Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-05-28
QUoman S Face
FLORENCE WARDEN


WnOIe might TO resist temptation and
to save yourself?"
She looked impressed, frightened.
Her large blue eyes were glittering,
and her fingers moved restlessIy.
Il don't know. If l do what you
want what will you do?"
Il will do my best to persuade your
husband to take you away at once"
you will? Obi"
She clasped his hands impulsively,
as if she had been drowning, and a
lifebuoy had been thrown to her.
Her horrible, half-hysterical earnest
ness made Armathwaite SILVER. She
stood clutching his hands for several
moments, and the doctor had to draw
them away, and recall her to herself
as voices sounded outside the door
heralding the approaches Of some mor
of her guests. She had scarcely re-
covered herself, when the door was
thrown open, and there entered three
members of n Of the best fami-
lies of the neighborhood, plump
father, plumper mother, and round
backed daughter dressed in white
piQue, with a taste for abstruse
branches of learning. They were by
no means the sort of people who are
easily entertained" and Lady Kill
DOMAIN was not in the mood to work
very hard to entertain them. Frank
did his best to make conversation with
the ro~und-backed daughter, who hap
pened to be seated the nearest to him,
and he was rewarded for his pains
by chances of open and simple-minded
anxiety from mamma, fearful Of the
ineligible charms of the handsome doc
tor. On the whole, social intercourse
languished, and when the door opened
again, this time to admit Lord Kill
DOMAIN, everybody felt relieved except
his wife, who gave a careless glance
at him, and remained as Indifferent as
ever, restlessly tapping her foot on the
floor, and playing fiercely with the
azaleas On her dress, the heads Of
which she snapped off one by one,
crushed between her fingers, and
threw away.
Frank watched his host narrowly,
and it seemed to him scarcely credible
that Lady Kildonan, excited and pre-
occupied as she was, could fail to
notice the great change in her hus-
band, which, instead Of wearing off,
seemed to have intensified since the
morning. The rest of his guests
noticed it, and their surprise at meet
ing a cold, stern old man, instead of the
kindly, genial friend to whom they
were accustomed. caused a hush to
fall upon the party, now grown larger
by fresh arrivals. The last to enter
was Ned CrosmOnt, his face looking
his eyes were sunken and his sallow
skin looked Sticky aid pallid. Whether
it was on account of his unhealthy
looks or whether the stories about him
had been whispered more widely of late.
his appearance was certainly the cause
of an increased depression and silence
in the assembly, of which Lord Kill
DOMAIN seemed, with unusual keenness,
to be the first to be conscious. CrOs-
mont was at once absorbed in watch
ing Lady KildOnan, and he seemed to
have hardly enough self-control left to
vel the fact.
AS for the lady herself, she scarcely
seemed to notice him, to notice any
thing. The significant circumstance,
which spoke volumes to the watchful
Armathwaite, that her husband, usual
ly unable to keep his loving eyes from
straying TO her face, now studiOusly
refrained from a single look in her di-
r%ectiOn. "a quite unmarked by her.
Never having cared which way his
g~lances went, she was not likely to
know now She and Crosmont, each
absorbed in their own cares were the
only persons in the room who saw no
alteration in the master of the house.
The agent, to do him Justice, would
probably have been more clearsighted,
but that Lord KildOnan carefully kept
out Of his way.
A rather imperious old gentleman
among the guests, Who, dimly perceiv-
ing that something was wrong. made
a bad guess at the cause. presently
took Lord Kildonan's arm, and. look
ing at Aphra, with much assumption
of acumen, said:
"Now I daresay many people would
think Just because your wife looks
flushed and as handsome as ever. that
she is in the best of health. But I
knew better in a moment. And if I
hadn't known it by looking at her. why
l should have learnt it by looking at
you. One a see you are as anxious
as possible; bless you, 7 could tell by
your face in a minute that something
was wrong, and then I discovered in a
twinkling that it was because you
were worried about her. Now wasn't
,it?"
This astute gentleman was standing
between the husband and wife. and he
took care to turn from the one to the
other, that his extraordinary perspic-
acity should not be lost upon either of
them. Lady Kildonan, who was talk
ing idly, and without much effort to be
coherent or entertaining, turned to
listen to him. Something in the tone
of her husbands voice as he answered.
did, at last, strike her as unusual, and
she glanced at him, and stopped to
hear what he had to say.
Eyes" he said, in a grating voice,
turning his face in his wife's direction,
lint looking over her head at a naint-