School in the East

A Princeton man, handsome to the point of being painful to view for those who would never be asked to dance , was to be offered in turn all the midwest has to offer.

His bride was chosen from a stack of OSU sorority year books describing the prominent parents of each pledge one year. Pretty Margaret's father owned a lot of things, half of Michigan, and wanted his new son in law to run for public office. Exposure to public policy proved the real draw for the ivy league man...his father in law discussed privately first all he heard in Washington.

Tax loop holes became his meat, insider tax loop holes, his forte. His father in law's best friend took a post with the new administration and all was set for amazing profits . Apparently, he couldn't loose.

Realtor met the favored couple and understood the unspoken command to keep ahead of ALL the Joneses.They moved a lot. The most interesting deal was a tax free exchange conceptualized to stimulate commercial property sales wherein the Princeton man traded an income stream for the most prominent house in town.

He began affecting airs.His monogrammed shirts were now of handmade silk and his suits arrived from Saville Row fittings, his hair slicked back from a curly forelock and worn long over the collar years before the style came to vogue.

A peak of prominence came when one of his historic renovation projects was featured in a national magazine and his "Hollywood could only envy" face appeared on the cover. It proved to be his undoing.

His wife began to suspect the hair dresser hired for the photo shoot when she loaned him her make up kit for the cover story. She was fussing over his appearance too much. Turned out, his wife was right. The Icelandic import was one of his mistresses. Margaret's father cut off all contact with his errant son in law, errant because he was caught.....and Margaret sought an immediate and expensive divorce.

The Princeton man was too well leveraged, so his position became precarious quickly. At a time when Washington floundered again into many areas about which they know nothing long enough to cause difficulties for any real estate practitioner; the Princeton man was now out of the most critical loop.

Realtor sold the mansion first. Margaret was pleased with the profit from the only matrimonial asset in her name.

 

original story by Sarah Simpson