Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1899-02-18
THE MAD GODS.
What would the mad gods do
For hate with me. ] wondcri
Or what for love with youi

having lost those who stopped to proffer
assistance the best run of the season.
People shook their heads and remark
ed that young men from the grass coun-
ties who will try to fly the Essex fences
can only expect broken necks as mat
ter of course A fence that begins with
a small ditch and soft take off, con-
times with big built up bank crown
ed by stout staked hazel hedge and is
concluded by a nine foot drop into a
chasm like ready made grave on the
far side is not the place to fly. rs any
fool should have known and all Essex
people do know.
So Percy Charrington went home on
hurdle-all of him that the startled
soul left behind when it set forth on its
separate journey from the bottom of
that pitiless ditch. and Mrs. Charring-
ton. five days later. sat in her widow s
weeds in the lonely library and gazed
across the sodden. gray garden with
eyes that looked and saw not.
She had been prisoner and now the
shackles had fallen. and behold. she was
free
Two hours before the heavy ESSEX
clay fell dead and solemnly upon her
husbands coffin: two hours ago she
turned her face from the past and faced
the future-the future that five days
back had never existed for her. Where
fore she sat in her library and was
calmly. steadfastly glad
In having been wretched for three
years she was spared the great misery
she should rightly have felt at her lone
illness. At moments such as these il is
permitted one to be thankful that all
women do not love their husbands.
Mary Charrington was a small wom-
an. with slight figure. pale face a
little too long for its width. big gray
eyes and mass of old fashioned nut
brown hair. She was four and twenty.
and she had never been sincerely happy
in the whole Of her life.
Who are we to cast stone at her
when we realize that she came nearer
to happiness on the day Of her hus-
bands funeral than ever before.
1t is sinful to wish man dead. sim
ful to be glad when he dies. but when
that mans person has constituted "A
barrier between oneself and all pleasure
in life. IL il be sinful TO rejoice nj that
barriers removing then sin such re-
joicing must be. and there's an end of
it,
She had married him three years be-
fore for diversity Of reasons. not for
the only one. She put nil thought Of
that aside. She said Yes To Mr..
Charrington because he was young and
good looking and loved her and pro-
posed to her and because she vas lonely
and poor and tired of all her surround
ings and wanted strong arm between
her and the world Women marry for
that last reason much oftener than they
have any idea of
OF course directly she was married
she met the man she was 10 love. and
forthwith loved him. and suffered as
only these little. pale faced. gray eyed
women can. because they have no
strength 10 rise superior to their love,
nor pride Of passion ever to contemplate
cutting the Gordian marriage knot.
The man Il name was jack Collingwood,
and he was barrister who being a
brave man. ran away and went off 10
try his luck at the Calcutta bar
Fate was kind and let him succeed.
Fate wanted 10 keep him away from
Mrs. Charrington. and then one day
il forgot and let Percy come 10 IRENE
diable grief ont hunting after which.
having committed blundcr. il washed
its hands Of the whole affair and said.
What must be shall be-
Fate is fatalist.
She wrote to her lover; she told him
she was free. II was not long letter,
but the whole Of her life and her love
and her hopes Of heaven went ont tc
Calcutta between two pages Of foreign
paper.
The answer came back the answer
she expected aud longed and prayed
for. and Mary Charrington made her
preparations, set hen affairs in order
and bought her trousscau. walking in 4
golden world decked with purple ans
rose and silver--a world all fair to see
that had never before been aught but
gray 20 her
She sang about the big. empty house
she laughed whcnever she caught hel
own eye in one of the many great mir
rors Once she took oil the little whit,
Grape cap and threw il into the air I
was very bad taste on her part. but sh,
was so happy that she had got bcyont
refinement
SO at the end Of six months she book
ed her passage in the Kandahar 10 Y
out a. him.
She said goodhy 10 all her friends
She smiled vaguely and irritatingly n
their slightly stiff congratulations. an'
their half vcilcd hints ny to the some
what indecent haste displayed. whel
Percy body was hardly cold in tn
tomb. (According to circumstance
some hoiics retain AN unnatural warmth
for an extraordinary space Of time).
Mnry id not c..ro. and that is tn
worst II n woman She loves one maj
and kicks the rest of the world out O
the doot. The man forgcts the worl
remembers. That is the worst Of maj
aud nf the world
She had spent four and-twcnty year
in sitting by the weary wayside watch
Ing for happiness TO come along th
road. And now happiness had hove Il
sight, in distant cloud Of glory, an
she straightway arose % meet it, with
out any mock modest delay. What di
IL NATTER She was going away froI
them all for good
A week before she sailed she receive
letter from Jack Collingwood Ii wa
longer than the last II beat about th
bush n good deal, but il left no douh
as 10 its ultimate intention
When fate makes mistake. il is ~
10 be spitcful II lies low and watchc
its Opportunity the opportunity fo
bringing its victim 10 grief and the
II IL itself ngnin
Fate made MARY lover unfaiihful {
her. and the letter was % break il I
her as gently as possible that h. ha
married another woman in haste.
seemed lest she should come ont AN
stop him and that there was no ncccs
sity for her 10 10 out to Calcutta