The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-01-21

y
ing no more dispute, the fact that she had
done so being enough for her.
Sand what's MORE" said Bel, with all
husbands authority, ''you shan't!'
"Shan't ?" said Mrs. Hetty.
swell now," said Bel, with rising fury, ''if
you don't take care, I'll have you put under
guardianship"
"Look here libel Symmes," said Mrs Het-
ty, "you mind yonr own fddling and your
horse-trotting, or I'll have you sent to the
State almshouse."
"You can't" said Bel; Pm landed pro-
prietor I've got a lien on your estate as
long as you live, and a good share of it after
wards, and you can't help yourself. I'm
your husband, and the head of this house,
and the law gives me your obedience; and,
by George! I'm going to exact it. You bet
your sweet life / am! And as for these little
wenches of yours, they'll be glad enough to
90 back where they came from before long,
or my name is not Squire Symmes'
Mrs. sHetty looked at him moment and
then she burst out laughing.
esquire Symmes she said. esquire
Symmes! that's good. You that haven't
any name you're certain Off
She gathered up her balls and her knitting
and left him to the enjoyment OF the fireside
From that time it was open war between
them.
As she looked at them sort of joy welled
up in her heart that almost banished the
pain there. The two fair heads bent togeth-
er over their book seemed to her the lovliest
sight on earth. She felt yearning tender
ness towards them that filled her eyes with
tears. They represented to her everything
that now she held dear, her father, her moth
err, her dead sister, her old name; they were
her visible bond with the past, her only link
with the future. No speech could tell how
precious they had become to her, and how
lovely they seemed to her, with what pride
they filed her, nor how determined she was
that they should have everything she had
lacked-learning, accomplishm ent, loving
husbands in their YOUTH and all her money
at last.
Now that she had come fully to understand
the obliquity of Beps character, it irked her
that they must have any of his society. She
feared injury to them by contact with him;
and the people whom he had been wont to
bring to the house and whose bad presence
she had not minded SO much for herself, be-
came insufferable now that these two inno-
cent darlings were under her roof.
The next time that a parcel of Bells COM
panions made the old kitchen reek with their
pipes and ring with their songs, Mrs Hetty
walked deliberately in, let down the CRATE OF
her empress range and dumped the fire; and,
going over to the table where they sat about
their ale-pots and their dirty cards, deliber-
ately lifted the kerosene lamp, blew it out
and walked off with it. She locked the
kitchen door behind her too; and Mr.. Bel
might sleep ON the floor, or the settle, or out
in the hay on the NOW with the cats, if he
wished. The rest of the house was inacces-
sible, and Mrs. Hetty was perfectly impene-
trable to any storming the next morning.
But there was no storming in the morn
ing. On the contrary thereiwas bright fire
when she appeared foamiDg milk-pail and
a smiling face.
"Now the next time, Hetty, my darling"
said Bel, ''you play me such joke l wish
you wouldn't go to bed and forget all about
it. A hay NOW may be warm. and it may be
soft, but it isn't always agreeable to gen.
tleman's feelings"
Gentleman" said Mrs. Hetty. 'For one
that has slept so often as you have on the
warm side of fence guess the haymow
will do. It'll have to, anyway"
"Come, come, gently now, as the man said
to the Car of Juggernaut. What's this
you're giving meP"
81 mean it's all the bed you'll have in this
place."
"The haymow? Oh, that's too steep; so
steep I'd fall off, i reck emit you know
Pm your husband?" said Bel, with grin;
land have right
"You have rightp' said Mrs. Hetty, with
ineffable scorn. ITO what? You haven't a
right to the poorhouse, for you have never
so much as paid poll tax in the town."
Every well, Mrs. Symmes; if you want
the disgrace of suit at law in the family
can accommodate you any day, and you can
be taught what's yours and what's mine on
short notice"
AS Mrs. Hetty wanted nothing of the sort.
and, indeed, lived in perpetual terror of the
discovery by her small public of the mistake
she had made in marrying, and of the chorus
of 81 told you SOS" she should then hear;
and as she feared, too, the sinking of money
in the quicksands of lawyers fees, Mr.. Bel
slept in his usual bed that night.
But although she could not hinder Bers
companions from coming to the house as they
pleased, yet not another dollar, yearn he ev-
er so much for a drink, or a card, did Bel
mt into mis- pocket from Mrs. Hetty's saw
ings or receipts.
AS he thought over the situation, he could
r.. I, 4la txua oirlc fhA
authors of all his woes. and he could deter
mine on but one course of action, and that
was to make the house such that Mrs. Hetty
could not keep those two girls in it, and he
spent that day, and many another day, at
home in the furtherance of his design.
What talk was that with which the table
was now RECALLED; what jests which there
was really no understanding, but no mlsun-
Outstanding either; what stories OF a LIE
that before the spotless experience OF these
young girls seemed like some dark under
ground life among vile things; what oaths,
what slang, what ribaldry, what SANDER OF
all that was reputable; what hints and IN
uendoes, what open accusation sof evil, wnat
low light thrown upon all sacred things,
what low level of thoughts and manners;
and what low wretches, each one now, IL
seemed, shade more ienoble than the last,
had the run of the house! 1t made Mrs
Hetty shudder with swift apprehension.
When one day she heard sentence, just
casual phrase. of the prevailing rough ex-
pressions, fall from her sweet young Imo-
genes lips, terrible apparition rose before
the gaunt old woman's eyes of her girls
transformed into the mates of just such men.
the evil thought following the evil word, the
evil act completing all-degradation, sin,
monstrousness; her darlings, her own sis
ter's children, her fathers treasures, the
only representatives in the next generation
of old Squire Duneagle
She would wake in the middle of the night,
crying aud wringing her hands. Some nights
she could not sleep at all, for fearing and
conjuring dark possibilities, till she saw the
sun slant up and gid the top of Old Morn
ing. The apprehension began to be some
thing like mania to the poor soul, an ever
present horror.
When she looked down the valley, with
4 faEox