Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-11-10
DAILY SHORT STORY
A WIFE's EFFORT.
[OTiginal.l

| al uDpTluclpleQ W OlAdu IAAheS Up LEI
mind she will stop at nothing To &C
complish her object.
Holmes, Barry and Conant were fast
friends. They We're unlike in every re-
spect, even ia age, being respectively
forty. thirty-six and twenty eight. W (
hear often Of TWO bosom friends, but
| cases Of three such are very rare.
When they first came together all
, were bachelors, but soon after Holmes
! married. then Barry. then COnant-
! When Holmes was about to launch in
| to matrimony the friends had "a dinner
| together. and Holmes made Il special
| request that his marriage should make
| no difference in their intimacy. This
| led TO a similar request at the times Of
| the marriage of the other two, and
| there was an iron bound pledge be
| tween them that their wives should
never separate them.
! OF course, as each man married. his
| friends saw less of him, but periodical
meetings We're kept up, and there was
no falling off in friendship. Their
wives seemed content with their at
| tachment for one another, and when
| the last marriage among them took
place, that of Conant. his wife pro
posed that the wives make up a trio of
friends similar to that OF their nus
bands.
There is always a weak link in a
chain, else chains would never break.
Mrs. Conant on the first occasion after
her marriage that her husband dined
with his two friends took il into her
head to invite their wives to dine with
her. They accepted the invitation, but
Were insufferably bored. Mrs. Holmes
was a reserved woman, intellectually
inclined; Mrs. Barry's chief interest
was dress, while Mrs. CGnant was Civ
en- to discussing erOtic novels. The
consequence was that at 10 o'clock the
women were all at home and in bed.
while the husbands turned in ut l in
the morning.
Mrs. Commits scheme to bring the
women together having failed, she con
Guided that the triangular masculine
friendship must end She began by
ridiculing the wives of her husbands
friends. This did not serve. and she
ridiculed her husbands friends them
selves. This annoyed COnant, but
made no difference in his feelings to-
ward Holmes and Barry or his treat
ment of them. Mrs COnantS next
move was to cease calling on their
wives. aVerring that they We're very
unintereSting women and she had no
use for them. They saw plainly what
Mrs. Conant was aiming at and stood
by the friends nObly. not because they
approved of their friendship. but be-
cause they disapprovcd of Mrs. Co
nant's efforts to break il up. Conant.
though, after every meeting with his
friends, suffering from his wife's
snecrS, remembered the agreement he
had with them and kept on meeting
them. but as his wife glared at them
when they came To the house he fell
TO meeting them at their own houses
or at such places as men frequent.
Mrs. Conant now found herself out
in the cold. Mrs. Holmes and Mrs.
Barry to spite her became intimate
with and encouraged the trio to meet
at their houses The women succeeded
in making themselves so popular that
the men were glad to admit them as
cronieS. This was condition not TO
be endured by Mrs. COnant, and she
found a breaking up of the intimacy
She pretended to relent and induced
her husband to bring Holmes and Bar
nv frequently to his home. Then she
repeated to Holmes remarks that Bar
~ had made concerning him, giving
them false construction. This plan
she worked with each of the three
chums But the men had such conf
dence in each other that the effort was
a failure.
Mrs. Conant'S next move was to
make love 10 Holmes and Barry sepa-
rately, tVt by this time they had be
come so wary of her that they gave
her no opportunity to carry out her
plan. which was to compromise them.
Finally, one day Holmes was in q room
in her house with her. Her husband
had gone into the hall to telephone
Barry to join them. When Conant re
turned he found his wife sitting beside
Holmes, with her arms around his
neck. She had done this so suddenly a
moment before her husbands entry
that Holmes had no time TO diSengage
himself. Mrs. Conant threw herself at
her husbands feet and implored his
forgiveness. Holmes, unwilling to place
the blame on the woman, remained ST.
lent, and without word between him
and Conant left the house.
Holmes and Barry met and consult
ed upon what was best to be done.
They both finally agreed that there
was no way by which Holmes could
set himself right with COnant without
accusing his wife. Nor could Barry do
SO for him. \ note came from Conant
stating that Mrs. Conant had said that
there had been nothing criminal be-
tween her and Holmes beyond what he
(Couant had witnessed and asked If !
he could corrObOrate her statement |
Holmes replied that he could.
This ended Conant's and Holmes |
friendship, and Barry, fearing that |
Mrs. Conant would also compromise |
him. drew away from the couple. But |
Conant was so incensed against Holmes |