
eovsrpsd her house by weeping over dis
1overence she received in her old age. The
daughter did not take after her mother.
Ghe never cried. Not even at the wedding.
The Other Man bore his loss quietly,
and was transferred to as bad station as
10 could 6nd. Perhaps the climate con-
fever, and that may have distracted him
from bis other trouble. He was weak
.zohu6k the heart also. Both ways. One of
fhe valves was affected. and the fever made
L Wofse. This showed itself later on.
Then many months passed, and Mrs.
0chroiderling took to being Ill. She did not
pine away like people in story books, but
abe seemed to pick ND every form of illness
that vent about the station, from simple
fever upwards. She was never more than
ordinarily pretty at the best of times, and
the Illness made her ugly. Schreiderling
said 20. He prided himself on speaking
when she ceased being pretty he left her
20 her own devices, and went back to the
Hairs Of his bachelordom. She used to trot
Us and down Simla Mall in forlorn sort
Of way, with gray Terai hat well on the
back Of her head, and q shocking bad
saddle under her. 6chreiderling's gener-
osity stopped at the horse. He said that
any saddle would do for q woman as
nervous as Mrs. Schreiderling was. She
never was asked to Dance because she did
not dance well; and she was SO dull and
uninteresting that her box very seldom had
any cards in it. Schreiderling said that if
he had known that she was going to be
ouch 5 scarecrow after her marriage he
would never have married her. He always
prided himself on speaking his mind. did
6chreiderling.
He left her at Simla one August and went
down to his regiment. Then she revived q
little. but she never recovered her looks.
found out at the club that the Other Man
was coming up sick-very sick-on an of
chance of recovery. The fever and the
heart valves had nearly killed him. She
knew that, too, and she knew-what had
no interest in knowing-when he was COM
ing up. / suppose he wrote to tell her.
They had not seen each other since a
month before the wedding. And here comes
the unpleasant part of the story.
A little call kept me down at the Dove
dell hotel till dusk one evening. Mrs.
6Chreiderling had been fitting up and
down the Mall all the afternoon in the
rain. Coming up along the Cart-road, a
tonga passed me. and my pony, tired with
standing so long. set off at canter. Just
by the road down to the Tonga Office Mrs.
Echreiderling. dripping from head TO foot,
was waiting for the tonga. / turned up
hill. as the tonga was no affair of mine.
and Just then she began to shrek. / went
back ut once and saw, under the Tonga
Once lamps, Mrs. Schreiderling kneeling
In the wet road by the back seat of the
nswly-arrived tonga. screaming hideously;
Then she fell face down in the dirt as !
came up.
Sitting in the rock seat very square and
firm. with one hand on the awning
stanchion and the wet pouring off his hat
and moustache, was the Other Man-dead.
The sixty.miie uphill jolt had been too
much for his valve, l suppose. The tonga
driver said: "This sahib died two stages
out of Scion. Therefore, tied him with a
rope, lest he should fall out by tho way,
and so came to Simla. Will the Sahib give
me bukshishf It." pointing to the Other
Man, SHOULD have given one rupee"
The Other Man sat with q grin on his
face. as if he enjoyed the joke of his ar.
rival; and Mrs. Schreiderling in the mud,
began to groan. There was no one except
us four in the office and 1t was raining
heavily. The first thing was to take Mrs.
Sc0re1ueFunS noues anu tn6 second was 70
prevent her name from being mixed up
with the affair. The tonga driver received
I've rupees TO find haxar 'rickshaw for
Mrs. Schreideriing. He was 70 tell the
tonga babu afterwards of the Other Man
and the babu was to make such arrange
ments Is seemed best.
Mrs Schreiderling was carried into the
ehed out of the rain, and for three-quarters
81 an hour we two waited for the 'rickshaw.
The Other Man was left exactly ms he had
arrived Mrs. Schreideriing would do
everything but cry, which might have
heiped her. She tried 10 scream as soon as
her senses came back. and then she began
prayirag for the Other Mans soul. Had she
NOT been Is honest as the day. she would
have prayed for her own SOU, too. waited
10 hear her do this. but she did not. Then
/ tried to ret some of the mud of her
habit. Lastly, the 'rickshaw came. and
cot her away. partly by force. II was a
1eYribls business from beginning TO end
but most OF ali when the 'rickshaw had 70
snueese between the wall and the tonga,
and she saw by ths lamp-light that thin,
yellow hand grasping the awning stan
chion.
she was taken home Just as everyone
was going 10 dance at Vieeregai lodge