Year: 1878

CHAPTER /.


''Whst very, very domestic little dove
your wife must be, Mr.. Phelps While you
are here having gay time, she, like good
devoted dear, is at home doing the domestic
mending have no doubt. Another waltz?
Why, you are too exacting. Well, as you
like" and in a moment more Kate Mason
was half encircled by Mr.. Phelps arm as
together they glided through the dance to
the music of Strauss most enchanting strain.
They were a superb couple. People turned
to look at them as they swept past, and
they. as If conscious of the admiration,
seemed to think only of each other. In
truth there was more truth than seeming in
this, for tonight it would have been little
less to them if the rest of the world could
have been banished, and they two left TO
enjoy that which they were beginning to
crave, moments of sweet solitude. 1t was
the old story, the same old temptation, the
same weak human hearts and foolish ma
lures, and the result seemed likely to be the
usual one. Will Phelps was good fellow"
All, in his bachelor days he had been the
toas of fair feminine lips, and the boon
companion at every merriment He had been
the life of his ''set," the best singer, the best
dancer, greatest hirt in his circle, and where
he was there was always gathered group OF
kindred spirits. He was comparatively
wealthy, without care for the present or plans
for the future. He had been the great mat
rimonial prize for which half hundred
scheming mammas had anxiously angled
for their equally anxious daughters, and
though he had been engaged times without
number he had at last married to please
himself, and without asking the advice of
anybody; and now, after the lapse of five
years, he was still viii Phelps, gay and free
as ever. His friends were astonished when
he introduced his wife to them, a pretty girl
OF seventeen, with a timid grace of manner
that won the hearts of even the coldest of
her critics. She was entirely ignorant of the
ways of the fashionable world to which her
husband brought her, and though she felt
i'll at ease no one could have suspected that
she was a stranger to the scenes through
which she passed. She made no false steps,
because she clung to Will with desperation.
She made few mistakes, and they were
slight, and her unaffected despair covered
over every little deviation from strict eti-
quette- She had been raised in the country,
ministers daughter, with the traditions of
the past every day recital, and a code of
laws and creed as straight and binding as
her father could make them. Her mother
had died long before she could remember,
and she had lived a cold, sunless life with
her father. Not without love, for she
was dearer to him than the apple
as mortal man ever did the one blessing OF
his otherwise dreary existence. She almost
worshiped the quiet old man, for her love
was half the pious reverence that the ardent
devotee has for the saints, and she would
have died ere she would have dIsobeyed
him OF incurred his djspleasure. And yet
her warm, girlish nature craved other COM
Panionship, and when Will Phelps crossed
her path she thought him an ideal man, one
whose character must be as grand and noble
as his face was handsome. She had known
no such in all the years of her girlhood; she
had met only the country lads, or the grave
ministers who occasionally came to the par
sonage. His gay, singing laugh was new
music to her rapt ears and his smiles were
her sunshine. She learned to listen for his
coming, and her lashes were heavy with
tears when, with the tenderness that seemed
part of his nature, he would bid her good
by. He brought her flowers and books,
and IN turn she talked to him Of her life,
her books, her few friends, her quiet home,
until, despite the warning of his worldly
wisdom, he asked her TO marry him. 1t was