The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-06-13
THE ANTICS OF
 ANASTASIA
Continued from Page 12.)

JedIouSy His eyes became hollow and i his hearing defective from crowding | sleepless nights when rest was denied
 him by Anastasia. Some time later, when he and his l wife were again in New Haven Shir- ley received her first definite informa-
 ton regarding the bride. It was on 1 the occasion when Bud NTerva and his l 1ancee dropped in for cup of tea. Woman down town leading Fred
 die Vervane around by the nose,'' he
 announced; must be his wife, "Only wife would do that,'' laugh l ed Shirley; tell me about her.'
 Well, she was not exactly what
 you'd call 9 chicken drawIed Bud; woman about t1irty-dve years old,
 ugly mug, looks as if she'd been born
 with a groDeh, one of the chronic kind,
 you know.''
 $ By her appearance. Freddie must have married some ones cook inter
 rupted Buds fancee. eff she receives
 any invitations from anyone in this
 giving an exhibition.
 | Sure" confirmed Bud; s'you ought
 to see her swell duds-they look as if 1 they came out of the red van. Fred
 die is no miser, either, so we can't l blame him. I've heard of clothes that l were pitchforked on to a woman, but l these were chucked on with a hay ! kicker doing full time. If Freddie 1 had on a. Prince Albert coat, gray
 linen trousers, a green plaid tie, a
 yachting cap, patent leather pumps, a
 satin vest and red woolen Inittens, he
 would have matched her to a straw.
 As it was, he looked rather out of 1 place.
 Within few hours Shirley was in | troduced to the bride by an acQuaint-
 ance. Freddie never could have brought
 himself to do it after the thousand
 unsuspected revelations of Anastasia's
 coarseness, but since 1t had happened, 1 he took her out to call the following evening.
 It was a brief call, but Freddie felt
 that he would have gone mad if he
 had not rushed away as he did He 1 could scarcely endure the agony of gazing simultaneously at the girl he
 loved and the woman he had mar
 ried.
 'Fwhy, in Heayen's name, couldn't I have waited and tried again?' he
 groaned. 'I wasn't the only good fel- low she threw down. I'm positive of
 that Perhaps she would have chang ed later. I've changed myself" However, he had not changed in the
 essential way. Shirley was disappoint- | ed as she had supposed that FHreddie's
 selection would be g. woman whose companfonship would be an inspira- ton rather than a clog. Despite her 1 condemnation of his Judgment, she had trusted to his good taste. Fred die had never been seen near girl
 who was dowdy or lacking in culture
 when he called New Haven his home.
 Though totally devoid of interest in
 Anastasia as an individual, she was horribly Impressed by her skirt; nor was the bride diplomatic enough to i conceal her coarseness. Freddie, also, did not for one moment attract her. His waistcoat and his stick still caus- ed him undue concern and the re- responsibilities of a household had left unscathed his grasshopperish quail ties. A blind man would have known that he was not happy. Their early departure was a relief
 Meanwhile, Arastasia manipulated her. game from her vantage point of years and natural tendency in such
 a. manner as to incur no suspicion in the mind of her innocent victim 1 She traced his investments and kept
 accurately informed as to his steadily
 increasing assets.
 In every detail of their living, Am astasia had her way.
 She simperingly persuaded him into placing his bank account subject to his check and hers. Being unable to
 endure his continued presence. she
 forced him out upon the road for the
 firm, and tramp1ed upon his pleadings
 for the shelter of a home instead of the svicissitudes of six-months' trips. l She had but one motive now-to sep arate him from his money. She at tended church every Sunday of her life.
 Her rasping voice and interminable fault finding, her innate vulgarity and chronic grouch were soul sickening to her husband, but he had made
 promise which contained the clause
 1suntil death do us part,'' and he was essentially man of honor. He was
 nauseated by the sIave-d driving atti- 1 tude of his re1ations-at-1aw. Through
 out everything Freddie never spoke a
 harsh word to anyone of the outfit.
 He marve1ed sometimes that his for
 mer friends had all deserted him and
 that by neither hook nor crook could he persuade any of the fellows to
 spend an evening at his home. He smoked more cigars in a day than he had form er1y consumed in a month and he formed the reprehensible habit of ealing for a drink when he entered a hotel. He assimilated a. choice stock
 daily breathed the wish that he had
 died before he had ever seen his wife. Where her influence would have land ed him eventually would have been mater for serious conjecture had not the awakening arrived as it did.
 Returning one morning from a lengthy trip, prepared to invest fifty thousand in a business opportunity which had appealed to him a few days previously, he let himself into maid to give him information as to the. location of his wife. There was no maid, no wife, in the deserted abode, nothing to gratify his curiosity
 except a terse note which supplied the wherefore.
 It has been said that in times of
 tragedy men express themselves in
 three words.
 Freddie used four.
 They were: Damn her. Thank
 God.''
 As he started for his fathers home he was detained by his nearest neigh
 bor.
 'tI congratulate you, MT vervane,"
 said the man; flor we know, of course. what has happened Four