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Mrs. Alice Waythorn
Alice’s second husband. He is considered a gentleman and is a very popular member of the Waythorns’ high-class social circle. Varick’s marriage to Alice was “brief and stormy,” and it is implied that Varick is a womanizer. Varick is a client of Mr. Sellers, a senior partner at Mr. Waythorns’ workplace, and enters into the Waythorns’ lives when Sellers falls ill and Waythorn is forced to negotiate a business deal for him. Alice takes pleasure in talking to Varick. Mr. Waythorn accepts Varick out of professional and propriety obligation, but remains inwardly resentful and guarded in their social interactions.
Mr. Gus Varick Quotes in The Other Two
The The Other Two quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Gus Varick or refer to Mr. Gus Varick. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part II Quotes
What was he thinking of—only the flavour of the coffee and the liqueur? Had the morning’s meeting left no more trace in his thoughts than on his face? Had his wife so completely passed out of his life that even this odd encounter with her present husband, within a week after her remarriage, was no more than an incident in his day?
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Part IV Quotes
She was ‘as easy as an old shoe’ —a shoe that too many feet had worn. Her elasticity was the result of tension in too many different directions. Alice Haskett—Alice Varick—Alice Waythorn—she had been each in turn, and had left hanging to each name a little of her privacy, a little of her personality, a little of the inmost self where the unknown god abides.
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Part V Quotes
He could have forgiven her for blunders, for excesses; for resisting Haskett, for yielding to Varick; for anything but her acquiescence and her tact.
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With grim irony Waythorn compared himself to a member of a syndicate. He held so many shares in his wife’s personality and his predecessors were his partners in the firm.
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Mr. Gus Varick Character Timeline in The Other Two
The timeline below shows where the character Mr. Gus Varick appears in The Other Two. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part I
...either Pittsburg or Utica (not much is known of Haskett), and later to Mr. Gus Varick, an upper-class New Yorker with decadent tastes and philandering habits. Though scandalous for the times,...
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Part II
...moves into a space uncomfortably close to him. Waythorn sees that the man is Gus Varick, Alice’s second husband. Their close proximity renders it impossible to avoid engaging one another in...
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At the office, Waythorn confirms Varick’s information—Sellers has indeed fallen ill with gout. The senior clerk relays Sellers’s apology for all...
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Waythorn leaves to eat lunch and crosses paths with Varick once more, though Varick fails to notice Waythorn. Varick, who is known “to be fond...
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Part III
...got to ask you to do an awkward thing for me.” He informs Waythorn of Varick’s “rather complicated piece of business.” Varick has come into a large sum of money and...
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Varick arrives at the office that afternoon. Waythorn notes that he “[bears] himself admirably.” Waythorn self-consciously...
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...is known that “a lack of funds” was partially to blame for the divorce between Varick and Alice. He wonders whether in Varick’s attempt to avoid broaching an awkward subject he...
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...two living husbands would not present the opportunity for awkward run-ins. His semi-awkward encounters with Varick pale in comparison to this “intolerable” meeting with Haskett.
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...on his dressing-table. Alice wears a pearl necklace that had been gifted to her by Varick. Waythorn recalls how he forced her to get rid of the necklace before they were...
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Part IV
Mr. Sellers goes to Europe to improve his health. Mr. Varick’s financial matter is still Waythorn’s responsibility, and they maintain their professional relationship. Waythorn runs into...
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Part V
...that they have chosen to spare everyone the awkwardness of picking sides between them and Varick. Alice is regarded as a “a miracle of good taste.”
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Suddenly, the door opens and Varick enters the room. All three men are caught off-guard. Varick’s “sanguine colour deepened to a...
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The Waythorns’ footman brings in a tea-table, and Varick begins to broach a subject of business. He is interrupted by Alice, who enters the...
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