Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 277: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

268 So she went on from one incident to another that told its own story of a lost happiness, bitterly disowning the past and yet going over it with all the min- uteness of a brooding mind and aching heart. My face was wet with tears, and at last I put my head down on my arms and wept with all the abandon that be- longed to my children. Philip took a strong fancy to Polly, and because of Philip’s interest and that he would not consider the child in the way, Elsa had Polly with her much of the time. At first this was from a teasing sense of duty, but soon Polly began to inter- est her mother through the charms of her own little individuality. Gradually Polly awoke to the knowledge that she had a very pretty mamma—prettier than other little girls’ mammas. “My mamma’s pretty hair,” the child would say, patting Elsa’s thick dark braids; or, “ My mamma’s pretty frock,” when Elsa had on something that pleased her childish fancy; and Elsa, appreciating the fact that she had at last found favor in her little daugh- ter’s eyes, took pleasure in all these marks of waking love. In a burst of more than usual satis- faction I wrote to Amy of the turn af- fairs had taken, and how much Philip had done to help Elsa reach her pres- ent calm. [ was surprised at the un- wonted bitterness than ran through Amy’s reply. “Mother,” she wrote. “Elsa will disappoint you. Her heart 1s dead; she is incapable of taking up new inter- ests. If Philip should love Elsa I am sorry for him. She has nothing to give him, for she spent her whole na- ture, her whole hfe, on Percy, and there is absolutely nothing left. She will tire of Philip as she tired of her housekeeping and her music and her languages, and he is not a man to be dropped lightly. Oh, mother, you have become so absorbed in the one idea of affording Elsa amusement that THE ARGOSY. you do not stop even at giving her human hearts and human lives for playthings,” The summer was drawing to a close. “Elsa,” -Philip said one evening, “you have been so good to me in mak- ing me feel that you trust me as a friend, that you tempt me to venture into what may be sacred ground. I want to know the cause of the separa- tion between you and Percy.” “No, no; that is impossible,” she said, almost angrily. “ T will tell you my motive in asking. Percy and I are old friends. He was my best friend until this affair. I have suddenly awakened to the fact that I am cherishing very hard feelings against him without knowing my grounds. If he is the villain I take him to be at the present moment, our next meeting will hardly be a pleasant one.” Elsa understood the threat thus quietly implied and said, hastily, “ Oh, no, no, Philip! There must be nothing of that sort. Perhaps you had better know the reason 1f you feel like that. Percy was of a jealous, exacting na- ture. I had to be as careful of my smiles as 1f they were gold, and once, it seems, he thought that I was spe- cially lavish of them to a man whom in fact | had hardly observed. I was too indignant to deny his charges and re- taliated by seeming utterly indifferent as to what he might think of me or my conduct. “Perhaps I went too far, for sud- denly he took me by the shoulders and shook me as if I were a child. It only needed that to transform me into a perfect fury. I don’t know what I said, but the next thing that I remember distinctly was that he said that he was sorry that I was his wife and Polly’s mother. . “ T took him at his word and at once began legal proceedings to give him back his freedom. He never made a single effort toward reconciliation, and it is this that ts hardest to bear. He had meant what he said—he was sorry COUMIGCLIOOOLK CO