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patently unconscious that his native land and
the friends of his heart, were awaiting his
recognition and kindly interchange of wel
come. During his continued fit of abstraction,
a gentleman, from the shore, passed and re
passed, gazing earnestly in his face, until at
length stopping abruptly before themuser, he
seized ilis hand, and shaking it with most
commendable heartiness, exclaimed —“ I'm
sure of it now! ’tis none other than he!
Frank ! Frank Morton, my old boy, how the
devil are you ? and who are you mourning
for, with “ the grief which passeth show ?”
for though you look as though the whole
world and his wife were dead, I see no crapey
trappings about you!”
“Wise —dead!” exclaimed the muser, as
the words of the speaker gave voice to his
thoughts; and then perceiving the presence
of the stranger, the clouds fled from his brow,
and he cordially returned his salutation, ex
claiming —
Ah! Sidney, is that you! the first to wel
come me home. lam glad, very glad of it,
for you are my best friend, and your presence
calls back the memory of more joyous days.”
“Thank you, Frank! that’s a kind speech,
and I'll take it in atonement for the scurvy
trick you played me, in cutting me so unac
countably at the time of your marriage.”
“Say no more about that, Sydney. It was
not my fault; indeed it was not. She ”
“O! certainly, my dear boy ! I thought
your neglect counfoundedly queer, to be sure,
but I put it all down to the effect of some cur
sed misunderstanding or other, which, how
ever, I concluded to let you enjoy all to your
self. I see we are now friends again though ;
so let it go. What’s the good of obscuring,
present sunshine with the sour shadows of
the past. I was expecting you back about
this time, the happiest dog in the kennel of
life, but I see, confound it, that your dog-days
are fading. Come, discuss unto me ; make
a clean breast of it, and I’ll help you out of
the scrape. Trouble always flies from my
foot-steps; hates me like poison—out with it
Frank, out with it!”
“Ah! Sydney, I see that you are the same
merry, joyous fellow as ever. To meet you,
makes me happy again.”
“ ‘Happy again,’ Frank! Why have you
been otherwise ? Is she dead!”
“Oh! no, no—come nearer —speak low —
you remember our conversation on that
morning ?”
“ Aye, to be sure! I've said the same things
so often that I cannot forget them. They are
part of my creed. But how is that confab
apropos of the change which appears-to have
(t ome over the spirit of your dream ? There’s
the mystery! I can hardly believe that I see
before me, the same dashing, hopeful, devil
me-care Frank Morton, whom I knew in oth
er days! But that conversation! Remember
it! Why, I am still a jolly old bachelor : ha,
ha, ha! Remember it, aye !
“ Cursed be the man, the poorest wretch inlife,
The crouching vassal of the tyrant wife!”
Its my morning and evening devotion, Frank!
My elixir, my shield, my everlasting buck
ler, the cosmetic which preserves me as I am;
jolly and fat as an alderman, and smiling as
a danseuseJ yes—
“ Cursed be the rmin, the ”
“ Stop, Sydney ! for heaven’s sake, stop !
Don’t curse me!" 1
“Eh ! you ! no! By the Gods! I— I— no,
you're joking, aye —you’re joking ? You
don't mean— By the powers! I smell a
mouse! Was I right? ami right? ha, ha,
ha, hold me ! hold me! ’Tis too rich!”
“ Alas ! alas! My dear friend, you have
divined but too truly; be generous though, and
spare your bitter raillery.”
“ Spare you, my poor deluded lamb ! It’s
enough to kill me with laughter, ha, ha, ha!
It s too funny Frank, for sympathy, but I’ll
help you out of the scrape— I’ll help you out
old fellow!”
•“You will!”
Ob a ts & is a ie h
“ To be sure ! there's my hand!”
“ Its of no use, Sydney; itstoo late; the
die is cast. I thank you for your good will,
but there is, alas, no help for it now. She
is— is— in short—why should I hesitate to
confess it ? I shall not be at home a week
before all the world will know it as well as
myself—she is a perfect shrew—a termagant
—a devil!”
“I knew it, Frank, before you spoke it.
Ha! ha! my beauteous Isadora. I read more
than the title-page of your disposition, which
I am sorry my poor friend did not ”
“ Gently, Sydney! She will hear us.”
“Let her hear, Frank ; she shall hear and
see and feel more yet; I tell you I’ll manage
the business!”
“ Are you in earnest Sydney ? I know you
can do anything.”
“Os course I can; I’ll fix it; I’ll cure her;
she shall become a very pattern of gentleness,
meekness and obedience.” •
“ Alas ! my friend, you are not a Hercules.”
“Have not quite as much muscle certainly;
but, let me alone —I'll borrow a trifle of his
‘ kinted wit.’ If I can't cleanse these augean
stables of termagantism, I will rig up a Eu
phrates to dash through them. By Jupiter!
It will be a glorious little piece of work, wor
thy of my genius. Be hopeful Frank; I'll
soon make a rattling among the dry bones, I
promise you ! Let’s drink!”
“ Hush! Sydney, here comes Isadora's
maid.” “ Well Jane, what does your mistress
want ?”
“ If you please sir, she says that you have
been lounging up here l*ong enough, and that
you must come into the cabin directly.”
“Oh ! ye gods and little fishes!” muttered
Sydney—“do my ears deceive me !”
“ Be quiet, my dear Sydney,” interposed the
husband; and then turning to the maid, he
added, “ Tell Mrs. Morton that I will be do.wn
directly.”
“The devil you will!” interrupted the oth
er, and then, addressing himself to Jane, “ tell
Mrs. Morton that her husband is conversing
with his old, cherished friend Mr. Sydney
Brown, and cannot possibly oblige her at pres
ent. Mr. Sydney Brown remember, my dear.”
“No, no, Sydney, that will never do. It
will be the death of me. Jane !”
But Jane was off.
“Frank, my boy, you must remember that,
live or die, I undertake this only upon one
condition ; that you leave it all to my discre
tion, and pledge yourself solemnly, to second
me boldly, heartily, and implicitly in every
individual item of my plan. What say you ?”
“ Sydney, you are a master-spirit. I am
yours!”
“Good! signed and sealed. Now, while
Mrs. M. is digesting your palatable message,
let us go down below and drink to victory or
death. Allons, my old buck. Nil desperan
dum, as the Latins have it: ‘Time, faith and
energy,"’ as Bulwer echoes it, and “ never do
to give it up so Mr. Brown,” as I always say
myself.
PART THIRD.
The return of the Mortons was the signal
for a long series of visits, congratulations, gos
sipings, confabs and merry-makings, through
out the evtensive circle of theiracquaintance.
Old beaux and flirts were eager to offer their
sighs again, at the shrine of the former queen
of their reunions, and antiquated belles were
curious to observe how* she bore her matronly
dignities. The younger of both sexes swelled
the fetes, for their own individual and mutual
satisfaction, little regardful of their hosts. To
the latter therefore, every thing was, of course,
just as it should be. Mr. and Mrs. M.,were
charming people, and they felt excessively
obliged to them for making such a pleasant
sensation in the town. But to the former
classes, affairs appeared in a quite different
light; yet, if possible, even more gratifying
to them than to the others. Both beaux and
belles soon had the intense satisfaction, the
supreme delight of discovering that what they
had predicted, what they had hoped, if the
truth must be told, had come to pass. Our
poor friend Frank was the “immolated” on
either side; since the belles felicitated them
selves with the idea that he was punished, for
his preference of Isadora; and the beaux that
they were revenged for the gay lady’s prefe
rence for him. This grand discovery soon
became the general theme of converse. In
calculable quantities of whispering, discttes ,
and scandal were floating about. The gen
tlemen shrugged their shoulders, with a know
ing smile, at the singular change in the hu
mor of their old friend, and feared as much.
The ladies were not blind —not they—they
saw plainly enough how matters stood, and
had always predicted it. Indeed, to sing the
song in short metre, the public settled quietly
and confidently down in the faith, that Miss
Isadora, the celestial Isadora Cruston, had
turned out a veritable Xantippe; and that the
gallant, the cynical, the matchless Frank Mor
ton was unequivocally and incorrigibly, a
hen-pecked husband!
But the most singular phase in the phe
nomenon, was that Frank, the once high
souled and haughty Frank, did not in the least
degree revolt against the domestic despotism
under which he was crushed; but on the
contrary, seemed to take delight in bending
with studied submission, to the iron rule.—
This humility, in a man of Mr. Frank Mor
ton’s former temper, was strange indeed; and
to all, excepting to Mr. Sydney Brown, who
claimed to know a thing or two, was most
unaccountable. When bantered by his friends,
Frank took all in good part, and listened in
credulously to the propositions of resistance
which were made to him, as though they
were the mere dreamings of a disordered im
agination. At such moments, however, his
friends occasionally detected a lurking smile
in his eye, which but quadrupled their per
plexity. Isadora had also noted, with anx
ious curiosity, Frank's strange obedience to
her slightest will, both in public and private!;
and the mysterious smile which his friends
had observed, created double alarm in her
mind. The defference which he carefully paid
to her; his naive appeals to her superior
judgement, which he invariably made, in all
topics of conversation, in public or private,
whether the theme was a lady’s toilet, or the
policy of States; the confection of a cake, or
the solution of a geometric problem : the gov
ernment of a nursery or the discipline of an
army—both annoyed and terrified her. The
position conceded to her became embarrassing;
her crown weighed upon her brow; her scep
tre wearied her hand, and she felt that she
had assumed a power which she was incom
petent to wield. Neitlier was it from her hus
band alone, that she received these exaggerated
tokens of respect and devotion. All his es
pecial friends, those who had once been ever
ready to fling back her sarcasm and her sneer,
now aided in canonizing her. Even the in
corrigible Sydney Brown was submissive with
the rest. Had she detected but the slightest
symptom of irony in the exalted respect of
her friends, all would have been well; but
it was offered with such an immaculate air of
sincerity and truth, that she was compelled
to receive it, with the best grace she could
assume. Day after day she felt more keenly,
the painfulness of her position ; to which -was
added, the perception she at length had, of
the ridiculous place her husband held in the
household. She was a proud woman and a
slave to conventional law. She had only
desired to govern through him, and not in her
own name. The usages of society demanded
this nominal authority, but Frank had reject
ed it, and publicly assumed the rank he really
held. Nay, he studied to make his debase
ment even low r er than it really was. He di
rected his correspondents to address him to
the care of Mrs. Morton, and the lady had
received several letters addressed to herself,
which were evidently written to. him; while
he occasionally sent her a sheet which had
been directed to Mr. Morton, but very clearly,
was addressed to her. Frank could not or
would not explain to her the meaning of all
this. When bills were sent to his house, he
referred them to Mrs. Morton. He had even
run up an account at her jewellers, w hich was
presented to*her for payment; nay more, he
affected the character and airs of a lady, car
ried a parasol in the streets, and an embroi
dered cambric in his hand ; rode horseback
side-ways, and flirted desperately with his ad
mirer, Sydney Brown !
These little vagaries became so frequent,
and were oftentimes so extravagant, that the
dear public began to think our hero's afflic
tions had turned his brain; that he had been
actually hen-pecked into madness. Isadora,
when she recollected his natural humor, and
the melancholy change her tyranny had really
made in it, at times, fearfully admitted the
same terrible thought. Then again, w T hen
she recalled the message which Mr. Sydney
Brown had sent to her, from her husband, on
the day of her return to her native land, and
the intimacy which had since been renewed
between Frank and that gentleman, her fears
gave place to rage, in the reflection that there
might he “ method in his madness!” This
last idea v r as not sustained by the iact that
Mr. Brown humored all his eccentricities;
since that amiable gentleman had, as a friend
hinted to her his belief, that her husband’s
imagination had, from same unaccountable
cause, become deranged, and had begged her
permission to lend that seeming assent to his
fancies, which the case imperatively required,
As time passed on, her husband’s singular
affliction appearing to have somewhat abated,
Isadora determined to resume the place in the
gay world, which she had partially abandoned.
She was the more ready to do this, as Frank
himself had suggested it; and at his desire
she had resolved to give a dinner party, to
which she conceded to him the sole privilege
of inviting the guests. This concession was
made, not merely to humor him, which she
would have gladly done though, to any exr
tent, in the hope of making him again what
he once was —but she was tired of her usurped
power, and sighed only to resign it, and rein
state her husband in all his rights.
In preparing the cards for the coming fete,
Frank proved himself very reasonably sane,
carefully selecting only the tried friends of
his family ; those in wdiom he could, in all
things, place the utmost confidence. Inas
much as the affair had been left wholly to his
direction, Isadora was, nevertheless, not a lit- •
tie mortified and surprised, to learn, on the
very day of the dinner, that the invitations
had been sent to every one, in her name, in
stead of her husband’s. From this incident
she augured a recurrence of his idiosyncrasy;
which fear, as the dinner hour approached,
w r as greatly increased, and, finally, fully con
firmed. As the guests began to assemble, the
fair lady was horrified by a characteristic
query from Frank, which proved that he
again looked upon himself as the mistress,
instead of the master of the house. •
“Frank my love,” said he, “ since I left the
whole of this affair to your pleasure, I hope
that you have invited all your friends, not even
excepting Sydney Brown. I, certainly do not
like Mr. Brown very much myself, but since
he is the cherished friend of my husband. I
shall be always happy to receive him as such.
It is no less my pleasure than my duty, dear *
Frank, to study: your happiness before my
own, in all things. I have sacredly pledged ■
you my love and obedience, and I will never*-
belie my promise.”
“Frank!” exclaimed the bewildered and
angry Isadora, “ what does this nonsense
mean ? Are you really a fool, or do- you wish
to insult me ?”
“My dear husband,” returned Frank with
a kind and gentle smile, “since it is your
pleasure to call me by your own dear name,
I cannot object to it ' t nor will I complain of
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