The Yale expositor., 1894-09-28

harried or ma ried man, his club, had
beckoned him with consoling arms as
he left home. and some wild idea of
a "peg" had oven crossed his brain,
early in the day though it was, and
abstemious as his habits usually
were.
But, as have said, he went al
most unconsciOusly in the opposite
direction, and stopped, from mere
force OF babit, before a house in Park
street, that looked dull enough to be
eminently respectable, the more
especially as Lady Blanche did not
at that moment happen to be adorn-
ing one OF the windows, as she had a
way OF doing when she had q little
spare time and required something
more lively than a mirror to give
back her charms
For she was q woman omnivorous
of admiration, who could appreciate
tho admiring glance of navy as
heartily as that OF prince. and hav-
ing at all times a "guid conceit o.
herself" being in that respect the
prototype of "the lady with the
swelled head" whom some OF us
know. and whose petty, paltry eter-
nal ''I' sounds as increasingly though
not half so agreeably as the waves
on the seashore.
Had her ladyship been visible,
Colonel Anderson might have dared
TO knock for admission, but as il
was, his courage failed him, and he
pottered into the park, now smart
and gay with its hyacinth beds of
lilac. and white, and rose, gorgeous
ly sweet and stiff, and liable to dc.
struction in the night from a spite
full parting stab of King Frost
The searching sun showed his face
wan. and growing sharp as a pen,
advertised his few gray hairs. and
found out the wrinkles in his clothes,
revealing him in short, as q weary
gentleman who had gone bankrupt
either in mind, body or estate, and
which may be reckoned the worst Of
the three ills is probably the one
from which man happens at that
precise moment to be suffering.
He had not lived for the world. un-
less, indeed, the four walls of his
house meant the universe, and if
Mary were satisfied, he could alway S
say with Browning:
Gods in His heaven alrs we'll with the
world p"
But now Mary had deserted him. and
the pang Of that desertion pressed
the soldier hard as ne faced the act
ual fact in all its naked ugliness and
truth. Desertion-and by COM
rade who had kept step for step with
him. through rain and shine, for
close on twenty years. through Joy
and sickness, and good times and
bad, only to drop away from him
when the worst time came of all,
leaving him in the slough of dark
some path, while she stepped into
the bright light OF a smooth road,
along which she might journey in
ease and pleasure.
He knew that she had reason-yet
he could not kneel to her for for
giveness, knowing the wrong he had
done her, and that still greater
heart than hers might have forgiven.
for deeper cen than his gentleness
was John Anderson's pride, and even
further down than that was the slow
obstinacy.
So that no never faltered in his
intention of calling that day on the
solicitors who were TO arrange for
the separation, and had indeed al
ready selected the firm to whom he
should 60 by no means the firm that
conducted his usual business
Suddenly Tom came into his mind
Tom, who had nearly as much
cause for anger as his mother, and
who would naturally take his moth
or's side. whereas, il Tom had been
a girl, thought John Anderson, wist-
fully, perhaps she would have stood
up for her poor old dad, as daugh-
ters mostly do, and found some sort
of excuse for him. 1t would be lone
ly at Harley street when Mary was
gone, and he shivered as he walked
in the spring sunshine, and found
the young green overhead crude and
harsh, and the blue of the sky exas-
reratingly monotonous and bright.
TO BE CONTINUED.