The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-27

narents. She had wished most earnestly
70 he left in peace in the little home
made sacred to her by the memories of
her husband; but the pressure put upon
be- bv both father and mother, together
with considerations of economy, had pre-
,,o,led in the end. So some ten days af
Tor Raymond's departure, she found her
Golf installed as if her short married life
had been but dream, in that dull, damp
house by the roadside where she had been
broueht UP. It's garden was unkempt, its
walls grimy; the inside was dirty and
neglected Most of the furniture was
broken dusty and ink-stained. For the
greater part of the day the half-pay colo
mel sat grumbling in his smoking room,
which was the gloomiest apartment In
that gloomy house He had no occupa-
ton now and not the best of tempers.
The mother looked eareworn and i'll, and
her gowns were nearly as dirty as the
chintz on the drawing room sofa. The
two elder girls, who were certainly grow
ing very pretty, like Trix, seemed to
her noisy and ill-bred when their par
ents' eyes were not upon them. The
Younger children were fretful and cross,
and two at least among them delicate
and understood. There was hardly a chair
in the house with four sound legs, not
a table-cloth that was not perforated with
holes. not a dish that was not Clipped.
The bass notes of the piano had long since
ceased to give out even an uncertain
llal ~.
from picking out comic songs in the tre-
BILE with one finger, whether or no the
poor mother complained of headache or
the father swore that the row in his house
was enough to send a saint mad, upon his
soul it was.
No one seemed to take much interest in
Raymond The colonel went to sleep when
Trlx read part of his first letter aloud
and her sisters were aggrieved because
she was too much out of spirits to go
with them to lawn tennis parties in the
neghborhood.
One day-lt seemed a long, long time af-
ter Ray had been gone-Sir Paul Redgrave
rode over to see Mrs. Joliffe. 1t was ten
miles or so from Government House to
the colonel's villa, but yet when the gem
eral had come to the end of his ride, he
dreaded to face Beatrix.
She was out, in the little apology for a
garden, when he drew rein at the front
door. An untidy maid-servant led him
through the passage, which smelt of bad
tobacco, out on to a plot of dry grass sur
rounded by hedge and a few overgrown
shrubs On bench by one of these,
Mrs. Joliffe was sitting. Sir Paul noticed
how terribly thin she looked in her once
tight-htting lilac cotton dress. But to him
the man who had yearned in a way
which almost made him smile at himself
to look upon her face again-she was love-
her than ever. The evening sun lit up
her masses of gold hair, her swan-like
white throat and the tiny little ear un-
adorned, like her hands and wrists, with
any jewel. Her eyes shone, too, as She
recognized her kind old friend. She was
so pleased to see him, that she forgot to
plush for the untidiness and gloom of her
fathers home.
The general seated himself on the bench
beside her. AS be looked at her pale
cheeks-transparently white now that che
nrst hush of surprise had faded from
them-at her little unsmiling mouth, ana
ner palmetto eyes, he felt that he envied
raymond Joliffe as he had never done
before. That commonplace, insignificant,
characterlesS boy had been able by the
mere fact of his absence, to work these
changes in her-in her for whom the sue,
cesstul and distinguished man sitting be.
side her would have cheerfully suffered
martyrdom. Sir Paul was not aware for
the nrst time to-day of the desperate ma
lure OF his love for this woman; for he
mad given one melancholy proof of it al
ready. But he seemed for the moment
uead 10 all feeling but that of his unreal
sohing passion for her. All fears, all tor
lures OF remorse, We're slain by one glance
Oh those dear eyes. He could have laughed
out loud at the dread of meeting her
~hlcn he had felt half an hour ago. Som
yer thoughts were swallowed up in the
JOY OF her present nearness. Later he
may have felt with the poet:
"A An, love. there is no better life than this;
10 nave known love, how bitter thing
sight"
But outwardly, Sir Paul Redgrave was
calm and courteous-considerat in man
i ler even to Trix's sisters when they tact
lessly came out, and sat down on the
sass at his feet; and he was especially
sentle and kind to the poor overworked
moIner who Joined them later with
Chlld clinging to either hand. He was af-
fable even to the Colonel, that half-pay
warrior whom his best friends acknowl-
When Beatrix stood by the general, wish
ing MIN goodbye she laid little hand on
him
nave never half thanked you, she
SaIo. Tor all your kindness to me and
Earring Ray. l know if you had been at
hloauquarters in London, you would never
nave let him go away from me-to such
uahser-to such an awful climate. You
"Vuld nave insisted on his staying at home
uIi some better opportunity came for you
valued him. / don't think that there is
glory to be got out of his expedition-only
ilr,lghtful risk But l won't keep you now,
pr raul. Only thank you again.
me general had become very pale.
Certainly dear Mrs Joliffe," he said,
IN an odd harsh voice 4 would never
nave advocated sending your husband to
west Africa. He was Of too much use at
nome, for one thing, in his regiment. But
you must keep up a good heart. Don't
let yourself dwell on all sorts of dreadful
possibilities. DO assure me you won't"
lie gave the faintest pressure to her hand,
smiled or rather tried to smile, and his
race still very white, rode slowly away.
All the time as he went voices seemed
70 be keeping time to the trotting Of his
morse. With wearisome iteration the
same words-merely part OF n dull CONVEX
Sa ton .bettVpNn txvo mon IN a official rOop1