Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1879-10-01


sorrow, had suddenly y'stalghtened into
tho utmost order, The servants eyed
me cuuously to zee II ! noticed the
change and made many iarlive at
tempts 10 talk about It, ] could not
have been more bewildered II q soft,
pink baby had suddenly hardened
under my hands into one of those grim
old statues that keep guard over
Egyptian tombs, She did not Scem
to manage IL, but could never ace
hor alone, and she carefully Ignored
my hints at the change in her
Her beauty had always been warm
ed aud heightened by happiness ! she
needed sweet excitement TO keep a
flush in her naturally pale cheek, aud
dewey brightness N her large gray
eyes, When the sun is saying good
night to tho peaks Of Jungirau, she
colors like q blush rose, but when the
sun is gone she turns pale and gray,
and is nothing but cold rock after
all. This was precisely the change in
Isabel Dcanc. lie face was like n trans
parent picture, softly glowing when
the light OF happiness was behind It,
but without that light it was no pic
ture at all,
She had let her house on u long
lease, and all Of her affairs were as
carefully settled as il she were going
out Of the world.
"You behave as if you had receiv-
cd sentence OF everlasting exile !" l
said to her one day when she coald no
longer escape me.
81 hope it may bc so ) she replied
looking straight at the wall ~ have
suffered so much here, that, but for
the chlldren's interest, should be
glad 10 sec this house burned to the
ground
| looked at the wall too and percei-
we'd hat Mr. Deane's portrait had been
removed.
"You will take 1t with you OF course"
l SAID, by way making talk.
"Oh, no, it would be a troublesome
package. / have sent it to Mr. Deane's
sister, she always admired and wanted
it.
Had grief turned the woman to
stone? l took her chiu in my hands,
and made her look at me, while en-.
treated her with tears to tell me what
blight had fallen on her.
"Don't you remember the day that
John sent home that portrait to sur
prise you on your birthday, and you
went on your knees to it with delight,
as il it had been an altar You were
distracted with JOY that day.
"Sinoe then I have known what
it was to be distracted in other
ways, and only for the children's sake
I would have died and made no sign.
You see change in me but l feel it /;
and l assure you that l do not find any
more comfort in it than you do, but it
cannot be helped
"That is nonsense. 1t can be help
ed if you will only look at it in the
right way
81 have looked at it in all ways
aud there is no right way but to take
up my cross and bear 1t to the end.
| can bear it better if am away from
all that can remind me of old days ]
shall not come home until | have
outgrown the memory Of them"
"That memory was your dearest
treasure when left you for that short
week, Isabel"
eyes but you forget that the world
was made in week. It's long
enough for months to corrupt, Or
thieves to break through and steal our
greatest treasure. Do not speak light
ly OF a week." she said, with woefal
smile that had better have been sob.
"Isabel you break my heart" cried
out.
"Do 1? Then you will be in the
fashion. Women's hearts We're made
to be broken. The crack comes early
TO some and late to others. l had a
long probation, and it came at last all
the same"
She went a way across the sea next
day with all her flock, but the dregs
of her bitterness staid with me.
had believed in her, and been disap-
pointed /; it is not an uncommon ex-
perience between lovers and | am as
sured that the sensation is very un-
comfortable. There must have been
leaves on leaves folded away in her
character, that I had never found or
suspected, to account for the savage
change in woman that had been all
"womanly." ..-.