The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1891-06-12
RISING sun, CECIL COUNTY. MD, FRIDAY, JUNE II, 1891

ate. was ready to do anything-I would
have been obliged to anybody for any good
practical suggestion-but really there was
nothing to be done. My real friends were
very good to me, however. They came to
see me. Lofty the first-she, dear girl,
came on the instant, and insisted on full
confidence, and gave me counsel out of her
own heart, and never once told me what
Mason said. Olive came, too, and Miss
Mayburn. They gave me my own time,
never alluding to the unfortunate state of
affairs.
At first / could not talk it over with
them. wanted action, as say, and Lofty
and my mother were alone in my conf
dence. / don't know what Bran thought.
dare say he blamed himself terribly and
was tortured by remorse, but can't say
thought much about him at the time. He
sent me card the day after the little af-
fair with Forgive me, and remember that
I am at your service" !" written on it. But
| tore it up impatiently and threw it into
the fire, wondering what good he thought
he could do. Captain Brague must have
been broken hearted | know that Katy
Langton-bless his good soul-was, to use
his own phrase, INTERNALLY broken up
about. it," and instantly framed hundred
wild plans for helping me, which the supe-
rior good sense of Paddy Gander alone pre-
vented him putting into execution.
But when l think of the behavior of
Emma Maplesl OF course she must have
known what had happened, though don't
believe Captain Brague told her anything
directly. She knew that had found out
that it was for her that the captain had
mistaken me-of that am certain; but
she never once came near mel Never did
she bring me the company that misery
loves; never-looking at it in the most
petty light-did she attempt to crafty that
foolish little desire that felt-that every
one feels-the desire to talk it all over with
some one who had had hand in it-her
wretched selfshness bred in her mean
cowardice and a pitiful fear that would
work on her feelings, and make her tell
my husband that it was her faultl Good
nessl She was inexpressibly meanl
At any rate-how degrading it is to speak
of it-she need only have given Penny the
merest hint, the slightest word; and as for
thinking that would have descended to
asking her to do It'll grant that she did not
have much opportunity to show her gen
erosity, but she did have one opportunity,
from the embracing of which she fed in
wild alarm. But l degrade myself by
speaking of her. And really / am not gem
orally so violent, but cowardice I cannot
excuse, and, whatever may have been my
faults, never have been mean.
Such an outcry as the above, moreover,
have never made before. l was forced at
the time to eat my sorrows and to drink
my tears. 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
lin the first transports of her disappoint-
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 a state of de-
spair, for her whole gorgeous temple had
been pulled down about her ears. And
then she was of a much more fiery and en-
ergetic temperamentth 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 in
action was weighing terribly upon me, it
was really for a definite understanding on
the subject of my position that l longed
rather than for the active process of sepa-
ration or reconcilement. But l subdued
myself, and at the end of three or four
weeks, knowing that people generally had
ceased to talk about the matter, took as
dignified a stand us | could. went to 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 to cut me on
Walnut street.
''But oh, what blow it wasl All that
made life dear to me had been rudely
snatched away from me. was worse than
undone. Could see nothing before me
but tiresome progress upward toward a
meager position among the second rates?
The thought was sickeningi 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 ~ told you sop written in letters of
living fire on a hypocritical forehead and a
malicious gleam in 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
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 popular system of government,
fell ill of a 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 to confide to him
cannot say. Penny's 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 he bad once caused to
be put off a race course would then have
beautiful chance for revenge. So it was
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, SO ] think / have to thank |
Providence and Providence alone for max
ing him take counsel with a man SO fitted |
to advise and so honorable of Judgment.
The news of my illness had not yet reached |
he