The sunny South. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1875-1907, July 13, 1878, Image 2

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Mad all Her Days. Bf MRS. AMELIA V. PURDY. CHAPTER VI. Men and women speak admiringly of his phi losophy under hiB reverses, as opposed to» his wife's depression and gloom. She is teaching music and the languages, and the voung look has died out of her eyes, color and flesh are go ing fast, she looks thirty-five and she is but twenty-three. . «It is a wonder Ilorton don’t quit her, re marks a man one evening. ‘A woman has a right to be a comfort to a fellow when he fails. If he isn’t to get consolation there, where will he look for it ? If I had a wife who would nev er give me a-smile, and go and fret herself into a skeleton like she is doing, I'd quit her sure. Camber overhears this and it recalls to mind ‘Mrs. Cruncher,” who would ‘flop and he rec- oommends the book and its perusal to the gen tleman aforesaid, who suspects latent satire and growls 01 discontentedly: . ‘As he didn t break on purpose, it must be awful to have his wife reproaching him for it, in faded eyes, and bloodless skin, and meagre bones. and gray hairs and unsmiling lips, in neglected dress, and all that. She'd run me dis tracted.’ ‘Salome,’ said Horton one evening, ‘I wish you would not look like you hadn’t a friend on earth. I can make money again. If it hadn’t been for that infernal fool of an Ellis, with his mad speculations, I wouldn't be clerking to-day. Business men ought to take these reckless men and put them in straight-jackets—they do too much mischief when let run at large. My house would have stood through my life, solvent as Barings, if it hadn't been for him.’ She looks up wearily. • From what I can gather your fancyy*as taken captive by his marble residence, his couchant lions, fountains, procelain bridges &c., yet you were taught in your copy book at school, that •All that glitters is not gold.’ It would seem to me that a child might have distrusted that mushroom bank, that sprung up in one night, like Jonah’s gourd.’ Horton laughs. ‘When women enter the world with their innate distrust, and keen in tuitions, business will be revolutionized, and the principle of trust and risk, will be utterly unknown. Why few women would trust one another half a day, and I know some, you for one, who would not trust any man, who had any fault at all.’ «Knowing what I know of it now she observes sadly, ‘I say God keep women from business and its indellible soil, whether it oomes by the mark of the business on the soul, or by the endeavor to destroy its life. When a woman is compelled to enter business I condole with her, but I can not conoeive of the time when they will enter it from ohoice. She will not who knows any thing about it. What women need is not busi ness, but pleasant homes, and rest and she can well spare the knowle lge that defiles.’ He smiles and tosses her a well filled pocket book. „ ‘Here! take that, and buy yourself some clothes. I made it to-day. Grant gave me some grain to sell and told me what he wanted for it. I got two hundred dollars more and my com mission beside.’ She does not touch the pocket book and her eyes are full of reproach. He understands her mute distress and says. • Salome you are such a goose ! that is strictly legitimate.’ ... , . ‘I? ifch.onorable ? Would you i^° ^nn to servo you so? Would he do it ? • . • Would be ?’ Well ; I’ve known him to do it time and again, and he is a Sunday School Superintendent. Pshaw you don t know any thing about men ! Bradlaw collected tbe insur ance on the life of Saul Green and kept it. Mrs. Green told me, she had only received S>,o00 and the Policy called for 10,000, and Bradlaw is a ‘'judge James is a good Christian. I never heard finer prayers than he .makes, Salome observes. ‘It surely isn’t possiole that he is al so a hypocrite?’ . .. Horton leans back and, ‘ha has outright. ‘ Pious is no name for it, he’s holy he can t talk without quoting from the Bible, and yet he is a cruel unfeeling husband. He is worse to his wife than Quilp was, and the woman dwells in a state of perpetual terror. 111 givo you an instance ot his piety. He was authorized to 1U9UIUV/U l J , v negotiate for the building of a new cuurch, and he made a contract with a builder and out of the funds in hand kept half.’ ‘But why was it not discovered? she asks innocently. . , . Discovered ! my dear you are innocent as a baby ’ He made false accounts of lumber, shingles, nails, paints &o., and accounted lor it readily. Every chuch is lull of these men wno make religion a cloak.’ . •And tee, go to the marriage altar, with soul- lepers like these; tee promise to love, honor and obey—what ?’ She says slowly and deliberately. •Promise to honor thieves and liars-, to obey men who scorn to obey the civil or divine law. To love our inferiors, men, that we are bound to look down upon as our conscientiousness is always finer than man’s, but hastily—‘Good men are living, and have lived, you can t make me believe that men are totally depraved. •I don’t believe in total depravity he replies, •the worst man in Sing Sing has good qualities, if one could get at them. Charity is the strong point of the depraved generally. I know of but one man, who to my knowledge, never deviated a hair’s breadth fromgthe line, in the acquaint ance of years, rigidly just too always, and you would not guess his name in a century. ‘She is silent and reflects. She knows several ministers, but in them, she sees that their life of dependence, has destroyed independence ant} manliness. How can the Rev. Mr. Jones repri mand Mr. Clav, who gives three times as much towards his salary as any other man m the con gregation. He drinks and is profane and a neg lectful husband, and Mr. Jones recoils from him, but dare not express his loathing, or toe richest parishioner with-draws, and his salary is unfor tunately diminished. Mrs. Graves is a giddy, heartless, fashionable woman, but she is gener ous, and it would not do to offend her, and so on through the congregation, till it leaves him a small margin, from which to preach, or he will be personal and so he gravitates to the old Biule, always a safe refuge, and preaches ot Jonan and Elijah and the Children in the furnace, and Daniel in the lion’s den. while many a mortal, who has been compelled to listen to tho thous- andlk repetition of the latter narrative, wishes most devoutly that the lions had oaten Daniel, and areouite confident, that had Jonan been able to tak«'*off bis bead and put the gourd in its place, the quality of bis bruins would have been much improved. Preaching of everything for eign' to the sins of the people, because he dare not do otherwise. If he denounces deceit and Ivina ha hits hard the entire congregation, an isolated exception here and there, and the people do not want, nor-will they pay for per sonal sermons, and out of the pulpit he must walk with numb tongue, deaf ears anu blind eves, or lose his pastorate. “ ‘Who is it ?’ she ask3, and he answers: » •Camber,’ and lifts tba purse she disdains, and replaces it in bis pocket and goes away. She sits still, her mind confused and per- mlexed. Camber ! a man whom she had charac terized in her girlish disgust, as unfit for the society of decent people. How ootild she reoon- cilesncb palpable contradictions, when he set a j defiance one of Gods imperative laws, why should the violation of any other, cause any scruples of conscience; unless there was a con stitutional tendancy towards one, and a consti tutional antipathy towards the other? Was it true after all that men were born truthful and honest, as they were born poets and inventors, and that there must always be some evil trait of Titan proportions, to weigh down the Titan of good ? That the evil must always, in the moral econo my over shadow and outweigh the good, because its influence is the most powerful. Then arises the question that sorely troubles the thinker. Why Ged permits evil to be the stronger know ing that men will succumb to it? Whyjroa would permit the devil He oreated to possess more power over the Universe than He possesses? Why'Go if would be content to rule over units; while the subjects of the devil are as countless as the sands of the sea. Who reflects upon this at all, must reject the belief in a personal devil, who has more power over man than the God who made man, and who through all eternity, will in darkness and pain, lit only by the blue lights burning like stars on his brow, torture the feeblest and the grandest work of God’s hands while God up in the“heavens, will reign over a handful of men, His Kingdom like that cf Hesse Darmstadt compared to the whole known world. From the contemplation of this subject, her mind reverted again to her husband, and was he any worse than the vile men who ma ligned him, who magnified and exaggerated his offences, generally ? Horton had passed over these stories with contemptious silence, but now and then, he had faced the slanderer coolly, but with a dangerous gleam in the eyes, that could at will awe a madman, and the slander quickly shifted the blame to ‘they say,’ and got out of the scrape. Accused of crimes that would make him amenable to the law, no one had prosecuted him. This gave his wife not a morsel of com fort, for had he not proved to her, that the law took no cognizance of what was palpably as criminal as theft. Heart pleaded for him, and honor fought hard against him. ‘Knowing him to be corrupt yon share in the degredation if you remain with him,’ honor de clared sternly. ‘The accessory in crime is as bad as the prin ciple, if he will net amend his life; you must leave him. So the straggle began and was fought through sleepless nights, and desolate days, and of the final issue of the struggle there oou d be no doubt The woman was oast in too grand a scale, to let selfish considerations weigh, but the heart is no mean foe, and its pertinacity is a proverb. It will contest every inch. It knows well how to ca ry a redoubt—where to throw out its sappers and miners, and where the Quaker guns are mounted, and where the W6ak points are, and it will be on the alert to take advantage of them and moreover it is not familiarized with defeat. In one million of contests it will gain every battle, for only the very few in comparison are separated or divorced. Salome is paying her own board. She knows quite well that he is practicing dishonesty now as he has always practiced it and will take no share in it. • Mrs. Horton is mad,’ averred a positive look ing lady at the usual church sewing society. ‘ There is no sense in her giving music lessons. Her husband’s salary is quite large, and I hear he is the brain of the establishment’, ‘ I never liked her,’ replied a butterfly in a profusion of jewelry. ‘ She is a born censor. I told her a fib once, about the price of an article I had purchased, all women do that, and she found it out, and gave me her opinion of un truth. I’d like to know where she’d find a wo- —T" > u “- notitell such stories.’ • Speak for yourtjerr, st« -* ' ing lady with unaspiring nose. ‘I dont; but she must have a sweet time censuring Horton! My husband says he is the grandest rascal in the nation. If I was going to be a rascal, I would be a grand one too. 0 I tell Mr. Clark: anything for me but your mote sized villians. They all laugh. • Did you ever see any one change as she has done,’ observed another lady, with a waist about the thickness of a man’s thumb. ‘But, really, I never considered her so beautiful as some did. Her chin was too broad. ‘ My i adgmeat in regard to beauty has nev er be m impugned,’ Mrs. Clark interrupts hot ly ‘Chiu indeed! I’ve always noticed this, and more shams for us, that if any woman, is just enough to give unqualified praise, some woman introduces a bad chin, or bad teeth, or weak eyes, or poor nose, or something. Mrs. Horton is and always will be beautiful. It does not detract at ail from one’s looks to praise another and there’s more merit in my praising her for I don’t like her, but you kiss her and make the world of her when you meet, and run her down when =he is absent.’ She takeB up her parasol and marohes away, the personification of insulted dignity,, and when she is out of bearing, the one whom she has annihilated recovers her wits, and says: ‘ Isn't she funuv ? No one would tolerate her at all only she's rich. They say she has a ter- rible’temper, and that her husband will have to live in che hen-coop before another year, but I must go. Come around, Mrs. Smith! Mrs. Halo. I am not goiDg to ask you any more ! Good-bye! I must burry ! I am afraid now that I have staid too long from the baby and I don’t altogether like the looks of my new nurse,’ and away she sails, and the hostess says dryly: . jj ur3 e ! well, I don’t see for the life of me, how a man can keep a cook and nurse on a sal- aay of $125 per mouth, but then it is a railroad condactor and they have facilities, and are ex pected to be dishonest by the corporation that employs them. I understand he keeps a bank book and she wears diamonds, but then he has a rich mother who makes them handsome pres ents. They always have rich mothers or rich relatives, or have a legacy. That is throwing a sop to Cerberus that Cerberus neither eats or recognizes.’ ‘Oh you are too bad ! Mrs. Wilkins ! laughs her auditor, a giddy looking blonde. ‘ But she is no favorite of mine. She hasn’t a thought above dress, and she is quite content to be m society if she brings up the rear, like the spid ers in the procession entering Noahs arm I declare, I never see Arlington arrange the pro cession that the spiders do not suggest her. I’d rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. Of course, vou understand me, 1 have no refer ence to Biblical regions, I mean the grades ot society. Good-bye ! Don’t stay away an age. They kiss and separate, and a tad, cynical looking man comes in from a back room, wnere he has been for an hoar, and when ms wife breaks out With • Oh dear ! I am tired out with these shallow gossips who do nothing but criticise from dawn fill cL-k. I wish T sensible. which has been told you a hundred times, is be ing repeated, is to be in a miserable condition. CHAPTER VII. Domestic troubles are aptly termed ‘living troubles,’ and many a wife over the land turns the question of separation o?er in the solitude of her chamber, ofteO'kneeliQg with eyes blind ed with tears, praying God o show her wherein trne duty lies and to be a amp to her feet and to make her superior to seiish considerations, and many remain because hey can not get their own consent to leave, othea, because the world is oold.and dreary and the foar to work. Oth ers from false notions in «gard to separation. Who would remain one ho rbeside the physical leper who could get away »nd it is not one whit less imperative to wah one’s hands clear of the moral leper and esepe before the virus enters the blood. Qthersemain from the no bler motive to work nigbhnd day to win back to paths of peace the maun whom their sonl is oentered. The man wh( gives them a stone when they ask for bread, md who seldom re forms or even notioes tl ( sacrifices bitter as death. It is not an easy, natter even to leave a crnel, disrespectful, diipated man, for mem ory ever intrudes with h pictures, fresher and brighter than Landseers.<!he earlier bridal days and the time when iite wan rare June day and he was all a man should bend Hope, well named the siren, comes forwardith her pleasant prom ises of ultimate reforms® and whispers ‘wait’ and ‘wait’ and alternate depresses and exalts till life exhales. Conceive now, if you n, of the intensity of this struggle. Hadjm t even loved her, the chivalrous element waeo large in his nature that he must perforce he been kind to her, but loving her with passiote idolatry from first to last the most exaotinfoman could have found no fault. He gloried iber beauty and intel lect. In crowded asse»lies where brilliant wo men met, he, cooly cieal even in his love, saw with exultation tt she eclipsed them ( all. When the era of remstrance sets in, in mar ried life, happiness iover. Quarrels are pi quant among lovers—s vanilla to ice cream — but there must be noautr&diction, no fault finding or altercatioamong the married folks or the marital barque^now on the breakers. He ohafes at her siiedistress and resents bit terly her extraordinaicruples—scruples with out precedent he daiieclares. ‘I believe ycMroulsthor have me a tramp,’ he says one day; ang% ‘than to have me do business as other ij do. Salome, you are surely deranged.’ Close by lived a woo whose husband was an idler and a drunk. The process of kill ing to which she hadan subjected had been mercilessly slow and# had wearied of it and had ended it. Shei young, only thirty-two, but her hair was si white, and grim and si lent and desolate tiro man went to her daily work. This was sepion; looked at as you will, it is a picture colordth umbers and blacks and coid grays, in whino gold or crimson can possibly enter, anithis life honor was reso lutely impelling h> ‘I made twelve dred dollars to-day, Sa lome,’ Horton saice evening late in the fall. ‘Keep me down! ihow them! I’ll be back in my old place irs than five years. I am going to leave thee; I can do better on the street. Pluck als wins, and he who ‘en dures—conquers. ‘Where did you the money to operate on?' she enquires, wit dreadful sinking at her heart. ‘I borrowed it 1 the Safe,’ coolly, ‘Mason will never know iere wa3 no danger of his ever losing a dol Had there been a particle of risk, I wouldave done it.’ , ' k^.4s c fe d 0 15 i\ e }L prison,’ she says seriously, m has borrowed money in lei in that way, not par ing his employer, but who, ii»d and swindled his em- Iself a thief. Mr. Horton, efor your character that ■Ursuit of wealth, since you '• be honest and true and 11-gotten gains, right here .rite. I can be happy with Viot stay with you till you 1 isgust^I love you too well fyour derelictions. The before he unites himself to a rigidly conscien- tons woman; at any rate the average man, whose conduct at the best is decidediy ‘twisricsl,’ Spite of his declaration that he would never forgive her, he met her weekly and importuned her to return. He left the store and beoame a speculator in stocks, bonds, and re«l estate. He bought at cool gain, held at his own figures and got them. Ever on the alert, clear-headed aud unscrupulous to the last degree, men as essen tially corrupt advanced him money and were repaid a thousand told. A eool observer will point out the well-to-do men oa the pave., and the look of importance and complacence he had temporarily lost, returned to him once more. Crcasus would reign again in Sardis and royally as in lang syne. People began to see this and graded their courtesy accordingly—a shade or two greater every successful specuation. Then a wonderful discovery thrilled the popular pulse and men who went to bed cursing their bad luck and the bard, barren life that had trans formed the ‘Maud Muller’ of their boyish wor ship into a farm drudge, woke up not famous— but millionaires, and people flocked into Penn sylvania in vast multitudes and invested the hard earnings of years in land, not to g ather the yellow ore that is the cause of much of the sor row and distress ii> the world, but to ‘strike oil-’ Horton had owaed a barren tract in the favored region for years, and for years had paid taxes on it under protest, and the only reason ‘ But the wickedest man can reform ?’ ‘ 1 admit that; and at the eleventh hour—wit ness the thief on the cross, but try* to look on the case in this way. When we lovo we deify, suppose yon loved a woman and von thought her quite fit for angel companionship and after your marriage yon should discover that she was unfaithful, low and vile, without sense of honor or moral rectitude how long would your love survive? Suppose she were even actually criminal would you make the best of it and try to reform ber,.4nvote your days to reconstruc tion, or put her quietly away ?’ His dark face flushes. I don’t see the connec tion—the saum rule does not apply to men and women. A woman who is not pure and trne is •the most loathsome object oa earth. Men are walking in hourly temptation and when they fall, their fal^is never so great as a woman’s fall is, for she stands on a higher height than they.’ ‘Popular opinion,’ Vale says dryly ‘and so long as that license is given him, so long as his derelictions are condoned, so long as girls will associate with men who drink and idle and laugh at honor, so long will he disgraoe his sex. God made each man a sovereign—a king. A governor should be wise and great, the world can do as it pleases, /give a man no more license to him, than 1 give n woman, and he can only have Carte Vanche to do good who is honored with my friendship.’ Strong minded,’ he laughs. ‘And a South- that he had not sold it was, that no man had ey- t era girl! I thought you had no strong minded er asked lor it or wanted- it. He consulted the ? women in the dreamy South-land. Thought it map hurriedly, took the train and in ten days returned a millionaire. Out came the towu paper in a donble-leaded column ot congratula- was a proud boost with you, that you had no woman preachers, clairvoyants lecturers, or mediums, lawyers or doctors or dentists tions and promoted him to^ a generalship, (the j drunkards, and here you are advocating the week previous it had advanced to a judgeship a i doctrines of the Lucy Stone class. Miss Vale neighbor who had brought totli6 sanctum an ant ! Deane, I am ashamed of you. I am satisfied I did know one sensible, great-hearted woman.’ ... , He lios down on the sofa, ana laughs till he can laugh no longer and then proceeds to repeat some of the conversation anu winds up in a so ber dissertation that reduces his wite to tears. Who has ever been sick and has been compelled to lie in the bed and listen to different people talking and to conversation wherein h>\if a doz en porsuu3 participate, and who has not mar-, veiled .whether the demented do not tala bril liantly, since the rational talk like iuiots, nas had a blessed experience, and has escaped a torture for which he ought to be thanKtal every day. To be placed in the position to criticise and without power to change ‘ his base even when a story is as long as the Constitution of the United States with all its amendments and them i: ‘Many and mai that way and haps intending’ nevertheless, ployer and m since you care you risk it dail‘ are determined! to prefer pove: and now we m you no longer, become an cbj to be a daily w separation will Si, I will not be alive one vear from to-dAT, t is my duty to leave you and it shall be dc •You are not ine?t?’his eyes dilate and his ruddy face pa ‘Dead in eamete answers, ‘I will go to Mrs. Laogley’s tol, md any time you make up your mini to -us honest, upright life I will return to yop He blazes up: ‘I suppose you don’t care what th9 ] would say? It is well known that I haiys been devoted to yon; what constructicou suppose will be put upon your coadi of course I shall say that you left me ?’ * ‘The opinion world gives me no trou ble, I am actingling to the dictates of my conscience,'shtt. ‘It is a bitter thing to do, it has keptt for mouths.’ ‘Go,’ he says,y. ‘If for months, and while I have beshing every attention up on you—you ha coolly deliberating a sep aration. You fed treacherously and you are unworthy ution and I dan well spare you.’ He breaks qm and his voice is husky. ‘If you were evtiinal and a sinner I would not cast you ofke you to my breast and pardon and for offence. I have wasted my affection. iw, while doing all that a man can do tooney, it is of you I think, and of the beaings the money will pur chase for you. ve you are mad and that you do not ka you are doing and that I should be doiikindneas to put you into the Asylum, inee! what is conscience but education'ere raised by rigid, puri tanical parsufeir education has blasted your life. Gftever forgive yon, never, never!” So she goes her desolate life begins. She has but alars and Mrs. Langley’s boarding house borne till she can do better. Her nts on a graveyard, the carpet is so o is full of wrinkles and crowsfeet anen is so small that tho sin gle bed and lowd it terribly. Up the stairs is born of onions and cabbage, and the oaeia gloomy young person who has religie goitre asul an impedi ment in her/ho says ‘yes ma'am’ in place and ot, but whose capacity for staring is stri.lass. Mrs. Langley is a widow and ij throngh and through with tears, aty room in the house is a picture of thsarted,’ whose nose is like the smoke sfcomotive, and whose ugli ness must hijs strong point, spite of * K " widow's on that he was ‘distia- the guishei tor race and moral worth.' into this gl minds the e, filled with unhealthy never penetrated. A preacher dyivitfi consumption, a deaf old lady wl, be talked to, and who had the gift ‘ompleted the household. Sometimes impressed her to that ex tent that she d i n fiight, and wended her way to r s b 0 p, hungering for cheery fao« r y gpeecb. From these visits she ret.^ej. ttn( j resolute tc bear her cross. • ‘She will l week,’ Horton had said when they maa fc ac i better reflect- of Brobdignag proportions,) and thus made the ‘amende honorable for calling Horton in his dark days a ‘Trichinea spiralis,' and a ‘conglomera tion of the instincts of the reptile and the hyena.’ Camber met him that day and said, ‘Horton, yon deserve yonr luck because you have kept murderous hands off the men who gloried in slandering you. You were always bad enough the Lird knows, but after they had colored the picture here and there, Lucifer was actually a saint to you. Men have been made murderers by a tithe of the provocation that you have re ceived. How could you stand such a cyolone of abuse.’ ‘Poor devils,’ Horton said dryly, ‘some of them will not make again, let them try ever so hard, the amount I lost for them, and they knew it and it crazed them. Crazy people are not choice in their language. If this windfall had not come I would be rich all the same, for that moment I made up my mind that my cap loity for making money had gone from me, thai moment would have sealed my doom; I’d rather be a hog and wallow in the gutter thau die a poor mac. If the men I feasted and fed come about me, I will feast them and feed them again and be reveng ed enongh in being able to do so.’ Latter in the day four of his depositors met him, their hearts bitter with envy, but urbane of speeoh. These men had been particularly ex asperating. These four men had not scrupled to malign his virtue, though there was not the shadow of foundation for this slander, Mr. Horton holding the sensual man in scathing contempt. They prefer their request with be coming modesty and the non committal eyes in- furi 'te them as they speak. ‘Gentleman!’ Horton says blandly, and his face darkens. ‘When I failed, and through no fault of my own, I made a note of those deposit ors who bore their trying losses with composure and philosophy, and a baby could count them on its fingers. I resolved to pay their principal and interest when the dark days were over, al though there would b9 no legal obligation to do death shVdeposTted’with’me 2J 1 UOO f an5‘after- wards gave up bridal gifts and heir-looms to help me to discharge my indebtedness. The others are, Mr. Hubert the jeweler 10,000, Mr. Alden the lawyer six thousand dollars. Some thing must be done to stop the foul abuse and detraction the average man pours out when his Royal Highness’ temper is rufiied. To these lies, slanders, misrepresentations, I am indebted for the love of my wife. You had your own fun in slandering me and breaking my heart. If every dollar I own was a billion,' his face pales to snow, and a bitter devil glares down from the eyes full of passionate despair. ‘I would not pay yon one dollaw! You low curs, who have separated my wife from me, and destroyed my domestic peace. Learn hereafter to bridle your tongues, and teach your children that he makes money who keeps a civil tongue in his mouth.' He smiles and leaves them cursing their bad luck and acknowledging that his retaliation is natural if the reverse of high. Mr. Hurbert and Mr. Alden receive their money in dumb astonishment and their families are jubilant. Mr. Horton calls at Mrs. Langley's and re quests to see Mrs. Horton. Sue meets him coldly and refuses to accept the wealth he is prepared to cast at her feet, and his ridicula of her present surroundings does not provoke a reply. • All men congratulate me and my wife with holds her good wishes,’he says bitterly. ‘Ah God I how you must hate me, since vou prefer to live here,among people every bit as'strango as the queer folks in Dickens, rather than to stay with me, but as long as you live I will try to bring you back. I will never give up trying till I die or'you die. I never eared for wo men as other men care. My mother and yon are tho sum total of my preferences. If you are firm I also am firm, and* if you go away I will follow. Your conduct would have alienated the affection ot an ordinary man, I believe you are the victim of monomania and that you will come home to me yet.’ And so that interview ended. These inter views of almost weekly re-currence tortured her Appetite tailed, sleep fled her couch, color and flesh vanished. Horton is master of pathos and employs it without stint. He has furnished a palatial mansion on a fashionable street, and people speak wonderiugly of »ma!achite mantels, and mosaic tables,and the almost royal grandeur ot the interior of the house, and old acquaint ances met her and smiling swoetly asked: ‘ When are you going home Mrs. Horton?’ To all of whom she would aawer: ‘ Very soon I hope,’and leave them to marvel at her difatoriness,'as days drifted by and the grand house was still without a mistress. ‘I am afraid Mrs. Horton is really insane,’ Camber observed one evening. What right has she to be so unforgiving and to keep the offence ev6r before her ? Christ received St. Paul and forgot his misconduct. He was evil enough too and y9t he became che sun of the apostles. St. Peters’ denial affected Christ’s love for him not at all and tho Magdalene sat, a daughter at his feet. If Horton has been a swindler and cheat that is no reason why she should dismiss him as one whose reformation was impossible. What is the reason he cannot reformas other men? as I have done. Why don’t yon try to make her see her error. She is too hard on him.' ‘ She has not given me her confidence,’ Vale an swers ‘and being altogether ignorant of heraf- ffairs I am ablo tc form any opinion. Personally I would never overlook lack of honesty and integ rity and if I was married under false pretences I would separate from my husband and I think hate him forever for taking me in. Just think of the depth and scope oh such disappointment, think of the spectres grouped about such a life. The spectres of youth, hope, trust, faith inno cent illusions and heart verdure, tho murder of these, not a whit less torrible in my estimation than the murder that extinguished life.’ that you did not entertain these opinions when you rolled down Canal Street in your luxurious barouche, with a negro oa each side to fan you.’ She laughs at his absurdity. ‘ I don't think in those golden days, that I had any deeper thought than flirtation and how to enjoy; and had prosperity continued, I would have been as valueless as the leives of the trees that the frost kilis. When I look back and con trast this life with th<xt I do not regret that riohes took to themselves wings, for if poverty makes greatness of existence impossible, riches is also a strong barrier to-soul advancement." He rises smilingly: ‘ Well I for one do not intend to let riohes shut the golden gates on me, I beg to report that I have done all in my power to relieve the ‘widows and the orphans’ in Baker Street. The widow's face has shortened ten inches sinoe my first visit When it fills oat some, she will be quite extractive. My house is oppressively quiet at times; I believe I will marry uer. Nine children would make it quite cheerful. Have you found any more dilapidated people?' She hands him a paper with the name and address of a destitute family. ‘There’s just one thing hateful in the pisition of almoner,’ he says with a curl of the lip. ‘The people are too grateful in speech. One woman called me an angel last week, Well, if she’d call me a. ‘varmeut” I would have liked it muoh better.’ And he bows himself out. (TO BE CONTINUED.) Humility of Jesus. The life and death of our Lsrd Jesus Christ are a standing rebuke to every form of pride to which men are liable. Take for instanoe: Pride cf birth and rank—‘Is not this the car penter’s Son?' Pride of wealth—‘The Son of man hath not where to lay His.head.’ Pride of respectibility—‘Can any good thing Nazareue^ N,47 ' irfltb? ’ He shall be called a Pride of personal appearance—‘He hath no form nor comliness. ’ Pride of reputation—‘Behold, a man glutton ous and a wine-biber; a friend of publicans and sinners. Pride of independence—‘Many others, who ministered to Him ot their substance.’ i d>ride , . laarnin g —‘How kaoweth this Man letters, hiving never learned?’ thft r serveL 3UPeri0rity ~‘ I am amoa S y™ “she Pride of success—‘He camo unto hi3 own and His own rsceieved Him not.’ ‘He was despised and rejected of men.’ I nde of self-reliance—‘He went down to Naz areth, and was subject unto them.’ Pride of ability—‘I can of mine own self do f* „“ g ; ’Thetjea can do nothing of himself, but what He seeth the Father do. ’ Pride of self-will—‘I seek not my own will, bat tie will of Him that sent me.’ Pride of intellect -‘As my Father hath taught me 1 speak these things.’ s Pride of bigotry—-Forbid him not ; for he t.ia„ is not against us is oa our pa-t ’ v fre86Qtm8at '‘ Fdther - forgive them fore urfc^ D0!: w „ hat tu °y do. ‘Friend where- ior© art tuou cjni'3 ? Pride of reserve—‘My soul is exceeding aor- i 0 S:z at m T 0desth - Ji m “ OrS d oi°on!- d r tha s t Sh0U I d £ lor L in the world ° Ur JedUS Carist, by whom the wo°S.’ lS G Tvfl4 d UUt ° m6 ’ aQd ' 1 Uat0 ** Hoi> a Little Girl Factid Death. touc h hin5v W te r n« C h° UDty (Ky,) Writer thn u,,le * rt f ‘“ d Walfcm» ae u a u right llttle daughter of Mr. T W near Roano\/ eUe ?, tiy at her residence', Little Willie h W* 10 seve Qth year of her age. hire hlr ? iok a ioa g time, vet she around her nnd u; •*. , bl “‘fler and sister She lingered unH? a Vlded U “, 0ng - them her without the least apparent ch^ thS SV&mng conscious coml ,r iw ^ e l 1 “ a Perfectly bar. She counted thU/^ V“ g ‘° those arouad seven; aidwhenR^ a ” the clouk tolled ber facher? and “ail ^ Q T 8h6 n’ 3be turubd to clock strike again- d V ' 1 ut,ver boar the was given her an’daitet^l^r appr<3 ’. TLe a PP id began talking of dtiT * ag “ plece ofit -be sion to being g pnt d ulde’r th« rt,S8mg i a great aver * She was assured that' ^ud alter death. -ewvrfs £,V-- 7 ‘ .*» seemed to give hrn Heaven. This U0 , a - V ‘ aaJ went to And on being assure 1°til’ ^ iu Heaveu V .thanlandlet me Z’ ^ ^ ' Turu on her side, and spok^rZ* tsndd r r r l - v tur aed tolled eif-fit all the u? kd , EO more ‘ Pue clock board il dSt?-*™* <«• »•«*>»«™ Mind voiar utrna \ ap the toast: ‘Woman ZZZZ’ ' n - etting be a savage ’ got vvub P ut bor, man would which made 8 ! reld . w m the wrou 8 plaCd ‘ “«>, would be a savage.’ ^ oman ’ wit bouc her and she’s’ Tifst^tr- tCr seems to be going blind, too ! O dell * f T g - road ? f or her wading, go right on 18 to be done ? ‘Let her mean! If anythinVcin We(ldlI } g ’ madam ‘ a11 will.’ ‘ n S can open her eyes,marriage