The herald., 1894-01-07


What was his astonishment and indig-
nation to meet with a decided refusali
She was already engaged, she assured
him. Her lover was poor, and she was
young, and it had been thought best not
to announce it at present. He reproach-
ed her with unfair conduct to himself,
and she replied: II am sure never
dreamed of your meaning anything by
your little attentions to me. Every one
thinks you are engaged to Miss Ferris,
and Mrs. Grytan told mamma months
ago that she was sure there was an un-
derstanding between you and. Agnes
Moulton.
Chagrined and furious, Mr.. Middle
ton made his way back to the ballroom.
Here he vented his spite in way fatal
to his best interests. He vowed to him
self that he would marry before either
of those girls should do so. Who was
his partner for the next dancer Lilly
Edgerton. He would propose to her as
soon as it was over. She was a nice girl
enough, used to be great belle, haG
firted desperately, but what of thatl
Marry he would, and at once. He car
ried out his intention. Miss Edgerton
was much astonished, and she may have
had a shrewd suspicion of the truth,
but she was too clever woman of the
world not to profit by her opportunity,
and she accepted him Immediately.
He went the next evening to see Jo-
sephine before going to place his be-
trothal ring on Lilly's finger and told
her of his engagement. Her face was
study in which sorrow and surprise
were blended. "She thinks me an ass, "
he muttered to himself as he left the
house, land she thinks about right.
Less than month later the. fashiona-
BILE columns of the daily newspapers
chronicled brilliant wedding in which
Mr.. Augustus Middleton and Miss Lii
lian Edgerton were the contracting par
ties. There was trip to the Bermudas,
a series of receptions in their new home,
and all the feting and attention usually
shown a newly married pair.
On one of these occasions Mrs. Mid
dleton said to her husband: "Do you
see how devoted Fred Cartester is to
Josephine Ferris? l hope it will make
a match"
"Josephine" he exclaimed in an an
noyed tone. Impossiblel' He had come
to regard Josephine as his own especial
property. Suraly his friend was not go
ing to desert him too
why impossible?" demanded Mrs.
Middleton sharply. "She is no older
than l and much more agreeable than
most of those chits of girls. "
''She is 80. though you were "a"
80 / am to the world at large. You
don't suppose any woman out of her
teens tells the truth about her age, do
your"
Mrs. Middleton had no intention that
the intimacy between her husband and
Miss Ferris should continue, and she
spoke her real sentiments when she said
she hoped for the match. 1t was not
made, however, and month later Miss
Ferris left town for an extended trip
abroad.
Mr.. Middleton, having married in
haste, now had time to repent at lei
sure. He found that his wife was a
selfish, worldly woman, with not lit
tie of the shrew in her makeup. She
cared nothing for him and for his home,
only that she might exhibit its beauti-
full appointments TO the outside world.
He missed his old friends, with whom
his wife would have nothing to do, and
he could not endure the fashionable cir
Gle with which she surrounded herself,
so he gave his days to the club and
sighed sometimes for the bachelor days
when he was free to picture an ideal
home of domestic felicity. But if Mrs.
Middleton did nothing else for her hus-
band, one thing she did with entire
thoroughness-she took the conceit out
of him. He was a much smaller man
in his own estimation than when he had
offered his name and his fortune to Lii
lian Edgerton. He knew now that he
had never loved any one but Josephine
Ferris, and he felt himself to have been
an egregious fool that he had not tried
to win IN his mature manhood what she
had denied to his callow youth. He did
not suspect the truth, though his wife
did, that he would have been entirely
successful.
To end in the regulation way, Mr..
Middleton ought to have found himself
a widower at the end of the year with
tiny baby girl dependent upon him for
lpve and care, and Josephine on her re-
turn from Europe should have been pre-
vailed upon to be mother to the little
creature, but things do not end in the
regulation way in real life.
On the contrary, Mrs. Middleton pre-
sented him with a bouncing boy and
was soon in the full tide of fashionable
life once more, and he scarcely saw Jo-
sephine again. She married an Ameri-
can artist whom she had met abroad
and removed to distant city, while
Mr.. Middleton devoted his life to his
profession and to his children and found
in them some of the happiness that in a
moment of pique he flung away at the
Beldon ball. .-Lucretia Clark in Albany
Journal.