Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-02

- w are all out OF doors lo-HlSht, crieu
Dory, laughing. 90 Where is the Squire
He ought to be looking after you young
people.
Hush He is fast asleep under the
Times" answered Montgomery with mock
gravity He attempted to read a leader
to us, and the lead was too heavy for him.
8" For goodness sake, Mr.. Montgomery,
don't You have said you did not want TO
make me cry"
Then the four young people laughed
merrily and had pleasant promenade up
and down the terrace.
A front chamber on the second floor OF
a genteel lodging house for single gentle
London. There was an air of faded gen.
tility about the heavy dusty curtains, the
well.worn chairs, and the threadbare car
pet. a lamp was burning on the table,
casting lugubrious light about the lugu-
brious room. Folding doors of faded oak
painting conducted, when opened, to a
bedroom, the window of which overlooked
a narrow channel darkened by the backs of
the opposite houses. The folding doors
were closed at present. On the table lay
piles OF manuscript, letters and long sheets
of proofs.
1t was past midnight, and there entered
a gentleman in evening dress. He flung
his crush hat on the table, went to the
faded sideboard and poured out a glass of
water, which he drank thirstily. Then he
sat down-or, as it might be said, sank
Enthusiastically on an easy-chair.
1t was William Arnold. He had been
two months in London, and this was the
first night of his play. 1t had been en-
phatieally condemned, and in a few hours
the bright hopes of years had dissolved into
thin air, and the youth was obliged to own
chat all his labor had been in vain-he had
failed
He could have borne the failure if it
had been only himself who was concerned
in it, but the stake ne had played was
high one. He had risked upen his one
stroke the possibility of winning Dory, and
the possibility of satisfying his father that
be had not blundered III the course he had
chosen.
How could he return to them now,
shame-fa faced pro2igal and own that in de-
tiance OF all their good counsel he had dared
to take his own course, and found 1t was
the wrong one He knew that they would
not laugh at him they would pity him,
aud in his present mood the thought of pity
was even more painful to him than that OF
laughter
The pale face of the man, and the limp
hands falling over the arms OF the chair.
indicated how utterly Respondent he was.
There had been no loud cries for the au.
thor, for which in imagination he had pre-
pared himself there had been no shower
of bouquets upon the heroine; the only
flowers thrown were those provided by the
manager. Arnold had run away from the
theater without speaking to any one, eager
to hide his head anywhere, so that ne
might not hear the horrible jests of the
audience, or see the melancholy looks of
his friends.
He was IN "a sort of stupor, through
which he had visions of the old home the
bright garden in front of the vicarage,
overlooked by the gray tower Of the old
church the placid face of his father, as he
bent over his book-or, leaning on the
arm of Ahlly, when visiting some of his
parishioners, and then strolling leisurely
through the green meadows where the
lazy kline chewed their cud in peace, never
thinking of the past or the future,
Never had green fields and perfumed
Indigenous seemed to him SO precious as
at this moment, when he had TO meet
failure in form which seemed to imply
the loss of hope as well as OF love. He
longed to smell the hawthorn hedges, the
wild rose and the honeysuckle, and IN
Imagination he did inhale their perfume,
so that he grew angry with himself, and
called himself a fool for leaving deserted
all those real joys for the glare Of the
footiights, the atmosphere Of gas. and the
hope of winning the fchle applause OF a
tickle crowd.
He had not been idle during his stay in
London. His collegiate attainments had
enabled him to obtain some employment
as reviewer of scientific works ON two
important journals. But here was the
satire OF the thing he, who sought repu-
tation in the airy realms of fancy was
compelled to earn his bread and butter by
writing articles on the most serious sub
jects, frequently dealing with very tech
meal matters of science and philology.
But he had manfHlly set himself to do
with all his might whatever was given
hun to do and he had already earned some
reputation for skill and care in his handling
OF the work which was intrusted to him.
Unfortunately this work was Of the kind
that he liked least and he had waited
with bated breath for the production of his
comedy, which he had calculated would
relieve him from all this drudgery and en-
able him to follow the bent OF his own
mind.
At length the time had come; the cur
tain rose upon his hopes and fell upon his
despair.
He knew that it would be useless to at
tempt to sleep, and so, after he had rested
a little while, he threw off his coat, put on
a dressing gown, and marched up and
down the room restlessly. He tried to
count his steps and to walk deliberately, in
order that he might by physical exertion
subdue the feverish condition In which he
found himself to be.
His impulse was to burrow his head in
the sand ike the ostrich, in the hope that
the SIMEON would pass over him. OF
course all this was exaggerated sensitive
ness, due to his nervous depression on &C.
count of the result Of his adventure. The
words which Dory mad spoken last had
raised his hopes high. And now She
had been in the theater he had seen her
watch anxiously the progress of the play
and he had seen her draw back the curtain
of her box when the hooting Of the audi
ence proclaimed its doom.
She had promised to be there and she
had kept her word. He had dreamed
vaguely that he would be able to 90 to her
and, clasping her hand, say. :" Now for
tune favors me, Will you be my wife,"
But fortune had not favored him, and he
almost feared to look upon her face again.
Something in her expression an expression
Of disappointment, as bitter as his own
made Inn culver with the feeling that his
failure had cost HIM the loss of her love
and her respect. But how dared he think
that she loved him That she liked him
he believed, and now in his miserable state
he fancied that all her regard for him must
be extinguished.
Then he became bitter.
"Women are won by tinsel, " was his
mental exclamation. Success wins them