The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1895-06-07

| ne met Norah, who was at that time Mrs.
Ridley.
She had married when still in her teens
handsome Mat Ridley of the -th ORA
COON Guards, well meaning somewhat
obtuse modern Hercules. Before she was
90 he was killed in the hunting field.
After she had recovered the first shock
! it began to dawn upon her that the world
was large that there was q great deal in
it, and that she was free. She began to
think it was time she grew up. Being a
woman Of considerable mental and phys
ical energy cher physique had improved
enormously in the sharing of Mat Ridley
passionate devotion to all out of door
sports), she determined to see the world
and to educate herself.
When Norah returned to England she
insensibly drifted into the quasiartistic,
quasiliterary set which has its headquar-
tiers in upper Bohemia. She was popular,
and welcomed us Bohemia is wont to well
come an attractive, sympathetic and
wealthy widow who desires no greater
privilege than to beat the drum and sound
the loud timhrel of genius on her own
hearthstone. Her fortnightly gatherings
brought together most of the leading liter
| airy lights of the day, and she was just be
ginning 10 learn the secret of creating a
true Partisan salon atmosphere when Dig.
| by Stevenson doomed ON her horizon.
He was somewhat of recluse and had
| piqued her by his repeated refusals to join
| the circle to which many of his betters
| eagerly sought admittance. He had newly
| come to the front as an ardent advocate of
| indiv1dualism, as especially cXemplified in
| his assertion of the right of every man
| and woman to dispose of their own fates in
| accordance with the dictates of inclination
and conscience, without reference to moral
| or social bonds.
This revolutionary creed had been re-
ccivcd with the usual storm evoked by an
open statement of n theory upon which
the world has tacitly acted from time inn
memorial, but absolutely refuses TO indorse
when stated categorically.
Norah read Digby's paper, which espe-
| cially dwelt on he immortality of the full
| f1llment of the marriage tie in the teeth of
mutual repulsion or Indifference and
| found in its frank and daring statements
startling confirmation of much that she
had vaguely felt during her three years of
probation with Mat Ridley.
Prompted by sudden and overmaster
| ing impulse, she wrete to him and unoon-
sciously betrayed a great deal more of her
| inner self than she knew to an unsparing
and practiced analyZcr of the feminine
heart.
| The letter woke his curiosity in the
| woman. With the keen instinct of the
writer, he scented an unjaded heart, a soul
with unborn capabilities. He felt he would
like to dissect it more closely.
Norah's next evening" was honored by
Digby Stevenson's presence. They met
with curious mutual consciousness of
| knowing more of each other than their &C
! quaintance warranted.
The fulfillment of her ardent desirc-ev-
erything that Norah desired she desired ar
dently-to receive Digby Stevenson under
her own roof was married by the conscious
ness that he had already wrung from her
an admission which it might have given
her greater joy to accord to him later.
AS she rctrcatcd he became moro eager.
| In her letter he had learned the "open scs-
anne" of an untrodden realm of woman
hood. He would enter and gather the rich
harvest which lay ripe for the hand of the
| reaper.
They were married. In her he knew
more exquisite joy than had yet been his.
| To her he brought the peace and happiness
which she had vainly hunted by the side of
Mat Ridley. She had cleared the hedge
and the stream beyond. She had entered
the promised land.
For two years they wandered far and
wide, and, returning to England, pitched
their tent in the heart of fair Surrey, in the
little village of Ockley.
Norah was beginning to know her hus-
band. There was a great deal to know.
He was at once emotional and analytical.
| His impulses were conceived at fever heat
| and fulfilled with cold blooded delibera-
| ton. His theories were many, and they
had an awkward habit of formulating
| themselves and confronting him when he
| had forgotten all about them and was en-
gagged in a hand to hand struggle with a
fresh batch. But he would have felt like a
JUDAS had he denied them. They were like
moral notes of hand, which he felt bound
| to honor when presented.
He did not know this, but Norah did.
And her knowledge often placed her under
the imputation of complaisance when Dig
| by encountered an individuality which
supplied him with fresh material. She
| told herself that it was legitimate to pan
der to psychological research which de-
manded human souls for moral vivisec-
ton. In her acquiescence she became an
| indirect benefactor of mankind. This was
her theory. But when the soul was in
closed in the body of q charming and de-
sirable woman practice became difficult
for her. She even sometimes suffered from
acute attacks of jealousy, for which the
nfa hon
| sion of Digby's analytical ardor and his
| genuine affection for herself. She learned
that their mutual safety lay in sequestra-
ton. Her instinct told her that she must
never allow Digby's moral notes of hand
to be presented.
Their movements were, as consequence,
| fairly erratic. Her vanity did not permit
her to determine whether Digby was con-
scious of her policy. She was in love with
| him and knew that he loved her, and she
| was q woman.
He was busily engaged upon novel
which they both felt might raise him head
| and shoulders above his compeers. 1t was
| in reality more an illustrated exposition
of his theories than q work of fiction, and
the collection of his data had cost Nori,h
the seyerest pangs she had known since
their marriage.
Once more she interviewed with con-
summate tact and self control at the crit
ical moment, and they found themselves
In the beautiful old Surrey village with
the spring and summer before them, far
away from psychological cyclones and with
much valuable copy in Digby's notebook.
When the mundane worries of getting
comfortably housed in their cottage had
passed, Norah was conscious of feeling .
little battered.
The fallacy of regarding herself as u
spectator when she was in reality perhaps
the most interested actor in these little
dramas began to dawn upon her, When
she once recognized that her theory had
fallen to pieces, she all at once realized
that her role was Il trying and exhaustipg
one. The knowledge that Digby was safely
out of harms way may have helped to in
crease the force of the recoil, Be this as it
may, Norah for the first time felt tho de-
mon of retaliation Juggling at her hearts
strings. The desire stirred in her that Dig
by might taste the bitter waters of doubt
and jealousy. As tonic, be it understood,
not as Q poison. She was just a little
weary Of this heading Of of an impending
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