Year: 1868

It has been already said that Colone
Osborne was a bachelor, man of fol
tune, a member of Parliament, and on
: who carried his half century of year
lightly on his shoulders. 1t will onl
be necessary to say further of hin
that he was a man popular with thos


among whom he lived, as politician
as a sportsman, and as q member of SO


ciety. He could speak well in tn


House, though he spoke but seldom, an


it was generally thought of him that b


might have been something considera


BILE, had it not suited him better to b


nothing at all. He was supposed to b


q conservative, and generally votet
with the conservative party; but b.
could boast that he was altogether in
dependent, and on an occasion woult
take the trouble of proving himself t.
be so. He was in possession of excel
lent health; had all that the worlC
could give; was fond of books, pictures
architecture, and china; had various
tastes, and the means of indulginl
them, and was one of those few men OF
whom it seems that every pleasant
thing has been lavished. There wa!
that little slur on his good name tC
which allusion has been made; but
those who knew Colonel Osborne best
were generally willing to declare that
no harm was intended, and that the
evils which arose were always to be at
tributed to mistaken jealousy. He had,
his friends said, free and pleasant
way with women which women like
a pleasant way of free friendship; that
there was no more, and that the harm
which had come had always come from
false suspicion. But there were certain
ladies about the town,--good, mother
ly, discreet women,-who hated the
name of Colonel Osborne, who would
not admit him within their doors, who
would not bow to him in other peoples
houses, who would always speak of him
as serpent, hyena, kite, or shark.
Old Lady Milborough was one of these, a
daughter of friend of hers having once
admitted the serpent to her intimacy.


Augustus Poole was wise enough to
take his wife abroad" said old Lady
Milborough, discussing about this time
with gossip of hers the danger of Mrs,
Trevelyan's position, cor there would
have been a break up there; and yet
there never was better girl in the
world than Jane Marriott"


The reader may be quite certain that
Colonel Osborne had no premediated
evil intention when he allowed himself
to become the intimate friend of his old
friends daughter. There was nothing
fiendish in his nature. He was not a
man who boasted of his conquests. He
was not a ravening wolf, going about
seeking whom he might devour; but he
liked that which was pleasant; and OF
all pleasant things the company of
pretty clever woman was to him the
pleasantest. At this exact period of
his life no woman was so pleasantly
pretty to him, and so agreeably clever,
as Mrs. Trevelyan.


When Louis Trevelyan heard on the
stairs the step of the dangerous man, he
got up from his chair as though he too
would have gone into the drawing
room, and it would perhaps have been
well had he done so. Could he have
dene this, and kept his temper with the
man, he would have paved tho way for
an easy reconciliation with his wife.
But when he reached the door of his
room, and had placed his hand upOn the
lock, he withdrew it again.


He told himself he withdrew because
he would not allow himself to be jealous;
but in truth he did so because he knew
he could not have brought himself to
be civil to the man he hated. So he
sat down, and took up his pen, and be-
gan to cudgel his brain about the scien-
tific article. He was intent on raising
dispute with some learned pundit
about the waves of sound,-but he could
think of no other sound than that OF
the light steps of Colonel Osborne as he
had gone up stairs. He put down his
pen, and clenched his fist, and allowed
black frown to settle upon his brow.
What right had the man to come there,
unasked by him, and disturb his happi-
nsssi And then this poor wife of his,
who knew so little of English life, who
had lived in the Manderin islands al
most since she had been a child, who
had lived in one celony or another al
most since she had been born, who had
had so few of those advantages for
which he should have looked In marry
ing a wife, how was the poor girl to
conduct herself properly when subject
ed to the arts and practiced villlanles
of this viperi And yet the poor girl
was so stiff in her temper, had picked
up such a trick of obstinacy IN those
tropical regions, that Louis Treyelyan
felt that he did not know how to man
age her. He too had heard how Jane
Marriott had been carried off to Naples
after she had become Mrs. Poole. Must
! he too carry off his wife to Naples IN or
der to place her out of the reach OF tins
hyenai 1t was terrible to him to think
that he must pack up everything and
run away from such one as Colonel
| Osborne. And even were he to consent
to do this, how could he explain 1t all
to that very wife for whose sake he
would do it If she got hint of the
re ason she would, he did not doubt, re-
fuse to go. AS he thought of it, and as
that visit up stairs prolonged itself, he
almost thought it would be best for
him to be round with her! We all know
what a husband means when he resolves
to be round with his wife. He began to
think that he would net apologize at
all for the words he had spoken,-b but
would speak them again somewhat
more sharply than before. She would
be very wratbful with him; there wou Id
be silent enduring indignation, which,
as he understood well, would be nm
uitely worse than any torrent OF words
Was he, a man, to abstain from doing
that which he believed to be his duty
because he was afraid of his wife's an
CERT Should he be deferred from say.
ling that which he conceived 1t would
be right that he should say, because she
was stiff. neckedi No. He would not
apologize, but would tell her again
that it was necessary, both for his hap
piness and for hers, that all intimacy
with Colonel Osborne should be discon'
tinued.


He was brought to this strongly mar
tial resolution by the length of The
mans present visit, by that, and by the
fact that, during the latter portion o
il. his wife was alone with Colonel Os
borne. Nora had been there when the
man came, but Mrs. Fairfax had called


not getting out Of ker carriage, and No
ra had been constrained to 90 down K
her. She had hesitated moment, anC
Colonel Osborne had observed and part
ly understood the hesitation. WheR ht
saw it, had he been perfectly wei
minded in the matter he would have
Il H.