The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-12-20
A WOOL-KING'S WIDOW

That he would be glad to see her again Mrs.
Delany did not entertain the least doubt
But hoW glad? She turned the question over
in her mind daily and nightly during the long
homeward passage from Australia, brooding
over 1t upon phosphorescent nights in the
Indian Ocean, and wrestling with it through
the sitting stages of her progress along the
Red Sea. The P. and o. boat by which she
Travelled was one of the newest, swiftest,
martest-in latest-movements-p perfected, as
the Germans say-of all the company's boats.
But new and swift and smart as it was, she
found the journey intolerably slow. It was
eight years since they had met. She had been
en- puisSdnce de mari in those days, and now
well, now she was free to let her fancy run
riot retrospectively. She might evoke past
scenes and interpret them anew, without let
ting "I dare not wait upon l would" That
scene, for instance, when, upon the close Of
hot-wind day, she had watched the sun set
across the wide Australian plains from the
veranda of her bush home, and Fern-she had
thought of him as Fern even at that early
stage of their acquaintance-had come out
with volume of Tennyson's poems In his
hand, and thrown himselfupon the rug at her
feet, to read Glove and Duty" aloud to her
sOf love that never found his earthly close
what sequel !' and SO on, to the eliminating
point of s'that last kiss that never was the
last;" and that other scene, when the station
fences had taken fire, and the homestead was
threatened with destruction. Her husband,
poor soul, had headed the band of beaters
and worked valiantly with the station hands
to extinguish the flames, that ran across the
parched grass like an advancing wave. But
fret ba ho1 cot bjc ifa
his feetest horses and told them to ride away
from the enemy to safety and the nearest
township. With what reckless jubilati on
they had galloped off / There were flights of
screaming parrots overhead, and the sky
loomed dusky red behind the curtain of
smoke. She could realize the doom of
Francesca and Paolo, everlastingly "blown
about upon the accursed air." 1t had been
all too short, that mad ride, but the memory
of 1t was enduring. 1t was stampd in fiery
letters upon her brain. Surely he must
cherish those old recollections as closely, as
sacredly as she did. And yet there were days
when she doubted. Eight years, the physiolo-
gists tell US, renew our bodies, but do they re-
new our youth Despite the friendly testi-
mony of her long plush-framed d mirror, which
told her that, though the fashion OF her gown
was altered, the girth of her waist was the
same and that her hair, though she now wore
1t rolled high up instead of low down, was as
golden-brown and abundant as ever Helen
Delany had her fits of depression. The degree
of gladness that her presence would evoke
became more problematic than ever at these
times. To give herself fresh heart and hope,
she resumed an intermittent Irritation with a
titled and wealthy globe-trotter, and brought
him to the verge of declaration. If it had
not been for those episodes connected with
'tLoYe and Duty" and the bush fire, and
and-several others-eght years ago, she
might almost have been induced to take the
globe-trotter du SeriellT. He had other than
mere globe -trotting qualities to recommend
him, and even as it was she kept him, in
astronomical parlanee, within the sphere of
her attraction.
''You may come and see me-" she said at
parting, sin just a fortnight Not a day
earlier, please. Dover street, Picadily; I
have written the number on my card" And
then she set herself to accomplish the object
OF her journey.
First, she installed herself with her maid
at the Hotel Metropole, pending the prepara-
tion of her DoVerstreet apartments and sent
the girl in quest of the plainest, cheapest,
dowdiest, readyzmade gown to be found in all
Oxford street. She had it altered TO her
shape-tOm beia que neal-by the disdainful
abigail, until reduced circumstances pro-
claimed themselves in the "hang" of its every
fold. Her next step was to drive to West
bourne Park in a fly, and hire a scantily-fur-
nshed sitting-room in side street, at the
rate of twelve and sixpence in the season for