Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-06-12
HIS BROTHERS WIFE
BY RUBY M. AYRES
CHAPTER XL
The Puzzle
r P in his bedorom, he turned on all the


down at it for moment, then he took the
flat gold locket which Mary Furnival had
given him from his pocket and opened it,.
With a sort of deliberate curiosity he
compared the pictured faces of the two
women--the in the locket, with It's
steady, almost sad eyes, and the frivolous
prettiness of her who had been his brothers
wife
1t was not the same woman!
He laid the locket down besides the I'M
mounted photograph, and again opened
the letter Nigel had written the night be-
! fore his death.
Perhaps now he would be able better to
understand it's imploring incoherence; per-
haps now in the light of this new discovery,
many things would be made clear.
Dear Davy," (Nigers sprawling writing
struck his heart with little pang of re-
membrane; nobody but Nigel had ever
| called him 'Dayy' III have been mean
ing to write to you since 1 came out
to this hell, for hell it is, no matter what
the papers say.
II don't want to grumble-I came Of
my own free will-but the past day or two
! I've had the feeling that I shant ever go
! back home. SO many Of the chaps have
gone under and you never know whose
turn it will. be next
.I should have liked to have seen you
| again old fellow. I hope you weren't very
wild over my last letter? l ought to have
told you before about my marriage, but it's
all been such mistake.
"Not that I'm blaming Dolly. It's cut
both ways, and she hasn't been any hap
| pier than / have. We weren't suited; there
was another man she really care for, and
! well one can see where mistakes
| made when it's too late.
MARY Furnival is with Dolly while
am out here; she's the best woman in the
world, and the best friend I've ever had
| She'd have pulled me through, if I'd not
| been such fool, and you'd have liked her
| But it's no now, or l suppose [ shouldn't
! be writing this at all.
cts been raining like hell for the past
week-hardly dry moment-and most Of
us are suffering agones from rheumat ism
Cad one appreciates England after taste
of this!
'Davy, If I never come home-don't
| think I'm funking-but If I never come
home, and you get a chance, will you tell
Mary Furniyal that I asked you to thank
4 her for all she's done for me? l. never,
somehow realized it till I got away from
every one, and had plenty of time to think
| We were such good pals. God bless her."
After speaking with Mary, and believing
| 2r TO be his brothers wife, Bretherton had
marveled at the half-spoken confession
of love for another woman the letter had
contained; but now, in the light of what
Monty Fisher had said, and what he him
self had instinctively guessed, many things
were made clear.
Nigel had loved this woman, this Mary
| Furnival, who had allowed him-David-to
| believe that she was NigeIs widow; Nigel
had realized the mistake of his marriage too
! late!
Then where-where Dolly?
1t was all a great mystery.
CHAPTER MI
An Uneventful Life
" OWN to the time of Nigel Bretherton' s
J death Mary FurnivaPs life had been
49, eventful.
She could not remember her father, and
| her mother had died when she was sixteen,
! leaving her to manage as best she could on
the small income of something under a hum
dred a year.
early days; only afterward, when she came
| to realize that there are things such as
board and lodgings and travelling expenses
to be paid for besides clothes and simple
pleasures, did she understand that she must
look around for ways and means by which
to supplement her slender income
An advertisement in morning paper had
led to her finding a place typst in city
office.
She made no friends, and the advent of
Nigel Bretherton into the drab monotony of
her life had seemed like glimpse of heaven.
He a friend of her employers son,
and once-pausing on his way through the
office where she sat, he had stopped and
lokingly offered her a penny for her
| thoughts.
That had been one of the days when a
patch of blue sky visible above the ugly
chimney-po and Mary had pointed to it,
and answered that she was wondering what
it must be like to live in the country, where
there no smoke, and where the sun al
ways shone.
The answer had amused and interested
him, even though he told her that there was
no place on earth where the always
shone. She different from the fluffy,
ggging girls of his acquaintance, and one
day he hesitatingly asked her to come out
and have some tea with him.
And so the curious friendship had started.
No man had ever paid Mary attention be-
fore, and it seemed to her ignorance that
i this was Romance with capital letter. and
the first step to the "Happy-ever-after
Land, of which she had hitherto only
dreamed.
For four years she had been more than
happy and content with his friendship. and
then, without a word of warning her dream
castles came Gathering to the ground.
Nigel went on country visit.
! He had often been away before and she
had not minded. She had looked forward
to his occasional letters, and the joy of his
return. But this time, beyond couple of
scrubbed postcards he did not write at ALL
The visit. which had been for a week
dragged into two. and when he came back
one glance at his face told her the reason
for his delay.
He had met the inevitable "other woman"
Little by little. if he were not quite
sure how she would take it. he had told her
about Dolly-how pretty she was, how alto
gether charming
"Her hair is like copper beech leaves in
the sun" he said eloquent1y az want 70
marry her more than anything in the
world