Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-10-16

which kept you so long in Paris! But
I don't want to go over the old ground
of wearisome reproaches again. When
you all returned to England together,
you took me on from London with
them: We did not even travel by our
selves You told me a relation OF
yours was going to live with US, and
when we got here we found Uncle
Tugh, who had been my good angel
3 - my consolation ever since. l was
ed to the quick; and l frankly
nj ~ oil the love I had felt for
n were kind to me in Lon
atj so passionately, few
marry me, died
\, ut OF L, art and left me only
q w., hurt and disguised. But I
scarf. 1ud to show it. You remem-
received your shame-faced,
u. MI 5co, attempt at an explanation
tina, st evening, when poor Uncle
Hugh, thinking he must be awfully in
the way, left us in the drawing-room
together"
''By Jove, | do. If you hadn't treat
ed me as if I had been a dog, if you
had made one appeal to me as wife
to her husband, | should have taken
you to my arms at once and told you,
what I swear to you solemnly now,
that there has never been between
Lady Kildonan and me the
Armathwaite could imagine the
dignity with which she interrupted
him:
There are some explanations to
which wife of years standing may
listen, which ought never to be needed
to a bride"
"Well, you were old enough to Know
that you must take man as you find
him"
How can you complain? I listened
to you; I made you the only promise
which even at that moment you cared
to ask-that [ would not let DR.. Peele
know the circumstances of our honey
moon. I have kept my promise, and
your place in his will is quite safe
''What rubbish are you talking?
The doctors will is nothing to me:
he's got his own wife and daughter to
provide for, and I'm quite Independent
Of him or anybody. l only don't want
to hurt the old man by letting him
know We have made failure Of it.
F'Yet you gave the expense as the
reason for selling poor old Gray
Friar!'
"Well, it looks ostentatious for you
to be riding and driving about just
like her ladyship; and besides I want
to save. And you are not strong
enough to ride since you have taken
to these nervous fits"
"You have forgotten too the dangers
dangers of the slippery roads,
"Anyhow, I've sold him, and that's
enough. No woman has a right to
poster her husband with questions
as to what he does with his own
money: if he chooses to cut down
any expense, or in fact whatever he
chooses to do, she must accept the
fact quietly as long as she is kept in
comfort without having to work, and
he does not treat her cruelty"
"That is really your view Of married
life?"
mot under all circumstances per
hapS, though most men would even
go so far as that, I can tell you. But
there is something in the way you
look at me, the way you have looked
at me ever since we have been in this
house, so repellent, so utterly different
from what any man has a right to eX-
pect, that I can tell you I would pass
the night in the snow on the top of
Skiddaw rather than so much as look
at you.
81 think the fault of that must lie
in your own conscience and not in nv
eyes, Ned For if you would look at
them, you would see as much sorrow
for you as for myself. You are not
happy. For weeks past you have
looked harassed and worried It is not
only my eyes you avoid, but Uncle
Hugh's, DR.. Peele's, everybody's. Do
you think I would have submitted all
this time with scarcely a word to the
position I occupy, not
neglected and yet obedient to YOU. if
[ did not feel for you and pity you.
and shrink from giving you the least
annoyance? But we can't go on like
this: I think my very presence exas-
perates you now. Let me go away
for my health; since I have grown so
nervous and depressed it will be easy
to say that. When you want me, not
as a shadow to haunt the house but as
a woman to comfort or nurse YOU. if
not as a wife TO love you. I will come
back-instantly. But I cannot bear
the strain of life any longer I must
go.''
mo, no, you shall not, you must
not" These words came so rapidly
that Armathwaite could scarcely dis
tinguish them. wait, wait a little
while, and it will all come right. l
will be kinder to you, you shall see
DR.. Peele, you shall do anything you
like; but you must not, shall not go
away"
There was a pause. Then came the
answer to this outburst in very
weak voice.
Ned! Ned. What do you mean?
You don't care for me-you almost
hate me. Why do you want me to
stay?''
why do you want to make scan
dial? For you know it would be a
scandal, whatever reason We might
give. What would people-what would
Lord KiIdonan say?"
ooh Ned For HaaEan'S Sakn don't