New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1883-05-16

and was by his side.
.'What is it, Dick?'' she asked.
Nothing, darlingr' he answered,
cheerily.
The lovely lips pouted.
''Show me the letter. she said, and
outstretched her hand.
He shook his head.
cts business, dear" he explained.
'But it troubles you, Dick?'
"Your imagination, May"
All day the young wife was left al
most alone and at night, when Dick re-
turned from town, a worn, tired look,
quite new to it,was on his face; but May
asked him no more concerning it.
The next morning the single letter
which the post-bag had was addressed
to her. She glanced up from it's perusal
with flushed cheeks.
"Will Crosby has a six weeks fur
lough'' she said, eagerly; HE writes
that he is coming to spend part Oft with
us. You remember we invited him when
we were married.
"Ah, I remember" assented her hus-
band-he had almost forgotten his old
suspicion during these happy months
II am glad, dear, that his visit is timed
just now, for though had intended to
take long summer holiday, business,
find, will demand my attention in the
city,"
is anything wrong, Dick?'
wrong? Nonsense, child! Don't get
such ideas in your pretty little head
What could be WrOnp?''
And rising, and kissing her as he
passed, he went out of the room.
A few days later, the expected guest
arrived. When Arnold returned from
London one evening, the two were
standing together upon the lawn, and,
as in a flash of lightning, his memory
recalled to him the first time he had
looked upon similar picture.
A new brightness, a new gladness,
was in Mays face, too, as she came Gag
erly forward to greet him. A sudden
sense of pain and loneliness crept about
his heart. The day in town had been
an unusually perpiexing one. A crisis
was pending in the near business future
"a crisis which babe fair to be a COM
mercial whirlwind-- he could dis
close his anxieties to none, and least
of all must his child-wife suspect
them.
Yet, the effort to conceal them caused
a. strange constraint in all that he said or
did. He no longer sought to be alone
with May, until. one day it came upon
him like an inspiration that she, too, no
longer sought him.
Lieutenant Crosby had been three
weeks their guest when the threatening
storm burst. Around about him, on
every side Mr.. Arnold saw the houses
which he had deemed solid as his own,
totter and fall. Each fall bore with it a
portion of his own fair edifice.
How long might he hope to withstand
such shocks? 1t needed but one more
blow, and on one August day the blow
fell. Unless by the next morning, be-
fore noon, he could command certain
sum, he too, would be swept away with
the tide-a bankrupt.
just the amount needed represented
his wife's private fortune, but to touch
that never entered his mind.
! At least May was secured from future
want, and he must leave her to build up
his shattered fortune in new land. She
had never loved him! He was sure of
that; and latterly-latterly, he had be-
gun to realize that he had no right to tie
her young life to his.
Worn and weary with these many
thoughts, he returned to his home. May
greeted him almost indifferently, only
the next moment to turn to young Cros-
by with her most radiant smile.
Arnold's face paled.
Yet what right had he to murmur?
he told himself. Had he not sworn to
possess her at any cost? And was he not
a ruined man? Crosby, the penniless
subaltern, as he had called him,
would have done better for her than
that!
When dinner was ended, he went into
his library and closed the door. For a
time he sat wrapped in thought. Per-
haps an hour had passed, when solitude
grew unbearable
He would rejoin his wife and their
guest, he determined. Tomorrow night
only tomorrow night May must
know all. For the first time in his life
he felt himself coward! But tonight
was yet his. Tonight May neither knew
49, ouoPOOCCA UA1C UKuLu.
He rose and passed out into the draw
lng-room, whose windows opened on the
lawn. His footsteps made no sound on
the carpeted floor, and he had reached
the window, when something like sob
arrested his steps.
MAY, must speak!' said voice he
recognized as belonging to his guest.
'Do you think have been three weeks
under this roof without discovering your
secretP You are not happy. Your
laughter, your gaiety, is forced. What
IS wrong? Do you fear to confide in
me?'
.'Wrong?" she answered with tears
in her voice. "All is wrong, Will. What
am l to my husband but q spoiled and
petted child? Look at him! Do you fail
to see the change these last few weeks
have wrought in him? Yet, each time
that I have striven to gain his confidence
he has shut me out from it and his heart.
He has sent me from him as he would
send q child to his dolls. He showers
gifts upon me. and fancies thus he bpys
my happiness. Am I indeed, so little
woman that thus he satisfies nv wo-
mans hunger, my woman's heart? And
| love him SO madly, Will, that to know
l have no part or portion in his real life
is killing me! Always he has been nv
ideal, my hero! Do you think I could
have sympathized in your trouble, Win,
T had none of my own? Often-often
have wished that all this splendor in
which | live might be wiped away, and
that Dick and I shared cottage. that / |
might prove to him | was not a child, :