Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-12-10
ORIGINAL
THE WAYS0F THE WORLD.
ORIGINAL SERIAL STORY
BY JUNIUs HENRI BROWNE.
CHAPTER VII.
THE MYSTERIOUS RELATION.

Since Good wins first visit to the house |
of the Roydens three weeks had passed,
and in that time he had called there three |
times, having been led to believe-and he
was by no means vain-that Miss Royden
found satisfaction in his society. During
two Of these visits be had encountered
Barigues, who had not remained long
enough to make himself particularly disa-
greeable to Oscar, as he seemed destined
to do in general by some inexplicable an
tipathy of temperament. He had renewed
his acquaintance, begun rather inauspi.
ciously, with Mrs. Royden, who bored him,
as indeed she bored nearly everybody, with
her theological opinions and her decorative
dogmatism.
She was at once so fashionable and so
pious that her fashionableness and piety
could not be separated. Her sense
of worship was obviously dependent
on modish surroundings, and she
would scarcely have felt herself worthy
OF the Divine care unless she were attired
In the latest styles and redolent of the best
society. All her doctrines were inter.
mixed with richness of color and attractive
ness of form. She was as solicitous about
the hue and pattern of the altar cloth OF
the Church of the Cruci6ed Redeemer, and
about the cut of the surplice OF the Rev.
DIR. Cyprian Chowsby, the elegant rector,
as she was in regard to the order of the
Apostolic succession, and the necessity OF
infant baptism.
Her demonstrative concern as to his
views of evangelical truth, and his att.
tude toward Episcopalianism in particular,
had annoyed Goodwin not a little at first;
but he soon discovered that it had no sig
nificance, and was equally distributed
among her associates. He usually parted
her inquiries, and she was SO much occu-
pied with the theoretic salvation of mis-.
cellaneous souls and the regulation
of her set that she seldom re-
turned to them. Her general fussi-
ness and lack of direct purpose co
hindered the concentration of her talent
for tiresomeness that many of her acquaint-
ances escaped her serious infection. Be-
sides, she was never very long in any one
place; for, with her dinings out, Bible
readings, Municipalities, Sunday schools,
reception-days, missionary meetings, after
noon drives and associations for enlighten-
ing the heather, she was kept in motion
and chatter from morning to night.
Mr.. Royden, especially of late months,
was little at home. He commonly went
out after dinner-he often dined elsewhere
and did not return until midnight, or
after. He spent, he said, many evenings
at his club-the Dragstone-of which
many solid men were members though
persons who sought him there seldom
found him. Fond, as he was privately re-
puted to be, of women's society, he was
rarely seen with his wife or daughter; so
that his fondness was cynically thought to
be undomestic, even clandestine. When
seen at late hours, he frequently looked
flushed and Hurried and he had acquired
worn, harsssed appearance, which might
have been termed dissipated, had he not
been known az almost austere in his ex-
pressed morality, and as an imposing pillar
of the Crucifed Redeemer.
Philip Royden never passed an evening
under the paternal roof; he got his letters
at the club seldom breakfasted with the
family, except when he went to
church, which he did periodically,
for several consecutive Sundays, while
persuading mis- father to pay some of his
most inexcusable debts. The Roydens,
three of them at least, were regularly in
their luxurious pew, for their head would
have deemed it highly improper not to be
seen, on the Sabbath, uniting in worship
with the wife, whom, during the week, he
took special pains TO shun. Secretly, he
may have thought her lacking in many of
the attributes of complete womanhood but
having no reason to doubt her orthodoxy,
he uttered no ill-bred complaints, and &C.
cepted her for all that she might or might
not be.
Each additional visit strengthened Good
win in the belief that his first impressions
of the Counts relation to the Roydens,
certainly to the daughter of the house,
were correct. He had observed the two
very closely, and nothing could convince
him that Margaret had the slightest
affection for the foreigner. She was
always polite to him but it was freezing
politeness. She showed him difference
but it seemed in some way compulsory.
He had heard from divers sources that
she was engaged to him, though he could
hardly credit it 5; and if it were true it
was proof, in his mind, of his exercising
over her some malign influence. The more
he reflected, the more mysterious the
whole thing appeared.
Could she be destined for him Albeit
SO slightly acquainted with her in point of
time, he had repeatedly been tempted to
ask her. Nobody, so far as he could learn,
had any intimacy with her. The general
opinion was that she was intellectual and
interesting, but very retiring and singular.
He felt more and more drawn TO her. Her
situation seemed very sad, well-nigh tragic.
She was evidently alone in the midst of
an opulent home. Not one of her family,
he would be sworn, understood, or could
understand her. If she were bearing
great sorrow or great burden unaided.
it was ignoble, unchivalrous, not to offer
her assistance. He was her friend at least;
he was the friend of every woman in
distress. She might be perishing without
a single hand stretched out to save her.
Goodwin wondered that others did not
see as be saw; he expressed this wonder
to Archer, as they were dining together
one day at Goodwin's hotel. The doctor
smiled satirically, as he replied "Oh, it
is easy enough to determine that, my
dear boy. Others are not in love
with her." He then added seriously
Pardon my baptering on a subject that
is so grave to you, Oscar. As l told you,