Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-11-07
CHAPTER VIII

done Win, IsaDel Ielt kind of re-
morseful regret for the mute passion of
discomfort and disappointment that had
gone along with it. In the sunlight her
new home looked little better, her new
life seemed little brighter. Yes, she
would do her duty; she would be a good
wife to dear George, who was so kind
20 her, and loved her with such a gener-
Gus devotion.
She went to church with him at Gray
bridge for the first time on the morn
ing after that dreary wet Saturday
evening; and all through the sermon she
thought of her new home, and what she
should do to make it bright and pretty
After church there was an early din
ner of some baked meat, prepared by
Mrs. Jefferson. Isabel did not take much
notice of what she ate. She was at that
early period of life when a young person
OF sentimental temperament scarcely
knows roast beef from boiled veal; but
she observed that there were steel forks
on the surgeons table-steel forks with
knobby horn handles suggestive of the
widest species of deer-and a metal
mustard-pot lined with blue glass, and
willow patterns plates, and that every
thing was altogether commonplace and
vulgar.
After dinner Mrs Gilbert amused her
self by going over the house with her
husband. 1t was a very tolerable house,
after all but it wasn't pretty; it had
been inhabited by people who were fully
satisfied so long as they had chairs to sit
upon, and beds to sleep upon, and ia
bles and cups and plates for the mere
common purposes of breakfast, dinner
and supper, and who would have re-
garded the purchase of a chair that was
not designed to be sat upon or a cup
that was never designed to be drunk out
of, as something useless and absurd, or
even in an indirect manner sinful, be-
cause involving the waste of money that
might be devoted to a better use
George" said Isabel, gently. when
she had seen all the rooms, did you
never think of refurnishing the house?'
"Refurnishing it, How do you
mean, Izzie?'
Buying new furniture, 1 mean, dear.
This is all so old-fashoned."
George, the conservative, shook his
head.
Il like it all the better for that lizzie"
he said; sit was my fathers, you know,
and his fathers before him. 1 wouldn't
change a stick of it for the world. Be
sides, it's such substantial furniture;
they don't make such chairs and tables
nowadays"
mo" lizzie murmured with a sigh;
I'm very glad they don't"
Then she clasped her hands suddenly
upon his arm, and looked up at him
with her eyes opened 10 their widest ex-
tent and shining with a rapture.
'Oh, George" she cried, there was
an ottoman in one of the shops at Co
ventford, with seats for three people,
and little stands for people to put their
cups and saucers upon, and a place in
the middle for flowers; and, oh, George,
II you'd make the best parlor into a
drawing room, and have that ottoman in
the center, and chintz curtains lined with
rose color, and a white watered paper
on the walls, and Venetian shutters out
side"
George put his hand upon the pretty
mouth from which the eager words
came so rapidly.
why, Izzie,' he said, you'd ruin me
before the year was out. No, no, dear;
the best parOr was good enough for my
father and mother, and it ought to be
good enough for you and me. By and
by when my practice extends, lizzie, as
I've every reason to hope it will, We'll
talk about a new carpet-a nice service
able ground with q drab spot, or some
thing of that kind; but until then"
Isabel turned away from him with a
gesture of disgust.
What do l care about new carpets?"
she said; Il wanted it all to look pref
ty."
Nobody ever quite understood Isabel;
and least of all could George Gilbert I'M
derstand the woman whom he had cho-
sen for his wife. He loved her and
admired Eer, and he was honestly anX-
ious that she should be happy; but then
he wanted her to be happy according
to his ideas of happiness and not her
own. He wanted her to be delighted
with stiff tea parties at which the Miss
rs Pawlkatt and the Misses Burdock,
and the young Mrs. Henry Palmer, wife
of Mr.. Henry Palmer, junior solicitor,
discoursed pleasantly of the newest pat
terms in crochet, and the last popular
memoir of some departed Evangelical
curate. Isabel did not take any interest
in these things, and could not make her
self happy with these people. Unlucki-
ly, she allowed this to be seen; and, after
a few tea parties, the Graybridge arts
tocracy dropped away from her, only
calling now and then out of respect to
George, who was heartily compassion
ated on account Of his most mistaken
selection OF wife.
So Isabel was left to herself, and
little by little fell back into very much
the same kind of life as that which she
had led at Camberweu
Isabel did as she liked: and this meant
reading novels all day long, or as long
as she had a novel to read, and writing
unfinished verses of a lachrymose nature
on half sheets of paper.
When the spring came she went out
alone. for her husband was away among
his patients and had no time to accom-
y ~ her. Sometimes she went as far
as Thurston's Crag. a dear old place. an
island of medieval splendor amid
sea of green pasture land, where, under
the very shadow of a noble mansion
there were a waterfall and a mill and
miller's cottage that was difficult to be-
lieve in out of a picture There was
wooden bridge across that noisiest of
waterfalls, and a monster oak, whose
spreading branches Swallowed all the
width of water.
The Graybridge people were not slow
to remark upon Mrs. Gilbert's habits
and limited that a young person who
spent so much time in the perusal of
works of fiction could scarcely be
model wife. Before George had been
married three months the ladies who had
been familiar with him in his bachelor
hood had begun to pity him, and map
ped out for him such career of domes-
tic wretchedness as rarely falls to the
lot of afflicted man.
But while the Graybridge ladies criti-
cised his wife and prOphesied for him all
manner of dismal sufferings, George Gil
bert, strange to say, was very happy.
He had married the woman he loved.
and no thought that he had loved I'M
wisely or married hastily ever entered
his mind. When he came home from
long days work, he found a beautiful
creature waiting to receive him-a love
l. opd IOvohle crpotura who Duk bor