The Other Two

   "The Other Two" by Edith Wharton was a very interesting story to say the least. The story starts out with Mr. Waythorn's wifes daughter Lily being very ill. Lily was Mrs. Waythorn's wife from a previous marriage. Then the couple get into an argument about Lilys father Mr. Haskett coming to visit. Then, the story continues to say that Mr. Waythorn's business associate Mr. Varick was also his wifes ex-husband. So, in total Alice had been married a total of three times. In the story there were a few quotes to justify to me that Alice was the equivalance of what we call today a "Gold digger" and a mentally or physically abusive person.
         First, it said of the reason Alice divorced Mr. Varick, " He had heard it rumored that a lack of funds had been one of the determining causes of the Varick seperation, but it did not occur to him that Varick's words were intentional" (1703).
         Secondly, it said about Alices divorce of Mr. Haskett, " A man would rather think that his wife has been brutalized by her first husband than that the process has been reversed" (1705). Also, "The little man, in order to be near his daughter, had sold out his share in a profitable business in Utica, and accepted a modest clerkship in a New York manufacturing house" (1706).
         These quotes make me believe that Alice only cared about the men for their money and as soon as she had a hint of them losing it she tried to secure herself with another rich man. Today you see this a lot and it is sad, because people think that their spouse loves them for their soul, but rather they love for their riches. And the last paragraph kind of stuck out to me as well because you can tell that all three of the men when they were in the same room were still in love with Alice because when she walked in it said "the two men were drawn by her smile" (1710)