The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-07-09
THE OTHER MAN

49, 49,
And the woods were rotted with rain,
The Dead Man rode through the autumn day
To visit his love again.
Far back in the '~seventies," before
they had built any public offices AT
Simla, and the broad round Jakko lived
in a pigeon hole in the p. w. ID. novels,
her parents made Miss Gaurey marry Col
onei Schriederling. He could not have
been much more than IS years her senior.
and, as he lived on 200 rupees non and
had money of his own, he was well of.
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 il never quite
killed him.
Understand, I do not blame Schneider
ling. He was a good husband according
to his lights, and his temper only failed
him when he was being nursed, which
was some II days in each month. He
was almost generous to his wife about
money-matters, and that, for him, was n
concession. Still Mrs. Schriederling was
not happy. They married her when she
was this side of 20 and had given all her
poor little heart to another man. / have
forgotten his name, but we will call him
the Other Man. He had no money and
no prospects. He was not even good
looking; and l think he was in the COM
missariat or transport, but, in spite OF all
these things. she loved him very badly;
and there was some sort of an engage
ment between the two when Schneider
ling appeared and told Mrs. Gaurey that
he wished TO marry her daughter. Then
the other engagement was broken Off
washed away by Mrs. Gaurey's tears, for
that lady governed her house by weeping
over disobedience to her authority, and
the lack of reverence she received in her
old age. The daughter did not take after
her mother. She never cried. Not even
at the wedding.
The Other Man bore his loss quietly,
and was transferred to as bad a station
as he could find. Perhaps the elm ate
consoled him. He suffered from inter
mittent fever, and hat may have dis
tracted him ron his other trouble. He
was weak about the heart also. Both
ways. One of the valves was effected,
n the fever made IL worse. This showed
itself later on.
Then many months passed, and Mrs.
Schreiderling took to being i'll. She did
not pine away like people in story books,
but she seemed.to pick up every form of
illness that went about tine station, from
simple fever upwards. She was never
thhotS hnh BaShy -.
times and the illness made her. ugly.
Schreiderling said SO. He prided himself
on speaking his mind.
When she ceased being pretty he left her
to her own devices, and ven back to the
lairs of his bachelordom. She used to trot
up and down Simla Mall in a forlorn sort
Of way, with n gray Terai hat well on the
back Of her head, and a shocking bad
saddle under her. Schreiderling's gerer-
osity stopped at the horse. He said that
m anIslla x.n.tll fn FOR an u-n.nnn ns
nervous a. Mrs. S~chreiderling was. She
never was asked to dance, because she
did not dance well; and she was SO dull
and uninterestinR that her box very sell
dom had any cards I'm it. Schreiderling
said that IL he had known that she was
going TO be such a scare crow after her
marriage he would never have married
her. He always prided himself on speak
ing his mind, did Schreiderling.
He left her at Simla n August, and
went down TO his regiment. Then b re-
vIved a little, bu she never recovered her
ook i found out at the club that the
Other Man is coming up sick-very sick
on an oil chance OF recovery. The
fever and the h~eart-valves had nearly
killed him. She knew that, too, and she
knew-what i had M interest in knowing
when he was coming up. / suppose he
wrote 10 tell her. They hal 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 N evening. Mrs.
Schreiderling had Q fitting NJ and
down the Mall all the afternoon i'm the
rain. Coming up along the Cart-road, a
tonga passed me, and my pony, tired with
standing so long, set of at a canter. Just
by the road down TO the Tonga Office Mrs.
Schreiderling, dripping from head to foot,
was waiting for the tonga. l turned up
hill, as the tonga was no affair of mine
and just then she began to shrek. i went
back at once and saw, under the Tonga
Office lamps, Mrs. Schrelderline kneeling
in the wet road by the back seat OF The
newly-arriyed tonga, screaming hideously.
Then she fell face down in the dirt as ]
came mp.
Sitting in the rock seat, very square and
firm. with one hand on the awning
stanchion N the wet pouring of his hal
and moustache, was the Other Man-dead,
The eo-mile uphill jolt had been too much
for his valve. suppose. The tonga
driver said: "This sahib died two stages
on Of Scion. Therefore, I lied him with
a rope, lest he should fall out by the way,
give me b~ukshish? It." pointing to the
Other Man, SHOULD should have given one
rupee"
The Other Man sat with a grin on his
face, as il he enjoyed the joke OF his ar
rival; n Mrs. S~chriederling in the mud,
began to groan. There was no n excepl
us four In the Office and il was raining
heavily. The first thing was to take Mrs
Schreiderling home, and the second wa,
10 prevent ner name from being mixed uI
with the affair. The tonga driver received
five rupees to find q bazaar 'rickshaw fol
Mrs. Schreiderling. He was 20 tell th,
tonga babu afterwards of the Other Man
and the babu was TO make such arrange
ments as seemed hest.
Mrs. Schreiderling was carried into tn,
shatl ODt NJ thu rain and for shrxan ana =
tiers OF an hour we two waited for th,
'rickshaw. The Other Man was left ex
actly as he had arrived. Mrs. Schroeder
ling would do everything but cry, which