Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1913-03-25

Ing drearily, and gazing out with eyes
to which Der yawns had brought tears
Her hair made wild brush round her
head, her face looked pinched and
old. She was one of those women
whose good looks are dependent on
animation and millinery. In this fix
! ity of inward thought, unobserved in
unbecoming disarray, one could real.
ize that she had attained the thirty
four years she could so successfully
deny under the -ejuvenating infiu,
ences OF full drese and high spirits.
During her toilet her thoughts re.
fused to leave the subject OF last
nights quarrel. She and her husband
had had disagreements before-many
In the last year when they had virtu.
ally separated, though the world did
not know it-but norhing so ignomini-
ously repulsive as the scene of last
evening had yet degraded their com.
| partnership. Bernice was ashamed. In
the gray light of the dim, disiIlusion-
ing morning she realized that she
had gone too far. She knew Domi-
nick to be long-suffering. she knew
that the hold she had upon him was
a powerful one, but the most patient
| creatures som etimes rebel, the most
| compelling sense OF honor would
sometimes break under too severe
a strain. As she trailed down the
long passage to the dining-room she
made up her mind that she would
make the first overture toward recon
Citation that evening. IL would be
| difficult but she would do it.
She was specializing as to how she
would begin, in what manner she
would greet him when he came home,
when her eyes fell on the folded note
against the clock Apprehension
clutched her as she opened it. The
few lines within frightened her still
more. He had somewhere? She
turned the note over. looking at the
back, in sudden tremble of fearful.
ness. He had never done anything
| like this before. left her, suddenly
cut loose from her in proud disgust.
She stood by the clock, staring at the
| paper, her face fallen into scared
darkness, the artificial hopefulness
that she had been fostering since she
awoke giving place to down-drop
into an abyss of alarm.
The door into the kitchen creaked
| and the Chinaman entered with the
second part of the dainty breakfast
cooked especially for her.
What time did Mr.. Ryan leave this
morning." she said without turning,
throwing the question over her shout
der.
Il dunno" the man returned, with
the expressionless brevity of his race
particularly accentuated in this case,
as he did not like his mistress. "He
no take blickfuss here. He no stay
here last night"
She faced round on him, her eyes
full of a sudden fierce intentness
which marked them in moments of
angry surprise.
Wasn't here last night?" she de-
manded. What do you mean"
He arranged the dishes with careful
precision. not troubling himself to
look up, and speaking with the same
dry Indifference
He not here for blickfuss. No one
sleep in his bed. go make bed-al
made. 4 think he not here all night"
His work being accomplished he
| turned without more words and passed
into the kitchen. Berry stood for a
moment thinking, then, with a shrug
of defiance, left her buckwheat cakes
untasted and walked into the hall.
She went directly to her husbands
room and looked about with sharp
chances. She opened drawers and
peered into the wardrobes She was
a woman who had a curiously keen
memory for small domestic details,
and a few moments investigation
proved to her that he had taken some
of his oldest clothes, but had left be-
hind all the better ones, and that the
silver box of jewelry on the bureau
/ filed with relics of the days when he
| had been the idolized son of his par
ents-Iacked none of its contents
! More alarmed than she had been in
the course of her married life she left
| the room and passed up the hall to
| the parlor. The brilliant, over-fur-
nished apartment in which she had
crowded every fashion in interior dec
/ Grafton that had pleased her fancy
and been within the compass o, her
| purse, looked slovenly and unattract-
i've in the gray light OF the morning.
r,e oVr In -
and the butts and ashes OF cigars
| Dominick had been smoking the eve
ming before lay in tray on the center
/ table. She noticed none of these things,
which under ordinary circumstances
would have been ground for Seeding,
! for she was woman of fastidious per
| sonal daintiness. A cushioned seat
was built round the curve of the bay
/ window. and on this she sat down.
/ drawing back the fall of thick ecru
I lace that yelled the pane Her eyes
were fastened with an unwinking fix
1 ity on the fog-drenched street with
out; her figure motionless.
Her outward rigidity of body con.
cealed an intense inward energy of
thought Ii suddenly appeared 70
her as if her hold on Dominick, which
till yesterday had seemed so strong
that nothing but death could break II,
was weak. was nothing II had been
rooted in his sense of honor. the sense
that she fostered in him and by means
OF which she had been able to make
him marry her. Was this sense not
so powerful as she believed. or
dreadful theIght,-was Il weakening
under the friction of their life TO
gether? Had she played on It tOo much
and worn II out7 She had been SC
sure Of Dominick. so secure In his
blind, plodding devotion to his duty
She had secretly wondered at it, as
! a queer characteristic that it was for
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rest. Go egay to some quiet place
where you can sit CIR lie around and