The aegis & intelligencer., 1895-01-25
for you to be jealous. "

six months. He had striven to relearn
his alteration of her. Every doubt of his
devotion was a deathblow to the feeling,
and every expression of hesitation and
timidity seemed the outcome of a charac-
ter belonging to different woman from
the one he had married
Come, what Is 1t, HelenS" he said
Surely you can tell me in a few words
and let us end the subject"
She was too much ashamed to say, Il
love you, and 1 am miserable" Instead
she answered, with fierce little sob:
Rosa was discussing you with her
friend just now. I overheard"
"Well?'
"She made out-all sorts of things
II am not satisfied"
about you.'
He walked to the window, with an I'M
petuous movement of his hands. When
he returned, his wife saw patient face
firmly set to hear quietly all she had to
say.
go on!'' he cried
'She said you had been very good to
her,"
II hope have"
THAT Was not jealous"
He made no reply.
THAT she could twist you round her
little finger
He laughed then bitterly. "No woman
ever did that-not even you. Have you
come to the end?"
She hung her head conscious that she
was childish and unreasonable, but with
maddened longing to force him from his
calm standpoint. She who had been so
self reliant was miserably conquered by
an overpowering longing for the very ten
derness which she had begun by despising
and taught him to dispense with.
He sat down by her side.
Let us be wise" he said, land talk 1t
over. You you know well that have in
reality given you no cause for jealousy
nor any reason to reproaoh me with atten-
tion to any woman but yourself. Admit
that honestly, Helen, and then let us 90
on"
Her eyes answered.
He ignored their entreaty Perhaps he
did not see 1t.
What you have said today leads me to
something more. l was stupidity weak
and imaginative where you were concern
ed-so foolish, in fact, that I could not hide
it-and you knew when I was hurt or an
noyed, just as you knew when 1 was
grateful for the slightest attempt at ten
derness on your part. Well, you are not
likely to be troubled with the signs of
such weakness any more. You yourself
have cured it,"
She gave little gasp which was half
sob, and he went on:
You married, firmly resolved to prove
to me that your theory was right. You
breathed suspicion into every touch Of
happiness which we tasted. You crushed
my love with doubt, my faith in you by
doubt. My very life with you was tainted
by its poison. l meant to teach you other
wise, but found--you will pardon me, l
hope-that the result would hardly be
worth the trouble and pain necessary to
accomplish it. You have never ceased to
seek In me the vices of the other men you
have met, and as a certain result have ig-
norcd and trampled ON the few virtues /
may have possessed. feel where you are
concerned like dead man-dead to love,
to hope, to everything-and you have kill
ed me. -
She put one hand timidly over his lips
"Oh, mol Mol Don't say it." she cried
He drew the fingers away.
1--WE must face the truth" he said
From the outside came the voice of the
children as thoy played on the sand below
the terrace. There was the distant wash
of the sea, some music in the garden of
the next hotel. The room was scented by
roses and the perfume of his cigar A hot
sun poured in on them, and tho heavy,
sleepy afternoon seemed a time to idle In
and be happy, not to. face fate without
blinded eyes and reason about the desti-
nies of two lives.
Have changed then," the wife mur.
INJURED, "since you first knew me?''
You have shown me, ;" he answered,
"a different side of character. That is
all"
They were silent again.
"Henceforth, " he said at length, ''you
IAN imagine what you please. shall not
Jake the trouble to prove my right to be
trusted. You ought to have accepted it
long ago. We won't quarrel about it,
dear. We will each go quietly our own
way"
He rose.
You are going?" she said.
For walk, yes. And your"
"1'll stay here"
She watched him silently for moment
Then she added, 80 you don't love me
any more?"
He looked over his shoulder as he passed
out at the door.
mot in the same way. can't But
you never valued my love- SO what does
the loss of it matter? In one thing you
have conquered, little woman. never
was beaten in the struggle for anything
desired before, and in winning your love
! admit have failed"
The door closed She beat her little fists
against her lips to keep them silent.
She had returned early from the casino
that evening and returned alone. She
shut the door on the face she showed the
world and looked in the mirror at the
different reflection 1t contained. In her
noiseless movements there was an indica-
tion of fever, and her eyes sparkled with
an excitement which was not pleasurable.
She pulled her large hat from her hair
rec1lessly and stabbed her dress with the
long jeweled pins. As suddenly they were
flung aside.
She rose, walked half way across the
room and back again. The sky, with its
wealth of stars attracted her attention.
"If 1 knew" she thought, If I only
knew what the future will bring" She
loosened her soft muslin dress ut the
throat and caught sight of the bare white
flesh exposed to view in the mirror. II
wonder if 1 am pretty" she thought, 'or
If only fancy that am. He used to
think so, but like all those things 1t must
be past too. Fancy living in the past.
No, u thousand times, no."
The dress fell to the ground and lay
crumpled in soft folds round her feet.
II am beginning to doubt myself-my
little beauty, my brain, my whole life.
Oh, how weary ami"
She traced the pattern of her delicate
silk stocking with one finger.
How to change, though-that's the
troublesome part I never felt so childish
before. What stops my telling him the
truth? Pride, I suppose. But how can
pride breathe in the atmosphere of love?
Pride! I've had enough of its poison"
She sprang up, struck her little clinch
ed fist on the dressing table and said, with
a piteous sob: 'If only he comes now, I'll
do it. How 1 wish he would come nowP'
She stumbled through the rest of her
disrobing and brushed her soft fair hair
into becoming curls. Then she listened
for his footstep with a throbbing heart,
her senses chained to one overwhelming
intensity.
When he knocked at the door of her
room, she was sitting on the edge of her
bed-a long, slim, graceful white figure
slowly stripping her fingers of their
rings.
Somehow In her dress that night, in the
arrangement of her hair and the choice OF
her jewelry there had been touch of CO.
quetry which had puzzled him and a Gu
rious desire to please in all she said and
did which, under any other circumstances,
might have been captivating.
Devoid of these adornments, she still
did not look her natural self