The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-09-26

room; ne always remembered tnaL; De-
sides, she was the only near relative that
he had remaining to him, and he was al
ways pleased 10 have her stay at his
house, as she was staying now for few
days on her way TO visits in the adjoining
counties, even If the arguments and her
reproaches, which were invariably tuned
to the same key, left him at the end of
her visits somewhat enerve and disposed
to sympathise more than he deserved with
that very uninteresting reprobate, Lord
Sunbury.
She was one of those admirably virtu-
Gus women who are more likely TO turn
men away from the paths of virtue than
the wickedest of syrens. Her brother was
more tolerant of her sermons than her
husband was, or her sons were; he appre-
ciated the excellence OF her motives and
the sincerity of her affections better than
they did, possibly because he could get
away from both more easily than they
could. He pitied her moreover An in
tellectual and intelligent woman, she had
married silly man for his handsome per-
soma folly clever women often commit
A proud woman, she was poor with that
most painful of all poverty, inadequate
means to sustain a great position; and a
woman OF strong affections, she was
doomed to see her attachmentimpatient
received, or as impatiently shaken of, in
all the relations of her life, because she
had not the tact to control her temper or
to resist her love OF argument and domi-
nation.
"My dear Hilda," he had said to her
more than once, ut is not enough TO be
attached to people to secure their ahec-
tons; we must suit ourselves to them, we
must study them. Mr.. Norris has said
that love is enough, but it isn't. 1t is
only bore if it is not accompanied by
self-restraint, discrimination, and daily
exercise of tact and judgment"
But he might as well have spoken TO the
Kneller and Vandyke ladiesin his picture
gallery. Lady Sunbury admitted that he
was right in principle, but in practice she
still continued to irritate herself, infuriate
her husband and ALLEVIATE her sons, be-
cause she could not keep to herself the
superior good sense with which nature
had gifted her.
"When there is not a woman in the
house one never thinks of tea," said
Guilderoy, as he took his cup from her.
'You should have a woman in the
house" said Lady Sunbury CURLY and
with emphasis.
He smiled, and walked up and down
the library, with his cup in his hand.
"What an uncomfortable habit you have
of walking aboutw said his sister irrita-
bly,, with the Queen Annie cream-jug in
her hand.
"You think all my habits uncomfort-
able when you do not think them i'm
proper" he returned with perfect good
humOr
Eyes, they are the habits of a man who
has lived entirely for himself and after his
own caprices."
POSSIBLY"
He did not care to defend himself.
Lady Sunbury looked at him as he paced
to and fro the library floor. She was
pasSionately attached to him, and proud
of him, only she could not restrain herself
from worrying and finding fault with him.
after the manner of women. She was a
few years older than he, and her sense OF
herself as OF female mentor set over him
by nature never left her. She had been
intensely ambitious for him; she had be-
lieved, perhaps with reason, that il he had
chosen there was no position in the state
which he could not have filed, and filled
with honor. And here all his life was
slipping away from him, only occupied
with idle dreams and passions as idle.
She shut down the lid of the Queen Anne
teapot angrily.
''AIy dear Evelyn, you have missed your
vocation" she said, with much irritation.
EVERY man who does miss his vocation is
an unhappy man. He may be to the eyes
of others prosperous, but there is worm
which eateth him and leaves him no rest.
The worm in you is suppressed ambition.
1t is a malady like suppressed govt. Ma
ture, circumstance, your own tempera-
ment, and all the accidents OF birth joined
I. 1. IL. L., l.,
for anybody, TO make it perfectly possible
for YOU to have been a great man."
Thus she spoke and her voice empha-
sized imposingly the two last words.
Her auditor responded languidly:
81 have no ambition, either suppressed
or developed, and there are no great men.
When a friend of mine said that there
were no great men to Mr.. Gladstone, he,
who probably felt the remark to be per-
sonally sighting, replied that there were
as many as ever, but that the general level
was higher so that they did not look so re-
markable. 1t is a reply comforting to
mediocrity. l am not prepared to say that
it is a true one"
81 think it is true, but it is altogether
outside my argument. | am saying that
you might so easily have been great man,
as great men 90 in these days; whether
they are really as big or not as they used
to be doesn't matter the least; you might
have been as big as any one OF them, and
you are mistaken if you think that you
are not ambitious-you do not know your
self"
Know myself saith the sage. 1t is
the most difficult and the most depressing
OF all tasks, and not a very useful one
when it is accomplished"
Lady Sunbury continued, as though he
had not spoken, to pursue her theme:
ut is only men in your position who
can touch public life without any possible
suspicion of their motives. 1t was the
patriotism of the great peers which car
ried England through her troubles from
80 to 10. 1t is only men who have
already everything which position can
give them who can govern with perfectly
clean hands, or who can have The courage
in great crisis which is alone born of
absolutely pure disinterestedness.
81 have not the smallest qualification
for governing anything, not even dos"
replied Guildroy. "All my dogs do what
they like with mel am positively afraid
of displeasing them"
''There is hardly anything you might
not have been, with your position and
your talents" continued the lady. You
are INDECENT, you are capricious, and you
are very crotchety but these are faults
YOU might have overcome if you had
chosen, and If you had absorbed yourself
in public life you would have been very
much happier man than you are"
Public life is not q receipt for happi-
ness; it is worry, nothing else but worry
FROM, ,,,Or,,ipo, 10 NIGHT and pohnIu DOCS