The Hickman courier., 1878-06-14

VIII 8
This gift for al holds sstlil the Eternal Love
GODS endless by-and- By.
Al
! TT RE,ST REsL9VED.
BY ETTIE ROGERS.
90 The law has given you your freedom.
You accused ime of sins of which you
knew me to be innocent, and I submitted
to the outrage witheut word of defense
or denial. And why? Because, SteE hen,
lam too preud TO care to be your wife
in name but not in love, and because my
affection Is and alwsys has been subject
to your slightest csPrices and desires.
You are free, and you will marry Clelia
Adair, whose fatal charzas have blinded
and beguiled you. But, Stephen, re-
member my parting words -- all that is
yet noble Of your manhood is true to me
still, and the day will come when in
bitter sorrow you win acknowledge me
as the first and last aud best beloved.
The allowance you Offer me I will not
accept. I have our child, aud wish
nothing more
am glad you are satisfied, Helen"
answered the man, inpatient TO end the
interview Is there anything more
you wish to say ?"
" Nothing" she said, turning her
beautiful proud eyes for the last time
upon the face that was still to her 80
desr; and yet-yes, Stephen. forgive
you"
/ And thus these two, who had been
man and wife, but who now were to each
other legally less than strangers, parted,
and Stephen Darrell hoped and believed,
/ forever
Several months after his marriage 10
Clelia Adair he heard incidentally that
Helen had gone to Europe with q retired
prima donna, and that she was studying
preparatory 70 becoming q public singer.
/ He was not surprised. She was still
young, of noble type of beauty, and
/ possessed q rare and highly cultured
voice that would have made her a name
and fame long ago had she not sacrificed /
/ her ambition and her passion for song TO
love and marriage.
I Already his mad infatuation FOR his /
new vile had begun to weaken. She was
/ the sort OF woman whose charms soon (
I satiate those about whom the siren wiles /
/ are too closely woven. lie deemed her
( the incarnation Of all that Ia sweet and |
I ympathetic and satisfying, and his slow
/ disenchantment sickened him. Clelia
was brilliant, hut she was superficial;
she was as beautiful az a flower, and quite
as soulless; Clelia could purr and caTess I
and stroke him coquettishly with her
( yelvety fingers, but the tones and pretty
gestures and Gree embraces, that once /
/ had been so delicious and mesmeric, new
/ only amused him as would have done the !
fawning of some handsome, petted ami !
NAL forever expecting repletiOn of |
selfish delights.
A lustrum Of wedlock with, Clelia |
brought out FIVE epochs of disenehant-
ment. There was one year Of the
intoxication of wild and headlong
passion, then a reckless time OF vague
dissatisfaction, then indifference, then
| liberation, and at the last losthing At
the end of this time he began to remem- |
Der sorrowfully the cosy, domestic home |
where he had been go happy with Helen !
before the conquering temptress smiled |
away his fealty with her dark bewitch- !
ing eyes.
In the stately house where she had so |
proudly enthroned his new love he |
missed the witely solicitude, the delicate. !
womanly attentions, the ineffable calm |
and the pervading spirit of trust and con-
hdence and affection that had made his |
home ike a dream of Eden. He was
weary of the cold splender of the rooms |
through which the dashing Clelia flashed !
in her satins and gems he was weary Of |
the endless pageant of giddy guests; he |
was alarmed at his wife's monstrous |
extravaganza, snd her pomp of fashion
able dissipation. But she laughed at !
the remonstrances, and frowned at his |
anxiety. A Stacy tear, an affected !
fIown, a pretty pout, alone answered his
anger, his sorrow, or his arguments. Her
skye terrier was no more insensible TO
reason than Clelia.
But there came day when the bank
of which he was treasurer became in
solvent. His honor was impugned, his
creditors clsmorous, and his princely
fortune gone, and in all the great city
he had not one true heart to counsel or
comfort him. Months of sleepless
anxiety had bowed his handsome head
and whitened his hair, yet the needless
and heartless Clelia was utterly ignorant
of his trouble.
He had not been brave enough to tell |
her. fsr he felt that this woman who |
had ruined his life would madden him
by her insipid and selfish wonder and
regret, for of any stronger emotion she
was incapable.
But at last his grand house was seld to |
satisfy a mortgage, given as security for
money that had been wasted in the laces !
and silks and jewels that Olelia wore
with such imperial pride, money that he
dared not take from the bank, already
shaking for the final fall.
Then he resolved to tell her of the
trouble that was to end her life of |
splendor. 1t was unavoidable, but he
shrank from the ordeal with weak and |
heavy heart.
It was at the close of peaceful. golden !
day when he drew up his spanking pie
bsld roans before the uptown palace
that was his no longer. The silver of
moonrise and the rose of sunset yet