Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-04-14

| e 'A"H any tnlng else. For about
niteen pounds you may have one of
elegant simplicity. Always best for a
presentation"
Mime. Damereau turned I'M her
nose, and Selma turned hers down.
both in contempt of the advice. White
silk was fixed upon; not very ex-
pensive in itself; but before it's ap-
purtenances were completed, its train,
ana Its trimmings, and it's lace (real
! Mechlin), and its ribbons, and its
! frlpperies, and its head-dress, and its
flowers, and its feathers, it had
amounted to-not pounds, but scores.
Nine. Dalrymple went to the break
fast, and she and her attire were lovely
amidst the lovely. She went to the
drawing-room, presented by the Hon.
orable Mrs. Cleveland, and the admi-
ration and envy she excited were great.
Very satisfactory to her, nc doubt; very
! gratifying to her heart which was Just
then topsy-turvy with vanity. And so
1t went on to the end of the season,
and her pleasurable course was never
| checked; it was a dazzling career of
dress, vanity and admiration.
When they were preparing to return
to the Grange, and her maid was
driven wild with perplexity as to the
slowing away of SO extensive a ward
robe, and conjecturing that the car
| rage down of it would alone come to
something" it occurred to Selma, as
she sat watching, that the original cost
would also come to ''something."
Some hundreds, she feared, now she
came to see the whole collection in a
| mass.
''Of course I shan't let hin, see it."
she solilo9pizcd, alluding to her hus-
band. III get the bill from Madame
before leave; anil then thcrc'll be no
fear OF its coming in to him at the
Grange"
Mrs. Dalrymple asked for the bill,
and Madame, under protest that there
was no hurry i'll the world, promised
to send it in.
Selma was sitting in the drawing
room by twilight when it was delivered
to her. inclosed in a large thick cnvel-
ope, with an imposing red seal. She
opened it somewhat eagerly. What
makes it such a bulk?' She exclaimed
to herself. ooh, she has detailed the
things. did not care about that 1t
was written in busness-like, but Gle
giant hand, that of Mrs. Cooper; dates,
details, all We're there. But Selma
could not see clearly in the evening
gloom, and she struck match and
lighted the wax taper on her writing
table. anxious to look at the sum total.
"f94," she soliloquized. CHANGING at
the bottom of the first page. "It must
be a deal more than that; what does
Madame mean? Psha!' she found she
was only looking at one item; the Ver-
ice. point-lace for the decoration of
dress.
She held the taper to the bottom a
the second page. " MORE antique robe,
lace, trimmings and sapphire buttons,
f125.' Psha! again exclaimed Selma.
With rapid movement she turned
the account over to the end and gazed
at the sum total; gazed at it, stared at
it, and recoiled from it. Three thou
sand and odd pounds, odd snilings and
no pence! What the odd pounds were,
whether one, or whether nine hundred
and ninety-nine, she did not catch in
that moment of terror; the first grand
sum of three thousand absorbed her
eyes and her faculties. And there
floated over her confused conscious
ness OF other bills to come in; one from
the jewelers., one for shawls, one for
extensively trimmed linen. There was
one shawl, real India-but she dared
not think of that. '.Have been mad?"
she groancd.
1t would be thought So For she
knew that if her husband settled all
these, he would be for years beggar
on the face of the earth.
At that moment she heard his step
coming in from the dining room, and
turned sick. She crushed the bill and
the envelope, both of stiff satin paper,
in her right hand; and thrust them, in
her terror down the neck of her dr;~ss.
Then she blew out the taper and
turned, with a burning brow and fe-
yered frame, to the window again, and
stood there looking out. but seeing
nothing.
Oscar came up and put his arm round
her, asking whether it was not time to
have lights.
Eyes, presently"
"What in the world have you got
here?" cried he. "a ball?'
She pushed the "ball' higher up,
and, shaking. murmured something
about some paper
''What is the matter with you, Sell
ma? You are trembling"
1.-The night air, perhaps" she man.
aged to answer, in tone that strove
Yet 1t was a hot night. Mr.. Dalrym-
pie Immediately began to close the
window. He was minute or two over
it, for one of the cords was rough, and
did not go well. When he turned
round again his wife was gone; she had
glided silently from the room.
Up the stairs and into her own cham
Der she had flown, and there down
upon the carpet, in her remorse and
agony, her hot brow PROSTATE on the
floor.
Disgrace and ruin!' she walled
forth; "what will become of me?"
Ruin, ruin, inevitable ruin! nothing
but disgrace and ruin!'
CHAPTER vi,
There is no misfortune on earth like
a troubled conscience; there is nothing
that will wear the spirits and the frame
like burdensome secret that may not