What is the story of O 'Henry's interesting and famous short story The Actuarial Study of Marriage?

Two businessmen jointly set up a fake matchmaking agency, hoping to get $5,000 from it. Because there is no business license, the business can only last for two months at most. Two people began to fake, and one of the partners temporarily found a beautiful young widow and drew up a marriage advertisement:

Charming widow, beautiful as a flower, thirty years old, frugal. Holding 3000 yuan in cash and valuable property in the countryside, I plan to remarry. I hope to find a gentle husband, rich or poor, because he knows that people from humble origins have many virtues. If you are honest and reliable, good at managing money and investing carefully, you don't care about your age and appearance. It's better to write in detail.

Judging from this marriage advertisement alone, it is indeed a good trick, which will naturally attract the eyes and eyes of many men.

Next, their business opened.

They booked a family hotel for this talented young widow, paid her $25 a week, deposited $2,000 in the widow's name, and gave her a passbook in case anyone questioned the authenticity of the matchmaking agency.

Because of the advertisement for marriage, more than 100 letters are sent every day, and it takes 12 hours to reply every day.

Each applicant received a reply from the businessman, saying that the beautiful widow was deeply moved by his frank and funny letter, and hoped to continue to communicate in writing, talk about each other's specific situation in depth, and attach personal photos if it is convenient.

In addition, they informed the applicants that it would cost $2 to receive the second letter on behalf of their beautiful clients. Please attach.

As a result, 90% of the writers received the fee, sent it with the letter, and the two began to open the letter to collect money.

Several men came straight to the door, and the businessman showed them the beautiful widow. The beautiful widow sent them away neatly, and 3-4 people asked for the round-trip fare.

In this way, two businessmen will have 200 dollars a day.

Of course, private detectives came in to find out. As soon as they entered the marriage office, they looked around and swept all four walls. They took him to the hotel to meet the young widow and the $2,000 passbook.

The detective no longer suspects.

More than two months passed, and two businessmen earned almost $5,000. It's time for me to wash my hands of it and close down. Because she received a lot of complaints, the beauty was bored, and many suitors came to her door, but she didn't want to.

It stands to reason that such a story should be over, but the ending began to reverse.

One businessman, A, went to the hotel to ask a young widow for a 2000 yuan passbook, but the beautiful woman cried like a child who didn't want to go to school.

She fell in love with someone, and if she can't be with him, she can't live. The problem is that if the widow can't come up with this 2000 yuan, people won't marry her.

So, with goodwill:

"Well, my partner and I can afford this 2000 yuan. After all, we made more than 5000 yuan from those suckers who wanted to marry you. I'll go back and discuss it with my partner. "

Another partner Andy said:

I decided to give in and let her go to the bank to take out the 2000 yuan and give it to the man who fascinated her and live happily.

This sentence makes my former partner very happy. He thought that if he told the news to the young widow, she would cry with joy.

The story is almost happy here, with a happy ending, except for those innocent pursuers who are not sensible, but the story is not over yet.

The next day, when they were ready to catch the train, Andy, their partner, took out 2000 yuan from his pocket and gave it to his partner.

Partner a was surprised and said, "are you the one who fascinated her?"

Andy confessed, "Yes, this is the 2000 yuan she gave me. For more than a month, I went to see her three nights a week. "

The above text is from O. Henry's short story "An Actuarial Study of Marriage".

Once again, we learned the world-famous "O'Henry-style ending". He is like a changeable magician. He never puts on his hat until the last moment. When he puts it down, you'll never guess what he will catch from it.

Through the young widow in the novel, we can see the hardships of women at the bottom. In order to earn meager profits, they promised to cheat in partnership with two businessmen. In order to get back 2000 yuan smoothly, the businessman cheated the young widow with clever emotional deception.

How can there be sincere and pure love in such a society? Only the bloody stories of cheating, calculating and tearing each other really make me feel sad and sympathetic for the bottom women.

There are also two businessmen who think that women are not suitable for partnership business, especially fraud, and they often lose their rational judgment and lose themselves in the face of emotions.

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