（外文电子版资料）Stout, Rex - Jonathan Stannards Secret Vice (Short Story).docVIP

PAGE PAGE 3 When Mrs. Stannard saw her husband with a woman in a yellow hat one night at Courins Restaurant, she thought she had solved the mystery which was making her life miserable. Then, watching from her secluded corner, she had seen a tall, middle-aged man with a brown mustache walk over to their table and join them. Him she recognized. So her husband had not lied to her, after all, when he had said that he was going to dine that evening with John Dupont, of the Academy. And she was further assured when he observed casually, in their own home three hours later: By the way, Dupont brought his wife along. Did you ever see her? No, replied Mrs. Stannard. Nice-looking woman, but a bit flashy. Had on a lot of yellow stuff. Duponts getting to be tiresome. I wished myself at home with you. What did you do with yourself all evening? She murmured something about reading, thereby achieving her second falsehood within sixty seconds. But though her husband thus stood acquitted of this particular malfeasance, the mystery remained. It was not of long standing. She had married Jonathan Stannard twelve years before, when he was still an underprofessor at the university. Three years later he had become suddenly famous by his lengthy essay, The New Homer. Others had followed; his reputation grew and solid)fied; and since he was financially independent he had been able to give up his professorship and devote himself entirely to writing. He was a conservative. Classicism was his sacred word. His books and lectures were divided into two equal parts: appreciations of the classic and attacks on the modern; the latter were the most interesting, for he was a hard hitter. He could belabor the Futurists or Motion Pictures or Eugene Brieux for three hundred pages, with what effect! Assuredly not in vain, for he was taken seriously. As a husband he was as near perfection as any reasonable woman could expect. He had never neglected his wife; for over eleven years he had even appeared t