The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1895-11-07
AN NJ. P.'S INFATUATION.
A DOMESTIC DIFFERENCE.

Percival's friends was that he might
have done a good deal better for him
self than he did in his matrimonial
venture.
An NJ. p, with q safe seat and de-
cided abilities, young, good-looxing,
well connected, but having only a
limited income, he was just the man
who should have married money, and
this is exactly what he had not done.
He met his wife in Paris during a holi-
day trip. She was a pretty, viva
cious Irish woman, lady-like and at
tractive, but she had no fortune, and
was of no particular family. The M.
P.'s friends shook their heads over the
match, and all felt convinced that be-
fore long he would find out what q
mistake be had made.
There could be no doubt that under
the circumstances his marriage was an
imprudent one. With his eight hun
dred pounds a year Percival had
subsisted comfortably enough as a
bachelor, but as a married M. P. he
found that his income went simply no
way at all To cut himself off from so
ciety and to live with his wife in econom-
ical seclusion was, of course, out of the
question. 1t would have made him un-
popular with his constituents, as well
as with certain influential friends in
town, to whose good offices he looked
for securing some post in the govern
ment when his party came back to
power. And as he had no profession,
but had launched himself for good or
Ill upon a parliamentary career, it
would have been madness in him to
prejudice his cha noes of political pre-
ferment.
The natural consequence followed.
Percival got into debt. He consoled
himself first of all for outrunnipg the
constable by the consideration that his
party must soon return to power, and
then he should be able to recoup his
present expenditure. But the radicals
remained sin" session after session;
the looked-for general election came
no nearer, and Percival began to feel
very lugubrious indeed. He already
owed nearly one thousand pounds
"a crushing liability to man with
a small income and no capital; in
deed, he did not attempt to disguise
from himself that unless something
very unexpected turned up he must
soon be hopelessly insolvent. His wife
had long been urging immediate and
rigid retrenchment, but each time she
mentioned it Percival shook his head.
The house was in committee on a
bill which was being fought tooth and
nail by the opposition, and urgent
whips had been issued to the members
of both parties to be as frequently as
possible in their places. But there
were many dreary intervals of debate,
when no big division was imminent,
and during those intervals Percival did
not always remain in the precincts of
the house.
He might no doubt have spent them
at home or in escorting his wife to one
or other of the numerous social func-
tions which, for his sake, she SO re-
ligiously attended. But in his worried
state of mind the dullness of domes-
tic evening, or the yet deadlier bore
dom of political conversations, was
uninviting. He preferred to forget his
troubles in more enlivening scenes.
Within mile of the Palace of West
minister there is, as all the world
knows, a famous theater of varieties.
1t is under unexceptionable manage
nent; it puts forward the strongest
and most enterprising programme Of
the kind in London. One evening dur
ing particularly drowsy debate fell
low M. p. had suggested to Percival
that they should run across to the X.
and see the Rainbow danseuse. Perci-
val had complied. After that night
he went to see her pretty regularly.
just before the dance the stage was
darkened; behind doomed a background
of murky clouds, gloomy as the sky
before an impending thunderstorm;
then brilliant blaze of sunlight burst
upon the shadowed scene, and whirl-
ing wildly in it's dazzling rays ap-
peared the famous Rainbow danseuse.
What sight that was! How dexter
ously she managed her mass of gor-
geous draperies, which hoated all about
her, and swirled and spun like a re-
.volving wheel. At times nothing but
the flashing hues of these robes was
visible; at other times lovely face,
crowned with golden yellow locks,
stood out among them, radiant, spirit
ual superb-and then, while this en-
trancing apparition smiled and the
audience clapped and shouted, rum
blings of thunder rolled upon the air;
clouds overcast the sunlight; and,
amid their gathering gloom, the Rain
bow goddess faded slowly from the
scene.
If it had ended with his merely ad-
miring this ravishing beauty from a
distance, all might have been we'll.
But such infatuation as Percivars was
not satisfied to confine itself within
those modest limits. A strong desire
came over him to make her personal
acquaintance. He ought, of course, to
have withstood it. 1t should have been
perfectly obvious to him that, in Civ
ing way to his desire, he was volun-
tarily thrusting himself into the path
of danger.
But he gave way, nevertheless. He
went farther. He actually addressed
one or two letters to the Young lady.