Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-11

"Oh, like riding well enough when l
have good horses"
"Well, / am sure Uncle Mats" she
began, but l cut her short.
Your Uncle MATHS horses are couple
of old screws. | went to look at them In
the stable yesterday"
She looked vaguely, bewildered at the
tone of my voice.
"Why, what is the matter with you
Dick? Has anything annoyed you"
| Here was my opportunity.
Anything annoyed me?" l burst out.
G Isn't it enough to annov any fellow, to be
cooped up in COMPOUNDED hole like this,
with nothing but that beastly sea and sand
to look at outside, with room like this to
live in ?"
| Celia looked hurt and indignant, and
saw the glimmer of coming tears in her
eyes.
"What is the matter with the room?'
she asked. Z" am sure | see nothing to
grumble at. do not think ever was in
nicer room than it is
every likely. But, my dear Celia" l
continued, with patronizing tone, which
must have been infinitely harder to bear
than even my simple bad temper" My
great deal to learn in the matter of artistic
taste" And | looked around the room
with an expression of lofty contempt.
"Ch, as far as artistic taste goes, Dick, |
am sure you are wrong, for Uncle Matt
is ever so artistic. Why, he draws and
paints himself"
81 have no doubt he is a second Ra-
phael," sneered. but he does not know
how to choose his carpets and curtains
Look at that p and shook the folds of
blue repp savagely; "and that" and
kicked viciously at one of the blue roses
which, with yellow flower as yet I'M
known to botanists, meandered over the
carpet in profusion. "Do you mean to say
you do not see the awful vulgarity of it :?
But" returning once more to the enrag-
ingly patronizing tone, you are Blum
dell now, my dear Celia, and you must
lust try to forget everything you ever
learnt as a Dobson as fast as ever you
can"
| Celia fred up with an unexpectedness
which took me aback.
" If you are going to say nasty things
about my family, Dick, shall certainly
not stay to listen to you. If you think SO
little of the Dobsons l wonder YOU mar
ried one OF theml AS to forgetting all 1
ever learnt as as Dobson-" By this
time the angry tears were running down
her cheeks There is one thing | was
taught, which l should be very sorry to
forget, though it seems to have been left
out Of your education, and this is graft
| tude"
My heart and my conscience both smote
| me at these words. | said nothing and
she turned from the window and resumed
her work with feverish energy. | could
see by the agitated way in which the
needle was stuck into the material and
then snapped out again that her feelings
were very considerably rufied
| made one or two attempts at starting
new topic Of conversation, but was met
with chilling monosylables. At last l
said:
Cecilia, dear, | am sorry if / offended
you just now. | should not have been SO
| cross if my digestion had not been upset
by being shut UP for nearly three DAYS
| without exercise, and eating too much
wedding cake"
l tried to finish my sentence with a
semi-jocose expression. But | got no an
swering smile from Celia
at would be much better to saddle the
right horse, Dick" she said sternly, and
say that your temper got the best of you
We Dobsons may be very inferior, vul-
gar race, but thank goodness we have not
got the Blundell temper Pc
| ooh, very well p | said shortly. al see
you wish to quarrel-so / shall leave YOU
to yourself to recover your temper, Dobson
or Blundell, whichever it may ew And
| walked out Of the room, slamming the
door after me, and feeling half sorry and
half glad that Celia had scorned the olive
branch of reconciliation / had held out to
her.
now had fairly plausible grievance
at least thought had-and | thrust my
arms into my macintosh anil took my
umbrella out of the stand, with a grim sat-
isfaction in the thought that by going out
in weather like this-driven out into it my
wife's obstinate refusal to make friends-I
should probably catch bad cold. All the
| dramatic possibilities of this imaginary
cold filtered before my minds eve in
| pleasing succession-chills to the liver
pleurisy-rheumatic fever. "Perhaps she
will be sorry them" | .nuttered to myself
as ! shut the hall-door behind me, and
walked ostentatiously under the drawing
room windows, whistling as | went, and
striving to impart to my features per-
fectly unconcerned, amicable expression.
thought | heard tap at the window.
and my name called, but would not lock
up, and strobe on with as much dignity as
/ could command
| Once out of view of the windows, / paused
to consider in which direction / should 90
to look for the pleurisy and rheumatism
which were to bring my erring wife to a
ense of her misdoings.
| might either go down to the sands.
which as far as ] could see outlined the
coast under the dark overhangings cliffs. or
| might follow the main road which
passed through the struggling village on
into the country beyond. We had come
by it the night OF our arrival at St. Bridgets,
and had vague remembrance of some
what monotonous undulating downs But
just at this moment the relative merits of
inland and coast scenery interested me COM
paratively little. "Pll toss up" | said
to myself. Heads the road-tails the
| sandso
Heads it was, so off | set along the road.
passed through the village and walked
on for some distance, mentally anathema.
thing Matthew Dobson for having deceived
me into such a dead-alive kind of place.
Nothing could be more depressingly COM
monplace than this well-kept road, with
its close-cropped downs on each side and
its telegraph poles recurring at regular
intervals But any great wealth of scenery
would have been thrown away upon me
lust then, for all my faculties were en-
ployed in a hand-to-hand encounter with
the elements.
The wind seemed to take malicious
pleasure in tangling me up in my maein-
tosh by driving the Tapping tails in be-
tween my legs, and by getting under the
cape and whirlins it over my head and
about my ears in most bewildering
fashion. Then, no sooner had | reduced
the cape to comparative submission than a
stronger gust than before lifted my hat off
my head and sent it spinning along the
road in front Of me.
| know no time when a man looks more
thoroughly ridiculous than wher he is in
pursuit of a runaway hat. With that
fendish delight it waits until you have
actually stopped to pick it up, and then
how aggravatingly it bounds aud skins on
for 4 few more PAGES, only to repeat the
same process, until some kindly eddy car
ries IL into n corner from which N cannot