The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-27

raiseo INTO a fancled passion Tor
one fieeting hour. The sky
was low, the sea was still, the earth was
silent as he went; the dull atmosphere
and the melancholy solitude oppressed
him as with some sensation of physical ILL.,
Through the mist which hung everywhere
over the water and the land. the few dis
tant sails on the sea, the few forms passing
on the moors of men or cattle, looked un-
substantial and unreal To him, whose
lie was always passed in movement or in
pleasure, In the qualification either OF the
senses or of the intelligence the winter
stiffness and loneliness of the country and
the shore had feeling of death in them.
Ills horse, tired with the wet and heavy
ground, went slowly, and he did not urge
1t to more speed; he rode on, lost i'm his
own thoughts, taking, almost without
Knowing 1t, the road to the cottage at
Chrlstlea. He had the fullest resolve not
to see his wife, nor allow himself 10 be
seen by her, yet with an unconscious and
irresistible impulSion he took his way to-
ward the place where she dwelt, until
from the level turf of the cliffs above the
house he looked down on its thatched roof,
Its peaked gables, its thick environment of
| tangled branches. There was not a sound
coming 10 n It; a little smoke hung
on the vapOrous air; few pigeons flew
low under its caves; a hollv-tree stood
glowing with scarlet berries tall and
| straight against the sky. To him, come
from the vast palaces and marble terraces
and sun-bathed gardens of the SOUTH it
looked almost like a hovel, with its hum
bic lowllness and n modest coloring so
like the brown earth and the gray boughs
which surrounded il. 1t hurt his pride
TO think that that his wife should
live there in penury and obscurity. She
bore his name, she was the mistress of his
houses, she had right to his riches and
his possessions of all kinds. and she dweit
here in less comfort and less stateliness than
the wife of his steward enjoyed.
And all his world knew it, and anv one
OF his friends who chose could come and
see the poorness and lowliness of her lot
He dismounted and walked to the edge
OF the cliff and let his horse stray as it
would, blown and heated cropping the
short, wet turf to its own hurt.
A vague desire to enter the house and
ask for her and see her face to face was in
him. But he would have been perjured
and degraded had he Welded to it. Far
away in the golden light of the Neapolitan
day was woman who had said TO him:
You have honor"
He remembered her, and to her at least
was faithful
On the table-land of the cliff near at
hand was the little barn-like rustic church
of this small sea-parish, and around il
were those obscure graves, of which John
Vernon's was one, conspicuous amongst
the low-lying headstones by the fair col
umn of white marble she and he had
raised to his memory, with one line craven
on 1t in the language he best loved:
Mori est felicis antequam mortem invocat
He looked at the white pillar looming
family through the sea-fOg, and had he
been woman be could have wept.
81 was false 20 him, / was false 10 hin" I"
he thought, and his heart ached with the
futile pang of regret which cannot reach
or atone to the dead.
He had too often pardoned TO himself
his own transgressions, too often too care
lessly excused TO himself errors and fOllies
which he thought lightly of because they
were welcome and easy; but the sense of
his own dlslOyalty he could not palliate or
smooth away with sophistry; he deemed
it dishonor and he hated it For the
first time in all his years he was guilty in
his own sight. He had promised what he
had not fulfilled; he had been untrue to a
man who could no more call his actions TO
account.
As he stood looking down on the russet
roof and the tangled wood in the shadowy
misty winters morning, he saw the figure
OF a woman leave the porch and pass
under the branches outward toward the
shore. He could not see her face from his
position so far above her, but he could see
by her figure. by her bearing, by her step,
that the housekeeper had said truly-she
was in perfect health and strength.
She walked quickly and firmly, the dogs
leaping on her and running on before her.
She wore the long black cloak of
sables in which he had seen her last in
Naples. For some minutes he lost her
from view under the trees; then she ap-
peared again on the strip of sandy shore,
where the waves were rolling up with low
angry murmur as though exhausted by
the fury of the past night. Then she
turned from the sea, and mounted the cliff
path leading to the churchyard. He
perceived that she had a basket of ever
greens and snowdrops in her hand; she
was coming no doubt on her daily errand
of visiting her fathers grave. The mist
was lighter now, and, though some way
oil her, he saw her plainly, asshe mounted
the steep path cut in the granite OF the
cliff, so familiar to her from her child
hood.
"What life What life he thought
w nat u MTtlCHSQ Allt IL b16 UdN6 no
consolationsl"
A violent impulse moved him to demand
from her if there were any: if the gossip
OF the world was true which traced to
Aubrevs influence her choice OF this
seclusion; he wished to tell her that he
would be the last to blame her if it were
so, and that here, within sight of her
fathers grave, he would ask her pardon
and give her his; so at least there might
be peace between them.
And vet, as he watched her from the
distance, crossing the grass of the cliffs
with that elastic step which he had so Of
ten admired, and which all women had
envied her, a more somber, more
ignoble feeling moved him-a restless
jealousy of past possession, a sense that
the dignity of his name was in her hands
and that she could play with il as she
chose, and that he had lost the right to
blame her, whatever she might select to
do with il.
He watched her pass across the table
land toward the graveyard; she did not
look toward him; she went straight on to
the wicket of the burial place, opened it
and passed within; the growth of rose
thorn and privet and holly within its low
walls of rubble hid her entirely from him.
He hesitated moment; great, almost
an ungovernable wish arose in him TO 90
there and to say to her fathers grave all