Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-08-20
The GAZETTE: FIT WORTH, TEXAS THURSDAY, AUGUST %.

from the embracing Of which she ned IN
wild alarm But I degrade myself bv
speaking of her. And really | an not gen
orally so violent. hut cowardice | cannot
excuse, and. whatever may have been my
faults, | never nave been mean
Such an ourcry as the above, moreover, l
have never made before. | was forced at
tine time to eat my sorrows and to drink
nv tears. / would not, above all things,
have told my mother anything about Emma
Naples, for she vas, l am sorry to say, in a
somewhat vindictive temper. Her advice
in the first transports of her disappoint-
ment-was recrilnination, 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 temperament than was, even when
reused hope it is unnecessary for me to
say that l never listened to her advice.
Such a proceeding would have been ut
teriy foreign to my nature: and though in
action was weighing terribly upon me, it
was really for definite understanding on
the subject of my position that L longed
rather than for the active process Of sepa-
ration or reconcilement. But / subdued
myself, and at the end of three or four
weeks, knowing that people generally had
ceased to talk about the matter, l took as
dignified a stand as 1 couid went to few
places and showed myself bravely, straight
ened my back and held my head up, and
only wore a more scornful smile and a
more defiant air when that soulless old har
ridan. Mrs. Potiphar, dared to cut me on
Walnut street
But oh, what blow it was! All that
made life dear to me had been rldely
snatched away from me. | was worse than
undone. Could l see nothing before me
but tiTesome progress upward toward a
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 10 hear
of my sister, who came from Lancaster
with II told you sou written in letters of
living fire on a hypocritical forehead and
malicious CLEAN in Il 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 Inc by the laws of the com
monwealJh if Mr.. Charter prolonged his
stay in Europe for a 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. l deserved
it of him less than anybody else-far less
than OF Bran Boullter, for Bran was
scarcely clear of blame. Mr. Hail and my
husband met III Heidelberg where the
former had been for several years. What
impulse prompted Penny to confide to him
l 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 had once caused to
be put off a race course would then have a
beautiful chance for revenge. So it was
natural, as | say, that he should conclude
that the only safe way 10 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
him, and possibly he might never have
heard of 1t III time, for no one knew his
whereabouts; it was Mr.. Halls grave and
dignitied advice twarmed by the feelings
which | am afraid he still cherished to-
ward mel that made Penny return home
to find me unconscious, and, as every one
thought, dying.
So it happened that when | returned to
life for while l found him by my side;
and knowing then that had all that |
feared had lost, | determined to get wei
and did. But when | recovered was
a different woman. The long days OF nv
conyalescence, 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 me
l don't mean To say that l became emo
tionl. The leopard cannot change his
spots, nor the Ethiop his skin, and have
always preserved great contempt for
emotion as a rule OF life.
Penny took me to our own house as
soon as possible, and there, leaning back
comfortably in an easy chair in the bay
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. /
unused over my life, wrought out my re-
pentance and planned my reform. Life"
! said to myself, sis a 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 a conversation about the progress
of human iGeas which mad 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" i never wholly understood this
phrase, but | have fair idea of its mean
ing, and | know what is meant by saving
that the idea of the contract is the idea II
modern civilization.
Ii women are no longer the handraids
they are the partners of their husbands;
they enter into contracts with them; they