An Ambitious Man

Preston Cheney followed the dictates of

were his to enjoy. Yet Senator Cheney, as he was now known, was far from a happy man. Disappointment was written in every lineament of his

ws are bought with money and bribes; and to the proud young American there was the addition

n the purse of his father-in-law. In those subtle, occult ways known only to a jealous and designing nature, the Baroness found it possible to make Preston's life a torture, wit

lifetime, Preston was subjected to a great deal more of her persecutions than would otherwise have been possible. Mabel was never happier tha

exhibition of sympathy, which to a weak and selfish nature is as pleasing as it is distasteful to the proud and strong. And by this inexhaustible flow of sympathetic feeling, she caus

o bear his name, and do the honours of his house, and to be let alone as much as possible. It was the nam

d the helpless infant shared with its father the resentful anger which dominat

hims and desires, and never to be crossed in an

ound less and less to win or bind him to his wife. Wretched as this condition of life was, it might at least

lounged or lolled, quite content with her situation until the tone and words of her step

r husband does not adore you-but men are blind to the best qualities in women like you. I never hear Mr Cheney praising other women without a sad and almost resentful feeling in my heart, realising how superior you are to all of his favourites." It was the insidious effect of poisoned flattery like

n in his life. Indulged in every selfish thought by her mother and the Baroness, peevish and petulant, always ailing, complaining and discontented, and still a victim to t

nd impossible, and her twentieth birthday found her with no education, with no use of her reasoning or will powers, but wit

en years of age, leaving both his widow

oof. Senator Cheney had purchased a house in New York to gratify his wife and daughter, and it was here the family resided, when not in Washington or at the seaside resorts. Both women wished to forget, a

r the eyes of men, must possess, in addition to all the secrets of the toilet, those divine elixirs, unselfishness and love for humanity. Faith in divine powers, too, and resignation to earthly ills, must do their part to lend the fading eye lustre and to give a softening glow to the paling cheek. Before middle life, it is the outer woman who is seen; after middle life, skilled as

upon the verge of her sixtieth birthday. Her complexion, too, owing to her careful diet, her hours of repose, and her knowledge of skin foods and lotions, remained smooth, fair and unfurrowed. But the

s forced smiles, the face of a selfish, cruel pessimist, disappoin

respond to the passion which burned unquenched in her breast. It had been with the idea of augmenting the interests of the man whom she

lour and substance and drop away among the wreckage of past hopes, that the Baroness ceased to compliment and began to taunt Preston Cheney with his dependen

venture. When the woman who has found life and pleasures only in coquetry and conquest

erefore, the most bitter and caustic of cynical critics at heart,

o woman was safe from her secret malice save Mabel and Alice, over whom she found it a greater pleasure to exercise her hypnotic control. For Alice, indeed, the Baroness entertained a peculiar affection. The fact that she was the c