Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-09-29
CHAPTER vi.
no act Is So easy. to t1ink is So hard

To act is so easy, TO think is so hard.
When Mr.. Eyre had told his wife
that he must pr0pitiate the Duchess
for Franks sake, and M2dcap had
shrunk from this first glimpse OF the
unSCrupulOu5n6SS OF ais character. he
had not taken into aC2OunU the danger
of playing at pitch-and- with hui
man heart, and before long found HIM
self committed to very different issues
to those he had intended A child my
kndle great lire, but fifty grown men
cannot stay it; and before Mr.. Eyre had
been at the White L0d re three days he
knew shat even for Franks sake he
ought not to have gone there.
The SmallnaSS Of the party, the isola-
ton of great house at a time Of year
when all associates of the master and
mistress in the county were absent,
while unprivReged visitors found them
selves rlgidly excluded, conspired to
throw the young couple and the older
one so constantly together that gradI-
ally Maicap's shynesS with Frank
ceased, and she could talk to him al
most as naturally as in the days when
they were boy and girl together. But
to Frank, who could not be expected to
know Mr.. Eyre'S character as we'll as
Mr.. Eyre knew it himself, the situation
was udllS6lOhiS dil'l lttll VI du AiElN. 1Io
had ceased to count Madcap'S husband
a strong man, regarding his attitude to
Hester as alike bIgOt8d and inlefen5.-
bic, and dreading some fresh weakness
by which his Wite'S happiness might be
endangered; though she, fed in secret
by more passionate devotion than
ever, would not StOOp to be jealous of
the Duchess, and was never sad save
when she thought of her children. But
when she gathered that there WAS not a
trait of beauty and sweetness about
Dody that Frank had not observed, he
and she were SO drawn together that
thenceforward there was no lack of s.
course between them.
And on the fourth dav, when Frank
was riding to Lowell (m3anin : 70 raoUrn
the same dayl. Malcdp. who had come
out TO see MN depart, SAID, very truly.
that she would have liked TO go with
him on a pilliOn, so that all the way he
seemed to feel her two little hlnds
clasped below his heart, and her bright
head leaning in safe,y against his shout
der.
She knew that the business on which
he had excused himself to the Duchess
was to visit a certain nursery, and de-
liver and receive important MESA res:
and 1t was to receive these latter that
she was very early dressed for dinner.
and watching from the billiard-r00m
window for his return, ready to run out
the moment she heard his horses steps.
But it happened that his arrival was
simultaneous with that of new guest
"a gossip OF the highest quality-who
saw the greeting between the two young
people, and, supposing them husband
and wife, thought such warmth vastly
| ill-bred. She had better hopes of them
later, especially when she discovered
| the young man to be that identical
''nettle for nice noses" whose wrong
doings just now furnished the last new
| dish OF scandal for the county.
She thought he must be either a fool
of extraordinary simplicity, or a man Of
| brilliant courage. to select the wife Of
an Eyre as his next fancy; and at din
ner became so fascinated in her stuiy
OF the pair, that the attitude of matters
between Mr.. Eyre and the Duchess for
the time absolutely escaped her atten-
! ton.
My dear Duchess" she said. in the
drawing-room later. Il wonder you per-