The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1882-09-14

AiOLl ucL oooI III bu0 UOW-WluuOW OI Ln0
library, as her young husband, whose
tread she had heard entering the room
an instant before. came up and parted
the lace curtains which fell across the
archway of the window, yelling her.
'.Ellice|h
s.Wellp'
He put into her slowly extended hand
an open letter.
"I have just heard from our friends
at Heatherbrae. Thev want us to come
to them next week. You will see they
are expecting quite 50 number of people.
But no one, Grahame writes me, with
more pleasure than he will look for us;
that is, if our honeymoon is sufficiently
over for us to have any remembrance
OF such sublunary spot as Heather
brae"
There was faint, unconscious curl of
Ellice's pretty red lip, as he made this
quotation from the letter in her hand.
She flashed a glance at him.
''And what did you replyp''
81 have not yet replied. / have come
to see what you would say, having mere
ly begun my letter"
81 hope you told him from the very
beginning, then, that you and / were far
too sensible and practical to go moon
ing about alone, and that we shall be
very glad to join the Heatherbrae Cir
cle."
He fixed his eyes upon her search
ingly.
II told you had not answered his
invitation. Ellice, l am quite aware
that our marriage is failure, even be-
fore the honeymoon might be expected
to have set; but did not think it neces-
sary to proclaim the same to the Heath
erbrae circle"
''What does it matter?n she said, reck-
lessly. II suppose they can see for
themselves that we are the two most
sensible and practical young married
people of their acquaintance; that we
have none of that nonsense called ro-
nance, or sentiment about us. We
know what we married for, and I sup
pose we have both got it."
He came u step nearer, and put his
hand gently but heavily upon her shoul-
der, as if he meant to constrain her to
reply to him. @
"You have limited as much, more than
once, Ellice. Now, / must know what
you mean"
Her color deepened, but she raised her
eyebrows mockingly.
"Is there anything to take exception
at in the assertion? Every bride and
bridegroom cannot say the same, l am
afraid; but we know what we married
for, and / suppose wo have both got it."
"And what is it you married for?" he
asked her, in tone SO still and calm
that it might be mistaken for inditfer-
ence. She evidently so mistook it.
ZIP That might belong to some
one; that might be less utterly alone
in the world than all my life l had been.
1 was never alone, you will say; my
guardian sent me governesses enough
when was child, and companions
when / grew toward womanhood. But
1 never belonged to them; they belong
ed to me, and let me see it in hum
dred servile ways. even when was too
mere child to understand what it was
to be great heiress. 1t was the same
with my lovers; but when you came
n
"Well, when cameP" he repeated,
for her voice had stopped.
"When you came," she said, very
quietly, II knew at once that it was diff
ferent. l knew it was not you who
would belong to me, but who would
belong to you. And thought it would
be an exceedingly fine thing, who had
always been my own mistress, to be thus
mastered@"
"A deep flush rose to Maurice Worth
ington's brow.
E ''Have / ever been harsh, or unkind
to you, Ellioe?''
s "No," she said, quietly. ''You are
kind to all who belong to you. My mis-
take was in thinking l could bear to
belong to anyone. have no right to
complain; got what l married for.
And you"
asked her, bitterly.
..Ah, that is more than can tell; but
neither have you right to complain,
for you have what you married for,
however unsatisfactory you may find it
now"
.'And that isp''
Ellice hesitated Just m instant, then
she thrust her hand suddenly into the
little velvet dumOniere which she wore
attached to her belt, and drew from it a
crumpled letter, evidently much read
and re-read.
Perhaps this will remind you what
that is" she said.
He glanced over the open page.
There were but a few lines there, writ
ten one day upon their wedding tour,
when he had been detained at st. Laz-
are on their arrival in Paris, looking for
q massive trunk of hers, and had sent
up this note TO the hotel, explaining the
delay. He remembered scribbling it in
the sale d. attente on torn-out leaf of
his memorandum-book. What was there
in this, thenP
He was turning the leaf in his hands
in a puzzled way, when something PEN
cilled on the reverse side caught his seye.
In one swift glance he took the whole
matter in.
For this pencilling was this in three
short, broken lines, with the end of each
torn off, in severing the leaf from the
memorandum book
"You ask me why
marry her. Simply
cause she is rich"
1t was Maurice WorthingtOn's own
handwriting. He could not have de-
Nod ;t if bo yyonld Rnt no ShnWed M