The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-03-01
people who had not latitude made
fun of, very successfully.


fun of, very successfully.
Il was quite certain that lny lit
tie set alone, of all who ever came
into being, understood the meaning
of the blessed word Progress, which
was always on our lips The chief
way in which We inculcated progress
was by earnestly denynS the doc
trine of personal re5pons oiity. We
told each other lnl especially the
roor, that We We're all the sport of
circumstance, AMI thar, if Grcum
stances were comfortable. We should
all be good and happy, as soon as
the narrow Influence OF oar Door
benighted ancestors wore itself out "
You thought. broke in Vernon.
puzzled, that we are all The spo /
of circumstances, and yet ym thought
that you could contro, circumstances,
quite easily?'
20 dear. yes: We soand it a mos,
cheering belief. And we added 20 his
the delightful theory chat it was
our duty to try 10 5e as nappy as
we could that happiness was an
end-the end-lo Ge sJrifcn Tor. Of
course, our ideals of what constituted
true happiness were lofty in the ey-
treme. | sometimes laugh As think
how dishonest vas with myself
of the trouble I sometimes took to
convince what | suppose was the
remnant of my conscience, that | was
justified in doing exactly what
liked, on the highest grounds.
Well one of my pasumes was
belonging to an amateur orchestral
society of very high merit, to which
1t was hard to gain admission. |
played the violin well, if | may say
so to you without conceit. had been
eXcellently taught, and was fond
of it, so there is no great merit in
the fact that | did it well. He-Cecil
'N' ~ AhN lNhtolld lie
played the 'cello-marvellously. We
made great friends. Soon, he was
constantly at the flat where Miss
Brett and | lived in much comfort
on the income that to my dear moth
er had seemed so inadequate.
Cecil and l began with the usual
shop of our day and set-namely,
that friendship between young
man and a young woman is always
possible among the truly civilized,
and is moreover of the greatest edu-
cational value. ! have every reason.
by the way, to believe the truth
of the latter part of this creed. But
that is a depression.
'At last, one day, we found out,
simultaneously, with binding sudden
ness, that we loved each other 1t was
the kind of experience never to be
forgotten--as if one moved bodily, or
rather were caught up bodily, into |
a higher plane; or as though a win
ter landscape should suddenly burst
into leaf and blossom. For a few |
days we hugged our delicious secret,
then we began to desire the greater
freedom accorded to avowed lovers.
1t seemed that we must announce
our engagement.
And then Cecil told me. Sitting
by the fire in my little drawing
room-the last word in correct style,
and reflecting the iargon of its day
as faithfully as its one mrror-a
recumbent oval-reflected the eX-
tremity of my surprise.
He had a wife living She was
mad"
The speaker paused a moment, her
hands upon her knees, clasped and .
wrung each other. Vernon kissed her
hair, but did not speak.
Their married lite mad lasted just |
thirteen months. Her madness was
the kind that comes to some women .
after the birth of a child. Something |
went wrong-there was an incompe- |
tent nurse, l think. The baby died |
and she went mad There is always
Or usually-in such cases the hope |
of recovery He waited patiently for |
that to happen. He had waited elev- |
en- years, and she grew steadily |
worse and worse 1t seemed that |
there was insanity in her family !
the type of insanity which comes
from melanchoia. The doctors now
told him that there was no hope OF
her recovery. But her health was eX-
cellent. She might easily outhve him.
AT the first moment of his tell
ing me, in spite of my education, in
spite of all my advanced views, |