The Red Cloud chief., 1875-10-07

hours than II took me to earn my Psltry
diurnal guinea. Visions Of fortune,
golden and bright, passed before my
eyes, and already I saw Edith queening
il in the park with her high stepping
bays and faultless turnout. She should
have everything money could command.
Whatever else my visions showed M she
was always foremost in my thoughts
and highest in my hopes.
But when l gave her the money she
turned away from me csldly, and . min
ute after had buried her face in the pill
low Of the sofa where she was lying and
was sobbing. l was a good deal sur
prised, a little shocked, and greatly
hurt-I hsd better use the harsher word
and say vexed-at this outburst. l did
not understand il. Beside, ii chills a
man 80 painfully to be received with
cOldness and tears after such q day as !
had spent! 1t makes the contrast be-
ween life inside and outside the home
too sharp, and only sends him further of
instead Of drawing him nearer. How
ever, tears were too scarce yet for me to
disregard or withstand them, SO I kissed
my wife and did my best to soothe her,
and by degrees brought her round so far
that she left of crying and began to kiss
the baby, as if it was something quite
new, and she had never kissed it before.
Though I was sorry to see her cry,
this vexed me again. She had not seen
me all the day, and she had the boy. l
thought she might have paid q little
attention to the one who had been absent,
to put it on no other ground.
But when I demonstrated she only
answered, ~ know, George, you do not
care for baby. You never have cared for
him, and if it were not for me he might
die of neglect"
1 began to laugh at this. 1t struck
me as too cOmical for a woman to re
prOach her husband for not taking care
of the baby; for surely if there is such a
thing as "wOman's work" in the world,
and they are not meant by nature and
the eternal fitness of things to be soldiers
and sailors and lawyers and doctors and
the Lord knows what beside, that work
is to he found in the nursery. But she
was angry when I laughed; and raising
herself IN her elbow, drew q picture OF
the infamy, ruin, degradation that was
to follow On my taking to bad courses,
founded on nv not caring for baby and
my having won fifty pounds at the Derby,
that I seemed to be talking to a maniac,
not the Edith I had left in the morning
and had loved for so long. Perhaps l
was too impatient, and ought to have
remembered that if 1 found my life dull,
hers was not too gay; l ought to have
made allowance for the morbid nervous.
ness and brooding fancies of q woman
lett alone for the whole day; but l was
younger then than l SIN now, and the
thing ended by our having Our first grave
quarrel, wherein we we're both silly,
both unjust, and neither OF us would give
way.
The bad blood made between us to-
night grew worse as time wore on; and
the circle We were IN was a vicious one.
I kept away more and mor from home,
because my wife made it too miserable
tor me by her GOODNESS, her tears, her
complaints, her Ill humOr, and the
more I stayed away the more I resent
ed it. She took an almost insane hatred
and suspicion of my friends and my
actions, and did not scruple to accuse
me and them of vices and crimes because
l was often late, from no worse cause
than playing pool and billiards. Her
~reproackes first wearied and then hard
ened me; and by degrees a kind of fierce
feeling took possession Of me-a kind OF
revengeful determination that I would
be what she imagined me to be. and give
her cause to denounce me as she did.
Harmless amusements became amuse-
ments not SO harmless; petty little stakes
of half q row and a shilling grew to
gold; the glass of beer became the glass
of brandy-and more than one; and the
faci1is descensus had one more self.di
rected victim on its slippery way. Work
was intolerable to me. What l did I did
badly, and I shirked ali I could. l was
often late, I as often left, too early; and
my employers were really good and
l~enient. As it was, however, I wearied
out their patience, and they demonstrated
with me firmly but kindly.
This sObered me for q moment; but /
had gone too far to retreat; until l came
out at the other side I must 60 on.
The fortune which had so long be.
friended Jack Langhorne deserted him
now, and with his fortune his nerve.
Where he had stsked with judgment he
now backed wildly, recklessly, and the
more he lost the more reckless..y he
staked. His fortune seemed to influence
mine. Hitherto I had been immensely
successful; the luck ran dead
against me, and I lost more than l could
afford, and soon more than I could pay,
and 70 came face to face with ruin.
During all this time the enlargement
between Edith and myself grew daily