The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-01-23
SEPARATION.

SEPARATION.
"It is usual, believe" he said, "be-
fore dissolving partnership to take &C
counts. Let us see what we each brought
into the firm
"You begin," she answered.
II brought fair ability, energy, am
bition, decent position, means Of COM
Portable life, an unblemished name. Ev-
cry one said wasn't "a bad Sort, and,
more than all, brought deep, true.
passionate love-
Said the woman, II brought beauty"
her statement was splendidly true
"youth, physical purity-to which you
do not lay claim. - He bowed. "Per-
haps little else, for it was generous of
you to marry the daughter of an undis-
charged bankrupt
"What have we got out Of our mar
riage?" continued the husband. "Let me
speak Of course the honeymoon was
failure. Poets and novelists' '-he spoke
bitterly-"tell wicked, ridiculous lies
about honeymoons. They never are
wholly happy, unless, perhaps, when
it's the wife's second honeymoon. Aft
or that three months exquisite, almost
mad joy, then four months of happi-
ness, followed by three Of contentment,
ending in year of gradually increasing
misery"
"Of course the honeymoon was fail
ure," she answered. 1.-The next three
months were happy, the following four
not bad, the subsequent three indiffer-
ent, and the year was intolerable. You
got more out of the business than 1, for
you put more in. Alas, I had not the
beautiful mad loves capital, and YETI
''And yet," interrupted the man,
misunderstanding, "you have wasted
that capital, and the beautiful mad love
has gone, and I, who once would have
died for you-more than that, would
have lived disgracefully for you. do
not believe in the loved I not honor
more'-am content to dissolve partner
ship, willing that we should part as
friends''
Content? Willing?' she asked.
''Tell me, what do you regret most?''
II regret my bankruptcy" he said.
II began our partnership with what l
thought splendid, inexhaustible fund
Of love. I look back to moments of hap
piness beyond description, and now I
am insolvent in love. After all, be-
ieve," he continued, with pleasant,
manly smile, IT believe that it is bet
ter to have loved and lost" even if it
be the love and not the sweetheart that
one has lost Do you regret nothing?
What clings in your mind?''
She shook her head.
"Come, you should tell me- There,
on the table near you, is the deed of
dissolution, the separation deed - it
hasn't even been engrossed on parch-
ment, but is printed on paper At the
end are two SEALS We execute the dis
solution deed by putting our fingers on
the seals. The partnership was executed
with our lips In quarter of an hour
Mr.. Hawkins, the lawyer, will be here
to witness the execution. Tell me- -
She shook her head again-her splen-
did head, regular in feature, delightful
in complexion, crowned with gorgeous
auburn hair, illumined by deep, large,
violet eyes,
'You regret nothing?"
With sigh she answered: Il regret
that you have cast your pearls before
me. regret that have misprized and
lost your love; that gave you little in
return. 1regret that my very inability
to return your love truly has irritated
me by making me feel your debtor; that
feeling Of irritation has helped to make
you miserable and me miserable too
II did not use the word regret quite
in that sense" he answered. II meant,
is there nothing that you look back to
of happiness that yet lives in your mem
ory?''
She put down the fan that had flut-
tered in her tender hands, and with half
a smile, half a blush, answered, "ahere
was one thing, one moment, that re-
greet
He rose and walked up and down the
room, the daintily furnished room, ev-
erything in which was a note in dead
love song
"A year ago, almost to the day, GER
tainly to tomorrow, we were at Etaples,
you recollect?'
1T was for economy went, because
it was ridiculously cheap and very petty,
and I hated Boulogne.
II remember how we wandered
about; how, alas, we quarreled in the
lovely pine woods, or, to be true,
quarreed, and you suffered, and the
splendid seashore, where I said bitter
things because my friends were at
Trouville and I at the quiet Paris
PLACE, and you were sad and silent
my DEAR" he interrupted, 81 was
greatly to blame.''
"Hush! You must not interrupt.
Then one day we took a'boat-a clumsy