Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-08-16

from the embracing OF which she Ned In
wild alarm. But / degrade myself by
speaking of her. And really l am not gen
orally so violent, but cowardice l cannot
excuse, and, whatever may have been my
faults, l never have been mean.
Such an outcry as the above, moreover,
have never made before | was forced at
the time to eat my sorrows and to drink
my tears. l would not, above all things,
have told my mother anything about Emma
Naples. for she was, am sorry to say, in a
somewhat vindictive temper. Her advice
in the first transports of her disappoinu
ment-was recrimination, and she offered
to supply me with much artillery in the
shape of well defined misbehavings on the
part of my husband. Not that she actually
had it on hand, but she proposed to dis
cover it. 1t must be remembered, however,
in her credit, that she was in state OF de-
spair, for her whole gorgeous temple had
been pulled down about her ears. And
then she was of much more fiery and en-
ergetic temperament than | was, even when
| reused ! hope it is unnecessary for me to
say that never listened TO her advice.
Such proceeding would have been ut
terly foreign to my nature; and though III
action was weighing terribly upon me, it
was really for q definite understanding on
| the subject of my position that | longed
rather than for the active process OF sepa-
ration or reconcilement. But l subdued
| myself, and at the end of three OF four
weeks, knowing that people generally had
| ceased to talk about the matter, | took as
! dignified a stand as | could, went to a few
places and showed myself bravely, straight
ened my back and held my head up, and
! only wore more scornful smile and
more defiant air when that soulless old har-
ridan, Mrs. Potiphar, dared 10 cut me on
Walnut street
But oh, what blow it was, All that
| made life dear to Inc had been rudely
snatched away from me l WIS worse than
undone. Could l see nothing before me
but q tiresonle progress upward toward
| meager position among the second rates?
| The thought was sickening! Well, | will
| not weary the reader by dwelling upon the
| unhappy feelings which beset me. Little
| would any sympathiZing soul care to hear
| of my sister, who came from Lancaster
! with 81 told you sou written in letters of
| living fire on q hypocriticai forehead and
| malicious gleam in 4 subdued eye and less,
hope, would anybody care to hear of her
admirable husband, who comforted me by
! pointing out the opportunities which would
| be offered TO me by the laws of the com
monwealth if Mr.. Charter prolonged his
stay in Europe for specified period 1t is
| sufficient to say that my cross was hard to
| bear, and that in the course of two or three
| months, what with my cares and the strain
| ON my system, and / am inclined TO think
| the improved methods of drainage pro-
| vided for us by the officials who are the re
| suit of a popular system Of government, |
| fell i'll of typhoid and became very low
| indeed.
1t was Middleton Hall who brought my
! husband and myself together again-a
| strange ironical decree of fate. | deserved
it of him less than anybody else-far less
! than of Bran Boullter for Bran was
scarcely clear of blame. Mr.. Hall and my
| husband met in Heidelberg, where the
former had been for several years What
impulse prompted Penny 10 contide to him
l cannot say Pennys sudden resolution
to go abroad was comprehensive enough.
| He has told me that his first idea was to
| turn the city upside down. and that he was
only deferred from doing this by the re
Election that a certain editor of Sunday
| newspaper whom ne had once caused TO
| be put off race course would then have a
natural, as | say. that he should conclude
that the only safe way to keep himself
| from making an awful explosion was TO be
! off
But at the time when he met Mr. Hall
he was beginning to feel quite free of the
| whole affair, 30 | think L have to thank
| Providence and Providence alone for max
ing him take counsel with man SO fitted
| II, ADVISE and bppnr, hla of
| The news of my illness had not yet reached
him, and possibly he might never have
| heard of it in time for no one knew his
| whereabouts; it WAS Mr.. Halls grave and
| dignified advice warmed by the feelings
| which | am afraid he still cherished to-
| ward me- that made Penny return home
| to find me unconscious, and, as every one
| thought, dying.
| So it happened that when l returned to
| life for while l found him by my side
and knowing then that l had all that
feared | bad lost, L determined to get well
| and did. But when | recovered was
| a different woman. The long days of my
conyaiescence, the petits soins of my hus-
| band. the cheerful presence of Lofty land
| her baby and the earnest words OF Olive
| and Miss Maburn had their effect upon Inc
| | don't mean to say that | became emo
| tionai. The leopard cannot change his
| spots, nor the Ethiop his skin and have
always preserved great contempt for
emotion rs rule of life.
Penny took me 10 our own house as
soon as possible, and there, leaning back
| comfortably in an easy chair in the hay
| window where l usually spent the morn
| ing. where the sunbeams could make more
| rosy my pale hands and CLINT across the
delicate blue folds of my chamber gown, l
unused over my life, wrought out my re-
pentance and planned my reform. Life ~
said to myself, "is troubled sea, and the
only compass for the barks that sail upon
| it is the compass of duty" This common
place is only commonplace because it is so
very true.
And what, then, are the duties of mar
| ried women? | remember that once, in the
course of conversation about the progress
of human ideas which I had with Middle
| ton Hall during the early DAYS of our &C
| quaintance, he told me that the movement
! of civilization was from Status to Con
| tract" l never wholly understood this
| phrase, but have fair idea of its mean
| ing. and know what is meant by saying
that the idea of the contract is the idea of
| modern civilization.
II women are no longer the landmarks
| they are the partners of their husbands;
they enter into contracts with them; they
owe duties to them, and through them to