The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-01-16
BARRED OUT.

b1lHut HClA4H ANAA SSASAJ OI NA4S NALt
tablecloth, glass and silver glittered il
the gaslight, and two people sat mood,
ly opposite each other over dessert, one
apparently too Indifferent and the Other
too distracted to renew the conversation
that had dwindled to a desultory end
with the departure of the servant.
The man, though not in his first
youth, was handsome but for the lines
in his forehead that revealed q latent
discomfort. The woman was fair haired
and beautiful. Her smooth skin and
delicate white hands told of luxury and
ease and a life that knew not the toll
and moil of perjury or the harsh Bullets
Of a workaday world. Yet tonight her
heart was busy with a fancied griev-
ance and oppressed with vague portent.
The husband had long ceased to invite
his wife's confidence, stung by her grow
ing, u~naccountable GOODNESS, and, all
too conscious of the disparity in their
ages, silently but bitterly acknowledge
ed that his marriage had been a mistake
and left her 10 her own devices. There
were times when q pardopable desire
for explanation almost overcame him,
but pride always checked the query that
rose to his lips, and he went ON blam-
ing himself for his shortsightedness In
the passive endurance of an empty fash
ionable life.
If he had asked hat searching ques-
ton, she could not have answered it,
hardly knowing that the ennui of reple-
ton had made her capricious and un-
willing to believe her whims had driv-
en- them apart. So, too thoughtless and
inexperienced to attempt a redemption
of the waning homage that was still
her own, she turned like a hayward
child to the first sympathetic ear to be
consoled for the mischief she had
wrought.
And the consolation became SO sweet!
There was a certain danger about it that
attracted and brought q strange excite
ment into her idle life-it not only
soothed her ruffied feelings, but almost
crushed out Of memory the grievance it
had come to deplore. 49,.
Only sometimes, when stormy weather
kept husband and wife together for some
SSAASs NAAN2 III ~ tADAGN VI kO Gl III HIS
club and she to her friends, or when the
servant left them sitting silently apart,
even in the genial after dinner hour,
the bitter, unjust sense Of injury was
paramount.
She rose, daintiiy shaking out the
folds of her silk gown. Her husband
held the door open, and as she swept
past him secretly admired the poise of
her proud little head and the thick,
natural wave of golden hair gathered
n wonderful curves and loops. The
faint flush on her cheeks, her downcast
eyes-even the detail-of her jet trimmed
dress-were in his mind as he went
back, signing, to his solitary cigar.
She ran up stairs to her room with an
anxious glance at the tall clock on the
landing that licked out a solemn mo-
notonous warning from the depths OF it's
r1g1d heart, and. unlocking an antique
cabinet discovered in one of its mysteri-
Gus recesses a note which she read with !
u reflective little frown. Then, hastily |
donning fur trimmed mantle and small
bonnet, she drew a thick veil over her
EN~N%sb WI ANttA anu SEGdIIIIR HSIIIN |
down stairs slipped ont Of the house.
The season Of the fashionable seaside |
own In which she had chosen to finger |
ON week after week was nearly ended. |
She hurried ON through the almost de-
serted streets, looking timidly about
her, for she was not used to ramble I'M. |
attended. Though October was near. |
the air was balmy but for ali occasional
chill breeze that swept over the sea.
across whose dark, sobbing waters the
moon cast q cleaning, silver green
pathway.
She paused near the pier, shamefaced
n lrresolute, to await her sympathetic
friend, whom she saw approaching with
ON unmistakable expression of pleasure
and qualification in his eyes. There was
q brief, silent greeting. Then they wan
dered on to the shell strewn beach, ex.
changing confidence to the safe accom-
paniment Of the receding tide.
The subtle certainty of perfect appre-
citation effGced every doubt that had as
sailed her as to the righteousness of
keeping this appointment, and she told,
ASSy CIouBhs DI TIE W1aGllu2 ZuIf /
between herself and the husband who
could not or would not understand her,
and the yearning for something she he'd
never known, Of her intellectual loneli- |
ness. And in the low musical tones th,.t
thrilled her he spoke of his own vast
cd existence, the wife who was no com
panion to him, the sympathy no longed
Sor-and, at last. Of their w friend
ship, limiting something deeper. She
chided him softly, bnt with a conscious
ness OF forgiveness for his presumption.
and an e%quiyocaI argument ensued that
absorbed them into forgetfulness Of the
flying hours till her startled CRY and
uplifted hand brought his carefully
Worded discourse to d sudden end.
From the church tower the hour Of
midnight doomed distinctly through the
gentle hiss of the distant waves. Each
stroke fell like q knell upon her throb-
bing heart. Looking up pale and terri,
flsd. she law with dismay that the lights
q the esplaHade had been extingnish-