Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-10-04

1t when he brought her home. 1T is only
l. ihake-shlft. But it is the best / can
now. By-and-by we will see. If you don
d nave great house on the hill, with ga
anu furnace, and hot and cold water, bt
lore am many years older, why. then
d deserve to have Squire Benham's wifi
wear silk and my wife wear alpaca.''
But as for Laura, she was satisfied wit
Il this. "What should we do with a grea
house on the hill - she said. This Is al
!, we need. The cozer the happier. We ar
somuch the nearer together And oh
Roger, to think that it is oursl''
' 1t isn't ours. That's the deuce of it =
said Roger.
We'll. to all intents and purposes it is
A isn't it's
$50 long as we pay the rent, puss. Ant
do you think L am content with that
Then you're nightly mistaken. Mrs
Gregory, my love! And the first thing
shall set myself to do is to buy this house
for basis of operations, and that done
we will lay our galleries to attack the big
hOuse-the house on the hill.'
well. dear, justas you please. And
will help all can by the most rigid system
OF economy and they both laughed At the
idea, laughed at themselves and the whole
earth, and went about from day to day.
happy as two children at their play.
But Roger meant all he said and much
more. He was going TO be rich man.
and to have his wife rich woman. He
had a singular vanity that he called pride.
and that forbade him to rest while there
was in his neighborhood anybody better
OF than himself-a quality thatin a young
man is sometimes thought to be noble
ambition, a areaching forward for the things
that are beyond, but which, i'm an older
man, bares itself to a palmer view simply
as grasping spirit. 1t was, however, al
most the only fault that Roger possessed.
or rather, with its auxiliaries. it was. for
every fault has it parasites and man who
has grasping spirit on the side he turns
toward the world at large has necessarily
a selfish bias in his nature, whether
thoroughly developed or not, and pretty
sure to be guessed at i'm his home.
But not by Laura was such guessing
done, not by her was the possibility of
fault in her idol suspected. To her Roger
was model and marvel of man. He
had some of those qualities that ALWAYS
win women-the charming manner, the
ready wit, and the snowy kindliness that
covers multitude of sins. As Laura
looked after him going down the garden
walk, and pausing at the gate to wave him
another farewell-loOked at the handsome
figure, the sparkle of the eyes, the waving
of the crisp hair-it seemed to her that the
human race had reached perfection in him,
and nothing finer could be subject TO
mortality. Nor would it have made any
difference If she had been told the truth
that he was simply an ordinary man a
Claude Lorraine glass makes every land
scape picturesque. 1t is, indeed, to be
questioned if at the last, and i'm spite of
every thing, she ever admitted to herself
that he was not a supreme satisfaction in all
particulars. Hers was wife's loyal soul,
and not critics.
At the beginning the novelty and the
freedom of her life absorbed her so much
that she had not time to think of those lit
tie minuti9 of devotion in which dis
eliminating consideration would have
showed her that Roger failed; and then it
was such delight to do for him that it
never occurred to her to think whether or
or not he was doing for her; he had made
this home for her, and he was keeping her
in it-self-apparent facts. And so she pro-
ceeded, after the fashion of typical good
wives, to develop the selfish side of her
husband by every service in her power.
She never disagreed with him, TO begin
with. Rogers word was law: if he had
pronounced the sky pea-green, pea-green it
would have been for Laura. She never kept
him waiting one instant. He might keep
her waiting for hours. She had sixty eX-
cuses ready for him. If he did not |
come down in the first train. dinner was de- |
layed for him; and if the cook objected to |
this pOstpOnement that hindered her early !
evening visits, Laura dismissed that cook |
and prepared the dinner herself-prepared |
such dinner as the cook would never !
have dreamed of, and that made Roger in |
clined to wish there were no other cook
until she could find a handmaiden whose |
ideas agreed with her mistress's hours. |
She wanted Rogers home to be the most |
attractive place in all the world TO him, in |
dependently of her own presence i'm it, |
She kept il, then, neatly, as good engi- |
neer keeps his machinery not a particle of |
soil or dust any where to be seen, flowers |
always about. When he came home i'm the |
evening there were lamps Lit in the distant !
part of the house. but he entered twi- |
lighted region of open windows, muslin |
curtains that the breeze was blowing out |
i'm an atmosphere of heneysuckle, mignon-
ette, and roses, and it might have seemed |
to him, had he given himself time to think
about 1t, that his cottage was built just
upon the outskirts of Eden.
And so IL ulu seem 1Or Wnile-SO III al /
ways did, in fact-Only he soon ceased to |
give himself that necessary time. He was
busy with his work, always diving forward |
as if there were worlds to conquer, and |
only to-day to do it in. He was off at
seven in the morning; he was away till
seven in the evening. As soon as dinner
was over there was somebody to be seen
on matter Of importance to him, or else
somebody came to see him. Then Laura
sat alone, unless neighbor came in-the
busy Mrs. Clifford, or one of the plain
cousins, who thought Laura's house a dull
place-till Roger slammed the front-door
at last, and declared himself too sleepy to
sit up another moment. But that was all |
in the natural way of business it did not
occur to Laura to grumble about it. II she
wished he would come home at four
and take her to drive before dinner. she
never thought he might have done it had
he chosen; she took it for granted that he
wished it too, and would have done it if he
could. Sundays she had him, at any rate
at church with her in the morning.; and in
the afternoon-well. il in the afternoon he
stretched himself ON the lounge with a
A L.. g.. Il. 4