TALKS AND SKETCHES.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 3130, 9 December 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

TALKS AND SKETCHES.

A DIFFERENCE WITH DISTINCTIONS. (Idler.) •• J'm— l'm— ihe most miserable woman m the who-whole world I" *be sobbed. j He carefully squeezed out a little rose mad- J dv— anathematising its dcarness the while--- : and put a bold touch of it on the ear. " Eh i he hitid abstractedly. She sobbed on, " I'm—l'm ," but no, it was absurd— how could she repeat that she was the most miserable? Surely the fact was obvious— and— and— he only said "Eh ." There was anger m her sobbing now, and it grew so persistent that at last he felt it wiser to stay it. " Look here, Patty * he began patiently, ' there is no use- going over it all again. I didn't. If you won't believe me I can't help it," It promised to be a very pretty quarrel indeed. She slowly raised her head from her arms, mid as she looked wofully at him lie noticed how the tears had clogged her long eyelashes together— also how well llusiied cheeks went with a particular shade of brown hair. He hoped she would stay like that for a few minutes. "But I saw you!" she said m an awestruck way. He shook his head incredulously without meeting her eyes, then worked on hurriedly at one corner of the unfinished background. She fumbled for her handkerchief. " Don't move !" he cried incautiously. From long habit she obeyed, but only for n moment. The next she had jumped down from the little dais with all her trouble m her eyes. •• You are horrible!" She flung out both hands with the palms downwards— a gesture peculiar to her when she wished to emphasise something extravagantly. " No, don't look like that," she continued hotly. "1 m not going to cry any more. I can see what you're doing. You thought it a fine opportunity to portray a woman m tears, but it's not your wife who will sit to you for that." Her voice broke m. a diy little sob. " Patty, dear, don't be so foolish." He ought to have known better. "How dare you!" she cried excitedly. " You do me a great wrong, and then deny it ; and then— then when you've broken my heart — and ruined my life " — the picture she drew of her misery brought the tears back again to her eves with a rush — " and then you call me foolish." Again she fumbled for her handkerchief, and not being able to find it seemed to be another drop m the ocean of her trouble. " I shall not stay with you a minute longer. I shall leave you altogether. I sliall go right away !" She stumbled blindly to the door. As she passed him he caught her hand. " Let me go," she said chokingly. "All right." " But I'm your wife !" He nodded. "And — and I love you so, Dick!" The pathos m her voice was' hard to withstand. He came to the conclusion he couldn't withstand it. He opened the door politely, and after she had gene out. closed it as carefully. But he listened till he heard her footstep overhead m their bedroom. Then the brief look of anxiety left liis face. "She is quite angry enough to have gone out into thta pouring rain as she is," he muttered. He went back to his canvas and looked at the dimpled face of his wife laughing out at him, and then m the corner at the same face rapidly roughed m, with its teardimmed eyes and stained cheeks. " Poor angry child !" he said tenderly. He played with his brashes , always listening to the little noises overhead. At last the fascination of the little weeping face became too much for him, and he worked away at the drooping mouth* as •though there was nothing more important m the whole world. The turning of the handle m the door made him look round with a start. It was Patty. Her eyes were still red with weeping, but her face was quite pale. She had one of those absurd Jittle bows on her hair which women call bonnets, and the thinnest and shortest of capes wax on her shoulders. She had a small bag m her hand. They looked at one another, and her eyes fell. After a minute's pause she said with a courage born of necessity : " I want — I mean 1 think I left my — my boots here this morning, and " She looked at her shoes and then at the rain pattering on the window. " They're over there," he said nonchalantly. She followed the direction of his eyes, and gave a little start when she saw them. " Did I reully?'' she said wonderingly to herself. He watched her as he walked across the room and sat down besid.e them. She picked them up delicately, with an air of disgust — they appeared very old and very, very wet — -then dropped them heavily as though they burnt her fingers. She looked at him furtively. Did he know? " I wonder you wait to put on boots when you are so anxious to be gone," he >aid indifferently. It was cruel of him, but then iie meant to be cruel. She flashed one look at him from glistening eyes, and then slowly, very slowly, she took off her shoes and lifted up one of the sodden boots. She tried to draw it on, but i<t stack to her stocking. Sihe looked at it miserably, then her tears overflowed, and fell m little splashes on her hand. It was too muoh for him. He went to help her. Be loosened the laces lingeiringly, as though he liked 'the job, and at last, after much coaxing, he got one boot on and began to fasten it up. Certainly he did not know. "Is — is it still raining?" she faltered. "' Yes, fast," he said cheerfully. He pushed the lace through the lasit hole and tied it securely. Her heart sank within her as he took up the other boot. It came on quite easily. " It hurts," she said weakly. "Then I'll run upstairs and get another pair." "All the others hurt — worse," she said quickly. "Oh, well, tins will feel all right m a minute," he said unconcernedly. Her tears fell faster than ever as she watched the cruel lace being dragged methodically through hole after hole. "She's only a model," sihe said desperately. She simply couldn't go out m all that rain m these boots. "And tihe best — as a model— l've ever h.id," he replied dryly. ' The play's gone on quite long enough," lie said savagely. He dragged one boot off with a jerk', and began to unface the other. A gleam of satisfaction stole into her eyes, ana the tears forgot to fall. That boot joined the other m a far corner.' tie rubbed the little cold feet briskly, and kissed them once— twice. He picked up the little bag, and looked m it. It. was empty ! He glanced at her. She was staring out of the window, but there was the ghost of a smile flickering round the corners of her lips. He untied the strings of the absurd little bonnet, and then took off the pretence of a cape. As he laid them on a chair he looked at them grimly, and then at the rain outside. "You look warmer," he said, with studied indifference. That ghost of a smile broadened into a reality, and her eves shone through her tears. She knew she was detected, but it didn't matter now. He was softened, Jihe could feel that, and things were going to arrange themselves. In a minute or two he would say he was sorry. Perhaps after all she'd made a mistake. Certainly he did look innocent, and did he not love her? She turned to him with the most engaging manner. " What did you do it for? Tell." "But— but I didn't, Patty," he stained. She looked out of the window and hummed aoftly.

" Tell me just what you saw, please," he said, eagerly. " Well. I will," she .-aid frankly. She turned to him again and noticed that he was blushing furiously. The sight serin t-d to please her. " Well," she continued expansively, " just as 1 was passing, the ■ door was half open, you know— l heard a kiss and I saw vim start away from her . li»»kin K — vvc-11— ."illv. i " Then- -then 1 '.vent upstairs, and the 1 world seemed to have come to an end for me." Her voice faltered at the memory of it. " I waited for you to come and tell me about it. but you never came— and then — then it was dinner time, and at dinner I thought you would say something, but you didn't. I wondered how you could eat so much — but then — nothing ever does spoil your appetite — and every mouthful was choking me, and you didn't even seem to notice it !" She paused for a moment, seemingly overcome by her self-pity. "And tlien this afternoon as I sat for you — m the same place— l thought you would tell me then — still you didn't — I gave you dozens of openings ! And I had to tell you myself — and — you denied it. ', She looked " at him with large, reproachful eyes, and as she looked the colour burned deep into his face a-nd neck. He walked to the window and then came back to where she stood waiting. - [ didn't tell you,"' he said doggedly, " simply because it's such a — a stupid thing to tell — m fact — well " The blush was now positively painful. " Well — she kissed me !" " Whnt?" Her eyes opened to their widest extent. " You must believe me, Patty," he naid a little wildly. " I never yet have lied to you — at least not — not to this extent," he added truthfully. " I went to fix her head right — you know it's slewed round m rather an unusual way." She nodded — she understood — it was a favourite pose of his — " and — quite suddenly— she turned round and kissed my cheek." He drew a long breath. It was over — but it was pretty had. He looked anxiously at her to see how she was taking it. "Oh, and I thought her so simple!" she said softly to herself, and then, aloud, " The aniazujg creature !" " Yes. Wasn't she?" he agreed eagerly. " And I paid her off there and then, and told her she need never come again." '' And you let me suffer all tha*," she said slowly. " You would even have let me leave you "' Her eyes passed, a.s though, by accident, over the empty bag. She followed them — hesitated, and was lost. '" You forget," he said, seizing immediately upon his advantage. " You condemned mi! unheurd. You disbelieved my word, and you accused mo of kissing — yes, actually kis«iiig another woman. 'That made me angry — justly angry — and— well, I didn't see why I should explain," be concluded loftily. She came quite close to him and fidgeted with his watehchain. " Wildebeest." " Well?" He unconsciously imprisoned her hands m liis. "Wad it — that kiss — nice?" "It was horrid." There was no doubting the sincerity of the words. " Yet, I've done it many dozen times when I've been sitting there,'' she said meditatively. ' I think it was that very fact that made Hers so abominable," he said vindictively. The memory of it still made him feel sore. " Well, I forgive her," she said magnanimously, veering round m the most bewildering fashion. " You see, you really are rather nice, and fairly pleasing to the eye." She stepped back a little — still holding lws hands — and looked at him critically, " and I tfodnk I know just how she felt. I feel positively sorry for her — for, of course, you were disgustingly rude to her, and didn't even give her a ohance to explain her feelings—eh? I thought so. You don't know," she continued m the daring manner m which she said all quaint thing*, and which openly delighted ham, " I don't a bit see why a girl shouldn't kiss a man — if he pleases .her — just as much as, and on as little provocation, as a man kisses a girl." " But I didn't provoke her," he said mildly. " Looking — well — as you look sometimes — is a provocation," she sadd severely. "Would you?" he asked quickly. " Y"es," she said sturdily. " You're a plague, and a little wicked storyteller as well." "At present you happen to .be the only man who looks — so — will you stoop down a little?" After a while ,as she settled herself comfortably on his knee, (he said, " And where would you have gone if I hadn't stopped you?" " I don't know," she owned composedly. '" I never thought. You see, I knew all along you wouldn't let me go.' 1 "But you would have persisted?" "Oh, yes." " Even if I had had to follow you right out into the rain ?" She nodded. He looked at her witih admiration. " But you made yourself very miserable," he said with some Aow of satisfaction. She looked very solemn. "I was .simply saturated with misery." " I nevea 1 saw you cry such a lot before." " There wasn't ,a tear too many for the cause." "You used my paint rag to wipe tlhem away while I was doing up your boots." She grinned. •He had noticed it, then ; «he was half afraid he had ,mis?ed that. " Ton wouldn't lend me your handkerchief." "I felt .such a brute all the time!" " And T knew you'd have to tell me m the end." Her eyes danced as she added, " You did blush ! * I thought it was going to be permanent !" He laughed, and it was quite a happy laugh. "Touching those hoots," he began lazily. " weren't they very " | * " Those hoots were the grimmest part of it all." She looked into his face to rivet his attention— " They were," she paused, to ijive full value to the coming announcement, "Her's!" The voice was almost sel pulchral. For a moment he looked incredulous, then he gave a long, low whistle. "By jove, so they were ! She went off m the pair you gave her this morning and forgot, to take her old ones. Why, why the dickens didn't yon say so?" " Oh, you dear, blind old darling, can't you see? T pretended T left mine here just iis an excuse to come m. I was frightfully done when I found those"— she glanced disdainfully at them m the corner— " and I daren't .say they weren't mine, or you would have found mo out and I didn't want you to so soon. But, it was bad though, having you put her boots' — such boot*, too ! — on me, when all the while I was thinking you had bee-n kissing her! Tt was having to suffer that that made me cry such a lot, T think." They looked at one another, and laughed. Then she turned his face to the light, and examined one cheek and then the other. 1 "Which side was it," she asked calm- j " I really don't know. I believe this." She wriggled off his knee, drew from her pocket the very same paint rag she had used for her tears, steeped it m turpentine from the well of his palette, and nourished it before him. "But, Patty, you said a few minutes ago that you didn't see why girls shouldn't ■" His voice ought to have melted her— but — "'I never said (that husbands should receive them though " She leaned over him — "The other cheek as well, sir— J you scorned to be rather doubtful as to which it was— thore! Now the plague's satisfied." So was he, .though the mi art on both cheeks was pretty considerable. Experiment* m tJie cure of lead prri«oni.i£ by electricity are being made at Wolverhampton. About forty sufferers from t>h« potteries have undergone a course of treatment at an electric bartli establisftmen'. ; Some are said to have been cured and otfhers greatly benefited.