The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

was the DQfuen Ol A ltlIdlil pii NiiiNu SliS played countless shrewlsh variations.
 She repeated it one night after the rich est admirer whom she had attracted yet had been treated by Edith as the rest had been. Edith struck her hand on her beautiful bosom. You made me wom- all, mercenary, laying snares," she cried, "before I knew myself. There is no slave in a market that has been so shown and paraded as I have been! If this man takes me, he takes without art on my part to lure him. He sees me at auction and he thinks it well to buy me. Let him."
 The rich admirer was Mir. Dombey. He was not frightened by her imperious car riage. He was well pleased, as a matter of fact, that the lady whom he was ex- amining with view to purchase, should hold herself high. In his minds eye he saw stately entertainments in his stately house at which his stately spouse and he would act as stately pair of freezers though he did not put it to himself ex- actly that way.
 It was quite impossible that MT. Dom- bey's majestic mind should affront itself by imagining even for a moment that the future Mrs. Dombey might conceivably be high and imperious to him, too. Mir. Dombey was accustomed 10 buy what he desired and she bought particularly ser viity. The great house of Dombey and Son was so great that humility and ser vility were the only human qualities per- mssible in those whose served 1t. The earth itself was made only for Dombey and Son to trade in. Tn the ,nnermost mind Of MT. Dombey, A. D. stood less for Anno Dominl than for Anno Dombel
 MT. Dombey, having decided to honor Mrs. Granger with his hand, invited his manager and confidential man, Mr. Cark- CT to meet her. It was a sort of private view-the only way in which MT. Dom bey's dignity permitted him to apprise Me. Carker of his matrimonial intentions. Mr. Carker was @ handsome, 1ord gen. tleman about 10 years younger than MT. Dombey. He sold his own particular brand of servility to MT. Dombey, and it was a brand that pleased that great man very much. It was garbed in rugged independence that made him familiar with Ills S16al Ctlitl lO u nlctlN Niiith tA- pressed exactly his perfect sense of the vast difference that there was between | them. He fattered his employer even in his apparel, dressing enough like him to make it complimentary, but with a shade less of stiffness and majesty that made it still more nattering.
 A man of constant and brilliant smile was Mr. Carker. The smile dis played wonderful. almost dstressingy. white teeth. Detractors might have said that the smile was feline. MT. Dombey saw nothing feline in it. An unrespect- ful suggestion about the smile Cor any other property) of one whom he honored with confidence would have shocked Mr. Dombey unspeakably.
 Mr. CarlSer viewed the Mrs. Dombey that was to be, He bent over her hand and smiled deferentialy into her face, His smile said to her. plainly as if he had shouted the words at her: "So you are weary at last of being hawlIed up and down! You are suffering yourself to be sold at lastr'
 MT. Dombey begged Mrs. Granger to play the piano, and she did so. MT. Dom- bey begged Mrs. Granger to play the harp, and she did so MT. Dombey begged Mrs. Granger to sing, to show her sketches, and she did so MT. Carker smiled with all his white teeth on her accomplishments, on her prompt though frigid compliance He smiled-and she watched him smile-on MT. Dombey's open pride in his power, and his pride in ex- hihitinpr that fo ctln
 She hated the man. She hated him because he saw through her, and she hated him the more because she saw through hbn. To be so seen. by such a fawning. false creature filled her with self scorn greater than any she had known before. It brought her to her knees by the side of her bed. It brought her thus low many times. It was thus that she spent the night before the bridal morning.
 The happy pair went to France for their honeymoon and found France dull They found Paris particularly dull. They found the homeward trip dull. They found Mir. Dombey's great house magnif- eent. but undeniably dull. They sat over an excellent, frosty dinner. Then MT. Dombey retired to the library to doze--or to think. He had several things to think about. Several things about Mrs. Dom bey did not accord with his ideas of the universe and it's proper relation to pombey of Dombey and Son.
 Mrs. Dombey. in her own room, sat staring into the fire till it burned to ashes and till the night turned to dawn.
 So passed the night on which the hap py pair came home.
 Mrs. Sweton came to live with the hap py pair, and did her best in her sprightly, juvenile way to make the happy pair i happier. Mrs. Skewtons friends came to the grand entertainments and injured the feelings of MT. Dombey's friends In time-Alr. Dombey required time to real 1 ize so appalling a fact-he became aware l that his wife, who was wearing his jew els and other regal trappings with su- pefb indifference, was treating him with an indifference equally superb and rather
 more open, and that her guests seemed
 hardly to consider Mir, Dombey as any
 thing but a more or less incongruous item
 in Mrs. Dombey's house.
 MT. Carller looked on and smiled. Again
 and again, when he paid his homage to
 Mrs. Dombey, his eyes told her what they had told her before, while his tongue
 offered smooth compliments on the mar
 ried happiness of herself and her husband. | frl,,c in, and in, typou,i,.r ,i,a. .i,.