New-York tribune., 1902-12-18

breakfast room
voice from behind the screening sheets of
scientific journal nurmured languidly. Meaning
whom. dearest?''
"Oh. don't call dearest, Those days are over
You don't care. you don't interest yourself. you
don't even listen when I'm speaking That's the
worst Of all That's what l mean by self-centred.
Your mind is a hundred miles away. Your eyes.
your thoughts. your very voice absent When
1 tell you anything you seem listen, certainly
but you don't take 1t in And you've no sympathy,
no feeling for what like. wish. want to do
That's the worst crime of all If
Good heavens. vixier' The paper went down to
the table level. and bewildered, good humored
face looked across at the flushed angry. but
tremely pretty little piece of petulance, opposite
Don't call that ridiculous You know
hate it. Whatever were ny parents about TO
have chrstened Victoria first offence. and
then nickname Vixen for short? Really, con-
slider I'm very badly used person.
You can't hold me responsible for your name, at
all events. That safely yours before had
the honor
Much honor you think it to call your wife
don't believe you know whether I'm in the house
of it,
'I certainly know when you're-out of 1T
"Oh, I suppose that's meant to be sarcastic!
Well. this time go out of it for long
time, let me tell you A month A whole month";
You say you positively won't go TO Croxford for
ChristmasT'
MY dear child, 1 cannot go TO Croxloro- MY
..The same old excuse AS If a few days would
matter?'
You spoke of a month";"
"Oh, that was my limit Gertrude wants to
stay on
Then # wouldn't be worth nv while to go just
for Christmas. Besides I think Croxford is the
most deadly dull place in the whole of England
No hunting. no shooting. And at Christmas of ali
times it would be rather worse than usual"
'@Ycu didn't think so-once-"
rs one never permitted change opinton?
She rose abruptly. and gathered up some letters
VERY well, won't ask you again But 1 m going,
and I mean to enjoy myself only wish was
free girl again, when last saw it. only
wish
She stopned abruptly Something In the quiet
ewes watching her arrested the speech she had in
tended to make.
l. -I think know what you WISH he said slowly.
his voice low, and with repressed palm 1or
this stormy, passionate lovely little creature was
at unending torment and unenoins JOY 10
Paul Fddison, little he understood her. or thal
sex of which she had once meant the chier cor
nerstone"
Mechanically he began TO fold the pages sne so
hated their rustic exasperated her already strung
nerves
IF YOU know" she began. you had better say
It. hate insnuations.'
II think" he said deliberately, that you wish
you were free your own mistress the sole director
of your life and it's foolish whims think you
are tired of me. vix-I beg your pardon-N- we
don't get together as we'll as we expected we
are one more Of the unhappy. Ill matched couples
who have made marriage a byword am sorry
I am very, very sorry: for you, Vt-for you
He rose slowly. He did most things slowly. and
she was quicksilver in temperament speech. move
raent She flashed now. stuag by a reouhe she
ruerited, irritated by patience that all proVoca-
tons and tyrannies could not break down.
You may well be sorry for me! Every one is L
mean
Something in his look warned her
Every one7 Do you mean our unhappness our
Disbursements are common talk already?
She laughed rnockingly The world mas as
many ewes as the feathers of a peacock's tall
And I'm always alone You're wrapped up IN
scientific things, and clubs. and societies Na'ul
aIIv things are said. I'm often asked II m a
widow
THAT was what you meant moment ago "neh
you said you wished -,
Her better nature asserted itself at the htue
break IN his voice .
M. so heartess as that, I-I-only-
He raised his nand. Freedom can only come In
one way Perhaps it's unfortunate that possess
good health and good constitution
Then the little spark of devilry IN her nature
sprang up again "oh. no. my i.,aa aesi -
are two ways. The others not creditanie. grant
,r+ i,,s the way that such husbands as you drive
such women as s. >, s
sba naused tantalizingly, knowing well enough
that he would supply the word sh1 "iiA''eu- -
word that was untruthful an Interpretation u
- -oaI sAtf and her real meaning any she could
have desired. . 9,,,s
II he thought it, he did not speak tt perhaps
it would have hurt him too much
cba loved few things less than silence, especially
=, ;+a co,,sa was embarrassing. For the last
time" she exclaimed pethshIE' WI" '
me to Croxford?
..T have told you 1 cannot!
..C,, s+,nid excuses When man chooses ne can
not
90 rnvse1f and If 1 go alone 1 warn you Il pay
grass widow, for all II "'i'-
natesty's permission x -
T-he color ebbed slowly away from MS Co
-, looked at the mocking eyes and Wa'Cneu 'iie
,-ss -, Of the pretty lips. rosy and mischieVous
as a child's- , - ais
..uv,c+Iv what 1 mean TO do I'm SICK Oh oeiis
tied down to domestic details MY iie ~ , -
hetter than that Of a beetle or-'r -
And I'm young. You seem 10 forget 'N ae ~ It-
~ direrence! But by the time eaten them up me
,,I ~ ornnsrstively over. A woman's day is
h+ ona-at best II she tries 10 lengthen III oS
art nature is still bogie that haunts het iie t
and sr,ns at her from her iooking-glass' ailu iAe
=, the ewes Of other women behind her back! ON.
know what have to expect ana III Ne ~
to make the most OF the present
II meyer occurred to her that she might also
have tried to make the best OF tne man VINO ~
her 40 devotedly. Whom she so oe"llcereo' anu
tr,sd and perplexed. Whom she had loved equalIy
once Had? She put 1t In the past to satisfy her
oyn seIf-accusation. Shut 1T away in a cupboard
of her VARYING moods. and locked the door and
nretended the key only mislaid-of a purpose
Truly vi Eddison was troublesome person 10
deal with Variable OF mood. sharp OF tongue.
quick of temper, yet w1tha Iovaoie as very woman
when she chose to be So
When the door closed she stood for moment
quite still: eyes expectant as II she feaTed or