The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1893-12-07
A LOST IDEAL.

unlike her childhood's room, with walls
bepinned with water color sketches
and an oaken floor shining with
patches of rugs rich in color.
1t had an air of newness and festivity
about 1t which impressed her; and her
tightly drawn lips relaxed into smile
as she caught sight of a huge boquet
of bridal roses on the mantel.
She had been wrapped in an apathy
for days, during their wedding trip.
Up among the Berkshire hills, and
later at the beach, with the sound of
the sea in her ears, she had main
tanned rigid stoicism that only partly
deceived her conscience. She knew
the time of reckoning would come.
But the waves had said nothing to
her. There was an accusing cadence
in their murmuring, and the hills sug-
gested no delirious dreams to her slug
gish mind
But here at last, as she stood on the
threshold of the room especially pre-
pared for her, hearing her husbands
versation with his agent, a sudden
thrill shook her calmness to the founda-
lions.
AS she glanced about the room, OBJ
serving every detail the thought of
her mother and of her little chamber
at home, and much which she had
cheated herself into forgetting came
TO her, and she moved into the apart
ment vaguely and sat down in a chair
before the CRATE.
The fire was burning low, and she
stopped in quite a composed way and
stirred ii into a blaze. She seemed to
arouse a thousand smouldering mem
cries as she did so.
She did not know why she had become
the wife of Richard Warren. She sup
posed it was from force of circum-
stances. She had always been con-
trolled largely by circumstances
hemmed in, as it were. Once she had
rebelled, and attempted to get the
game of life into her own hands-had
even succeeded in a measure. She had
thought love was subtle enough to
outwit fate; but fate held the winning
card.
She had never believed that Jack
Dalton was utterly false to her. All
men are weak, and many women would
have overloo ked what she denounced.
And Warren had famed the fame of
her wrath-he had his own purpose to
serve. Yes, she saw that plainly now,
when it was too late.
Jacks vulnerable point was his vanity,
and the kind of women he affected ca
tered to 1t, no doubt. Then there was a
fascination about the green room and
trappings of the stage, and the gay
suppers, with the accompaniment of
undeniable genius, to an enthusiastic,
clever, light hearted young fell ow like
Jack, with more money than he well
knew what to do with at his command.
His face rose out of the mass of fam
ing Goals before her, life like, potent,
appealing. That handsome face, with
the flush on the olive cheeks, and the
bright, riotous eyes trimming
over with love, and the warm smile
which was like an intoxicant, and
which welded all hearts to him.
He has always been an ideal to her;
never a fact. He was like young
Greek god, with the crown of black
curls on his proud head and the regal,
triumphant air he wore.
She never realized his love. She
never believed in it much. 1t was like
a chapter out of one of Gautier's
novels to her. At times she had I'M
comfortable premonitions. The life
before them stretched out too highly
colored to be real.
They were both dreamers-both
seekers after the IDEAL They were
endowed in each others eyes with
qualities of grace which neither pos
sessed.
When the awakening came they
agreed it was all delusion, miscon
ception, rather. The summer had been
conducive to idyls, and they ha6
drifted into an imaginasy heaven.
Crouching there in her chair for one
moment of relaxation, Cecile Warner
saw it all in retrospection Her iifs
seemed suddenly to close in about her
like four bare walls from which al
decoration had been wrenched. She
seemed to have lost her foothold OF
actual reality, and slipped aside into
byway of half hearted imaginings
deep toned longings, and wayward mem
cries.
She put both hands over her face
and clenched them there before he
eyes. She held them there so closel,
that tiny rings seemed to be eddyin,
up and down between her and The fire
After awhile, when she heard her hus
bands step on the stairs, she started
] in kind of terror. In another mo
ment she had caught up her cloak will
its heavy border of fur, thrown it abou