Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-09-20
STRANGE PUNISHMENT.
wRITTES FOR THE EVENING STAR BY
EDGAR FAWCgTr.
ICopyriEhtedl
E neighbors al looked upon il as q very


o. HE neighbors all looked upon il as very
q happy marriage. A year had passed
u since Frank Amory came with his deli
k1Hcate. golden-haired wife to live in the
little chalet-like cottage just at the
foot Of the hill. Adela Amory had been
the daughter of New York clergyman, and
some of her recent associates here in D
said of her that she was quite too prim and
puritanic to suit their taste at all.
But here they were indeed wrong Adela
was merely shy and reserved.
Il sometimes think" her husband would say
to her, THAT you are never just your real self
except when you're with me"
Then Adela's blue eyes would kindle. and
perhaps she would remain meaningly silent
perhaps size would gently answer: 80 long as
that is true, Frank, I've no reason for COM
plant"
Still i. nettled Frank little to think that
people should imagine his wife dull and I'M
companlonable. He himself the soul of
vivacity and liveliness. a young. athletic fellow
with a short, dark curling beard. eyes that
were black stars and a smile that could some
how warm your heart before You heard his
voice. He used to say of himself that he was
by instinct ioafer, but by profession a Wall
street stockhroker, though 1t was reported OF
him that his proceedings among the purlicus
OF hazard implied anything rather than iazi-
ness. During the first few months after their
marriage they had lived in New York, for
though Frank 5 means were variable, they were
still in no sense meager. But at the end OF a
summers sOjourn in D. Adela had begged
her husband to stay on in their pretty cottage
throughout the winter.
She had had Ee- secret reasons for putting
forward this plea. and Frank more than vaguely
realized them. Certain things had happened
during that town life of theirs which had BIT
ten Indeilbiy into poor Adelas memory. There
had been eyenings-there had also been a few
midnights-when Frank had come home as he
would not have cared to see himself could he
have done with a sober gaze. To Adela
these episodes had teen frausht with an almost
deiirious horror. In vain Frank had told her
that what had happened to him happened to
hundreds of other men. He might as well
have tried to convince her that if a thunder
bolt had plunged through the roof of their
coZy little Lexington avenue house the catas-
tropnc would have been only triie.
He dearly loved her. and at length made her
ssolemn vow that he would never touch wine
again; for although days Of perfect seh-control
would enter by protracted periods into his life
he would be sure sooner or later to cross that
boundary which divides confluence from excess
But even this promise. after awhile, lost its
potency. One day, feeling rather jaded and
Ill. he took stimuiant, Just as a medicine"
and that which had now become the unusual
ness of the draught provoked sudden aud
strong craving for more. Adela suffered anguish
once again, and Frank made no concealment OF
his bitter repentance.
At the same time he told his wife that COM
plete abstinence would not, in his case. by any
means prove possible. He had hosts Of bust
ness friends and club friends who were forever
tempting him: there were certain times. i'll fact
when for him to drink nothing would amount
to an uncivil act; be had thought the whole
matter carefully over, and there was only one
thing for him to do.
TREMENDOUSLY Adela asked him what that one
thing was. She had thrilling dread lest he
might be about to mention an asylum for in
ebriates. She remembered having heard tina.
there are such melancholy and mysterious
places in existence.
But Frank had meant nothing of this gloomy
sort. I'm convinced. AdeIa," he now de-
clared. THAT shall have to 60 on with my
glass or two of claret at dinner and my one or
two 'nightcaps' afterward, just as did few
weeks ago. I've often heard, darling, that
swearing off is the worst thing a man can do,
and now clearly understand why. So TO-
morrow or next day-as soon as can get over
this hateful. 'seedy' feeiing-fn recommence
the old life"
He did. and at first with signal success. But
one night, at a Delmonico dinner. he wholly
lost bis head, and thus it happened that Adela
saw him still again in state which 1t dealt her
acutest torture to look upon.
She conceived the idea that il they should
pass the winter at D. Frank would be more
filed with duteous domestic sense on the one
hand and less visited on the other by those
sllurements which were constantly calling to