El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-12-28
The Other Man
By Sackviue Martin.

n Al. OLIVER tugged at the end
lN of his gray mustache as he
looked round the smoking
room of his house in Kensington Gar
dens. Then he laid his hat and stick
aside, and walking over to the bell.
rang it sharply. The butler answered
him.
rs your mistress in, SIMPSON, he
asked
The butler glanced at the spare, &C
tive figure standing with its back to
the fire
Mrs. oliver is out, sir" he said.
Il think she left a note for you on
the hall table,
Bring it," said the major CURLY.
The butler left the room and returned
with the note The MAJ or took il and
glanced at the superscription. Then,
seeing that the man was hesitating;
he gave a curt sign of dismissal
the man left the room For mo-
ment or two Maj. Oliver stood with the
unopened note in his hands, thinking
deeply. ne nad been in Scotland on
a fortnight's fighting. And now, on
his return to town. he had accidentally
overheard a conversation at his club
that had given him food for thought.
He imagined he knew what the letter
contained.
Nevertheless. he hesitated to open it.
His eyes sought the mantelpiece, where
the photograph of dark-haired Wo-
man of some % years OF age stared
at him coldly. He had to admit that
the marriage had not turned out We'll
He had been a fool perhaps to marry
himself. A
man of 40 should have known better
Temperamentally also they had been
untitled for each other. He was a
masterful man and his wife was a
proud woman She would not brook
his interference tamely, even upon
trivial subjects. And when he had
ventured to expostulate with her upon
the frequency of Capt. Hamilton's WIS.,
its she flared up angrily. He tore open
the envelope with nervous fingers.
1t was as he suspected. The letter
began without preface.
Il cannot go on like this any longer.
You must have realized as 1 do that
for some time we have been unsuited
to each other 1 do not expect you to
be surprised at the step I have taken
If you had even pretended that you
loved me, things might have been diff
ferent. But 1 thank you for not hav-
ing done so, since ii is owing to your
neglect that I have learned what love
can be. Capt. Hamilton and / are go
ing to the continent together. He loves
me. and he will give me all you never
gave. He says that love is service,
and only asks to be allowed to serve.
If you had known that. Can you
wonder that 1 turn to him? He gives
me liberty and freedom to be myself.
Take what steps you please. We shall
make no defence. Capt. Hamilton will
marry me as soon as you have got your
decree made absolute. Forget me-
Enid
He crushed the letter in his hand.
She had not done him justice. He had
loved her; though latterly, beneath the
influence, of her coldness, his love had
suffered from its rebuffs. Yet now
the recollection of it mingled with his
wounded pride and made doubly sore
the injury which his vanity had sus-
tanned.
Two months later Maj Oliver OBJ
tanned. his decree. He changed into a
regiment quartered in Ireland, and
with the aid Of mis- brother officers, and
the fact that he was situated in a good
hunting district, began to find life toll
cradle Yet there were times when he
found that the routine of his life was
not sufficient to Danish care And at
length, feeling restles, he volunteered
for service on the west coast of Africa,
and. bidding goodby to England, found
himself shortly afterwards at Cape
Coast castle, preparing with a small
composite force to undertake a punitive
expedition against the natives of the
hinterland with the object of impress
ing upon them the fact that British
lives, factories and concessions must
not be lightly murdered, destroyed and
set at naught
a fortnights marching and camping
brought him before the squalid Bornu
village that was his objective 1t stood
in a clearing of the forest, a huddled