The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-04
THE DOLLS TRAGEDY.
BY Nj. f. BRADDON.
copyrighted, 1895, by N. E. Braddon.

Hamburg. These declared that she was
! Very good little dol. She was not Eighty,
and she had an admirable manner TO the
! undergraduates who filled the corners or
her rooms and crowded her staircase ana
landings when she gave ''perpendic-
| ular."
"She will never give him any trouble"
said one of her feminine defenders.
She will never give him any happiness"
retorted one Of her masculine traducers
Why he is as happy as the day is
long"
He has not been married a year He
! has not had time TO be tired OF the doll ::
/ when he finds that 1t can only smile and
| pretend to agree with everything he says,
ne will envy Socrates his Xantippe."
"Spitefu person! ! believe you would
| have liked to marry her yourself"
80 1 should-monstrously-if l could
| nave unmarried her six months after
| wards"
DR.. Kirkdale had married in the last
! fortnight of a long vacation, and except
| for ten days at the Continental IN Paris
he and his wife had never left the neigh
| borhood of Verulam. There had been talk
OF Easter at Bournemouth; but the doc
tor was writing a book and required half
a million or so of books at his elbow while
he worked at 1t, and 50 his only move
ments were from the Verulam to the var
sity library. He complained of the Veru-
lam collection as ridiculousy small
I'VE have positively only a handful of
useful books" he said, "and in science
we are half century behind the age"
When the long vacation came round
again, and Theodore had been married
nearly year, it was borne in upon the
professor that whatever his book might
require his wife wanted change of air
and scene, and might pine and become Sc
riously III if she remained ali through July
August N a G fp1n nd
This was intimated to Dr. Kirkdale by
his wife's medical man. The doll had ut
tered no complaint.
Ny dear little girl, Mr. Baynes tells me
you are languid and ailing," the profess
sor said, ever SO gently, taking the fair
young face in both his hands and turning
1t TO the summer light.
Mrs. Kirkdale confessed to frequent
headaches and sleepless nights.
You need change of surroundings. l
must take holiday. / may have to de-
fer the publication of my book, but
weW'-with a sigh of Observation-Disclosures
and print can wait; your pale cheeks
can /. we must bring your roses back
my dear, whatever It may cost u.s."
He sighed again. The book upon which
he was working, and which was drawing
near completion, had been the beloved
labor OF nearly ten years He at least
believed that 1t was a far more important
contribution to the literature of science
than any previous work of his-that it
would place him upon new and higher
plane as savant and discoverer. He
felt age creeping on. The good golden
years of strong man strength were
gone. Every year to come would set the
mark OF G9cay Upon him. He wanted to
leave the world a step or two more for
ward in the march of progress by his
own individual labor. He wanted to he
xtrb la
in the college chapel with his wife every
Sunday morning and heard the choir
singing of the Christians paradise and
Joined decorously in prayer and praise:
but he had no more hope for a world
beyond the grave than he expected to
see the stone chapel lifted from its
foundations and soaring skyward And
this being so, he wanted to be remem-
bered for his monograph upon Motive
Powers of the Future"
He was the most unselhsh OF men, and
lost not an hour in taking measures to
procure pleasant holiday for his wife.
Last year, when l was going TO he
married." he wrote to an old pupil and
attached disciple, you were good
enough, my dear Tremaine, to offer me
your lovely place by the lake for my
honeymoon, / could not then avail my
self of your kindness; but this year my
wire has been ordered a change of air and
you We're going north for your grouse
shooting-as you went last year-you
might be inclined to do me the favor
now which you so graciously offered then,
and allow me to bring my poor little
wife to Lakeside for two or three weeks
We would take a useful woman servant
with us to cater and cook and would
give your household as little trouble as
possible"
Mr.. Tremaine fully understood that al
| fusion to catering and cooking, as an in
dication of his old friends desire to ac-
| cept no more than the use of house and
gardens, and he replied by return of post:
Dear Professor-The house will be
| ready for you-to-morrow If YOU like
But you must bring no cook or house
| servant. My people would be up in arms.
Mrs. Kirkdale can bring her own maid II
| she likes, but in all other respects YOU
| will find everything here-carriages and
horses, boats and boatmen, a decent cul-
| sine, garden choked with flowers. and
| the heartiest welcome. l shall stay 4
day or two to receive you before | start
| for Norway, where l am due early next
month. Yours always, bill"
DR.. Kirkdale showed his wife the letter.
1T will be very nice" she said, in a
| placid way, but what a vulgar person
Mr. Tremaine must be-"
| vulgar! Why vulgar, lover"
His signature-to sign himself Bill, like
carter"
rs it vulgar? His name is william.
and we always called him Bill No doubt
the other U.G.'s began 1t, and 1 fell into
/ their way. Bill? l rather like the name.
| 1t sounds friendly"
=
Before starting for this holSay, which
might last a month or more Dr. Kirk
dale ordered all important accounts to
! be sent in to him. and before they were
delivered he looked into his pass-book and
surveyed his financial position
He had opened an account for his wife
| at The local bank, so that she might not
| be under the necessity of asking him for
cash-of which, in fact, he rarely carried
! more than a sovereign on his person-or
feel herself restricted in small OUTLAWS.
He had paid in checque for hundred
| pounds to her account from time TO time
when she asked him, and, all the powers
| of his intellect being absorbed in his book.
! he had taken no heed of the intervals al
| which these demands occurred. But now.
| looking over his pass-book, he was hor-
/ rihed TO see how much money he had
| given her; still more horrhed when the
accounts came in from livery stable. wine
! merchant, milliner and draper florist and