Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-11-13


though he stoutly affirmed that /
did, and l answered a trihe sharply.
He said something elge-Harry has
the gift Ct sarcasm. replied hotly;
and so it went on until he left the
house the picture of injured innocence.
and wiped my hands, out of the dish
water, on my clean apron and sat
down for a good cry-at least for a
large cry. After half IN hour or more
OF this Indulgence. ny heart Was no
less sore and my head ached wretch
edly. The worse felt the more firmly
] became convinced that Harry was a
cruel husband; that his love for me-
If indeed he had ever had any, which
l declared to myself / doubted-was
dead; that my marriage was failure
and my life wreck.
I say we had not actually quarrele6.
but Of late these unpleasant scenes
were becoming alarmingly frequent,
and it was not always that recovered
my good humor sufficiently 70 be any
more than frigidly polite when he
all signs Of i'll temper banished by con-
tact with a jolly word-came home
TO dinner. l remembered, too, with a
pang, that several times he had lapsed
into my mood almost Immediately and
gone off with out a word. l was
vaguely alarmed, but none the less
positive that my husband was more
than two-thirds at fault, and that my
naturally sweet temper was ruined by
being incompatibly mated These
were the very words that used to my
self. | cried again over the dishes,
thinking of hew happy had been in
the old times when Harry wooed and
won me; and then | grew homesick
for mother and the girls. and ended by
declaring aloud-there was no one to
hear but Dick, the bird and General,
the cat-that wished had had sense
enough to remain single like Nell and
Lue, 'The girls aforesaid, o, me!
well 1t was sad, improbable morn
ing Just before noon a little spasm
of something-it was not repentance
for the sinned against can not repent
came over me, and l said aloud again:
Il will do my duty, let come what will,
It is woman's lot to suffer alone and
die by inches
So / went to work to get up parti-
cularly appetizing dinner, feeling quite
virtuous as again recalled the scene
of the morning in all its details Then
a new thought struck me as my poor
head throboed anew 1t was only fair
that Harry should know what a
martyr l was making of myself; so
just before expected him | arranged
my hair as becominsly as possible and
then adjusted white head band
wrung from cold water 1t really
cooled my head and did me world of
good, but not quite in the way | had
planned In imagination I beheld my
Husbands face grow tender when he
saw that | was i'll, and the look OF
genuine remorse when he noticed how
I had had care for him through It
all
But he did not come. The tempting
dinner cooled untasted. One o'clock
two, and then a bare-footed urch.a
brought rae note from Harry saying
he had had to lunch at a restaurant in
.orded to keep an engagement with a
man.
Down l flung myself, the feeling of
uneasiness that had possessed me
giving place to variety of sensations,
chiefly however hunger and anger
And this was the end of my martyr
dom for this time OF course he would
never know that had tried to please
him; and then it all came to me so
plainly, the difference in our lives,
I had spent the fornoon in thinking of
him and him alone. My whole world
revolved around him; he made my
sunshine or shadow: he held my very
existence as mere toy in his hand
and held it o, how lightly.
With him, when he departed in the
morning, he left not thinking of me
at all. He entered another world
where there were pleasures, business,
companionship. a thousand things to
entertain and occupy. While I was
planning the things he liked to eat he
was engrossed in other matters, and
when dinner time came he simply ig-
nored me and my efforts and to accom-
modate some man, "--dined at a res
taurant He knew would be uneasey
and probably go without my meal-if
he remembered me at all. If any of
you have had an experience similar to
mine you know that the more l indul-
ged in this strain the more my head
Gched, and the more my head ached, the
rider I cried. There was no wearing
the cold compress just for show or
effect now.
And then. after about on hour of
this, the door bell rang, not the front
bell either else would have feigned
not to hear 1t but the side door bell
I must respond.
With a despairing glance mot a mir
ror I slowly opened the door, trying
meanwhile to fabricate a PLAUSIBLE
story. fearing the head ache would not
be enough
O. Mr. Raymond, what plight you've
caught me in" I fairly sobbed out, as
I admitted our new minister. I say
new for he had only been with us a
half year. vet in that time we had
learned to love. almost reverence him.
He was larga. fine looking man. with