1898.]
fish,. so self-sacrificing ! They will force you from one resource
to another until you will be compelled to seek for rest beneath the
the ground. I would spare You this calamity. i can hardly be
lieve that anyone should be so hard-hearted as to refuse my re
quest." Her words turned to sobs, and, pressing her handker
chief to her eyes, she rushed from the room.
StOger was in a frame of mind such as he had not been in for .
years.
" One can't find rest even in his own apartments," he growled.
" Such a shameless little woman coining here to tell me disagree
able things. Gross impertinence. She called me a hard-hearted
old man, and for •all that she expected me to do the amiable. But
she struck the wrong man. I must confess that she has a temper.
Appears to have an especial regard for her sister; noticed that
when she was talking to her lover. I think I should like to see
her sister. It must be remarkable to know such love."
Reflectively he arose, and, seating himself in an armchair by the
fireplace, sat,. with sunken cheek resting upon his hand, watching
the flickering blaze of the fire.
" What was it she said ? ' What do you know about love.
You do not appear as though you could ever have loved any-
one.' "
His eyes assumed a stare such as we acquire when we endeavor
to look into the past. •
While the flames flickered and forked there arose before him
the picture of a woman, tall and slender, with unfathomably deep
dark eyes and haughtily arched lips. He saw the dark eyes,
lighted with love's flame, resting upon him and heard the proud
lips whisper loving words. She ruled and reigned in his house as
his pure and holy wife. But she was not now alone. In her
arms she bore a child which gleefully stretched out its chubby
little arms toward him. Father ! He grasped the tongs and thrust
theM into the fire, stirring it until the flames leaped high up into
the chininey. 'He saw her again before him; saw how the blood,
which was flowing violently through her veins, mounted to her
teniples when he accused her so delicately, but, oh, so wildly;
saw her preSs the 'child close to her bosom, and, without one word
besfOw upon him 'a look of scorn and disdainfully pucker her lips.
He again saw himself, how he, recovering from the delusion,
returned after a brief departure, only to find his house empty;
how he, despairing in heart, hastened after her, who had de-
Christniastide