The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-10-31

of nettles used on marble statue. They
| were not absolutely ineffective here, for
| they succeeded in stinging his soul into
/ anger and rebellion; but they utterly
failed to accomplish the purpose for which
they were intended. On the contrary,
they confirmed him in the wish which,
| half in Jest, halt in earnest, had moved
him to give his life into the hands of
| Gladys Vernon.
He was a man of sudden impulses, ro-
mantle tancies, and very hasty action
| which was united with an indolent and
vaguely philosophic temper. The letter
was imperious, reprOachful, and passion
ate. 1t produced on him the opposite et-
feet that it was intended to produce on
him. 1t made him angry, irritated, and
desirOus to assert an independence which
every word in it refused to him. Guide
roy, like many men who are tender of
heart and vet uncOnsciouslv selfish was
easily leo but was difficult TO drive. If he
felt coerced, he rebelled instantly. Tact
and persuasion might lead him along but
the instant he felt that there was any
effort 10 coerce him by force he grew restive,
and men much less amiable and gentle
were much easier to direct and command
than he. His correspondent made the
had no charm unless it were voluntary
and claiming as a due what was nothing
II it were not a gift. The wood-dove was
right in his choice, he thought, but only
right as long as his companion pleases
him and leaves him free. III she fasten a
fetter on his foot, the very fussing and
fretting OF the sparrows were better than
the columbariun in the clouds.
He shrank from the intent To rule and
hold him which was so visible in the let
ter he had just received; he felt vehem-
ent desire to vindicate his liberty against
the claims which she so obviously showed
her intention to lay upon it forever, or at
least for such forever as her pride
and her passion might desire and demand
| from the future. He was a Launcelot
! whom Guinevere might have bound for
ever to her girdle if she had never let him
/ feel that there was q chain under the
silken lash. But as every Guinevere had
been so rash and so blind as to let him
feel it and be CALLED by it, each had in
turn had his allegiance but brief while.
/ The Duchess Soria had had it longer than
any other.
She had many advantages. She lived
| farther away from HIM than most; she
had greater beauty than most; and she
had that eIlinence OF social position
which raises a woman so high that no
, lover can doubt her sincerity in her selec-
| ton of him, or her facilities for replacing
| him by others if she chose. These ad-
vantages had made her reign over his pas
4 sions and command his allegiance longer
! than any other woman had done. 1t had
| been always understood that ii Hugo
/ Soria died, Guilderoy would ratify his de-
votion by marriage; but he himself had
| never dared To contemplate that prObabil-
| ity; for the rest, Soria was almost as
| young as he was himself, and there was
no apparent likelihood OF his freeing his
! wife of his presence on earth, unless
| some unforeseen accident or some
| duel ending fatally were to
prematurely cut short the measure
OF his days Had he died, the world and
/ Beatrice Soria herself would have expect
| ed her lover to replace him; the certain
| ty with which she would have expected
| this allowed too dominant and insistant
tone of appropriation to show now
| through the lines of her letter, and raised
| in the feeling of its reader that instinct of
rebellion which lies in the breast of all
men. His intimacy with her had lasted
years enough for many faults in her char
| acter to have become revealed TO him.
| He had had time to outlive the belief in
those perfections which every man who
is much in love attributes to his mistress /;
| he knew her to be imperious, exacting,
and perilous and distainful when Offend
ed. They were defects which in daily
/ life poison peace more cruelty than any
others.
Beatrice Soria in Paris or Naples, visited
at intervals and seen only in her superb
| bloom of beauty, had great and irresist-
| ihla eoroarv for him hut Reafrica Soria aa
| the eternal companion of his fate would
have alienated and nave irritated him un-
bearably.
! Or, at the least, he thought so now, as
his conscience synarted and his impatience
rebelled under the lash OF her impassioned
reproaches and recall.