The Coeur d'Alene press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1892-1907, 1905-05-20
THE ELopEMENT

I 70 portliness. On bis return from his
( Office in the evening he found a letter
waiting for him on the table in the
hall II was addressed to him in his
( wife's handwriting He took II into
the library with him, selected a COM
Portable chair In a good light and ad-
justed his reading spectacles. Here
fOIlOwefh TIE letter:
My dear George have eloped- III
! say 1t in this plain and direct wa1,
without periphrasIs and without break
ing it 70 you gently. it is because you
must for some time past have been en-
pecting something Of the kind. / cred
I IL your intelligence with that
We have been married ten years,
and, as you pointed ont the other day,
we have never exchanged one angry
Z word with each other. Somehow that
seems to me to speak for itself The
/ dead level OF deceney has never been
I disturbed You, as a correct and or
\ thOdOx solicitor, regard this with In
/ tense satisfaction / confess that do
not To me the dead Level has become
well, pretty deadly. II sounds per
I haps an exaggeratlOn, but I almost
wish that you had on some occasion
4 completely lost your temper with me
and used me violently. Perhaps Ii
would have been better still II You had
permitted me TO lose my temper with
( you. You never did Your discretion
and tact are beyond - praise. AT the
same time they have proved fatal to
the woman who Is your wife. l have
I been through ten years Of IT, The time
is up!
There is really a good deal Of broken
I contract about IL on both sides. Ten
/ years ago was pretty and you were
romantic. IL was understood between
us-tacitly, admjt-that this kind of
V thing would continue. II was not con
4 tinued AT the present moment / am
I quite well preserved and you are q
solicitor. and we never exchange an
angry word Nor do we ever exchange
a word Of affection which could be
fairly called hysterical on idiotic.
The fact is that for the better part
OF ten years have been acting q part
magni6cently. l have acted the part
Of housekeeper so splendidly that at
times have deceived myself and be
lieved that l really did take an inter
est in the tradesmen's books Perhaps
the self deceit went further than that.
/ deceived myself into believing that I
really enjoyed the portentOus and ex-
tremely dull dinners that we give every
month. deceived myself into believ-
ing that cur well regulated and rather
sonnoient affection was the placid hap
piness Of married lovers But all the
time romance has been alive in me, and
the fame on the altar Is not yet burned
out The fame will not burn forever.
one gets older and older. The cold
night IS coming. | have an hour stfIl
to enjoy.
"Ail this came TO me after You had
left for the Office this morning. You
will never know how nearly dashed
your silk hat from your hand. kicked it
across the hall and went into mysteries.
That hat had somehow become the
symbol Of my ugly. well grOomed. re-
spectacle life l went into the kitchen
and gave orders Il Was able to get the
red mullet- after ALI. and then went
upstairs and packed. / have told the
servants a plausible story. and you
may be able 20 save a scandal II You
back it. Really there is nothing to be
surprised about Given gray monotony
and a romantic woman and another.
and what else can be expected;
And now you ask who the man Is.
Your eye flashes over your visiting
list. Which Of the men that have eaten
your bread and your salt ut your por.
tentous dinners can have done this
treacherous thingI You may make
your mind quite easy. George. There
is no man in the question have
lately come TO the conclusion that men
are good deal overrated. | am elop-
ing ali by myself. and ! think 1t will
be perfectly beautiful need not wor-
~ about money Ny own goo a year
will not give me the carriage with the
two fat horses and the big house and
the portentous dinner. but have
grown to value these things very little.
Two hundred pounds will he quite
enough for me. BY the time that you
get this letter I shall he In Paris. l
shall not write another letter, but you
shall know my address from time to
time. This will facilitate the work OF
the private detectives II you are idiot
enough to waste any money on them.
And. seeing that l 80 all alone, per
haps ii should not be called an elope.
ment hut simply a holiday And II 1t
is just holiday 1t may one day be
over. and then I may return to work
again. promise nothing"
The letter was signed with her Chris.
tan name. The man who had read e
meditated for some time and then
rang the bell.
Look here" he said to the man who
answered il, there Is some red mullet
for dinner tonight. wish you'd Just
find out from cook how she means to