Year: 1873

expect you to be willing never to see one o.
those fifty relatives again, if such was my de-
sire. Iwish you to be satisfied with my affec
tion and my society, and to find them amply
sufficient for your needs. And above all, you
must clearly understand that wish once ex
pressed by me is laao, and by that law you
must abide Any remonstrance on your part
any appeal from such decision, will be quite
useless, and only lessen my opinion OF your
amiability and good sense. Just now when
spoke to you, I saw tears in your eyes.
detest tears, and the only effect they ever have
on me is to irritate me instead of exciting my
compassion. Now, my love, you know my
opinions thoroughly, and having explained
them in way that can leave no uncertainty
in your mind, I need not add that l expect
you to follow them in every particular"


With this quiet declaration of tyranny, de-
livered in most matter-of. fact tone, as though
the ideas he had expressed were entirely in
accordance with all the feelings of tenderness
and consideration supposed to exist in the
mind of husband of eight weeks, Stanley
kissed his wife and left the room.


From such declaration there was no ap'
peal Lucy yielded without struggle, and
thenceforth remained passive under his con-
troll


She found that even in trifes she was ex'
pected to defer altogether to his wishes and
tastes, no matter how contrary to her own.


If he liked a certain song, or piece of music
she must play it oftener than any other, and
at any time that he chose to ask for it. II
on the contrary he took dislike to any piece
she played, he requested her to put it aside
as it gave him no pleasure to listen to it.


She must dress exactly as he pleased, and
never wear any color that did not suit his
fancy. Although a year had not yet elapsed
since her fathers death, he required her to
lay aside her mourning, saying that he de-
tested black, and that bride was not expec'
ted to dis6gure herself by wearing it.


If he desired her to accompany him on a
walk or ride, he did not ask her to do so, but
simply stated that he would 60 out at such an
hour, and that he expected to find her in
readiness.


She must put down any occupation that she
was engaged in, no matter how interesting, to
attend to his wishes. In word, she became
his slave; and her master, unfortunately,
showed himselfto be despot.


Had he acted differently, he would in time
have won her affection, for she was Of gen.
tie and clinging nature, and her very loneli'
ness would have drawn her nearer to him
But as it was, all the impulses Of her natural
ly loving heart were chilled and crushed, and
she settled gradually into sort of apathy
and total indifference to everything around
her. Her husband was not harsh or unkind
but he treated her as mere toy, or an auto
maton who was to act and speak only as he
pulled the wires, and never else. He caressed
her, but it was as he would have caressed a
pet animal whom he expected to yield wholly
to his caprices, to receive his favors with graf
itude whenever it pleased him to bestow them
and to withdraw submissively when he was
weary of this amusement.


Thus placed under the influence of his pow
erful will, she never dreamed of asserting her
own, and appeared at last almost to lose her
own identity.


People in the surrounding country wonder
ed greatly at the secluson in which the Stan
leys lived, and thought. they must either be
very eccentric or very proud, and unwilling
to associate with their neighbors. This idea
gaining ground, the few efforts made to draw
them from their retirement soon ceased, and
Lucy lived as isolated from the world as
though Mossgrove were Jail and she priso'
ner confined within its walls.


1t was a strange, sad existence for one who
had begun life with prospects as brilliant as
hers had been. Once she had been the idol.
lied daughter of wealthy father, who thought
no trouble or expense too great, if it could
give her pleasure-whose hopes were bound up
in her future, and who found his own greatest
happiness in providing for hers. Now the
only love bestowed upon her was of a kind so
selfish that it sought only its own qualification,
and the wealth she was mistress Of brought
her no pleasure or satisfaction.


Other love truly was still hers, but it was
far off, Edward Carroll was still faithful in
his attachment to her, for it was an attach
ment which had grown and strengthened with
his years from early boyhood, and could never
be conquered while he lived, though he was
forced to conceal it now in the securest hiding
places of his heart. Her image, so long and
fondly cherished, ever haunted him; in his
waking hours and in his dreams it was alike
present to him, and though it was dangerous
pastime, he could not cease to indnlgein reve-
ries in which it played the chief part.


Far better would it have been if the ambi-
tious mother who had blighted his hopes, had
allowed her daughter to share with him life
of comparative poverty, ilumined with the
sunshine of mutual affection, instead of con-
demning her to the existence she now led.


Fortunately that faithful heart did not
know the extent of the sacrifice that had been
accomplished, or he would not have been able
to wear even the semblance of forgiveness TO-
ward the author of it. He thought himself
the chief sufferer, and tried to find consolation
in the thought that Lucy, at least, was happy,
though it was consolation that brought a
sting with it.


Mrs. Carroll could gather little from Lucy's
letters. which her husband always read before