Show GREAT MANS WIFE sa by FANNIE HURST 0 by mcclure Newa newspaper paper 1 i Ser service vico j ahe HE story of the was la in T j many respects the usual one of J a roan man having gone on in worldliness and social achievement quite beyond the wife who had bad stood still after marriage as the saying goes again the story of the was quite unusual in this respect frank had gone on in a manner as unusual as it was startling at thirty one the young clerk in a second rate publishing house while off on a two weeks holiday at an obscure seaside resort with bis big wife had filled in his spare time writing a description of the life about him at forty one that same nearsighted not dot highly personable young man had developed into one of the most successful literary men of his time at fifty one he was a world figure the center of a school of disciples who were content to bask on the rim of his reflected glory and his fine country place was the mecca for pilgrims who were not dot content to return to their native heaths deaths without being able to say gay that they had at least glimpsed the retreat of the great god simes Cha charabares charabancs Chara bancs rabanes and various sightseeing sight seeing excursions along the state highway which bordered one end of the simes estate pointed out with pride the country home of the renowned author while still a comparatively young man simes had become a sort ot of shrine the achievement of this scouted in the small world of sophisticates as the antics of a literary charlatan was nonetheless one to impress pre a vast public it could also be said cald that it probably impressed mary stales simes even more than it did the layman more and more as they grew older together mary was to ask herself this question concerning simes how how bow had he accomplished the almost incredible she mary better than anyone else in the world sycophants who crowded around him enemies who jeered knew the caliber of the man simes knew the relentless ego of him which flung out in all directions like the tentacles of some sea serpent strangling where it could knew the strangely feeble equipment of this nan man whose pen somehow some way had bad loaded into its point persuasion and personality everything about this man her husband she knew and knowing marveled how had he achieved his almost unique position in the world of letters there v r ere of course people who said his somewhat plain wife was the power behind the throne but then that Is said practically ot every public man with a plain wife there were also those who marveled fit at the constancy of simes so strangely y attractive to women in what might be called caled a repellent way they seemed to read in the eyes of simes strange eyes set one slightly higher than the other decadent forbidden things that wrapped his big personality with the half evil lure of the genii simes in a curious inverted manner had a way with women just as in a curious inverted manner he be must have had bad a way with ills his vast public it was not this rather oblique lure which surprised mary she must have capitulated to it herself in the days when he was a humble clerk it was the stability of his success which never ceased to amaze and secretly to appall her how did simes superficially educated superficially informed superficially fici ally the thinker the student the nan man of letters hold bold with a strangle grip the interest fascination and admiration mi ration of his public 4 sometimes in her loneliness and heart beart hurt passionately she admitted to herself that she mary the wife whom to all intents and purposes he had outgrown was the answer she mary who was the buffer between him and his public the creator of the illusions about him the weaver of legends and the hand band nt at the helm of his bis phantom ship of literary illusion then again mary told herself trying to ferret the secret of his mini shIng luster no one person alone could account for it not even the years of her secret sacrifices her humiliations mil lations her pretenses and her display of admiration where he was concerned were sufficient to solve the riddle somewhere in the makeup of simes must reside real greatness the fact that she mary simes had alone built up the illusion of the great man seemed almost too fantastic to be true knew it to ta be there was one man true johann brody te ten n years after her ber marriage to simes mary and brody had met drifting together almost immediately on an innate sympathy which had ripened their friendship into something too profound and potentially dangerous to be discussed between them the johann brody simes lawyer a wyer was in love with mary with her plainness her unstylish exterior her drab look of blending against bac background kg round she ehe had bad flashed bright Is as a flamingo into his hig life twenty years of 0 f the unspoken twenty years word between them had marched past to he her r flush at Ms big bening at his bis brightening hand shake her eye entrance her glance yearning yea aning when big glan glance e was averted two middle aged bu hungry agry spirits fluttering as a near together as they dared brody know knew to what extent mary bad manufactured the success 0 of simes it was the only intimate sub eject they ever permitted themselves to discuss together and then only un der pretense of legal affairs time end and time again instigated by one tiling thing or another erody brody had openly credited mary with being the im P apse ase that had pushed simes front from the position of a humble bumble clerk in a publishing house to the unique standing he be had bed achieved in the world of letters it was only when a crisis came however that he be permitted himself what approximated full statement of the boiling sentiments that had bad been pressing against his restraint tor for years so it had come at last I 1 after years of her husbands infelicity his bis blatant threat of infidelity his parade of mock susceptibility complication had stalked into the lives of mary and simes almes ile he had finally fallen in love with an actress playing popular roles in a repertory company in philadelphia the surprise lay in the fact that it had not come before years of hardening herself to the public display of simes philandering bad not quite prepared mary for the clap of thunder which came with his calm avowal to her one evening that the end of their relationship had come dinies was going to divorce he her r the door to happiness and freedom so long adamantly closed against her was about to swing open little wonder that as mary faced brody that evening following the avowal of simes of his love tor for another woman and his intention to divorce her the bonds of their mutual restraint broke simultaneously im free now brody she said simply its been so long waiting ile he took her in his arms kissing the smooth graying patient looking hair where it flowed black from her forehead its been a long wait mary how strange it will be at our age to really begin to live for the first time its too good to be true brody my dearest dear you my dearest dear he know it mary fool but the day he gives you up Is the end of simes you mean why darling without you he be falls to pieces like a one hoss boss shay every bolt to in his makeup make up tip has been you goodby good by simes Si roes poor erody brody hammering the nails into the coffin of his own happiness strange but with his words the realization flooded mary that all her life she would stand by to hold together the one hoss shay people called her fool idiot parasite for refusing to grant simes his bis divorce grimly the years st stalk alk by and with them tier hor chances for personal happiness mary also calls h herself all those things but aut grimly too she realizes that in the public humiliation of her refusal to grant simes his divorce lies iles the secret ot of his alleged greatness |