The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-06-04

tlon IRON her husband. bit her lip,
claSped and unclasped her fingers.
And when the happiness is dissipat-
ed She observed, sit becomes rather
too warm."
"Ah, Mrs. Warrington! How sar-
castle OF you" cried Rachel; '.and in
the face OF our honeymoon, which has
Just begun | am sure no advirsity.
no poverty, no calamity Of any kind
can ever dissolve the fabric OF our de.
votion."
To Rachel there was but one honey
moon, and that, ofcourse was ours"
Mrs. Warrington raised her delicate
brows. Have you had your domes-
tic happiness insured?" she inquired.
"Our VOWS have insured it," an.
swered Mrs. Dibbins, solemnlv.
An! But vows are sometimes
broken. Everybody does not keep
VOWS. 1t is usually the mar who does
not"
Mrs. Dibbins looked at her guest in
angry alarm.
Then it is the woman's fault" said
the rector with decision.
~"Certainly,' echoed Mrs. Dibbins,
who felt herself to be blameless; ''you
Will nearly always find in such cases
that the woman has failed to make
her home attractive to her husband"
Now the Dlbbinses, who were well
bred II they were anything, were not
aware, OF course, that the lady with
whom they We're talking had failed in
this very particular. The wedding.
the European tour, the prolonged
honeymoon in the rectory had served
to exclude everything so alien as
c%onlugal infelicity from the horizon.
What all the parish knew and talk
ed 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 murmur-
ed on those occasions betrayednoth-
ing personal, nothing extraneous to
the required confession.
Mr.. Warrington was no exception
to the a ofbusiness men (for whom
Mr.. Dibbin had q secret contempt)
whose lives We're spent in the accumu-
latlon OF wealth, and to whom a wife
appeared but an accidental append
age.
he had not perceived that the wife OF
one of his ford vestrymen filled
important relation to Mr.. Warning
ton. 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 envelope him as com
pietely in his intercourse 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.
Mrs. Dibbins' last remark was ut
tered, therefore, in the most gentle
and candid OF demi-tones.
1t was surprising that Mrs. War
~rington should retort so warmly:
"But if she had contrived to make
her home a heaven some men prefer
hell"
This was strong language for the
Dlbblns drawing-room, but the echo
OF similar words which had barely
died away with the departure of the
Archdeaccn broke the fatal effect oft.
81 knewa woman once"-Mrs. War
rlngton drew upher cloak and fastened
the clasp with cold :ingers-"who de-
voted soul and body to make her
home an earthly paradise. but with
her ideas OF paradise she associated
only pure and ennoDling enioyments.
Those her husband hated from the
first. He had hated them before he
married her, but she did not know it.
Something in his courtship Of a pure
woman stirred his chivalry. Bad
men seldom marry bad women. He
fancied that he should continue to be
affected by it; but the chase over, the
poor woman, the companion and crit
ic OF his secret thoughts, he hated
both her and her works. Then he re-
turned to his evil habits-he was not
driven"
Had she children?" Mr.. Dibbins
asked"
mo"
"Ah, apity. Children are a great tie.
Some men cannot be happy without
them"
"And is it inconceivable that a man
should be deprived of any one thing
that would please him?" cried Mrs.
Warrington at is often the woman
who feels the absence OF children most
keenly; yet she does not consider her
self at liberty on that account to re-
sort to vice and unfaithfulness for
amusement. 1t fills me with disgust
it lisa relic of barbarism, this talk that
a man must be pampered with pleas
nre, as a child with toys, or justified
in ex%travagant wickedness. AS if he
were a beast-which he is-that must
haveits quota OF fresh meat, or it will
turn and rend you"
True. my dear Frances answered
Mr.. Dibbins, amazed at the heat Of
this unusually cool III "Manis
more or less a brute. 1t must simply
be taken into account. 1t is the part
of a wise woman to supply the quota
OF fresh meat. l would advise your
friend to do that"
Now, as has been said, Mr.. Dibbins
would not have spoken in this frivo-
lous strain had he known the ground
he was treading. He would have alb
horred the elephantine step with which
he was crashing over this exposed
heart.
Was it his business to know how
and where he stepped?
Mrs. Warrington rose with an in
tensely bitter smile.
"But the beast had already turned
and rent her. The quota offresh meat
was not sufficiently great. or-not SUI
ticientlJ raw. have to thank you
for all instructive morning. The di-
vine comedy reminds us that wicked
ness is its wv Nemesis. Was it not
perjurers--the false and unfaithful-
whom Dante saw frozen in their own
tears? Frozen-because OF the cool
d~eliberateness Of their crimes? All,
that is as it should be?"
"How strangely Mrs. Warrington
talked" exclaimed the rector, as their
guest left the house with the exit for