Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1896-10-22
PART I.
CHAPTER I.

:
ing audience of the Cosmopolitan thea
Ter at San FrOrcisco. he elected the
usual smiling mods and recognition due
Ia his good looks and good fortune. hut
as he hurric,lly Slipped through the still
lingering winters rain into the smnrt
coupe that was awaiting him. and gave
the order home" the word struck him
with "A peculiarly irouical signiticaucr,
| His home was a handsome one, and
tackled nothing inappoint ment and com
fort, hut he had gone Ia the thcatcr ia
cvade it's hollow loneliness, Nor was IL
because his wife Was not there, for he
had q miserable consciousness that her
temporary absence had nothing ~ iu
With his homclrs>nes-
The distraction Of the thcatCr over.
that dun, vague, but aching sense of
loneliness which was daily growing up
on him. returned with greater Nigor.
lie leaned back in the coupe. and
! gloomily reflected.
lie had been married scarcely year,
Vet even in the illusions of the honey.
moon, the woman. older than himself
and the widow of his old patron. had
! half unconScinuSly rrasscrted herself.
and slipped back into the domination of
! her old position.
II was at first pleasant enough his
/ half maternal protectoratc, which is
| even apt ia miusle with the affections
! OF younger " omen and Clarence in his
easy half-fcminine intuition Of the sex.
I yielded. as the strong are apt To yield.
through the very consciousness of their
| own superiority. Rut this is a quality
the weaker are not apt to recognize. and
the woman who has once tasted eqcal
power with her husband. not only does
not easily relegate it, but even makes
its continuance test of the affections.
The usual triumphant feminine CON
clusion: Then you 10 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 Il momentary
hardening of the eye and Dice. And add
ed TO this was his sudden but confused
remembrance that he had seen that eye
and heard that voice in marital alterca-
tion during Judge Peyton's life, and
that he himself, her boy partisan. had
sympathized 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 a youth
full protcge of her husbands. and a
,,,aSu,,al .,tivnr Of ha,. ol,,,t.I lanrh-
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 unreasoning enmity to n
neighbor or friend. outraged his finer
scnse more than her own misconception
of himself. Nor did he dream that this
was a 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
Geographic Offices were still brilliantly
the bulletin boards. lie knew that news
had arrived from Washington that even
ing OF the first active out breaks of seces-
sion, and that the city was breathless
with excitement.
Had he not Just come from the thea
ter where certain insignificant allu-
SONS in the play had been suddenly
caught up and cheered or Missed by
hitherto unknown partisans, TO the
dumb astonishment of a 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
all anonymously waved the American
flag in their faces?
Yes! lac had known it; had lived for
the last few weeks in an atmosphere
electrically surcharged with it--and yet
it had chiefly affected him in bis person
al homelessness. For his wife was a
southerner, born Shareholder. and n
secessionist. whose noted prejudices TO
the north had even outrun her late hus-
Lands politics.
At first the piquancy and recklessness
of her opinionative speech amused him
as part of her characteristic flavor, or
as lingering youthfulness, which tire
maturer intellect always pardons.
lie had never taken her politics seri-
ously-why should he? With her head
on his shoulder he had listened 20 her
eNtravagant diatribesa against the north;
he had forgiven her outrageous indict-
mentsof his caste and his associates for
the sake of the imperious but handsome
lips that uttered them.
But when he was compelled to listen
TO her words echoed and repeat d by
her friends and family; when he found
that with the clannishness of her race
she had drawn closer to them in this
controyersy-that she depended upon
them for her intelligence and informa-
ton rather than upon him-he had
awakened to the reality of his situation.
He had borne the illusions of her
brother, whose old scorn for his de-
pendent childhood had been embittered
by her sisters marriage, and was now
scarcely concealed.
Yet while he had never altered his
own political faith and social creed in
tins antagonistic atmosphere, he had
often wondered, with his old conscien-
tiousness and characteristic self-abne-
cation. whether his own political con-
victions were not merely a revulsion
from his domestic tyranny and alien
surroundings.
In the midst of this gloomy retro
spect the coupe stopped with jerk
before his own house. The door was
quickly opened by servant who APP
peared to be awaiting him.
"Some one TO see you in the library,
sir" said the man. "and-" he hesitated
and looked toward the coupe.
WELL" said Clarence, impatiently.
"He said, sir, as how you were not TO
send away the carriage"
Indeed. and who is it?' demanded
Clarence sharply.
"Mr Hooker. lie said | was TO say
Jim Hooker"
The momeDtary annoyance in Clar-
ence's face changed to n look of re-