"The Other Two"

"The Other Two" By: Edith Wharton. Takes an interesting look at a blended family, before the term blended became popularized. Mrs. Waythorn is on her third marriage, in a time when that is strictly unheard of, unless she is a widow three times over, and I assure you she is not! Mrs. Waythorn through the course of the story finds herself face to face with the men in her past. She is newly married to a well-to-do fellow, who, is longing to have his wife to himself, yet her past keeps intruding. She shares a daughter by her first husband, and in the beginning of the story she is quite ill, which prompts the first husband to sell everything he owns to find himself lodging near his ill child. The second husband intrudes on Mr. Waythorn's business dealings, and finds himself in close contact with him more than he is comfortable with. Towards the end of the story Mr. Waythorn has found that he cannot force the other two away and must find some common ground in dealing with them. At the end Mrs. Waythorn walks into her husbands study to find all three men sharing a cigar and talking, not knowing what else to do she orders up tea, and plants a smile on her face.