A Curious Love Story

by John Fischer (from Reader's Digest^®: Tests and Teasers, © 1980, pg. 133)

Recently, some friends asked me to dinner to meet a visiting doctor from Ohio -- a plump, comfortable man of about 60 who was in New York for a meeting of a psychiatric association. Afterward, over coffee, he said he would like to tell us a rather curious love story -- to find out what we thought of it.

"A long time ago," he said, "there was only one bridge across the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Covington, Ky. Not far from the Cincinnati end of the bridge lived a lovely young woman who was married to an elderly manufacturer of machine tools. Discovering after a few years that her husband was more interested in lathes than in her, she began to look about for solace.

"Eventually she found it, in the person of a handsome young sportsman who bred and trained horses near Covington. She paid him frequent visits -- always taking care to get home before her husband returned from the office.

"One spring afternoon, as she started her drive back to Cincinnati, she found that a flood was sweeping down the Ohio River. Foamy brown water was swirling over the floor planking of the bridge, the pilings were shaking as if they might give way at the moment.

"The only other way to cross the river was by ferry about a mile downstream. She hurried there and found, to her immense relief, that the boat was still running. When she looked in her purse for the fare, however, she saw that she had no money. Surely, though, the ferryman would trust her till tomorrow.

"He wouldn't. He explained that he would be glad to let her ride free if the decision were his own, but the ferry-owner had given him strict instructions not to grant credit to anybody. If he broke the rule, he would be fired. Sorry...

"The woman drove rapidly back to her lover's house and asked him for a dollar. To her astonishment, he too refused.

" 'Don't you see,' he said, 'that if the question of money should ever enter into our relationship -- even a single dollar -- everything would be changed? I love you far too much for that. You may think me ridiculously idealistic, but if you insist on demanding money from me I can never see you again.'

"Once more she drove toward the river, this time trembling with rage--a rage of fury at her lover and of fear for the wrath of her husband. She determined to force her way across the bridge in spite of hell and high water.

"She didn't make it, of course. Her body was never found."

The doctor paused for a sip of coffee, then asked, "Who do you think was responsible for the girl's death?"

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