Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-01-22
CHAPTER VII.
HOW LOLA HEARD THE NEWS.

VII.
HOW LOLA HEARD THE NEWS.
The news that Pierre Turrian was
alive did not reach Lola at New York,
owing to a mischance. Sir Jaffray and
she arrived there some days later than
they had planned and not until the
evening of the day before that on which
they were booked to sail.
The letters were thus thrust away to
be read on board the steamer, and in
the confusion the postscript was over
looked.
Had she known the news Lola would
have turned back at any risk and have
arranged to prolong an experience which
had been the brightest of her life.
She had never dreamed that marriage
with Sir Jaffray would bring the hap
piness to her which she had found in it.
She had married him from motives
which were purely worldly and selfish.
She had to make position. She loved
ease and luxury. She was done with love
and sentiment, and she chose husband
as a man might choose profession,
because it gave her all that she wanted
with the least personal effort and diff
Guilty.
"We women sell ourselves, and she
is the shrewdest who fetches the biggest
price," had been one of her favorite
opinions, and she was glad that she had
been able to marry where the man
would pay so freely and where he per-
sonally was not undesirable.
But she had made one miscalculation
in her plans.
She was a woman whose heart was
not dead, as she believed, but rather
had never been quickened into life.
She had imagined that she could go
through life as sort of Unconditional
lay figure by the side Of a husband
whom she did not love, suffering his
taresses and endearments, but not re-
turning them or at most paying with
simulated affection for the comforts
with which be would surround her.
But in her there were no neutral tints
She must love or hate.
Sir Jaffray' s nature fred her, and the
more she endeavored to assure herself
of her own coldness of heart the more
was she moved by him. The very in
difference which she affected helped to
overcome her. She could not be indif-
ferent, and she could not hate him, and
there was therefore but one possible re-
suit
She had chosen, moreover, that kind
of holiday which helped to make indif-
ference impossible. She saw her hus-
band at his best during the whole time,
and there was no incident of their trav-
ell to distract her from him, nothing
that caught and held her attention
which was not associated closely with
him.
More than all, however, he was a
man born to be loved by women-strong
to command where strength was need
ed, gentle as child where gentleness
served, as brave as man can be and
courteous to the point of long suffering.
In all bodily exercises he was excep-
tionally agile and enduring, and he POS
sessed in marked and extraordinary
degree just those qualities which to
Lola were the type and embodiment Of
manhood.
She was bound to yield in time to
the forceful influence which he exer-
cised, and the more she perceived this
and struggled against it the more ire
sistible did she find it.
As her feelings softened so her fears
waxed. She was afraid to grow to love
him, because she saw all the dangers of
it to her.
One thing she had learned clearly
about her husband. With all the stub
born tenacity of his race he held the
honor of his name and family as high
as religious creed and perhaps higher.
Straight dealing was an instinct and
deceit and treachery an abomination
She had seen so instances of this in the
months of the honeymoon, and she was
shrewd enough to understand that the
deceit which she had practiced he would
punish remorselessly and visit with i'm
placable unforgiveness if he ever dis
covered it.
His faith once given was given alb
solutely; once betrayed, was withdrawn
forever.
She did not care while she knew that
the tie between them was on her side
one of tongue and not of heart. She
knew, of course, that in the future,
whether Pierre reappeared or not, she
would need clear head and calm judg-
ment to walk safely, but if she grew to
love her husband she would be neither
clear in head nor calm in Judgment
So long as she could part from him,