Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1894-12-14
BARRED OUT.

BARRED OUT.
Bright petals fell softly on the white
tablecloth, glass and silver glittered in
the gaslight, and two people sat mood
ly opposite each other over dessert, one
apparently too Indifferent and the other
too distracted to renew the conversation
that had dwindled to desultory end
with the departure of the servant.
The man, though not in his first
youth, was handsome but for the lines
in his forehead that revealed a latent
discomfort. The woman was fair haired
and beautiful. Her smooth skin and
delicate white hands told of luxury and
ease and life that knew not the toll
and MOL of perjury OR the harsh Bullets
of workaday world. Yet tonight her
heart was busy with fancied griev-
ance and oppressed with vague portent.
The husband had long ceased to invite
his wife's confidence, stung by her grow
ing, unaccountable GOODNESS, and, all
too conscious of the disparity in their
ages, silently but bitterly acknowledge
ed that his marriage had been mistake
and left her to her own devices. There
were times when a pardonable desire
for explanation almost overcame him,
but pride always checked the query that
rose to his lips, and he went on blam
ing himself for his shortsightedness in
the passive endurance of an empty fash
ionable life.
If he had asked that searching ques-
tion, she could not have answered it,
hardly knowing that the ennui of reple
ton had made her capricious and I'M
willing to believe her whims had driv-
en- them apart So, too thoughtless and
inexperienced to attempt a redemption
of the waning homage that was still
her own, she turned like hayward
child to the first sympathetic ear to be
consoled for the mischief she had
wrought
And the consolation became so sweet!
There was certain danger about it that
attracted and brought strange excite
ment into her idle life-it not only
soothed her ruff1ed feelings, but almost
crushed out Of memory the grievance it
had come to deplore.
Only sometimes, when stormy weather
kept husband and wife together for some
hours, until he was able to go off to his
club and she to her friends, Or when the
servant left them sitting silently apart,
even in the genial after dinner hour,
the bitter, unjust sense of injury was
paramount
She rose, daintily shaking out the
folds of her silk gown. Her husband
held the door open, and as she swept
past him secretly admired the poise OF
her proud little head and the thick,
natural wave of golden hair gathered
into wonderful curves and loops. The
faint flush OH her cheeks, her downcast
eyes-even the detail of her jet trimmed
dress-were in his mind as he went
back, signing, to his solitary cigar.
She ran up stairs to her room with an
anxious glance at the tall clock on the
landing that licked out solemn mo-
notonous warning from the depths OF its
rigid heart and unlocking an antique
cabinet discovered in one of its mysteri
a reflective little frown. Then, hastily
donning fur trimmed mantle and small
bonnet, she drew thick veil over her
pretty, even features, and stealing softly
down stairs slipped out Of the house.
The season of the fashionable seaside
TOWN in which she had chosen to linger
on week after week was nearly ended.
Lo no o7, CT do
serted streets, looking timidly about
her, for she was not used to ramhle uns
attended. Though October was near,
the air was balmy but for an occasional
chill breeze that swept over the sea,
across whose dark, eobbing waters the
moon cast a cleaning, silver green
pathway.
She paused near the pier, shamefaced
and irresolute, to await her sympathetic
friend, whom she saw approaching with
an unmistakable expression of pleasure
and qualification in his eyes, There was
a brief. silent greeting. Then they vans
dered on to the shell strewn beach, ex-
changing confidence to the safe accom-
panimeut of the receding tide.
The subtle certainty Of perfect appre-
citation efaced every doubt that had as
sailed her as to the righteousness of
keeping this appointment, and she told,
recklessly enough, of the widening gulf
between herself and the husband who
could not or would not understand her,
and the yearning for something she had
never known. of her intellectual loneli-
ness And in the low musical tones that
thrilled her he spoke Of his own vast
ed existence, the wife who was no COM
panion to him, the sympathy he longed
for-and, at last, of their own friend
ship, limiting something deeper. She
chided him softly, but with conscious
ness of forgiveness for his presumption,
and an equivocal argument ensued that
absorbed them into forgetfulness of the
flying hours till her startled cry and
nplifted hand brought his carefully
xorded discourse TO a sudden end.
From the church tower the hour of
midnight doomed distinctly through the
gentle hiss of the distant waves. Eaci,
stroke fell like knell upon her throb-
bling heart Looking up, pale and terri
fed, she saw with dismay that the lights
on the esplanade had been extinguish-
ed, and the great hotels, looming with
grim majesty out of the darkness, clos
ed and suffered.
A ~ o'clock tete-a-tete On the beach
oh, the shame of 1.-THE singing
scandal for her dearest friends to revei
in, if it ever came to their earsI The
clock must be wrong, she urged piteous,
7y, thinking of the 'little half hour
her conscience had been stifed into
granting, but glance at the jeweled
bauble on her chatelaine by the light Of
splnttering fusee confirmed her worst
fears and the integrity Of the maligned
timekeeper.
There was no time to lose. She turn.
ed impatiently toward the town, and
her companion, following with more
speed than dignity. was wise enough to
attempt no renewal of their perilous
conversation. Through the streets she
ran, breathlessly, to the surprise of the
solitary policeman and sundry feline
wanderers who scuttled noiselessly out
of her path. How she longed to be hid
den safely in the corner of her comfort,
a1,la carriaoa moving -drowsi]v ho1ne