The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1900-02-22


"Hnhn." cried Madame, tersely. II a
| tired! You are getting old and jealous. Nj
D1en, II you want divorce seek 1t as soo1
| as you piease!" And. having fred this part
Ing shot, she banged the boiadO&r door ate
her departing husband, who few second
later slammed the hall one in reply.
| Felicfte Deforges listened until the aiigry
| reverberatfons had died away, ana then
catching sight Of her pretty face in miro
! opposite. shook her spirited little heat
wickedly at the reflection, and, ringing To-
her maid. at once proceeded to don an q
quisite CONNECTION she was to wear at TIL
Skfppfngton's garden party that same after
noon, the toilette being the remote, the party
the approximate cause of the quarrel which
had just terminated. for NJ. Deforges did MOI
approve OF the Skippington connection. the
eldest son Of that distinguished house hav.
Ing more than once expressed emphatic ad.
miratiOn for Madame.
Monsieur DefOrges walked straight or
through the crowded streets with bent hea(
and muttering lips, his hands thrust deer
into his pockets, two perpendicular lines
showing under the brim of the soft hat pulled
over his brows. At a street corner he en-
cOuntefed tram lear; the color told him
that 1t went towards Hampstead. He got up
not because he had any particular visit t.
pay In that direction, but because Hampstead
meant the country, and M. Deforges was in
The change OF lOco1notiOn did not raise his
spirits, for that dusky jade, who loves men
better than any OF her sex, cOmpaniOned him
still. the corkscrew stairs Of even London
tram affrighting her no more than the bfazen
trireme Of Horatian days. Mechanically he
lit cigarette and let 1t 60 out; the wind
blew the ashes over the doIman Of British
matron seated beside him, and he never
apologized.
+ On swept the tram through the reeking
traffic Of the working-day streets and the
frightening line of dwellings on either hand,
whose formal ugliness made him shudder,
and suddenly 1t seemed, he found himself at
the foot of the famous hill. The place did
not appear SO amusing as when he and his
wife saw it frst one April Sunday two years
ago, and had climbed to the heath, pointing
out to each other the tender green of the
young elm leaves beside conventicle pour
ing forth it's wooden faced congregation, and
caught in the air faint suggestions Of lilac
from invisible gardens, and saw daffOdils
abloom in nursery beds. How happy they
had been, she with her rounded arm within
his and her weight pressing upon it intermit-
tently In mock fatigue, her shoulder nesting
against his in the very eyes of that starched
Sunday world. For was she not hts wife,
mon Dieu, and were they not only three
weeks married!
And now, that morning, she had told him
he was old!
,40 Ouc O1u DIT thirty ne dOhcU Hill.
self breathlessly. Perhaps not. but one has
been younger, one must admit; and then
when ones eyes are sadly strained by closed
application to the fine etching work that
pays so well and costs so much, they are not
quite lustrous. Furthermore, on that spring
day two years back he had thought quite
naturally of climbing the HILL now he
thought as naturally of permitting himself
to be carried up. To Danish this reflection
he got down at the next hating place, and
sought the heath on foot.
1t appeared meaner, more skimped and
shrunken than when he had seen it last and
the roof states were hemming in every
thing. 1t was pitiful, and he struck off for
walk in the country" meeting houses
at every turn. Once or twice he paused to
look over black painted fence boards en-
closing trim lawns where English maids
were playing, their flute like accents rising
and falling in silvery cadence with gusts
OF laughter in between-music shaken from
fairy bells, and then went on again, pleased
in his foolish French way because others
were happy. But through it all one cruel
sentence kept ringing in his ear, "You are
getting DID," and though his heart said
NO" his brain said Yes"
At the corner of one of the long, narrow
paths which radiated interminably on every
side, he suddenly encountered girl adj
vancing rapidly from the opposite direction
So swiftly did she come that he almost
jcstled her; lifting his hat he stood aside
and when he had taken few steps, looked
back. She had done the same. Their eyes
met; he smiled. She gazed at him slowly,
without any suggestion of coquetry or in
dignatiOn; and then, with pendulous
swing of her skirts, which he misconstrued,
passed on. All at once he remembered an
ugly passage from La Bruyeres "Carac
terss:" "Un homme qui serait en- peine
de connaitre sill change, sill commence
vieillir, peut consulter les veoux dune jeune
femme quill aborde, ct lie don't ellie lui
parle; il apprendra ce quill GRANT de
savoir Rude ecole!"
Well he had done so, and had received
just as she turned she had caught the CLINT
OF spectacles over a garden railing where
an elderly neighbor of gossiping habit was
observing the incident.
This episode did not improve his equan-
unity, and, oddly enough, the girls fresh
face reminded him too Of the handful of
primroses Felicite had gathered on that
pleasant Sunday morning.
When he had gone a little farther he
looked at his watch, and,
lighting another cigaret began to retrace
his steps, walking slowly, and mentally es-
timating the values of gable end here,
a window there, a beech stem beyond.
Then the gaunt scaffolding of a half finished
house, whose unfortunate owner was learn
ing the ways of building societies, caught
his eye, and it looked so like a ruin that it
made him think of the Colosseum, which
he had never seen, and muse upon the
of Fortune, as well as the flight
Of Time. The reflections were hardly pro-
found, and not at all original, but they
led him to think of death, and he did not
ind the thought repellent.
At that exact moment the fingers of his
etf hand still in his pocket, encountered
small pencil like object. He drew it forth
ncuriOusly. All, yes, it was a stray cart
ridge-one of the fifty he had purchased "a
week before for the revolver Felicite had
arred own to the sensational account of |
burglary in their neighbor-
hood. He saw the revolver itself quite dis
inctly now in the upper drawer of writing |
able placed absurly by his wife across the |
window of a room opening on their cham |
Der, whence, she stated, she could watch |
him as he worked. He would 60 home and
get It, and-well, she need not qualify for |
IN English divorce court.
It is characteristic that he did not con- |
emplate murder as well as suicide He |
lad not a violent sense of Justice; and, be- |
ides, he shrunk from killing a woman. One |
neanness at a time was enough for him,
hough l do not think he considered the |
lct he so suddenly meditated mean or
riminal. He had not faith in anything save
himself, and he had grown tired Of himself |
n an hour.
He was the product of an age when every
obbler Is comparative philologist, and |
[rives a fresh nail in the coffin Of Chris
ianity with every additional tack he ham
ners home. Being a Frenchman he had |
ccepted the teaching of his century with |
nut any hyDOcritical twaddle about dutv for