Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 32, Number 296, 7 December 1907 — Page 7

THE RICHMOND PALLAD1U3I AXD SUN-TELEGRA3I, SATURDAY. DECEMBER 7, 1907

PAU1S SJKVEN. By HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD

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MRS. BARTLENEY had gone home to her mother, and now Mr. Bartleney was Bitting by the dull fire in a state of mind as gloomy as the room and the weather. There was no reason for the room to be gloomy, with Its moss-green rugs, its satin draperies the color of a green wood with the eun shining through It, the half-glimpsed mosaic of its book-lined walls, with the flicker of the embers on the jewel of t Corot of the middle period, on the crescent of a Diana, on the tall silver tripod holding what once bad been a great tsheaf of red roses. But the roses Brooped dead and withered; no one had changed ihem; he had ordered the room to be left as It was. tf there were dust upon it, no matter; hi3 life was lust dust and ashes. He himself had laid the logs together for the fire when he came in. He had said he would hare some wmblance of cheer on this the ere of what had been sront to be a golden anniversary, the anniversary of their wedding day. Yet why he wanted such outside Iheer when there was none within he could not say. What a little while ago it seemed now since the irst evening they had spent In this delightful room the day he had given her the deed of the house. It has her house, although she had left it. He would have to be out of It soon, of course. Well, that waa hardly of moment. With life shattered what signified the fate of the broken pieces? He remembered that evening. They had stood at the window, looking out at the space below before the door, where the sparrows had not yet taken all the red berries from the single shrub that laden with icicles sparkled in radiant colors touched by the aeon. "More wedding gifts," he had said, and they had Jested about the hidden treasures. "There!" he had said. "Do you see that ruby?" as one of the red berries sparkled in its icy sheath. "The Maharajah of Pooraabad has sent it to the loveliest woman of her day." "That's me!" she said, gayly. "That's you," and he sealed It with a kiss. "And there, at the tip of that right-hand boughdo you see? That big diamond no, It is a jeweled, order, all of old mine stones. The Czar sends it to the bravest man in America, the man who had the cou-age to marry me." And then she went dancing dawi the room, her white garments floating and whirling about her. while she warbled like a bird; and Be had called her his stem of Bacred cherry blossoms, his white chrysanthemum, his darling wife. And they had lighted the fire upon the hearth themselves their first fire. And she had gone to the window to pull down the shades. "Good-bye, dear moon," she had said, "sweet honeymoon. You were only a line of light when we were married and started on our journey soon, oh, how: boon now, you will go into eclipse " "No, no," he had explained, "that honeymoon Is going to last as long as we do." And as she sat in the great arm-chair, and he half lay on the rug, his head upon her knee, they drew pictures of their future, as bright as the glow of the fire, as sweet as the smell of the roses, full of all dear possibilities and promises. What had happened tbr honeymoon had gone the way of all moons, ami .1 gone so quickly? Had it been his fault, or hers? They were still so . oung life before them. All had seemed so sure and sweet. And now death itself had been better! His breath, was half a sob; and then a sudden anger burned the tears away. He rose, and scratched a match, lighting his cigar. But the trail of thin blue smoke presently died, and his hand hung listlessly over the chair. He ceased thinking; he was simply suffering. A clock struck in some remote region. The slow, funereal toll chimed with his sensations. He was lost; some men were lost before they were dead. The clock struck again, a tinkling silver bell in a farther room seemed to mock it. Yes, he said to himself, stirring, and his thoughts coming to the top again but what had caused it? Was it he, on the day when, he so admired the color of that Titianesque woman' hair Mrs. Fairfax? But no, Winifred had no Jealousy at all. He was the one who was jealous jealous tf the sun shone on her. If the wind blew on her, if any looked at her too lingerlngly. "Was it when he refused to have her go on Melchior's yacht to the Bermudas? But he knew who and what they were en that party. He was right then; certainly he was right. He would do it rjraln! She had pouted a little; but he took her into Tiffany's that afternoon, end gave her a string of octchless pearls that cost tlmost as much as Melchior's yacht. She was so beautiful, so bright, so dainty, in her exquisite flower-like grace and charm, that it was no wonder all society made a darling of her. No, he had not objected to that; he had enjoyed seeing her ail-but triumphal progress like that of some fairy queen In her procession when "First went by the milk-white steed, and syne went' by the brown." It might have been when he abruptly forbade her playing bridge for money. "Why, I might as well go into a nunnery!" she sad cried. "I had as lief you would!" he had answered. "You would rather I left you left you! and went Into that terrible life, the monotony and seclusion and dreariness and deadliness of a convent, than that t should amuse myself " "I don't want you to amuse yourself with , gambling!" he had said. "I don't care what you want!" she cried in a little fury. "You are a tyrant A tyrant is always a monster! "And he had gone out of the room and slammed the door behind him. He was as angry now as he was then. He was no angrier when, a few days afterward, he met her on Fifth avenue with a little parcel in her hand. "What Is It?" he had asked rather amusedly, having noted something hesitating in her manner, something surprised and furtive. Suddenly, like one taking a resolution and a long breath, she had torn off the delicate wrapping, and opening a hid box had displayed a pendant of a big pearl and some diamonds. "Why!" he exclaimed, not too well pleased for he liked to give hex such things himself "I thought you eald yesterday that your check-book was empty, and your bank account, too!" "So It is," she said gayly. "This I bought with yesterday's bridge winnings."

"Winifred!" he exclaimed in displeasure and reproach. "Yes," she said. And the lovely color deepened on her cheek and her eyes shone. "And you'd better understand that I am going to be my own mistress in the matter of my own morals and manners, and do as I please. I am not a child!" "You act like one," he said, and raised his hat and left her. He had not dared trust himself with another word. He had glanced back, though, like a fool, when he had gone perhaps a hundred yards, and she was looking back, too. And she lifted her hand, with the box In it, and shook it joyously, and laughed and went on; and he was angrier than he had been before. He had said no more about It at home. They were giving a great dinner that night; a foreign prince their .chief guest. It was no time for friction; and in truth when he saw her at the head of the table, radiant in her pale peach velvet with that pendant challenging him from a slender gold thread at the throat with none of the Jewels he had given her, neither the bandeau of big stones for her hair, nor the chains and rivieres of diamonds, nor the collar of pearls she was still so exquisitely beautiful that he forgot all about his wrath or anything but his love. She came to him when all the guests were gone; he had Just returned from a last word with one of them; and she unhooked the pendant and held it towards him. "Here it is," she said laughingly. "You may have it." "I!" he had exclaimed. "What should I want of it?" "For the other one," she said. "What other one?." he still asked wonderingiy. "Oh, Mrs. Kesler says there always is another "

I won't have her on your visiting list. I positively " And then she had sprung up like an angry sprite. "How old do you think I am?" she had exclaimed. "Not old enough to go alone," he had replied. "I am to be in leading-strings all my life. I dont care anything about Mrs. Kesler. I don't even Hue her. I was going to say I would give it to her and be done with her. But now now " And then he had laid hold of her, and kissed her again and again the innocent dar thing. He did not remember that he had ever seen Mrs. Ke3ler since. And so it could not have been she that brought about the trouble. What was it happened next? What was the disagreement he could not recall. Had they grown so frequent as that? But he recalled her crying out, "Really, you find it difficult, this breaking me in! Why do you need no breaking In? One would think you were born married. You are quite the right thing, yourself, are you not?" He! He who could not keep one little minx in order, who did not know how to make the woman he loved happy. The woman no, she would never be anything but a child. How long was it since she began to make a pet of a menkey; and, dressed in white fur and a white plush bonnet with great rolling white plumes, had taken him out in the carriage, where he skipped from side to side with his capricious motions, and once, when she dropped the leash, had scrambled up the coachman's shoulders and leaped over to the back of one of the horses, which, not being a circus horse, had reared and broken his harness, and there had been a runaway, and Jocko had not recovered from his injuries? But he had refused to see his wife engaged in such a public folly when he met the equipage in the park, and Jocko had made him a salute. And on the little creature's death, she had really acted as if her husband had been to blame for it. "You hated him, you know you did!" she sobbed. "I did not hate him," he said. "I disliked to see you " "But they all have something of the sort!" "My wife should be above it." "Oh, what an awful thing it is to be your wife! To live up to that blue china! I will have a little pig

tal's power!" And for a little while all was smooth sailing. Well, whose fault was it then? His, of course, if he distrusted her so. But when such a man as Hi!!?a Herbert hovered iound his wife, like a night-moth round a white flower, what husband would not have interfered? It had seemed to him a profanity that such a man should so much as speak to her. And. alas, he had said so. And, alas, she had resented his taying so. "As if I could not take care of myself!" she cried. "How perfectly insulting! Do you know this person yourself?" And he confessed that he did not, and did not wish to. "Then how can you condescend to believe gossip of such a sort? I am going to ride with him In the park this very morning'" "Not with my consent." "With or without it," she said; and swept from the room like an angry Titania. A moment afterward she had pushed aside the portiere and looked in with a laughing face. "You can come along, too, if you like." she aald gayly. "This sweet spring air will blow the cobwebs out of your brain." "I? I would not be seen speaking to him in the place of departed spirits!" "He is so bad, and you are so good, you won't be likely to have the chance," she 6aid. But she did not go to ride that morning. In fact she was too busy with the designs for the furnishing of the little Newport villa he had bought. Seated at her desk she went over the plans in detail. She meant to have everything In aplder-legged and curious fashion, inlaid old mahogany and birch, with mirrors of fanciful frames, silken hangings, porcelains, and prints of the period. It kept her for a time fluttering like a flock of butterflies over a bed of flowers; and it used to delight htm to see her pretty preoccupation, her Importance, and her judicial air, as her agents ransacked for her the old furniture Ebops from Portland to El Paeo. As for the cost of it all that did not seem to occur to her. It was when she was buying old china that he mentioned to her the fact that he was not made of money.

Wk Mm H Pt M? 1 Iff - jjm I r F ! pllf m its wMm IP m r "sf& eft-- W W

REACHED UP TO SHAKE A SHOWER OF ROSE PETALS OVEft HIM.

"Mrs. Kesler is an abominable woman! She is a detestable woman!" he cried hotiy. "She said it always arouses a fit of furj; if you show you know it." "Know what!" he roared. "Oh, come' she said. "I don't heller it. I onlj thought I would try the trick." "Winifred, is it possible " "No, it Isn't possible. I know you love your wife, and only your wife. Although you are dreadfully masterful. You would have liked to shake me this morning. Only you couldn't on the street. There! I'll never wear the horrid pendant again." And she was hanging on his arm and resting her head on his shoulder. "I will give it to Mrs. Kesler, and she " "Why should you give such a gift to her? It would seem like an expression of altogether too much intimacy. Why do you associate with so low-minded, so so undesirable a woman at all?" TT-Vs.e 13 comlns to lunch here to-morrow," laughed Winifred lightly. ;i forbid it!" he had cried. "I forbid It!" oi can t. The invitations were accepted a fortnight ago." "Well. then. After to-morrow. I don't think Mrs is.esir is a proper person for my wife to know. Her past is is beyond suspicion. It is absolutely proved.

now, a little white pig, with pink ribbons. Perhap9 you will like that better!" And she had gone to bed crying. 1 am not crying!" she said indignantly, when hs protested. "Don't flatter yourself that either what you say or what you don't say can make me cry! I'm crying because I've been such a simpleton, and you needn't say I've plenty of reason to cry, then, for I know it myself, or I would never have married you! I doa't see why I did. I've been a great deal more in love with a very different " "I don't believe it," he said; and he took her In his arms and soothed her. But if he did not believe it, why, then, had he -pent so much thought about it, conjecturing who this very different person could be? Never a talkative man, he became more and more silent with the days, almost indeed morose. "I know what ails you!" she cried exultingly one day. "You are wondering who it is I was in love with. Oh, my gracious! it was when I wore short skirts and ankle-ties, with my hair tied with a rlBbon on top of my head. And you used to come to see Aunt Theodora Aunt Theodora! Fancy! You were in love with her yes, you were! though she was twenty years older than you. And I thought you were a perfect being. And I can't pretend to care for you now as I did then. It isn't in a grown-up mor-

"This china is," ths said Indifferntly. "Look at it! Beautiful bank-bills melted up and moulded, with here and there a Jewel run in, a ruby, an emerald. I never dreamed of having such cups aa these. I remember one such cup. Just one, when I was a kidit made tea. cambric tea, taste like nectar. I used to find so many stories In Its little pictures of quaint people the strange boy with the maid behind him, the lady looking out of her window at the mandarin in the garden, all in this mosaic of birds and butterflies and roses. I always wondered what it meant." "It meant a mint of money." "I really should think yon were grudging me things!" "Grudging you? Don't you have all the money you want, Winifred?" he had demanded. "I don't know that I do." And then, remembering his tone. "No! Not half!" she cried defiantly. And he had stalked in great dignity from the room. But he had placed goodness knows what sum to her credit the next day. But after that came the laying out of the rose garden at the villa. He was not allowed to look at it before the second summer the high red brick wall with its coping of dull red tiles, built against unfavor able winds, the red cedarwood benches, and the pergola of red cedarwood posts where the roses in their varying shades from deepest crimson to palest blush

climbed and made their splendid piec of color against the blue of the distant sea lifted behind It. "You are tx artist!" he exclaimed, the first morn iug he walked there with her. "I always knew I waa!" she said. "And this Is ouly the beginning. Every year will make it lovelier. Look at the trees they only cost five thousand apitce. Some people pay fifty. Now aren't you sorry jou called me names?" "Called you names?" "Well, yes. the same thing when you wouldn't Ul me have my own way." "Who ever bad their own way more than you?" "Oh, here, may be. But you certainly have looked out that my way should be your way." And she be gun to collect her fancied injuries. "Winifred, darling. It has been because I loved you." "Then I wish you didn't lore me so mneh!" she had exclaimed. And she disappeared down a shady alley, only to came back swiftly, laughing. Then, suddenly leaping upon a garden-seat, she reached up to shake a shower of rose-petals over bitn as he stood wondering. "Oh, you poor stupid darling!" she cried. "Do I wear your life out?" It was when they came back to the house In town that Winifred began to be so quiet for a little while, Whether she were thoughtful or melancholy he could not say. but there was a certain sweet difference about her that made him feel as if the earth h4 turned and were going the other way. He had come in, and was sitting In this very chair, and she was rearranging the roses In the tall tripod. "No dining out to-night, thank heaven," he said. "No people coming in, please heaven!" She ran and sat down on tb? arm of his chair. "This Is going to be the dearest night of the season," he added. "Just us two together." She stooped a minute, and hid her face beside his ear. "Just us three," she whispered. And thea she had held him convulsively a momsat. aad had laughed like a sprite at his Joyous amase. Whose fault bow was all that followed? He had wished to take such delicate and especial care of her: she had abandoned her quiet, and insisted upon going her own way, brooking no Interference, dancing and riding and doing as she pleased. But how Ineffably lovely she was that morning when they brought him to see her. as she lay there with her baby on her arm I. White as the pillow, she looked up and smiled. "It is a miracle." she sighed. "God said 'Let there be light, and there was light.' Do you suppose he will be good?" she said. "Oh, if I hadn't been so worthless!" It was only three days later that the baby lay little waxen Image as exquisite as a flower. "You will never forgive me," she said, staring with great, ftverish eye. "Tou win never forgive sae. 1 have killed your little son!" "My child! How wildly you talk!" "No, no. If I had done aa you said. If I had kepi quiet if if if Oh. you see I wasn t fit to be trusted with him! Yon might as well think of a butterfly for a mother. God had pity on the little aaaa. Besides, he would have Inherited so much that 1 bad In me and and you are not perfect yourself!" she eaid. And then she began to cry out wilder things In a delirium; and. her life hanging by a thread, he did aot know how it waa saved at last. They had gone then up the Mediterranean, cruising through the Ionian waters aad along the purplebrown Calabrlan shores till hop aad health made them happy again. Aad then It was Parts, for nsw gowns. And Winifred had gone wild over "Pellsas and Mellsaade": aad her own voice had growa stronger, and she knew ahe could slag and play that s well an Oar den did; and although he himself had seen no beauty in It. and beard mo melody, aad aha hu called him a savage, yet he could refuse her nothing after she had been given back from the depths of death. And w they had delayed that aha might have some lessons from the great masters. And thsn had coma those accursed private theatricals. And all the town waa ringing with report of her beauty, her dramatic Are, her voice, aad Hillls Herbert's plead ita rang louder than all the rest. What a night it was that of her triumph! AU the world waa there. The toilettes were of the most magnificent; diamonds flashed hack the light at every rolnt, and Illumined the place with their own splendor; the flower thrown upon the stage filled the air with perfume. The play called for all her espleglsrle, all her charm. If he had not been able to suppress a thrill of something like pride, yet he had known that, for all its resemblance, this was aot the real thing; that an amateur affair, at Its best, was very different from the greater achievement. . But nothing had been seen by Winifred in thai light For her the glamour orer It all was still tllu slve. "This settles it," she said, when he saw hes next day. after her slumbers, that had lasted Into the afternoon. "This settles it. I always thought 1 could. Aad now I know. I am going directly to Farts again, aad I shall study with Marches!, aad with De Resake, maybe. And you will think you are dreaming when you see sue, when you hear me, as Lucia, as Carmen; as Vloletta, as Salome "Dreaming! he exclaimed. "I should think I was dead aad damned, tf I saw it!" "Oh, oh. oh!" with both hands at her ear. "How can you talk sot How " "I hate itl I loathe the whole thing! X shivered when I saw that man' "Well, if you're not too absurd." "My darling." he said presently, trying to epeaK calmly. "Yours is a beautiful roles. I always thought It was. But it is not a stage voice. It is what they call a drawing-room voice perfect In its place. You can give absolute delight la small spaces; but in a great opera-house you would fall heart-brokenly. You force me to speak plainly.' . But the argument was in Tela. There had been other productions of the operetta for pleasure, for charity, for practice. With every one the charm had grown stronger. But finally there came a time of silence, of singular sweetness; and thea of frequent bursts of weeping; and at the end a flash of anger; and she had gone back to her mother. And that was a month ago. A weary, dreary month with the life and soul gone out of the house. He had watted at first, when the shock of It was over, thinking she would come back. But now he felt there was no hope. He must close the house aad be off. rerhaps he could forget hor perhaps he could outlive 1L But he knew he could not. And it was all the loss of her the loss of life. It was fear of the ruin that must com- to her; the lowering standards, the debased ideals. And when he thought of her In the atmosphere of certain men who might be singing with her, of certain women, of all the glitter over all the shine, his heart was a lump o' lead, his soul ached, and he bowed his head upon h.a knees and groaned in a dull misery: And then there came a timid touch upon his arm a touch light as that of a butterfly's wing upon his hair. And all of a sudden his head was lifted and laid en a fluttering heart, and kisses were being rained upm his face. "Oh. oh. oh!" cried a voice like the music of the spheres to bis hearing. "You hat been crying! I am glad you are sorry; for I waa, oo. The first day I was free as a bird. The next day my wings felt broken. And I have been In torment ever since! I don't care anything about the singing any more. I wouldn't if I could, and I couldn't if I would! If ya If you forgive me, I never " And as he sprang to his feet and held her off. and caught her hack, she clung to him a moment with passionate tenderness before darting away. "We musn't cry or go over thlaga she exclaimed. "We mustn't have any seenee. We are done with scenes. We have just escaped death and desolation. My! How cold you are! We hare lmost Jet the fire go out!"

A BRIDE-TO-BE IS DESERTED INTENDED SPOUSE VAMOOSES WITH PRETTY FIANCEE'S PURSE, CONTAINING LARGE AMOUNT OF MONEY.

Greeucastle, Ind., Dec. 7 Coming from Indianapolis to obtXin a marriage license here Miss Nellie Moore appealed to the police for help Thursday aJtt-

eruoon. saying that fhe bridegroom-to-be, Harry Wheeler, who accompanied her to this city, had clixaoDeared with $15 of her nioner

In telling her story to Marshal Reeves the pretty Indianapolis girl said that they fully intended to get' married this evening and she cau't imagine what made her sweeineart treat her so. She said that when they arrived in the city today he told her to wait at the hotel for him while he went out to look up a friend who would assist them in securing the license. He was to be gone only a short time and when the minutes .grew into hours she became nervous and went to the police. She had given him her to keep in

safety and she feared that she had lost both the bridegroom and the money. The police took his description, but tonight had failed to discover any clew.

Pneumonia Follows a Cold

but never follows the ui-c of Foley's Honey and Tar. It stops the cough, heals and strengthens the lungs and prevents pneumonia. A. G. Luken & Co.

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LETTER LIST.

Women Mrs. Katie Bany, Goldie Crawford, Mrs. W. R. Gilson. Mrs. Sarah McCreedy, Mrs. Luella Murohy. Men S. J. Brown, Kar 1 Coovert, Chas. Collins, Clinton Campbell, Dennis & Walters, John Gard, F. Glaser, Patrick J. Griffin, H. Henry, James Hayden, John H. Hageman, Chas. Krowaur, Samuel E. King, Mr. Kibbey, S. J. McConnell, Mathias ParshalU J. Judson Post, All Parks Seth Seibert,

Mike Sobosko, Chas. Taylor, Chas. Waller, Dave Wilson, John Weber. Drops M. T. Crook. Toramle Contuff, Mrs. Lou Green, Mrs. Kate Johnson, E. J. Kile. Albert Stanley. Mrs. Mattie W. Whiting. Helen White. J. A. SPEKENHIER. P. M.

Hollister's Rocky Mountain Tea purifies the blood, regulates the bowels, aids the kidneys, cures' stomach troubles, builds up the nervous force; makes you well and happy. 35 cents; Tea or Tablets. A. C. L.ukea & Co.

An aged man familiar with the people of the metropolis, says nothing seems to astonish a New York man aa much as to find some desired purpose which can not - be accomplished by money.

Leaving Richmond 11:15 p. m. via C. dr L lands you in Chicago at T OO a. m. Throagh sleepers and coaches. You will like it. apr6-tf

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