Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-05-22

ielt herself to be blameless; '.yOn viii
nearly always find in such cases that the
woman has failed to make her home at
tractive to her husband"
Now, the Dibbinses, who were well
bred if they were anything, were not
aware, of course, that the lady with
whom they were talking had failed in
this very particular. The wedding, the
European tour, 1.-the prolonged honeymoon
in the rectory had served to exclude
everything SO alien as conjugal infelicity
from the horizon.
What all the parish knew and talked
of Mr. Dibbins had not SO much as
dreamed. He was always in his place
for the Sunday and weekday services,
but the litany of woes and temptations
that his people murdered on those occa-
sions betrayed nothing personal, moth
ing extraneous to the required confess
ion.
Mr.. Warrington was no exception to
the mass of business men for whom
Mr.. Dibbins entertained secret con-
tempt whose lives were spent in the ac-
cumulation of wealth, and to when a
wife appeared but an accidental append
age.
He had not perceived that the wife of
one of his ford vestrymen filed more
important relation to Mr.. Warrington.
Scandal of this sort throve in a vulgar
air, from which Mr.. Dibbins took pains
to be far removed. He preferred that
the atmosphere of the church should
envelop him as completely in his inter-
course with the world as it did in the
chancel, and to an almost undisturbed
extent it did. Such burrs of low life as
caught on his garments in passing were
swiftly stripped off.
Mr.. Dibbins' last remark was uttered,
therefore, in the most gentle and candid
of demi-tones
1t vas surprising that Mrs. Warning
ton should retort SO warmly: "But if she
had contrived tomake her home heaven
some men prefer hell"
This was strong language for the Dib-
bins drawing room, but the echo of SINH
lar words which had barely died away
with the departure of the archdeacon
broke the fatal effect of it.
81 knew a woman once"-Mrs. War
rington drew up her cloak and fastened
the clasp with cold fngers-"who devo-
ted soul and body to make her home an
earthly paradise; but with her ideas of
paradise she associated only pure and
ennobling enjoyments. Those her hus-
band hated from the first. He had hated
them before he married her, but she did
not know it. Something in his courtship
of pure woman stirred his chivalry.
Bad men seldom marry bad women. He
fancied that he should continue to be af-
fected by it; but the chase was over, the
poor woman, the companion and critic of
his secret thoughts. he hated both her
and her works. Then hs returned to
his evil habits-he was not driven"
"Had she children?" Mr.. Dibbins
asked"
mo"
"Ah, pity. Children are grand tie.
Some men cannot be happy without
them"
Sand it is inconceivable that man
should be deprived of any one thing that
would please him?" cried Mrs. Warning
ton. at is often the woman who feels
the absence of children most keenly; yet
she does not consider herself at liberty
on that account to resort to vice and un-
faithfulness for amusement It fills me
with disgust-it is relic of barbarism,
this talk that man must be pampered
with pleasure, as child with toys, or be
justified in extravagant wickedness. As
if he were a beast-which he is-that
must have its quota of fresh meat, or it
will turn and rend your
'True, my dear Francis" answered
Mr.. Dibbins, amazed at the heat of this
usually cool woman. "Man is more
or less a brute. It must simply be
taken into account. 1t is the part of a
wise woman to supply the quota of fresh
meat. 1 would advise your friend to do
that
Now, as has been said, Mr.. Dibbins
would not have spoken in this frivolous
strain had he known the ground he was
treading. He would have abhorred the
elephantine step with which he was crash
ing over this exposed heart.
Was it his business to know how and
where he stepped?
Mrs. Warrington rose with an intense
ly bitter smile.
"But the beast has already turned and
rent her. The quota of fresh meat was
not sufficiently great, or-not sufficiently
raw. I have to thank you for an in
structive morning. The divine comedy
reminds us that wickedness is it's own
Nemesis. Was it not perjurers-the
false and unfaithful- whom Dante saw
frozen in their own tears? Frozen-be-
cause of the cool deliberateness of their
crimes? All, that is as it should bep'
"How strangely Mrs. Warrington
talkedp' exclaimed the rector, as their
guest left the house with the exit for
which she was celebrated. wasn't her
manner very extraordinary?'
Mrs. Dibbins turned up the toe of her
slipper and examined it critically. 81
have sometimes thought Mr.. Warrington
is more attentive to Mrs. Cortelyon than
to his wife, " she said.
And, suddenly, like the searching fare
Of a meteor, a radiance shot over the
rector's social observations of the past
three years.
'Good heavens, Rachelr' he gasped
in dismay, ''what brutes we have been!
But surely the friend she alluded to