The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-06

not common one. in our families" he
said slowly. LET me know what she has
said to warrant its use"
He reaG the letter slowly, so slowly that
Lady Sunbury's impatience became we'll
nigh ungovernable. She did not know
that every word of il went 10 the inner
most heart of the reader with that deepest
of all sOrrOwS-that which is powerless to
aid the life beloved
He held it in his hand when he had
finished its perusal.
what is it you blame so much ?" he
asked. His cousin, seated opposite to
him at the great table at which he had
been writing when she had entered, grew
red with Indignation and suppressed
feeling.
"What? what ?" she repeated. EVERY
thing, surely everything shows the most
wanton disregard for us, the most theatri-
cal resolution to obtain publicity, the
most intolerable selfishness, the most
obvious intent to ruin my brother in the
world 'esteemi And to write it to me
to me. You are her COMPLIANT and her
cOnfessor; you have always been so; why
could she not send such declaration of
her projects to you, ii sent it must be
at all ?"
at is natural that she should address
yOu-a woman, and her sister-in-law,
said Aubrey, coldly. "But, pardon me,
do you suppose such a deliberate resolu-
tion as this can be arrived at by anyone
so young without some very great provo
cation to il? She does not say what it is /;
but L imagine that both you and l can
guess"
Lady Sunbury's conscience stung her,
remembering the scene which she had
made to Gladys in the kings alley at
Ladysrood But she was not woman to
acknowledge error.
Very possibly she may have had
things which pain her. she said slight
ingly "But other women have as much
and more to pain them; and their sense
of duty and of dignity serves to keep them
silent"
Yes, they keep silent by leading
life of eternal disuniOn, pickering and up
braiding, as you do, thought Aubrey, as
be answered aloud:
Il think you forget her youth in youth
these wrongs seem to fill heaven and
earth; as women grow older they grow
used to them, no doubt, as the camel
grows to his burden. The letter seems to
me irreproachable. She asks nothing;
she demands nothing; she Injuries moth
ing; she sacrifices everything; and she
to the world What can any one do more
generous than this? fail to understand.
''You mean to say that there is nothing
to he dOne!' she exclaimed.
What should be doneP said Aubrey,
with the only impatience which had
escaped him. eff a woman decides to
leave her husband, and he decides TO live
so that she has no choice but to leave him,
who is to reverse that position? They
can reverse it themselves, as long as there
is no legal separation"
"And she is to be allowed to live in this
insane manner in solitude in her fathers
cottage ?'
mo one can -preyept her doing so but
GuilderOy, and 1t seems to me that he has
lost all possible title TO command her even
if he wishes to do so, while it is most
probable that he does not. There is no
disgrace in her limiting herself to her own
resources; there Is even a certain dignity
in 1t, as l considerI"
Because you are bewitched and infatu-
ated about herw said his cousin with rude
contempt.
Aubrey kept his temper marvelously.
Il believe am neither one nor the
other. l regretted her departure from
England. At your request | endeavored
l.
ceed. She was unhappy, and when
woman is so she is never very wise. l
conclude from this letter that on her ar
rival in Italy she learned what did not
make her happier. The steps she takes
are eXtreme-that grant-but they only
injure herself and there is no one except
her husband who can have any possible
power to try and turn her from them"
''He will not stOop TO solicit woman
who leaves him."
'Stoopl You speak as though he were
faultless and she had committed some
crime against him! You must know as
well as | do that something much graver
than his usual caprices must have moved
her to write such a letter and take such a
resolve. Do you suppose that woman as
young as she is voluntarily sewers herself
from all the pleasures, graces and interests
OF life, unless life, as it is, has become
wholly intolerable to herr"
And her duties, asked Hilda Sunbury,
with violence, ''do they count for moth.
ing? Is she to be allowed to pay at ten
MS, with the honor OF my brothers family
as her racquet?
MY dear Hilda," replied Aubrey
YEARLY, ''yOu have always considered
that all creation exists only for the honor
VI Jul IL Olttfo CftdliOH may
still seem to have some additional, though
do doubt minor, objects in view How
ever, even from that point, | scarcely con-
cede that you can violently censure Lady
Guilderov. She offers YOU all possible
occasion for examination into her life;
she simply announces her intention of
not living with your brother or in any of
his houses. If he cares, he will seek to
change her decision if he does not care,
he will necessarily be glad of it. Any
how, there need be no immediate scandal
at any rate unless you are pleased to
make It. ;"
'IH' exclaimed his cousin, disbeHeving
her senses. "What do l most abhor if not
to have a single breath of the world
breathed on me? What have / not en-
dured that society should never suspect
what | have suffered? What women have
not | compelled myself to receive in
my own homes in order that the
outrages inflicted on me should not
form food for social calumnies and
ridicule? Who in the whole width
OF English society has been so constant and
so resigned a martyr as myself to all the
indignities which a man who does not re-
spect himself does not hesitate 10 inflict
on those whom he should respect? And
then you presume TO say that Ill
shall bring about scandal concerning my
brothers wife! 1t is herself who brings
it. How can woman do what she is
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