The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1896-08-22
PART L.
CHAPTER /.

Robes ranch, mingled with the outgo-
ing audience of the Cosmopolitan thea
ter at San Francisco, he ELECTED the
usual smiling mods and recognition due
10 his good looks and good fortune. But
az he hurriedly slipped through the still
lingering winters rain into tho smart
coupe that was awaiting him. and gave
the order "home," the word struck him
with peculiarly ironical significance.
DIS home was handsome one. and
lacked nothing in appointment and com
fort, but he had gone to the theater TO
evade it's hollow loneliness. Nor was il
because his wife was not there, for he
had n miserable consciousness that her
temporary absence had nothing to do
with his homelessness.
The distraction of the theater over,
that dull, vague, but aching sense of
loneliness which was daily growing up
on him, returned with greater vigor.
He leaned back in the coupe, and
gloomily reflected.
He had been married scarcely year,
yet even i'm the illusions of the honey
moon. the woman, older than himself
and the widow OF his old patron, had
half unconsciously reasserted herself,
and slipped back into the domination of
her old position.
IL was at first pleasant enough-this
half maternal protectorate, which is
even apt TO mingle with the affections
of younger wonderland Clarence in his
easy half-feminine intuition of the sex,
yielded, as the strong are apt TO yield,
through the very consciousness of their
own superiority. But this is quality
the weaker are not apt 20 recognize, and
the woman who has once tasted equal
power with her husband, not only does
not easily relegate il, but even makes
its continuance test OF the affections.
The usual triumphant feminine con-
clusion; ",fhen you no longer love me-"
had in Clarence's brief experience gone
even farther and reached it's inscruta-
BILE climax-"then no longer love you"
although shown only in n momentary
hardening OF the eye and voice. And add
ed TO this was his sudden but confused
remembrance that he had seen that eye
and heard that voice in marital alterca-
ton during Judge Peyton's life, and
that he himself, her boy partisan, had
sympathizcd with her.
Yet, strange to say, this had given
him more pain than her occasional
other reversions TO the past-to her old
suspicious of him when he was youth
full protege OF her husbands, and
presumed sutton of her adopted daugh
ter Susy.
High natures are more apt to forgive
wrong done to themselves than any alb
stract injustice. And her capricious
tyranny over her dependents and serv-
ants, or an unrcasoning enmity TO n
neighbor or friend, outraged his finer
sense more than her own misconception
of himself. Nor did he dream that this
was n thing most women seldom under
stand. or understanding. ever forgive.
The coupe ratified over the stones or
swirled through the muddy pools OF the
main thoroughfares. Newspapers and
telegraphic Offices were still brilliantly
ut, and crowds were gathered among
the bulletin boards. He knew that news
had arrived from Washington thateven-
ing OF the first active outbreaks OF scces-
sion. and that the city was brenthlcss
with excitement.
Had he not just come from the thea
ter where certain insignificant allu-
sions in the play had been suddenly
caught up and cheered or Kissed by
hitherto unknown partisans, to the
dumb establishment OF majority OF the
audience comfortably settled TO money
getting and their own affairs alone?
Had he not applauded, albeit half scorn-
fully, the pretty actress-his old play
mate Susy--who had audaciously and
all anonymously waved the American
flag in their faces?
Yesl he had known IL; had lived for
the last few weeks in an atmosphere
electrically surcharged with it--and yet
ID had chiefly affected Kim I'm his person
al homelessness. For his wife was n
southerner, born Shareholder, and n
secessionist, whose noted prciudices TO
the north had even outrun her late hus-
bands politics.
At first the piquancy and rccklessness
OF her opinionativc speech amused him
as part OF her characteristic flavor, or
a. lingering youthfulness. which the
naturer intellect always pardons.
lie had ever taken her politics scri- !
susly-whs should he? With her head |
on his shoulder he had listened TO her |
extravagantd iatribes against the north;
he had forgiven her outrageous indict- |
meDtsof his caste and his associates for |
the sake of the imperious but handsome
lips that uttered them.
fftst xghau IN Nsnrt rpfnnpllnH ~ lister. /
90 her words echoed and repeated by |
her friends and family; when hc found |
that with the clannishness OF her race
she had drawn closer to them in this /
conference.-the she depended upon
them for her intelligence and informa-
ton rather than upon him-he had
awakened TO the reality of his situation /
lie had borne the illusions OF her
brother. whose old scorn for his de- /
,,cndcnt childhood had been cmbiftercd