CHAPTER XLV.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 367, 11 May 1889, Page 6

CHAPTER XLV.

TJIi; H.U'PY COVI'IjE. Immediately on her reappearance, Dulcie was sutrounded by innumerable people, strangers and otherwise, who shook hands with a great show of intimacy. Presently the bridegroom entered the room, having also changed his wedding garments-, and stood chatting away aOably to several of the most distinguished guefet-*. Before long the carriage was announced, and then Mr Denver, glancing at the timepiece, eaid they ought to be off. Whereupoji Mrs Sheppevton embraced her daughter repeatedly,, whispering last words of maternal advice. Ethel and Charlotte kissed the .pale bride with ' sisterly propriety, and Marian hung round her neck and sobbed aloud. Showers of rice and white satin slippers were thrown after the newly • married couple as they walked through the front hall and out a,t the door. Dulcie felO herself being lifted into the carriage by half-a-dozen ready arms, and Mr Denver's foot was on the step of the brougham, when, little Nipper, who, up to this moment, had been forcibly retained in the arms of the smart French maid recently appointed by the bridegroom to wait upon the bride, struggled frantically to the ground and rushing after his beloved mistress jumped iatQ the carriage, and calmly curling him-

self round on Dulcie's lap, looked up as much as to say he meant to stay there whatever happened. An angry scowl suddenly darkened Mr Denver's countenance. 1 Surely you arc nob going to take that lifctlo wretched, snarling thing with you ?' he said, in tones of irritation. The colour mounted to her cheeks. 'Oh, Dennis! 1 - ifc was nob oiton she called him by that name, though she had been forced to do po at rare intervals ' please— pleaso let him come. I cannot bear leaving kirn behind, and he shall nob get in your way.' Tho idea of losing Nipper made her oloquent, and sho looked up into his stern clouded tace with beseeching entreaty. He would have lost nothing by granting her request, and by" making this trilling concession bo his wife's feelings ; for women are wonderfully quick at appreciating 1 any small ucb of generosity. 'Bub his innate love of mastery and unreasonable jealousy overbore every kindliur consideration. 'Thank you,' lie said in a hard, sneering voice thab effectually checked her appeal. 'I do nob consider it necessary, when wo start together on our honeymoon, bhab Bob I Mornington's dog is indispensable to our happiness. Get out, you brute, you !' And ho seized hold of Nipper and gave him a vicious push which sent him flying from the brougham. All this occupied bub a moment. In another second the footman banged the door to, the coachman whipped up his horses, and the carriage rolled away down the drhe. Dulcie started impetuously to her feeb, and stretching her head oub through the window, ciied, in a clear, - indignant voice : 'Oh, Maiian, Marian, is ib not cruel of ! him ? Do promi-so to take care of poor little Nipper and keep him safely tilt 1 return.' She was far too angry to caro who heard j her. Mr Denver seized her by the skirt of her dress and violently pulled her backwards. ' Aie you mad ?' he hissed between his set teeth. 'Do you want to render us the laughing-stock of the whole county V ' I don't care if we are or nob !' she answered passionately.' •So ib appears, bub I do. We have certain appearances to keep up before the world, and I must trouble you to maintain them.' She dared not make any reply, for at that moment she felt as if she could have knocked him down or murdered him. Such petty tyranny made her whole soul rise up in revolt. Presently, however, she cooled down a trifle, and trying hard to keep calm, said : ' Allow mo to congratulate you on the effective way in which you begin by teaching wifely submission and inspiring a feeling of esteem.' He flushed crimson, conscious the rebuke was nob wholly undeserved. ' Come, Dulcic,' he said with a species of shamefaced penitence, ' don't make a fuss about nothing, there's a good girl, and you shall have the miserable little dog back again directly we get home ; bub you must admit he would be an infernal -nuisance travelling.' 80 saying, he tried to make his p,eace with a kiss, but the mischief had been done, and could nob thus easily be smoothed away, while she shrank from his proffered embrace as she would have shrunk irom the touch of a serpent. She began her wedded life smarting under a sense of injury and personal insult. She looked oud on the desolate white landscape and lowering sky, and wished that she might die ; thab the horses would run away ana upset them ; or that anj dreadful accident might happen. Meanwhile Mr Denver, studiously ignoring their little fracas, made sundry attempts at conversation, to which she respoaded with short monosyllabic replies, until at last Vie losb his temper. «D n it all!' he broke oub, 'why the deuce are you so horribly sulky ? Can'b you speak civilly when you are spoken to, instead of behaving like a spoilt child ?' She raised her eyes to his with quiet contempt. 'Because, since we are apparently unable to agree in our ideas, it's wiser for me nob to ri.»k giving oflence. ' 1 Now look here, Dulcie,' he said, with the air of an overseer addressing a slave,* I have pub up with your whims long enough, bub now that you are my wife please understand, once for all, I intend to allow no more nonsense. If I choose to talk I expect you to answer. Do you hear ?' ' Yes,' coldly, ' I hear. I'm nob deaf. ' And you intend to do w hat I ask ?' For one moment she let her slow measured glance resb full upon his countenance. ' Yes, I intend to obey. You are the mastei, I but the seivant. I hu\enot been married over twohouis without finding thab fact out.' 'Well, it's a good thing you ha\e,' he said bruta'ly. ' I m not inclined to argue that point, particularly as ib i* a matter of opinion. However, I quite recognise thab I am the weaker party, and as such shall offer no resistance to your Willie?.' A soft answer turneth away wrath, and her submission quelled hi." rising ill humour. It was like sweet honey, seeing her flash out and writhe, and yeb being forced to give in. He liked to feel thab his will nas the strongest. Nevertheless he never felt quibe certain whether sho was in earnest, so dropped the discussion, especially as they weie now close to the station. Arrived there, they both jumped oub, and before long were saftly ensconced in a comfortable h'r^b-class carnage. Mr Denver wrapped himself up in a thick fur coat, pub on a stalking cap (a very unbecoming one, Dulcie thought), and then proceeded to Jind consolation behind a long havana, whose pungent odouis tickled Dulcie's nostrils, making her sneeze lepeabedly. She herself sat screened by a pile of newspapers, holding the largest one upside down and crying softly. By-and-by Mr Denver's head began bo nod and he fell asleep. She felt grateful for this temporary respite, bub involunbatily the thought flashed through her mind, that, had she and Bob been starting together on their wedding tour, they would sui ely have found some pleasanter means of passing the tim 3 than in sleeping and perusing papers. Bub then Mr Denver was nearly twenty years her senior, and from her point of view was quite an elderly gentleman already.