The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1910-02-09

liked him. and wanted peace and quiet and some
one could trust. So married him
I'VE married at Bombay, eight months
ago. and came straight up here. You know the
kind of place it is-lonely, hideous cut off from
the world. At first l thought l should never be
able to endure it: but then, gradually, discov-
cred how good and unselish my husband is, how
manly and how true hearted and fell in love
with him, honestly and devotedly. Now might
be so happy and contented, but l scarcely ever
know a moments peace, for it is always on my
conscience that was not the woman he took me
for when he married me. Yesterday had a letter
from that other man-fancy his daring to write TO
mel" her hands clenched themselves and her
eyes flashed, land l had to hide the letter!
could not show it to my husband without explain
ing everything to him.
Il wonder you don't tell him all about it, sug-
gested Croppin.
"Ah, That is just the question l wanted to ask
you' she answered eagerly. Ought to tell him?
| don't know what is right. would give anything
to ease the weight on my conscence-to relieve
myself of the burden, but so dread making him
miserable! 1t is agony to me to know how have
deceived him. but if l tell him it may SPOIL the
happiness OF his life
ooh! | don't suppose it would exactly do that"
said Mr. Croppn in an incredulous tone. CTo him
self he added, "The woman is morbidly hyster-
cal') ''If you feel that confessing deception
to your husband will your conscience. that in
itself shows you the proper course to pursue
Never do evil that good may come
But it seems so selfish she murmured, help
lessy.
Mr.. Crorpin rubbed his spectacles with his silk
pocket handkerchief and then finished his peg,
while Mrs Fletcher sat silent in troubled doubt
and hesitation. She about to speak again,
when the gong from the guard room of the court
house doomed out eleven strokes.
81 must be going" said the chaplain. Il start so
early in the morning that all my things have to
be ready over night. Good bye Mrs Fletcher 1
trust l have been of service to you Follow the
dictates of your conscience and you cannot go
astray-" and Mr.. Croppin departed, uttering last
platitudes of advice and exhortatlon.
THAT night was like hideous dream to Kather-
inc Fletcher Sleep was impossible, and she
tossed reStleSsy from side to side half suffOcated
with the heat. She and wandered through
the stuffy rooms, disturbing millions of mosquitoes
and then into the verandah, where she stood gazing
out into the moonit garden a prey to mental indie
cision and unrest. What would Robert do if she
told him? No doubt he would be gentle kind,
and considerable and blame her not at all; but a
subtle change must creep in between them born
OF the mutual knowledge of her capacities for de.
cepton. Their lives might never be the same
again Would it not be Drawer to hold her peace
and suffer in silence? But the chaplain had urged
her to obey her conscience and surely her COLI
science camoring for confession. She recalled
the time when Robert had proposed to her. how
she had lied with her eyes and lips; how she had
kept silent to her past Every word that both
said, every silence she had kept, seemed scared
into her memory. OF course he would remember
it all equally clearly, and he would never believe
in her again. Perhaps he would not even believe
that she loved him now!
The unhappy woman rocked herself to and fro in
a mental agony that almost physical though
she dimly suspected that she had magnified her
iniquty out of all proportion the facts. Still
the facts there nothing could alter them
and she oscillated between the desire to tell hel
husband ALL and the wish to save him pain and
disappointment, crying hot tears of bewderment
and misery, and pacing the verandah with her slip
pered feet until the Waterman paused in his Erow
round the house and coughed loudly in surprised
eXpostulation.
The long, silent night gave place to noisy
dawn. Dogs began to bark servants to yawn ant
talk, birds to twitter, squirrels and such-like small
beasts to rustic in the undergrowths and Kath
crime Fletcher sought her bed out bod,
and soul. Faint, sick, miserable she covered
beneath the sheet waiting for the moment whel
Robert should appear and hear the confession tina
was now amost bursting from her ury lips
When next she raised her head from the pillow
the sun was shining fiercely and it well OF
in the morning. How long had she been asleep