Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-01-19

should guess what bitter longing pos.
sessed me for the love above whose need
or reach he had set me. If not for me
loves tender sympathy, never for me
the pity that stngs worse than contempt,
the compassion whose existence seems
to insult. was more gay, more bril-
liant than he had ever seen me. I as
sumed that my ''happy thought" as I
termed it, perfectly satisfied him, with
an air so absurd, so complacent and
friendly, that it was impolite for him to
resume his former manner, or to remon-
strate against this literal Interpretation
OF his wishes with persistency or natu-
ralness.
He left me at last, a little bewildered,
could see, both at me and himself, and
the outer door closed at once upon his
retreating form, and opened to the in
coming figure of Theo, into whose arms
Lulu lightly sprang from the stairs,
down which she had fastened on seeing
him come up the walk.
| "Ha, ha, little wife," he laughed,
kissing her heartily, cone would think
had been a long journey. Has the
child got his teeth? Does he walk or
talk yet?''
"Eor shame, Theo," demonstrated
Lulu. 81 have mind to punish you
for laughing at me by not allowing you
to see baby till tomorrow morning."
| "And that would make twenty-four
hours elapse without my seeing the
wonder of the nineteenth century. Mon
strous woman! cruel tyranti" Knocked
Theo, I" it is thus set you at Defiance
| And then heard little scrambling
rush across the hall, playful struggle,
and Theo's firm step went up the stairs,
and to the nursery door, a trifie more
slowly and heavily than usual for Lulu's
weight.
A sudden impulse made me follow. As
opened the door beheld Theo's great,
lion head bent close above little pink
| mite of humanity that lay in the swing
ing cradle, while, on the other side,
Lulu stood looking down on both, with
an expression of infinite satisfaction and
| content.
"Why did you marry Lulu, Theo9"
l asked, suddenly.
because I loved her," he said,
promptly, taking at once the mites
mite of a hand and Lulu's into his own
broad palm.
"But why did you love her?'' 1 pur-
sued. "Not for her beauty said, a
little ironically, perhaps, sbut Lulu
doesn't mind her lack, at least not since
she has Theo."
"Not at ALL" said Theo, getting up,
and making me a grand bow. eff love
were for beauty, should be your slave
l suppose, instead of Lulu's husband"
"And not for her voice." said, ''for
you don't know a sharp from b fiat
and, of all the world, you are the one
who listens least when she sings.''
"No, not for her voice." he said,
stealing his arm round Lulu's waist.
"What for, then?'' questioned.
"Because did, because 1 do. That's
all, and that's enough. The best rea-
son in all the world for loving. The
only reason that neither time nor cir
cumstance,can change. Kiss me, Lulu"
My hand was on the door. I felt that
I must fly. My eyes were strangely
dim, and something choked in my
throat, for, at every word Theo uttered,
1 realized anew the mockery of a mar
riage founded on the feelings with which |
my beautiful flesh had inspired Rimaux,
the Unreasonable distance between love |
and admiration, be it ever so enthusiast
tic. But how bitter is conviction against
desire! How despairingly, ravishingly
denied could no longer contemplate it.
fled away to solitude, and the first
remembered tears which l had ever
shed. Happy Lulu! who, having moth
ing, yet had all! Miserable mel queen
who despised her kingdom, who would
have given all the jewels in her sceptre
for loves rose.
Rimaux was a Frenchman, versatile
and imaginative. When he came, on
the morrow, to give me my first sitting,
Icould see that my idea had taken strong
hold of his fancy, that the anticipated
me whom he should paint already rivaled
my living self in his artist soul. A
strange jealousy stirred in my heart. l
would have retracted my offer, only that
feared that any inconsistency of mine
might possibly suggest to him its cause,
so timid does one become who has aught
to conceal.
But had condemned myself to slow
torture, to exquisite torment, as I sat
before the man whom loved with all
my soul, to give to him my soulless i'm
age, seeing, day after day, the beautiful,
insensate thing upon his canvass absorb
and satisfy him more completely. Un-
recognized, unwooed, the woman
watched, while he painted the goddess,
even as one might to rivals
praises, to the raptures over form and
coloring in which he INDUCED as his
work progressed, my breathing lips
thirsty for the kisses of lover while his
brush fingered about the smiling mouth
of the portrait, as if 10th to leave it.
At last it was completed, and before
it Rimaux stood, with exactly the ex-
preston upon his face that remem- {
bered it had worn on the day of his
to me. All, me! how we'll,
how cruelty, tauntingly well, had this
sufficed him!
Tomorrow" he said, more to HIM
self than to me, never turning his eyes
from the picture, "to-morrow l shall
come to take it away, to take it with
me, for can never, never leave it be- ]
hindu
"Whati" I said, rising, and invol-
,nfor;1u roo chinp ont NV hand 90 If RI I