The Penn's Grove record., 1886-08-07

so it was. The E~itz-Johnson family
ark, pretty little vessel as it was, with
its fresh paint and dainty furniture a
drifted into the current, which, sooner
or later, must land it upon the rocks.
| Godfrey, blinded by selfish vanity, be-
came bored with his wife's well-meant
but Intellectual effO-ts to please her
''m~uell-ehanged lord.n Her lavish affec-
ton, varied only by ill-concealed n
sometimes fearful dependency, nrltated
him and made him more bearish than
ever. 1t was the old story. Things
went from bad to worse. Atlast the
first cruel rock doomed in the distance
and the shipwreck seemed imminent.
Lady Angelica Landsdell was, so she
said. a very old friend of Geoffrey's. Il
knew him when he was quite a boy
such a nice boy" she told Florrie the
afternoon she paid her first call in Cur
zon street. She was a wonderful and
Ouidaish parsonage, Of the Cleopatra
type of beauty, 1.-THE and ~serpentine,
with a voice that could COO like q dove
or hiss like a serpent at Will. She used
a peculiar kind of scent that hung about
the room long after she left 1t. She
was mysteriously fascinating, and Flor
RE detested her. This was a great
grievance of Geoffrey's, who. was blind
to the pearl powder and impervious to
the scent. "Angelica The called her
Angelica) twas a charming woman-a
most valuable friend Was it not
common knowledge that Cabinet minis
tiers met as often in her rose-lit draw
ing-room as at Downing street-that
she had a finger in every Diplomatic pie
that her craftsmanship had brought
about a royal marriage and averted a
European war? Even joey admitted
that She was an unavoidable necessity.
| Her smile or frown could maj a nan
If the Fitz-Jolnsons ever hoped to be
anything they must cultivate Angelica.
So Florrie had TO submit, but not even
the husband she adored could make her
more than decently civil to the enchan-
I treSs with the cruel smile, who called
Godfrey ''Geoff,D and who was always
sending him mysterious little notes
a, about goodness only knew what, for
| Fl1rrie was never told their contents.
'"The silly little tool Is Jealous, F"
laughed her ladyship to herself as she
sat in a corner, aloof from the ''mad-
deIing crowd'' of a foreign office crush,
pretending to listen to Geoffrey's earnest
conversation and watching, with inter-
eSted amusement, his wife trying to
keep an eye on her husband and, at the
| same time respond coherently to the
ciyilities of u yoiuble attache.
'I;ll teach her a lesson" muttered
the siren, with an angry glitter in her
dusky eyes, as, for the twelfth time, a
| pale, distressed face, with appealing
| eyes, was turned toward the oblivious
husband. Accordingly when, for the
thirteenth time, the melancholy opera
| ton was repeated, the distress on the
pale face gave place to horror, and the
eyes were fixed and blank as they saw
Lady Angelica, with her most entran-
cling smile, place her hand, for a mo-
ment, caressingiy ON Geoffrey's arm;
only for a moment, because it was in
stantly grabbed by both of his.
ssMy dear old grill What is the mat
ter? Are you seedy?' exclaimed joey,
as he plunged through the crowd to his
sisters side.
Come tomorrow, as soon as Godfrey
has gone. l want to talk to you,"
whispered Florrie, brokenly, as her
brother deposited her safely at her own
door.
/
Next morning brother and sister had
a long confabulation, during which
Joey tugged hard at his phantom mus
tache, and blew her nos very often.
The result seemed hardly satisfactory,
for Joey departed r%emarking that it was
the Every deuce" and Florrie sat look
ing into the fire until it went out in self
defense. However, at dinner that even
ing there was a marked improvement in
Mrs. FitZ Johnson's spirits; indeed, so
hilariously cheerful did she become by
dessert that Godfrey, acclimatized to a
dead level of depression, felt inclined to
resent the rise in the domestic barom-
eter. The rise was a steady one. Next
morning, when the slave ought to have
been in close attendance on her master,
cutting the end off his cigar, filling his
match box and merely receiving the Or
ders for the day, she wa playing a pol
ka on the piano, and actually forgot to
wish the great man goodbye. On and
off during the day Godfrey found him.
self bordering ON the alteration in his
wife. 1t was, of course, a bore to have
her following him about looking like q
whipped dog; but, after all, that was a
fault on the right side, and showed that
she appreciated her position as his wife.
1t was a sign of proper, il excessive,
subsection; but to sit playing a polka
| when the hat brush was mislaid was an
unlieard dereliction of duty. Godfrey
| returned exactly half an hour earlier to
administer a carefully prepared lecture
to the culprlt, only to find that she had
gone to the Gaiety with Joey. The soli-
tary dinner with no one to scold was a
dismal experience, and Godfrey felt dis
tinctly aggrieved. Next day things
were no better. Florrie was in fearing
spirits, received the deferred lecture
with ribald laughter, dismissed his theo-
ries of wifely duty as .sbosh," and had
the audacity to refer him to Lady An
gelica, who mo doubt, was an authority
on that subject as well as every other.n
Godfrey was very moody all that day.
The men at the club voted him slow,
and Lady Angelica called him a bore to
his face. 1t was very annoying, bnt he
was obliged to admit to himself that his
triumph over the s~uhjugation of his wife
had been q little premature. The pro-
cess must be continued, and one great
element in its final success was, he told
himself with secret glee. the fact that,
unltsS Siu hrt4 uiuhuly anu uUdccQu1t-
ably altered. she loVed him to qistrac-
ton. As that evening he walked up
Curzon street, it was this thought that
made him prepared to be very gracious
and as lenient as he consistently could
be toward any little excess of youthful
spirits. A sharp struggle with the latch
key was cut short by the butler opening
tis llaer 70 let a visitor out. The occur
renee SO iets il the afternoon was
strange, and the appearance ct the visi-
tor so singular that Geoffrey started at
the apparitlon in unfeigned surprise.
His for the visitor was a mani face was
partially concealed by a SLOUGH hat.
What there was 10 pc seen appeared to
be Of an olise hue and adorned With
sweeping black moustache. Inky locks
burg 10 Erofusion down about his shoul-
ders, and the rest ef the body was con
cealed in q cloak that would have made
the fortune Of any melodrama. on {he
stage Mrs, Ejtz Johpson's visitor would
have been in his eleGept. In Curzon
street ha apparently was nnft fer with