Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1899-11-02

tie is very impressionable, you know, poor
boy, much more so than his elder broth
err
Yes, / am not impressionable, thank
goodness. I hate one Of your spoony
chaps" Lord Ennisford assents. Il can
understand a fellow falling in love with
one woman, but I can't stand that fash
ion of losing ones head or ones heart
to a dozen
He looks up as he WINS up his SEN
tence and catches a peculiar meaning in
Bella's eyes, and, coloring, he says, con-
fusedly, and inconsistency with his for
mer remarks: "A man can't be expected
to stick to one woman all the days of his
life, either; it is enough to tire anyone,
you see Bella. Ours was short life and
a merry one together" and he laughs.
AS the laugh falls on her ear 1t stings
her like a scorpion. So he can look back
on those days, over which she sits and
dreams by the hour, as just a mere
ephemeral "spoon," pleasant, but neither
"a matter of regret nor remorse.
Everyone says you worship beauty,
Ennisford," cries Bella Surely he is not
really in love with ~, plain, dowdy wife,
with her brown skin, and her brown hair,
and brown eyes to match. The fact is
incredible, and she rouses into anger at
the very thought.
''Do they" he says, quietly, blowing
blue circles of smoke up towards the cell
ing. "Well, perhaps l did as boy-that
is, sometimes!" and he gives her an ex-
pressive look, which she understands;
but now | like good spirituelle
women-women with soft, yielding ma
tI1ra
voices, instead Of flashing or langHorous
eyes, Grecian profiles, rosebud mouths!
And l certainly like woman who is not
a disturbing element in ones life, as
Lady Aylmer is sure to be. I am grow
ing old, you see, Bella, and gray hairs
grow best with peace and comfort"
II fancy age does rather dull ones
appreciation Of beauty and ripen our per-
ceptiye faculties Of virtue" Bella OBJ
serves, with an incredulous smile. Il
wish the harmonies had been attended to
in my case"
"Why?" Lord Ennisford asks, little
dreamily.
"Why?-oh, because then, before you
grew old, you might have really loved
mev' she answers, scarcely above whis-
per- while her hand steals into his.
Is it the glamour Of bygone hours or his
own impressionable nature, in spite Of his
assertion to the contrary, or is it that
Bella exercises certain Mephistophelean
influence, but somehow Lord Ennisford
presses the hand that has stolen into his
palm, and, bending forward, his lips
abide in very dangerous proximity to
hers.
Will he kiss her?-the woman who is a
serpent on his hearth, who is the mortal
enemy Of his domestic happiness, and in
whose black heart lives a fearful, grudg-
ing rancor to the poor, pale little wife up
stairs?
Bellas pulses throb like so many sledge
hammers; it is long, very long, 1t seems
whole existence, in fact, Of pain and star
walton since the last time his kiss was
laid on her mouth. The flush wakes
deeper on her cheek and her greedy gray
eyes CLEAN and scintillate and seem to
scorch the fair, handsome face of her old
lover.
''Love my lover she murmurs, and she
stretches her arms toward him.
Lord Ennisford starts as if he had been
shot, as the passionate words fell on his
ear. He has not quite gone to the bad
yet.
In those burning eyes, in those yearn-
ing arms, he reads his danger at once.
He recoils with a certain revulsion from
them, and contrasts them unfavorably
with the quiet, pale tints, and large, linn
pid brown eyes Of his wife.
Springing to his feet, he nearly cap
sizes the foptstool ON which Bella has
placed herself
Goodnight, Bella" he says, abrupt
ly, and before she has time to reply, he
runs up the stairs as if fend were in
pursuit.
It appears to him as if he has just
aroused from horrid nightmare, in
which Satan has had a hard tussle to
keep him hand and foot.
In a bewildered, dazed sort Of fashion
he wonders whether Bella is woman Or
the devil incarnate, when he meets Lady
Ennisford's eyes.
She is sitting up in bed, her hair I'M
loosed, falling over her shoulders in
heavy dark masses, enframing her face
and making it look smaller and thinner
than usual; tears trickle slowly down her
cheeks, and her mouth quivers like
child's.
why, what is the matterY' he asks,
GROSSLY.
Il have waited so long-so long-for
you, George! she murmurs, disjointedly.
THAT is just what | have been doing
for you for the last three MONTHS he
answers, impatiently.
Never when | could help it, darlngv'
flush! That does not alter the fact!'
"Oh, darling! how can you speak to me
like that?" she cries amidst little choking
sobs, in which unhappiness and a ten
dency to hysteria are painfully blended
II he would just take her in those
stalwart arms of his and say one gentle
word all would be changed; but in his
present state, when the equilibrium of his
mind seems to be totally upset, such
appears impossible.
He has not dreamt of making his wife
unhappy or neglecting her in any way;
indeed, in that last little hot episode with