The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1894-11-16
CHAPTER XIV.

Carlo. Mamie had depa ted TO fl ends
in Devon, the Fletchers vanished
into space, and Mary said to herself
that it was general stampede, as
she walked through the drifting
leaves. in the calm November Gir,
noting the gripping touch of Frost
Kings fingers on autumn's lingering
treasurers
Mamie had begged Mary to go with
her; these friends OF one were friends
of both sisters; but she would not
" ct every tub stand on its own
bottom" she had sail laug hing,
"Next year, perhaps, | shall make
new plans--but | don't know. l
can't go out Of England till Tom has
left Oxford. and will not allow him
TO break up his career because l can
not support loneliness, and my own
thoughts.
And Mamie had sighed. thinking
| that sometimes loneliness bet
ter than an enforced companion
ship with tailor s-dummy of a man,
in the whole of whose well-propor
toned body was mind of such
pigmy proportions that it could
scarcely be dignifed with the name
Of mind at all
And to-day Mary's heart, at first
so stagnant and then vaguely
soothed by the petting and cheerful
society of her sister, was feverishly
Weakening again TO torment. and an
omen of evil kept step with her as
oh aT
physical sense of coming misfortune.
She tried to thrust it from her,
asking what worse could befall her
than had befalIen already?
Tom was safe. she had just heard
from him. and she hau no one TO care
about but Tom now.
Suddenly she stood still in the
middle Of the lane. its steep banks
thickly clothed with fern, tufted with
gorse. and capped with rich winter
be- ried thorn that seemed to mock a
bush OF holly, its fruit just changing
from green to rcd. and LACKING tho
vivid. audacious coloring of its
neighbor.
Holly . and in six weeks il
would be Christmas Day
the first Christmas Day for twenty
years that she had not spent beside
him.
"Peace on earth, good will toward
men the words rang mourn
fully and appealingly in her ears
What had she done? oh! what had
she done?
Had she tried, with all her heart.
soul and strength, to rescue
her husband - had she not
suffered temper, and pride, and the
unforgivable slight to petty. misera-
BILE self. to drag her from the path
OF duty, and leave him in the slough
of despair alone?
She had been ashamed OF him
yes ashamed. At Euston, 1t had
seemed a slur on her taste that she
could ever have loved. and married
and fretted herself TO fiddles tring
over such an unkempt, n-self.re
speeding creature!
She had been ashamed to say tC
J Captain Dewar, That is my hus
: band;" but to-day alone. face to face
with the conscience that she had de
liberately thrust into the background
all these months. she knew hersel
: for q woman who had signally failed
in her duty, and who had no righ'
on her knees. or in q church, or any
where with those noble souls, VIII,
, forgave others their trespasses
, even as they prayed God to be them
, selves forgiven.
She stood still in tho midst OF /;
J pearly mist that closed round he
suddenly like shroud, with viviC
sense OF awful isolation. much a
though she had been buried alive
and Weakened to find herself alone
, with the sound of once loved footstep
: and voices passing over her head
, 10! my dear" she said, below
{ her breath. for one touch OF you
= hand or mouth, one moment with M
, arms round your neck. an;
! you might be as shabby. and cid
F. and miserable as you liked, sh uli
r love you. love you, love you. and il
D your heart you have loved me best
: all along"
5 For a moment the fog lifted, an,
I showed a timid hare skirting tn