The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-13
GUILDEROY
BY
81 OOIDR X
Author of "Under Two Flags" 1.-TWO Lit
tie Wooden Shoes" "Chandos,"
"Don Gesualdo," Etc.
Nov first published. All rights ressrved.I
AtOUIDR# H
CHAPTER /.
Nov first published. All rights ressrvsd.l

year succeeded one another, and the
dawn broke and the night fell over the
lonely shore of Christslea, bringing no
change in the monotony of her existence.
Guilderoy remained out OF England.
The world, with its usual discrimination,
pitied him and blamed Aubrey.
''Vox femine vox Del" and women
without exception took part against
GLADYS henever they now remembered
her at all, which was but seldom. They
were all of them certain that she could
have been entirely happy with her hus-
band had she chosen, since he was always
so charming; it was her want of amiabil-
ity and of tact, they agreed, which had
caused his errors. No one with such eX-
quisite manners as his could be otherwise
than mos. easy to live with. All! why
had he thrown himself away on anyone
SO utterly unsYmpathetic?
Here and there some man who had al
ways admired her beauty, or who had rea-
sons of his own for knowing that Guide
roy was not faithful husband or con-
slant lover, lifted up his voice in her de-
fense; but such one was always in avery
narrow majority, and rallied few to his
opinions.
Hida Sunbury, moreover, had pro-
nounced against her sister-in-law; that
was quite enough to condemn her. She
was not, indeed, at ease in her own con-
science for having done so; but that socl-
ETY. did not know. She was woman of
honesty of purpose and rectitude of char
acter She was aware that she had been
the primary cause of the final separation
between Guilderoy and his wife, and she
was constantly haunted by Vernon's fare
we'll words. But her dislike to the mis-
tress OF Ladysrood had been stronger than
her candor or her justice; her preiudices
for her family were stronger than her re-
gard for pure truth. She had the power
for swaying her world in favor of her
brother to the injury of his wife, and she
exercised the power, Indifferent to the
claims OF innocence and right.
'I always knew you were an unsympa-
thetic woman, but I never thought that
you were an INSCRIPTIONS one until now,
Aubrey said to her unsparingly in that
London world which she was using all the
force of her unimreachable position and
her distinguished virtue to turn against
her brothers wife.
"I say what believe" she replied, with
chilly dignity and great untruth.
ASK your God to forgive you for your
thoughts, then" said Aubrey.
He felt all the disgust OF man who
knows the innocence of A woman before
the calumny of her by other women.
He knew that Hida Sunbury in her
soul was fully aware of the purity OF her
brothers wife as he was; and her efforts
TO stain the whiteness OF Gladys name
that her brothers faults might be dealt
with leniently by the world, seemed TO
him as dark a crime as any murder; al
most worse than crime, because more cow
ardly, since secure from all punishment.
He himself was powerless to avenge it
ANY protest Of his made the position of
the one whom he desired to protect more
questionable.
Almost everyone believed that he was
her lover; he felt that, though no hint OF
it could ever be given to him. He knew
it by the silence of others about her to
him and before him; he knew it by that
instinct with which both men and women
of sensitive temperament become con-
sciOus OF the opinion of their society about
them, even when it is most carefully hid
den from them; he knew it by the un-
willingness of mis- sister, once so warmly
her friend, to speak at all OF Gladys to
him.
There is a silence around us at times
upon the name dearest to US which tells
us without words that others know that i
is thus dear.
More than once he was tempted TO write
20 or seek out Guilderoy; but he felt that
by hIm, as by society at large, his inter
ference on behalf of Gladys would be at
once suspected and disregarded, might in
jure her greatly, and could do her no pos
sible service.
And his wrath was so bitter against one
who could remain absent. lulled in vo-
luptuous pleasure, whilst her life was beat
ing itself as painfully against its prison
bars as any birds, that he felt incapable
of preserving any measure in rebuke, or
even insult, if he once allowed himself to
address his cousin either by spoken or by
written word. Any quarrel between them
would become OF necessity national prop
erty for public comment. Rank, like
guilt, "hath pavilions but no secrecy"
Meanwhile, despite all, she herself did
not repent her choice. She would not
for all that the world could have given
her, have continued to dwell in his house
and spend his income. She would not at
any price have borne the constant stare OF
wonder or the semi-smile of pity with
which she would have been met in society
by those whose spoken words would only
have been OF homage or OF courtesy. Of
all unendurable positions hers would have
been the most painful had she been liv-
ing amongst his acquaintances and friends
Here at least she had such kind OF tran
guilty as solitude can afford. The fisher
people on the shore asked her no ques-
ions; the bright bold eyes of the orchard
birds had no cruel curiosity in them; and
the unobstrusive counseIs written on the
pages Of the dead men of old had no in
duisitiveness OF censure underlying them
as those of living speakers would have
had. She was glad OF such isolation, all
those who suffer from humiliation as we'll
as from calamity are glad of it. But IL
seemed 70 her as If the whole world were
dead, and she alone living in it.
All that stir and blaze and noise and
changean pomp and pageantry of society,
in which she mad dwelt ever since her
marriage, were all gone as though she had
never known them. A silence like that
OF tomb seemed always around her. The
steep white cliffs which rose in a semi
circle around Christslea were like the
walls Of a dungeon. She heard nothing
from the misty dawns until the starless
nights, except the rolling up of the waves
upon the sands, the cry of the owls fitting
at dusk amongst the boughs, the distant
shouts of the crews in the fishing cobles
out at sea, or the shrill, weak voices OF