Year: 1877

but to write to papa and mamma. / sup
pose Leonard will say simetfing to me


about it tonight.


Yes, Belle, he's written by to-night's
post to papa. And now hadn't better 60
and dress?"


Mr. Stamton's letter is received by the
paternal power in due time, pronounc-
ed to be most straightforward and ad-
mirable one; and Polly-when practical
arrangements for her comfort and secur-
ity in the future have been made-is dc
livered up by her well satisfied parents
to the care and protection Of Mr. Staun-
ton for life. They come back after the
wedding tour. and even the most critical
observers are bound to confess that the
hastily-devised and carried-out-scheme
seems to promise we'll for Pollyis happi-
ness. For year she isa popular, pretty,
much sought young matron, living in q
whirl Of glittering garrison town gayety.
And her husband is proud of her, and
tolerant of things as they are. At the
end of that time excitement begins to
tell its tale in the flushed cheek and
sharpened outline Of the face. A heavy
feverish cold attacks her; and when she
is recovering from the effects of this, her
first child is born, and by and by, it is a
very weak and emaciated Polly who
comes out into the world again.


Weariness and languor are her pre-
vailing sensations now, and she does not
know that her elastic young constitu-
ton has been overstrained, and that the
utmost care is needed to restore it to its
proper tention. She does not knowand
there is no one to tell her, for Belle Sal
toun is far away by this time, and her
husband confines his supervision of her
health to requests that she will take
care of herself'-as if she knew how to
do it-and commands that she docs not
allow the child to worry her." She has
a nurse; why should she keep dog and
bark herself? he asks when the poe
languor stricken mother tolls about in
vain, painful endeavor to keep the nur-
sery peach. He also kindly, suggests
that Polly should walk a good deal,'
never taking into consideration that
Polly's overtasked frame invariably falls
a prey to utter fatigue and prostrating
neuralgia, after she has tried his inval-
liable panacea "of long walk


Fortune, in one respect, has greatly
favored Mr. Staunton. He has come
into property which is sufficiently good
to enable him to retire from the service
and buy him a place in the country,
where there is beautiful scenery and
little or no society. He is sick of the
hollowness of the world" he assures his
wife "he has had enough of it." and new
er cares for anything beyond the COM
panionship of one or two intimate
friends, on whose fidelity he can rely.
So poor Polly who has not had enough
of it" by any means, and who married
before she had been taught to rely upon
herself at all in any emergency, stagnates
and grows sad, and pines with hot PIN
ing that scorches all interest out of her
daily life, for a change" which he can
didly assures her he will not allow her
to have. "a womans spher. is her
home, he tells her; and if she has not a
wholesome desire to shine in that sphere
he will not indulge her in the unwhole-
some one of desiring to shine elsewhere. "


In the midst of this unsatisfactory
Arcadia, Mrs Saltoun comes by and by
but unfortunately she comes only for
brief time. She, in her perfect happi-
ness and content, is more beautiful and
bright than ever; and Pollyis husband
feels good deal of what he calls justin
able annoyance when he contrasts her
younger sister, his wife, with still bril-
liant Belle. He complains to the latter
that Polly Inopes, and looks tired when
he comes IN. and wants her TO amuse
him. And when Mrs. Saltoun suggests
that perhaps Polly is not well, he laughs
at the notion.


She has everything she wants, except
excitement" he says, @and that she is bet
ter without" Then he repeats his phrase
about woman's proper sphere being at
home. And Mrs. Saltoun calls him prig
in her heart, but is powerless to help her
sister


A more utterly uninterested being as
far as continuous intercourse with him
goes does not exist on this pleasant earth,
than Mr. Staunton He is methodical, to
an irritating degree, to every person
who does not believe that he or she is
graduating for perdition, if he or she has
not a place for everything, and every
thing in Its place. He is punctual to
The point of being raspingly ill-humored,
if he has ordered at q certain time, even
though fate and uncomfortable circum-
stances have intervened to cause delay,
and there has not been particle of care
lessness in the transaction. He faHgues
himself pleasantly every day by hunting
coursing, shooting or fishing, IN COM
pany with men who are liked minded to
himself, and so thoroughly congenial
and acceptable associates to him. This
being the case, slumber, as rule, claims
for her own during the long hours that
intervene between dinner and bed time;
and Pollyis proper sphere is the home
from which he is absent all day, and in
which he only sleeps when he returns to
it at night


"If were not thoroughly quiet, well
disposed fellow, Polly is just the woman
to drive me from home" Mr. Staunton
sometimes tells himself virtuously, when
he wakes up from prolonged and hap
py sleep to ind Polly sitting motionless
before the window or the fire, according
to the season, gazing with a sad, absent
expression into the misty distance over
the woods. or into the fiery vaults, in
which she strives to picture possibilities
that might have interested her and filed
her heart. He is perfectly satisfied with
himself and his manner of treating her
She has handsome house, handsomely
furnished, a good establishment, orders
to dress well, and let him have all the
bills" and pony carriage drive about
in, when he doesn't want the pony. By