She was a schemer, that
mother. A theatrical manager, whom she knew, was introduced to the girl,
who was more beautiful then than ever afterward. The mother managed to
have the girl's husband discharged from the bank where he was employed
on the same day that the manager made the girl an offer to go on the
stage. The boy naturally wanted to keep his wife with him, but the
mother told him he was a fool.
"'I'll travel with her,' she said, 'and you stay here and get another
situation.' The wife, intoxicated at the prospects of stage triumphs,
urged, and the boy gave in.
"A year or so after that, the girl had drifted completely out of the
husband's life, as they say in society plays, the mother managed to bring
about the estrangement so promptly.
"The husband stayed at home and got work in a railroad office or somewhere,
so as to earn money with which to drink himself to death--I say, let's
go in here and eat. If we go to the club, I'll be bored to death with
congratulations."
We turned into a lighted vestibule and mounted the stairs to a modest
little cafe over a Broadway saloon. There, over the cigars and Pilsner
presently the comedian continued the story:
"When the husband learned that to his charming mother-in-law's machinations
he owed the loss of his position and his wife, he bided his time, like
a sensible fellow, and one day he called upon the old lady at her flat.
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