Western appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1885-18??, 1888-12-08

to her the .0ve and romance OF the union
/ were undated, undimmed. Indeed, she
loved her husband far BETTER more passion
atelv, than when she had married him.
She bad been q belle in her first season, he
some eight years her senior. Hehad wooed
her with ardent devotion, and won her
i away from q throng of eager suitors. She
loved him then with young girls timid
love; she w0rshiped him now, with an
awakened woman's deep passion. But
While her home and her domestic joys be-
came each year more satisfying to Clarice
she saw with alarm Hugh's growing dis
taste for quiet evenings and simple pleas
| ures. He wanted q crowd about him. He
grew more devoted to the club. He craved
excitement He never took her out now for
an evening at the theater alone, and coy
supper afterward as in the old days. 1t
must be q theater-party now, where he was
the escort OF some other lady, she the re-
cipient Of some other gallant's attention
If she complained he called her attention to
the fact that he was quite as liberal with
her as he was with himself He invited
gentlemen to the house, and was glad to
have her entertain them. OF course he
could not always remain at home; man in
! business and in society had thousand
things to take his time and attention. If he
provided for his family, paid all bills with
out objection, and never left his wife to
NOPE at home alone, what complaint could
she makel
4 Surely none, save that of starving heart.
4 But there is no law of the statutes or of
society which enables a woman to gain
redress for wrongs of this kind
Perhaps there was no real wrong in the
matter at this juncture. We must make
allowances for inherited natures. Hugh
Bickester was the son of an ambitious and
unhappy politician, who fought his way from
! obscurity to notoriety, and died, leaving
his only child the inheritance OF his
bilious propensities, his restlessness and
craving for excitement, and his selfish blind
ness to the smaller duties of life which lie
! so close we often overlook them.
He had, like many men, been wild 11.-
| pursuit of q lovely woman, until he made
her wholly his own Then he had become
accustomed to the thought OF possession,
and, while he was content and satisfied with
his choice, other aims, objects and pleas
ures, aside from his home, became necessary
| to his happiness.
| Clarice often exhibited lack of tact in
her management of him, which a more
worldly woman would have avoided. She
! complained of the change from lover to
uuSUdutl-Ol Ullc dDSouCe Ol his lOTlucI Inter-
est in her; and man never IS won over by
| complaints, especially if it is his wife who
| makes them.
| And she questioned him when he went
out, and when he returned, concerning his
whereabouts and actions; and man never
enjoys or is made better by this espionage
of his conduct, especially one who for many
years has lived a life of bachelor freedom.
Hugh Bickester took especial pains to see
that Clarice was never left alone, but he
showed no return of his old passing devo-
| ton to his home, which had blessed her
early married life. And though now he al
most invariably announced where he was to
pass his time, and how, when absent from
Clarice, which rendered her questioning
unnecessary, his absences were more fire.
quent and prolonged, and the term do
nestle happiness" seemed one of hooking
derison to Clarice. She was unhappy but
she was not woman to sit and pine and
grieve.
She preferred the society Of her husband
to that of all the world beside; but, if she
could not have it, she accepted the society
Of the agreeable men who were ever ready
| TO do her homage. Among them Count Du-
bois was foremost. Handsome, cultured.
magnetic, the possessor of thrilling tenor
Iression was caress, he was dangerous
companion for most women. But, sheltered
behind her great love for her husband,
Clarice seemed to be proof against all his
destinations. She admired him, she en-
joyed his society, she was thrilled by his
singing, but her heart was untouched.
While Count Duboisa He was growing
| madly, fercely, hopelessly in love with the
fair unhappy woman with whom he was
thrown so constantly by the oft-expressed
desire Of her husband
When he first became aware of the danger
of the sentiment which was dawninsy il, bis
breast, let US do him the justice to say that
he made resolve to avoid and fly tempta-
ton. He remained whole week away from
the Bickesters', and then Hugh hunted him
| upand insisted upon his gong home to dinner
with him.
1--WE are perfectly forlorn without you,''
he said "We made up a theater-party last
| evening, and half dozen fair ladies were
| disconsolate because you were not of the
number. Mrs. Bickester was cross-ques-
| toned by each lady separately, and Obliged to
confess her utter ignorance of your where
| abouts. Now, don't want this to occur
again, my dear Count, while you are in the
| city. See that you report here at least twice
| week.
| What could man, Frenchman, do, un-
| der those circumstances! Madly in love
with the wife, and urged-nay commanded
| by the husband to seek her presence, he, of
course, cast his scruples to the wind and
| plunged into the exciting game of love-
| Very carefully, very slowly, very systemat-
| ically, he laid his plans to win the heart of
the wife from her husband. He made slow
progress: but he was so madly in love, he
felt he could afford to wait.
Hugh Bickester frequented the club more
! and more and was less and less at his own
| freside, and, when he was at home, he in
variably wanted crowd about him. It was
more than six months from the time when
Count Dubois first entered the Bickester
home, that husband and wife sat alone in
| their handsome parlors again. Hugh glanced
at his watch.
II must be off, he said; II am half an
| hour late at the club now.''
| Clarice looked at him with an expression
of infinite longing and tenderness in her
| face, which had grown strangely thin and
! pallid of late.
"Why do you never spend any more quiet
evenings with me at home?n she said.
"Why do you always want to go away for
entertainment, or have crowd about you2
| Have you lost all interest in your home and
your wife, Hugh?"
idea," he answered carelessly.
| She sat gazing at him moment in silence.
Then she rose suddenly, her cheeks flushing,
her eyes flashing.
II know one thing" she said, slowly-"I
know have not lost your love because I
have ceased to be an attractive woman; for
other men ind me attractive If INV hu c hand