Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-01-17

! WITHOUT CQaC universal Scape- grace
As if He had anything to do with the
matter! The fathers have trusted t.
chance, and the children suffer.
''But at any rate whether the fathers
or God are the real scape-goatS its
quite original nowadays to profess
faith in justice, and to refrain from
railing against the Almighty. so well
let God and heredity have a rest; be
sides, we are losing the pauper scent
and getting that of the countrywide
you catch that Whit? l am glad we
are down this hill, the horses are IN
accountable
"Hengist actually looks like kick
ing" said Gwen.
BELL. get off, will you, l believe
there's d fly somewhere l can't spot. =
i Sure enough, three on 'eIn. sir: and
them horses is mortal thin-skinned
since thel-, clipping Yesterday"
What a duffer l was,'' said Strange
to his wife. mot to look at them before
we started, they are probably not half
groomed and are tickling like the
deuce. and l can't even have the sat
+! isfactiOn of swearing about it prop
erly, as | was every bit as careless
myself
A quick little conviction shot into
Gwen, that whatever God and the
general ruck of fathers might be, her
husband was just enough.
This silenced her for two solid miles.
/ When they got near the Inn, Strange
suggested that they had better stay
and lunch There.
"Oh, yes, it really doesn't NATTER
she said.
II wonder what does in her present
mood"' thought Strange, as ne helped
! her down.
! AS ill-luck would have it, wretched
/ faint feeling she had experienced once
or twice before, came on her. and she
reeled a little in her husbands hands.
He looked at her in the most utter
establishment, he hadn't fathOmed her
yet it seemed.
"Are you ILL.," he asked.
She blushed suddenly
NO, my loot got twisted in nv shoe
lace"
'The girl is lying he thought, with
a most unpleasant shock.
/ He brought her into a small, clean,
cottage piano and there was a long
green box full of it on the window
SILL
i ''Now sit in here IN the shade:' he
said, ''and take off your hat, and rest"
! He stood for a moment and watched
her, then he arranged tie pillows on
the couch and made her lie down. with
an involuntary protecting manner
quite unlike his usual airs of equality
and seXlessness.
That lie had made her all at once
50 young to him, so infinitely pathetic
He could have taken her in his arms
like a little child, and hUshed her to
sleep.
When he had gone she clenched her
hands in a rage.
/ zone can't call ones soul ones own
with such a man. she muttered, cts
bondage worse than death Talk of
that cObbler. has not the only man
who holds his wife's soul On an anvil
OH the horrible, horrible, horrible in
decency of marriage without love!
And this vile pretenSe of fair living!"
she went on. sitting up and staring
out of the window. 1.-THE jokes we have
together, and the talEs!'
She got up and went about the room
examining the curiosities, the stuffed
birds, and the shells, and the awful
OleOgraphS.
"What'S this?' she said, lifting the
glass from some glittering object. but
she dropped it as if it stung her.
"Ah, why did 1 touch it? I am sick
to death of everything"
She went over to the sofa and flung
herself back among the cushions.
1t was 2 great slab of frosted we'd
ding cake. kept over for the first
christening,
cob, it's all a most frantic joker she
said, "Here he comes I must sit up
and play to my audience, knowing all
the time the audience sees into the
marrow of my bones.''
She was not perhaps quite sane. as
saneness goes all through their lunch.
but she was strangely brilliant, her
eyes flashed with a queer f1uttering
light, her lips were soft and mobile,
and she ate her chicken with will,
and only that her natural ineness of
nature restrained her, she would have
seized the big cutglass decanter of
wine and have drained it at a gulp.
But she kept the curb we'll on and
never once tagged in her course
which surprised herself even more
| than it did her husband.
But when he went out to see the
! horses put in she had a little private
collapse all to herself.
1t was hotter than ever and the flies
grew more troublesome, but it was all
very fresh and green.
Il never knew this part was so
pretty she said as they were driv-
! ing through Il -bOrdered lane.
! Talking was an effort bnt it seemed
a less exhaustive Que than sitting there
mute Under her husbands reflections.
Its pretty" he said absently. ''and
almost as little known as Central
I Africa; look at the indifferent calm
! estate of those cows. they might live
in the desert for anything they know
of the noise of life
Eyes, and here we are in the thick
of genteel barbarism," said Gwen, as
they turned into the high road. ut
1x-o1l tho ,,o11-c rIoo,- 1.-Two nv