Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-30

IL
How was it that she had been brought TO
her present frame of mind? Until short
while ago nothing had occurred 20 break
the uninterrupted harmony of 12 years
welded happiness. AT 19 she had met Mr..
Barberini in society. He was nearly ten
years her senior, and the son of wealthy
Italian merchant who had settled in Eng
land and become naturalized. Mr.. Bar
berini was amiabIe, passably good looking,
and not without accomplishments. He was
in every way an eligible parti; and his over
tunes had been received with approval not
only by Miss Hudspeth's family, but by
Miss Grace Hudspeth herself She was one
OF five daughters; and was not without a
shrewd perception OF the necessity of re-
lieving her tather-the manager of bank
with but a moderate income-of his domes-
tie burdens Charles Barberini had pre-
scented rSiE1aself; as a tall, buxom, rosy-
checked and iai--haired English girl, she
had found favor in his eyes, and we'd
ding had come of it. Sine was fond of the
little dark mamie was shorter than his
wife by nearly half head-when she mar
ried him; and the arrival in due course of
'1ittle stranger" in the person of daughter
had strengthened the tie of affection that
bound the pair together The untroubled
years had gone by. She, as the mother of
the girl old enough to be removed from the
parental home, and to be sent for her edu- |
cation 10 the famous Ladies College, at
SlOwees er, had matured into an agreeable
English matron, with a somewhat pro-
nOunced tendency to embonpoint, but still
very handsome in q snowy, conspicuous
way, and very much admired by all with a
prejudice in favor OF the massive. He,
SAVING that his complexion was triie
sallower, and that his hair was streaked
here and there with gray, was the same
little Charles Barberini who had wooed and
won her But
Yes, there was but-a big but-a cloud |
OF suspicion and doubt. that for more than |
g month had darkened and chilled this |
household. Charles Barberini, outwardly |
and physically the same man OF happy |
years agone, had inwardly and morally e1- |
hibited symptoms OF an unexpected and dis |
agreeable change. He had come home one |
day moody, reserved and silent, instead of |
cherry and expansive. as had been his wont. |
He had put certain questions, thrown out |
certain vague hints, the exact drift of which |
his wife utterly failed to catch. She had !
caught him eyeing her furtiyelv when he |
thought she was not looking his way. To |
her own knowledge he had more than once |
condescended to interrogate the servants as
to her movements; seemingly anxious to |
know when she went out, and how long she |
stopped away from home. Then, he was
forever announcing that business would i
call him out of London for some days; and |
it almost invariably happened that his re-
turn from these expeditions would take /
place suddenly, before the time intImated, |
and without word of warning. except per-
haps a telegram which had a suspicious
knack OF arriving after his return instead
OF before it. In short, Mr.. Barberini's con-
duct was perplexing and distressing in the
extreme. Niolences, natural possibly to his
inherited italian temperament but dormant
during - years of married life, would now
make their appearance. He was liable to
unexpected fits of irritability, to sudden
explosions of veiled sarcasms directed at
his wife. She was terribly puzzled at
first; but by dint of thinking and
brooding over the matter, it seemed at
length that she had fathomed the bitter
truth Mr.. Barberini no longer cared for
her. He had met some one who had sup
planted her in his affections Her glass
told her only too plainly that her figure had
lost some of the poetry of its shape, that
she was getting stout; while Charles, on the
contrary, looked scarcely day older than
he did on the happy day he had proposed to
her. L: was a sad thing that women should
age and alter so quickly, while men retained
their youth and attractiveness. Yes; that
must be it. There was a woman, a Younger
and more inviting woman in the case, and
Mr.. Barberini was lost to her.
This conviction once firmly established in
her mind, Mrs Barberini enjoyed no rest
The picture OF her husband at the feet of a
rival, of some wicked Delilah, haunted her
Everything tended to sup
port her belief His restlessness at home:
his frequent absences; above all, mis- altered
demeanor. There was a time and not very
long since, when Mr.. Barberini had been
attentive TO her even unto uxoriousness
He had little caressing ways of his own;
little outbursts of sentimentality which the
conjugal felicity of years had not exhausted.
He had a trick of inventing nonsensical pet
names for her. How well she remembered
III The last one had been Indian Boo"
She had been his '1ndian Bool" The title,
to be sure, mad no significance, but it had an
sound; and this fair lady, some
what large and turning to fat, found these
Il Ia 1, |