Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-04-19

- Clara Arden anticipated. dinner
/6V was late that evening at RIverLawn
III 1t was nearly half-past eight when
~ Mr.. and Mrs. Arden and Daisy met
in the drawing room, and the butler
had been lowering in the hall for nearly half
an hour waiting to announce dinner.
You are looking SO pale and so tired, Am
brose," Mrs. Arden said. as they seated them
selves in the light Of the large shaded lamp,
supplemented with clusters of wax candles,
light in which she could see the color and ex-
preston of his face better than in the softer
lamp-lisht of the drawing-room.
Il don't think that am any more tired than
usual" he answered ''You know what your
fashionable physician said Of me. You must
not expect me to look particularly robust"
HE said that you were not to devote your
self TO intellectual work, Ambrose, and you
have been doing nothing else since he saw you.
''Old habits are not easily put off as doc
tors pretend to think. They tell the drunkard
he must leave Off brandy, and they tell the
scholar he must live without books. with just
the same admirable complacency, as II they
were asking very little"
I'm afraid we ought to leave Berkshires,"
pursued his wife, looking at him anxioufly.
Il am sure that you will be better away from
your books"
Il shall be ready to leave my books when my
book is finished. / am nearing the end. When
that is done l will go where you like"
1T is not where i like. but where you like"
she said sadly. Il am happier here than any
where else"
Then let US stay here-till the end of our
lives You know what Horace says, Daisy"
NO. no. am not selfish enough to keep you
here when / see that you are dispirited and out
of health. We will go back to London, we will
go to Italy, anywhere"
There was a silence after this Daisy being
more thoughtful than usual, and not offering
any diversion by the girlish prattle with which
she usually frightened the meal, whether her
heart was light or heavy. No word had yet
been spoken about Cyrils absence. The butler
had quietly removed the cover laid for him,
and the chair in which he was to have sat; bat
nobody mentioned his name till nearly the
end Of the meal, when Clara said rather
nervously-
Cyril is dining out, SUPPOSED"
He has gone to London" Ambrose Arden
answered quietly. He Is not coming back
tonight"
Clara looked at him wonderingly as he
answered. Had Cyril told his father that his
engagement was at an end? She would hardly
believe that her husband would have taken
the blow so quietly. 1t was left for her, she
thought. to tell him of his disappointment.
Daisy slipped away to her own den soon as
she was free to leave the dining room, and Mrs.
Arden entered the drawing room alone, and sat
there waiting anxiously for her husband to re-
Join her. 1t was very seldom that he fingered
in the dining room after his wife left him. but
this evening he was sitting in an distracted
mood at his end of the table. and did not stir
when mother and daughter rose and went away.
1t was perhaps the first time that he had ever
allowed his wife to open the door for herself
when he was in the room. Absent-minded and
dreamy by temperament he had yet rarely
failed in courtesy to the woman who was to
him this worlds one woman.