The Brookhaven leader., 1883-09-06

humphrey anu ED1ula OaTOOntl. lneN
grew estranged from one another. hard.
" knowing how, or why. He said sh,
no longer cared to please him, her hus.
band; she said he liked other wives bet
ter than her-that he gave them all hi:
attention and gave her none. And
| again time went on.
Seven times had the MAY violets
opened their blue eyes in the messy
dells since that lovely day when he and
she had vowed to love and cherish each
other until death did them part; seven
times the May dew-drops had made the
green meadows all aglow with sparklcs
and seven times the sweet spring flow
ers had faded beneath the scorchino
heat of summer. All, if violets had
been the only things that had died out
in those seven years!
II was Nav again now. But il brought
no cherished bridal flowers to Humphrey
Carbonel and his wife, no clasping OF
hands, no fultillment OF loves glorious
prophecy. Enlargement had but deep
ened, and they were parting in pride and
anger. Tired with the state of affairs
at home the unbending GOODNESS, the
resentful tones, the cruel chickering's in
which both INDUCED Captain Carbonel
had got placed on full service again.
He was going out to be shot at, if fate
so willed; for we were at war now.
The day of departure dawned, and
they parted with bitter words. Heaven
and their own hearts knew how much
or how little they suffered; there was
no outward sign of it. People, who
had ceased to wonder at the suspected
enlargement between Captain and
Mrs. Carbonel, said to one another that
it was brave of him to go out volun-
tarilv to the wars. " Marlbrouck
en-va-t-en-guerre" So he went off
with an indifferent countenance and n
iaunty air; and she stayed behind
equally jaunty, equally indifferent.
One year passed on. Emma Car
bonel began to feel lonely, to sicken of
her unsatisfactory life. Bit by bit she
had grown to see that she and
Humphrey had been but foolish, both
of them, the one as much as the other.
Did he feel the same? 1t might be.
Yet their letters continued to be of the
scantiest and coolest.
Another year dragged itself on, and
then she made no pretense of keeping
up the farce of resentment to
her own heart. Time, generally
speaking, shows up our past
mistakes in their true colors.
Emma Carbonel longed for her husband
to come home, she grew feverishly i'm
patient to be reconciled. Mariana in
the Moated Grange was favorite read
ing of hers just now
"Shc said: L am a weary, weary,
He cometh not she said:
He cometh not, and all is dreary-
j would that were dead"
Humphrey Carbonel came not.
Nothing came but the details of the
fighting; wars, and rumors of wars
May was in again; another May.
Mrs. Carbonel sat at her window in the
twilight of chilly, drilling day. The
gloom without harmonzed with the
gloom within. And yet, hardly so. The
rain might be cold, dreary, dispiriting,
but it was nothing as compared with
the desolation of her heart. Childless,
and worse than widowed! She had
hoped, ah! for year or two now, that
Humphreys old love for her might
ovcrrule his pride and bitterness, and
prompt him to write to her word of
tender regret for their conduct to one
another. But he did not She was
feeling it alto herhcart'S core this misnr-
able evening; unavailing remOrse lay
heavily upon her: she wished she could
die and end it. No sign of reconcilia-
ton had passed since they parted in
pride and anger; not a word of repent
ance on either side had crossed the
dreary gulf that flowed between them.
Words of another poet, dead and gone,
tloated through her mind as she sat
Night and day lately they had seemed
to haunt It.
% Alas! they had been friends in youth
But whispering tongues can poison truth,
And cOnStancy lives IN realms above.
And life is thorny. and youth is vain:
And to be wrath with one we love,
Doth work like madness in the brain"
Should she 90 mad? There came mo-
ments when she feared she should if
this state of things continued A week
ago there had been some talk in the pa
pcrs that the war would, in all proba-
bility, soon be over. Then Humphrey
would come home again.
Her thoughts turned to this phase;
she began to dwell upon it, and what it
would involve to him and to her. Pres
emily she lost herself in fond anticipa-
tons, realizing it all as in a picture.
Somehow she felt a strange nearness to
him, as If he Were coming then, were
almost there. She heard the rain beat
ing against the windows, and she glanced
to see that the fire in the crate was
bright when he came in. She gazed be-
yond the house gates down the road in
the gathering gloom, almost, almost ex-
pecting to see him approach, as she
used to see him in the days gone by.
She had been wretchedly lonely so long
now: and she wanted to hear his foot
step in the hall, to feel his caressing
hand on her sunny hair, and to hear his
bright words, Good evening, Emma,
my dear!' 1t did not seem strange to
her that this should happen, or that she
was expecting it, though she had never
once had this feeling through all these
separated years. 1t did not seem mar
velous that he should come thus from
beyond seas without notice. Had he
opened the door and stood there by hel
side she would not have felt startled OIL
surprised, or at all wondered at it. The
bewilderment wrought by long-contin
ued sorrow has stolen over her senses
But Humphrey did not come. Only
instead. the postman came in at the
gate, and knocked at the door. Me
chemically she wondered why he was SC
late this evening. She heard the ser
want who answered the knock say the