If Only etc.

to spare; that with the deep affection he was convinced Bella bore him there was nothing really to fear. She was young and ill-advised, and it behoved him to keep a careful watch over her

a further thought, and so he put it aside. Had not the question been argued and threshed out once and for all soon after marriage? He recalled with a curiou

nd, reflectively, "and then I'll tell her that at the end of the year we

g wife, he made excuses for her an

t that she intended to do as she pleased and would not allow herself to be dictated to or coerced. And thus it was that on the following morning she came down to breakfast with it must be confessed a forbidding

ell to quarrel," he said kindly; "let u

ugh she did not meet him half way as he had fondly anticipated she would do, st

d that they had been mutually to blame, she might have offered something in the shape of

sband at this juncture. That there was still a veiled hostility John Chetwynd could not fail to see; but in his newly formed resolution to be patient and forbearing, he simply ignored it and diligently cultivated a kindl

y was he not so still? For this is how it was with Bella; she was learning to comp

y to Howard Astley, about her sister's husband, that perhaps there was some little excuse for the young man's i

brute," Miss Bl

ut he was also miles above the man whom Saidie delighted to honour, a

tle to recommend him, and after listening to his commonplaces and enduring the fulsome compliments it pleased him to

ter all, how little she had to complain

great deal to Bella. It meant everything; and the sluggish conscience which just at first had a

joy herself as other

e; but still she was resolved on extracting the utmost amount of amusement possible out of life, and thus with slow, s

wealth that

spent money like water. He rarely came empty-handed. Probably he knew the manner of woman he had to deal with, and Bella hid the trinkets away with a guilty blush

thing I like," said

hn Chetwynd found the pretty drawin

s she did not return he

n his hat and, terribly though it went against the grai

looked searchingly into her son-in-law's face as she s

assuredly I sho

something behind all this was very evident, an

hen, that Bella is

uddenly. This news liter

ten in his white face that Mrs. Blackall could not help a certain pity for her son-in-law, although in her opinion he had brought t

uld content herself with the life you tried to chain her down to? She had had just taste enough of the admiration and applause of a pu

are women nevertheless to whom home and husband a

mistake, Mr. Che

eved my wife and your daughter to be one of these. Well," and he rose wearil

y her, and I'll take good care you do it. She

I wish to shirk what responsibility I took on my shoulders when I married. But if it is upon your ad

but late though it was, she knew by the lights in the drawing room that her husband was waiting up

cosy armchair, and he looked roun

esay you wonder where I have been and what has kept me so late; but, my dear old Jack, you will have t

little love. The unhappy man found it very hard to reconcile the two. "Why don't you speak?" she asked impatiently, facing him in a defiant manner; and as he looked up at her he noticed

in disdain, and then, catching her skirts up, she bro

stop!" the devil in him burst out;

ould quite remember afterwards what he did say. He tried with rough eloquence, that might have moved a heart of stone, to show her what it was

so much chaff. The time had gone by when his words would have touched her; they

r life in the future: they would leave Camberwell, he said; she should go where she liked if she would but listen to reason; it would ruin him in his profession, he pleaded, if she persisted in r

o his feet and stood w

ld, falling like pellets of i

nd all the talking in the

r last word to m

floor, turning at the door, hoping against hop

r eyes and held up her hand curio

were brig

ing of the old feel

half rose, then

it were ever too late to make amends, to

ed after awhile, and when philosophy is well