A Modern Chronicle -- Volume 03

f domestic happiness as the only

novel and modern drama, automobiles, flying machines, and intelligence offices; hotel, apartment, and suburban life, or four homes, or none at all? Is it a weed that w

gards her, we must try to look at existence through her eyes, and those of some of her generation and her sex: we must give the four years of her life in Rivington the approximate value which she herself would have put

rtunate enough to escape it, but it is not unlikely to happen in our modern civilization. Just when it occurred in Howard Spence it is difficult to say, but we have got to consider him henceforth as a husband; one who regards his home as a shipyard rather than the sanct

tic of hours-ten minutes of eight in the morning. There was a period, indeterminate, when she poured out his coffee with wifely zeal; a second period when she appeared at the foot of the stairs to kiss him as he was go

ut all you do is to sit with your newspaper propped up and read the stock reports, and growl when

t in a good many days

w cooks for you, because they can't make Hollandaise sauce like hotel chefs. Men have no idea how hard it is to keep house in the countr

a dock hand, and who wounded Honora to the quick by remarking, as she departed in durance, that she had always lived with l

station to meet her husband. On mild Saturday and Sunday afternoons they made long excursions, into the country-until the golf season began, when the lessons begun at Silverdale were renewed. But after a while certain male competitors appeared, and the lessons were discontinued. Sunday, after his pile of newspapers had religiously been disposed of, became a field day. Indeed, it is impossible, without a t

e church, and burials; there were dances at the golf club; there were Christmas trees, where most of the presents -like Honora's-came from afar, from family centres formed in a social period gone by; there were promotions for the heads of families

met for the purpose of literary discussion. In the evenings there were little dinners of six or eight, where the men talked business and the women house rent and groceries and gossip and the cheapest places in New York City

em, and lunched in fashionable restaurants. Their range of discussion included babies and Robert Browning, the modern novel and the best matinee. It would be interesting to know why she treated the

onship. And no prison walls loom so high as to appall our heroine's soul. To exchange one prison for another is in itself something of a feat, and an argument that the thing may be done again. Neither do the wise ones beat themselves uselessly against brick or stone. Howard-poor man!-is fatuous enough to regard a great problem as

le to her that any one sufficiently prosperous could live in a city, or near it and dependent on it, without being socially a part of it. Most momentous of disillusions! With the exception of the Sidney Da

man, brought up a flood of recollections; again, in a millinery establishment, she came face to face with the attractive Mrs. Maitland whom she had seen at Hot Springs. Sometimes she would walk on Fifth Avenue, watching, with mingled sensations, the procession there. The colour, the movement, the sensation of living in a world where every one was fabulously wealthy, was at once a stimulation and a despair. Brougham after brougham passed, victoria after victoria, in which

rs and dressmakers if they were kept waiting, and even seemed impatient of time lost if one by chance bumped into them. But Honora had no impera

me you were coming? If you had only let me know we might have lunched together or gone

e's self put one in the wrong for not having telephoned. But if indeed Honora t

Brent has given Lula Chandos his box at the Horse Show,

he could have made her fortune either as a dressmaker or a house decorator, and she bought everything from "little" men and women whom she discovered herself. It was a curious fact that all of these

han hours in which to fulfil them. So intimate was Lily Dallam with many of these Olympians that she spoke of them by their first names, or generally by their nicknames. Some two years after Honora's marriage the Dallams had taken a house in that much discussed colony of Quicksands, where sport and

onora," Mrs. Dallam declare

'partie carree'. Lily Dallam thought it dull to dine at home, and they went to the theatre afterwards-invariably a musical comedy. Although Honora did not care particularly for musical comedi

ing to talk to you about," said Honora, "or reading

roused

e we now?

haven't passed Hydeville

en

im?" demanded

and she said she knew -I should like him. I wish y

mplied that a lack of knowledge of Mr. Brent was ignorance indeed; "a daring ga

old i

forty

ied?" inqui

er husband relapsed into somnolence again. A few days later she saw a picture of Mr. Brent, in polo cost

to breakfast on the day of Honora's arrival in her own country. It had a wide, brownstone front, with a basement, and a high flight of steps leading up to the door. Within, solemnity reigned, and this effect was largely produced by the prodigious

Here she charmed other friends and allies of the Holt family; and once met, somewhat to her surprise, two young married women who differed radically from the other guests of

said Mrs. Holt; "I am sure you

," replied Honora, "if only I

ected her steps when a distaste for lunching alone or with some of her Rivington friends in the hateful, selfish gayety of a fashionab

, as he sat smoking beside the blue tiled ma

en cents," he cried, "that you'v

're horrid,"

irtue, in the face of such mocking heresy,

this purpose, in the spring following Honora's marriage, she made a pilgrimage to Rivington and spent the day. Honora met her at the station,

Holt and I began, and how blissfully happy I was." The good lady reached out and took Honora's hand in her own. "Not that your deep feeling for your husband will ever change. But men are more difficult to manage as they grow older, my dear, and the best of them require a little managing for their own goo

ed, "I-I haven't kept any book

llowance!" cried Mrs. Holt, aghast. "You d

ly. "I never thought of

income

rd myself-to-night,

olt. I'll-I'll speak

se this is one of the pernicious results of being on the Stock Exchange. New York is nothing like what it was when I was a girl-the extravagance by everybody is actually appalling. The whole city is bent upon lavishness

bottom, from laundry to linen closet. Suffice it to say that the insp

ward, my dear," was her final comment. "Bu

ture?" Hono

ayfully pinc

a baby. I was very foolish about him, no doubt. Annie and Gwendolen tell me so. I wouldn't even let the nurse sit up with him when he was getting his teeth. Mercy!

omes to it in March; the red gravel of the centre driveway was very wet, and the grass of the lawns of the houses opposite already a vivid green; in the

t in her? Her mind went back to the days of her childhood dolls, and she smiled to think of their large families. She had always associated marriage with children-until she got married. And now she remembered that her childhood ideals of the matrimoni

for the discussion of household matters. It was not until the autumn, in fact, that the subject of finance was mentioned between them, and after a period during which Howard had been unusually uncommunicative and morose. Just as

id one evening. "The bills are pretty stiff this month.

ent's pause for breath, "how can you say

so much!"

dred dollars. I took such pains-all on your account-to find a little man Lily

of his sex that he failed to

I can't see any difference between buying one suit from Ridley-whoever he may be-and three

-I never thought you cou

e to dress like these R

wrong with their clo

oing it all to please you!

lease

e proud of me. I've tried so hard and-and sometimes you don't even loo

onora's voice. Its effect upon Howard was peculiar -he was at once irritated, disarmed, and so

be so cruel, Ho

ith Mrs. Holt. And you act as though you had such a lot of it when we're in town for dinner with these Rivington people. Yo

red another

d Honora, "the simplest

lect upon his business success

d out of the market, and even old Wing is economizing

Honora departed on the first of