Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-04-26
haps, ask himself. 1t is this: "Did Arthur
Trellidge love his wife 20

Trellidge love his wife ?"
One Summer afternoon, when he had been
married about six months, he sat in the
front parlor of his house, talking with an
old friend who had been spending an hour OF
two there. The friend was the same one to
whom he had opened his heart SO freely on
the confidential occasion referred to little
while ago, and their talk, this Summer al
ternoon, had grown equally confidential
The carriage in which Mr.. and Mrs. Trel'
lidge intended taking drive in the park,
waited at the door, and the friend was about
to make his departure.
eyes," said Arthur, with his ear toward
the parlor door by which every minute ne
expected his wife to enter, Eyes, [ ought to
be happy, know. Few fellows have been
so fortunate. am as happy as l ever shall
be. But do you know-it seems wrong to
say it, for my wife is just as good, and
sweet, and loving to me as she can possibly
BEL sometimes wish l was poor again,
and had to work hard for my money and
had some little bit of woman dependent
on me whom could love-really lore, you
knOw?"
"Hush for goodness sake!" exclaimed
his friend. "What would Mrs. Trellidge
say if she heard you? DO you mean to
say you don't love her then?"
''If gratitude is love, then l love her.
How could I help respecting and liking
very much, and becoming attached to q
woman like her, without single fault, and
who loves me 50 devotedly. But you are
an old friend, and l can tell you, without
any unkindness to her, what l could not
tell any one else. l do not love her-1 can
not love her, but feel grateful to her that
she should find so much to love in me. You
know as we'll as / do that married her for
her money"
''Then keep the confession to yourself.
Isn't that Mrs. Trellidge's step?"
Arthur opened the parlor door, but his
wife was not in sight. A few minutes after
his friend went away, but had hardly done
so before a maid came to Arthur with a
message from Mrs. Trellidge. The message
requested Arthur to send the carriage away
if. he did not care to take drive himself,
and explained that Mrs. Trellidge suddenly
felt too unwell to 20 out. Arthur was too
tender hearted and felt too much genuine
kindness toward his wife, not to pay her
all the attention which many thOughtless
men, who love their wives better than he
loved his, neglect to pay them. He, there
fore, ran up to her room, but found the door
locked. He knocked gently two or three
times, and then begged to be allowed to en-
ter. For time silence was his only an
swer. Then he heard his wife's voice feebly
calling to him in a few words at time:
"Leave me alone little while, my dear.
In an hour-you shall come in"
He hesitated for moment, completely
puzzled, and then went slowly and thought
fully down stairs. He had never heard his
wife speak in that tone before. 1t sounded
as though it had forced it's way through
tears. He could not understand it. She
always bore her sufferings with such cheer
full patience, that the idea of her being
crushed by physical pain into tears, was
one altogether unfamiliar to him.
AS an invalid, Mrs. Trellidge was sub
ject to sudden attacks of pain, which often
passed away in few hours, and left her
comparatively well. Arthur was, therefore,
not surprised when, at the expiration of an
hour, he found her, upon being admitted to
her room, a great deal better, able to sit up
and talk with him, admire the exceedingly
tasteful boquet he had arranged for her, and
enter into all the little plans which he was
continually devising for the Improvement
of the house. Had he been of a very Obser-
want nature in such things, he could have
noticed that her eyes sent forth toward him
looks of sad yearning whenever his were
averted, and that in the tones of her voice
lllST0 was u IllcltluS dppCtll elttle was wy
touching. But he did not notice these
things. He saw before him a sick woman
only, who infallibly behaved to him with
a Kindness that he did not deserve, and
whom, accordingly he was bound to feel
grateful to and wait upon,
1t would, perhaps, have been impossible
for Arthur to name the day upon which he
first perceived change in his Wite's con-
duct toward him. The moment of his per-
ceiving it passed unchronicled at the time;
but a few weeks after the events above mar
rated, he found himself, one day, sitting
alone, panied and despOndent, asking HIM
self how had this all come about" and sore
ly puzzled how to give a satisfactory an
swer to the question.
can qchut came about? ?" the reader will
perhaps ask. Were man and wife estrang-
ed? Did they naturally and visibly, quar-
rel? Or was there any unmentioned cold
ness between them? Or had the spectre,
called Divorce, appeared to them both IN
their slay dreams, and frightened them as
only that phantom can?
No; none of these things had happened !;
and vet shadow, that took much warmth
and color out of their lives, had fallen upon
them. The stealthy PAGES by which it had
crept between them, neither of them, per-
haps, could trace. 1t lay down with them
at night, it waited for their rising in the
morning. 1t swept over such of the hours
of life as might else have remained golden
to them still, and it left dust and ashes in
place of the bloom it had brushed away.
Neither acknowledged the presence of this
shadow, but there it remained, saying as
plainly as though it had spokenwith Il voice
-"Hcre, intend to stay between you un-
til death do you part" Feeling the dread
full oppression of this shadow, Arthur, with
unwonted tenderness, would sometimes 60
up to his wife, and, putting his arms around
her, say-"Darling, don't you love me any
more 2"
"And she would answer-"Dearly. Why,
what a question Why 90 you ask :"
s'Nothing, only I thOught-the fact is, l
don't know what thought"
Andsometimes, observing his preoccupied
and troubled look, she, standing over him,
would lay her hand upon his shoulder, ut
was like a lily on a rock,) and bending
slightly over him would asked-"My dar-
ling, what is it troubles you"
And he would Nothing. II
was thinklng-that was ALL"
Then the shadow, which seemed to have
been lifted for a moment, fell again, and a
cold twilight settled around both.
And then, strange to say, Arthur, as the
months rolled by gradually felt a singular
emotion, unknown to him before, growing
in his heart, and gathering new strength
every time his eyes fell upon his wite's
slowly wasting form. He scarcely knew
himself what this emotion was. 1t was at
once sweet and sad to him, and had in II
something of fear. He would have been
brute, indeed, if he had not seen how TINS
woman laid herself out to make him love
her, and crowded her life full Of sacriticla
acts which had his pleasure and Well-belne
for their object. All that she had done
and suffered, and forborne for his sake, ne