The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-07-17

for his artist friend, to whom he must then
pay hurried visit for the purpose of ex-
planning the result of his researches. To
both of them these meetings became
the most important part of the day; now
that he was married he felt he was incurr
ing no risk either for her or himself, and
she fully enjoyed that liberty of action
which the last quarter of the nineteenth
century has allowed freely to women with
career. There was a piquancy given to
Lonard's visits by the very fact that they
were unknown to his wife, and Sydonie
could not resist the triumph of finding
herself, at thirty, more seductive than a
rival ten years her junior.
As to Beatrice, she would as soon have
suspected her husband of smothering her
in her sleep, or stealing and pawning her
few jewels as of paying too much attention
to another woman. IF she sometimes felt
that married life was wanting in that per-
fectness of confidence of which she had
dreamt, she sternly repressed the thought,
declaring to herself that any failure must
be the result of her own want of power to
understand her husbands wider views and
aims.
When he stayed away late into the night
she would never own even to herself that
the hours were long and lonely, and she
always met him with smile of welcome
which might well have won his heart if he
had not grown to consider it mechanical
word he was fond of applying mentally
to her action. She was very busy during
his absence; she spent long hours in her
little garden, which bloomed like small
Eden under her efforts; she paid and re-
ceiyed the numerous duty-calls which were
expected of her, and she learned to know
some of her poorer neighbors intimately.
She was not clever or cultivated woman,
but she was never an idle one.
One confession which she had made
shortly after her marriage had at first an
noyed her husband. She owned to him
that she positively disliked music-a fact
sufficiently lamentable in itself, as proving
her deficiency of intellectual sympathy,
but one which became doubly pitiable
when openly avowed, as proving her abso-
lutte ignorance of what the world expects
from the wife of such man as Dalzell,
He grew, however, to regard her weakness
more complacently as the summer rolled
by, and he would leave her to go to the
opera or some of the concerts in which he
passionately delighted.
"Shall you go alone?" she asked some
times with the fearlessness of absolute con-
fdence. II am afraied you will find it
dull
II am going to meet Mrs. Marshall and
her cousin" he would reply carelessly,
without explaining that her cousin was Sy-
donie Marvel.
The inevitable result was delayed by the
general rush from London in the month of
August; but the delay did nothing to open
Leonards eyes to the peril of his position;
it only proved to him how absolutely nee
essary Sydonie's sympathy and Sydonie's
society were to his life
He rushed back 10 London on some fri
volous pretext, and then hurried to Devon
shire, where he had heard she was sketch
ing. He would only stay day with her
before he returned to the North; all the
vague jealousies and uncertainties which
had haunted him before having become
living realities since he had seen Bowles,
the landscape painter, in constant and
welcome attendance upon her and her
cousin. His jealousy was irritated and
kept alive by his consciousness that he had
absolutely no right to the feeling, which
yet served to bring Sydonie perpetually to
his mind. When he met her in October
he was indignant because she spoke enthu-
siastically of her holiday. She enjoyed
the tribute involved in the dark looks and
deprecatory words with which he answered
her outbursts of delight about Devonshire
and its beauties, but as time went on, she
began to be alarmed at the evident strength
of his feelings, and decided to bring matters
to a crisis. She was wanting neither in
sense nor generosity, although her vanity
had for time prevented her from deriving
any benefit from either quality, and she
was resolved to bring to an end compli-
cation which threatened to become painful
and compromising. The conclusion was
not, however, exactly according to her pro-
gramme 1t was one November evening
as they were chatting together, that she
suddenly rose and said to him, without any
warning:
Snow, Mr.. Dalzell, you are to go, if you
please. never get any work done while
you are here, and besides"
He stood up in his turn, and spoke in
solemn answer to her fippant words:
$50 you are going to send me away
again? You did it once before-do you
remember Have we not both had cause
enough to regret that the process must be
repeated? ?"
She did not answer, her face turned
whittier than its wont, and her hands trem-
bled little.
aSydonie,' he went on, forgetful of
everything but the woman before him, ''you
know you loved me then-you know you
love me now-just as have never loved
and never shall love, any woman but you. y
The silence which fell upon them was
very hard to break. IF life be regarded as
drama, there are moments when the ac-
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