CHAPTER VIII— THE CLOVEN ROOF

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 221, 9 October 1873, Page 3

CHAPTER VIII — TH E C LOVE N ROOF

Miriam's married l.t< comimiKi'l undir plea-ant auspice* Mr St Quentin hiul t ken cue to proeme numeirms introductions in the foreicn i-itio-. whic'i lie purpo-ed to visit; and as society was as complete a novuty to !u- \ouii<» wife as tin 1 works of art aud the niunumrn^ of hisloi >, she was nmph provided with defences against eanai, and with the means ol contrasting her present with her late position, largely to the advant ige of the former. She had made an entirely mercenary marriage, and she did not deceive herself about it; but she really was, for a time, not being of a sentimental turn of mind, quite happy. If she had ever been in love with any one, it might have been a very different thing, as she had once said to Florence, and repeated rather unnecessarily often to her elf; but beyond a school-girl Ilirtation with Charley Boscombo —carried on by all the underhand means familiar to school-girls, and enjoyable and important chiefly because it was underhand —Miriam had had no experience of the kind Air St Quentin uas an agreeable travelling companion ; and Mn lam was too inexperienced to discern thai all the comfort and luxun, all the consideration and courtesy with which he surrounded her, were rather tributes to his ov\u i yamt\, selfishness, nnd lo\e of ease, than to her Ko doubt , he loved her after his fashion, and was very proud of her j beauh, her youth, and the general admiration she excited ; mid siie looked no further into her life, so far as he was concerned Her character wh not formed \et; its strength for i good or ill was still latent; though she had shown herself j capable of a deliberately mercenary marriage, and of telling herself always and exactly the truth about it. At present, all the instincts of her youth, health, and spirits were dominant, and she made the most of the absolutely new life which had been absolutely opened for her. It did seem strange to her, sometimes, in the rare intervals in which thought and reflection would obtrude themselves, to be actually married to a man, sharing his present life, the nominal partner of every interest and every possession belonging to him, and yet to know so rery little of Ins past as she knew of Mr St Quentin's. She flas set thinking of this by her long talks with her sister-in-law, and by discovering that she too was a married ■woman, and on the same level of experience of life as Florence, she was not, in reality, a bit more like her in mind, or drawn at all closer to her in sympathies. Florence knew as much of Walter's history, of his childhood and his boyhood, -his school da_\ s and companions, of the troubles, and hop**, and pranks of the time before he had ever seen her, »s Miriam did ; and, of the later incidents, much moie than Mirinm her>elt Li eu Even name wis familiar to Florence which had been a household word to Muiani and Walter; and at the Firs, she had recognised nil the localities, and illlustrated them by anecdotes related to her by Walter, and cher^hed m her memory with a fidelity quite mysterious to her si-ter-in-law, who had not the key to it. Miriam knew nothing about Mr St Quentin's }oulh or early manhood. Perhaps the difference in their ajre rendered it natural that he bhould take no interest in tolling her; but \cb the fact rendered their relation urtilicial and constrained. Miriam j did not suppose that her husband had anything to conceal ; ehe did not, wea\e a romance 'out of her .ignorance and his reticence, and alter the fashion of Miss Au&ten's 'charming heroine in Xorl/ianqer Abbey, construct a martyred wife and a reproachful conscience out of a commonplace character and a life ot monotonous prosperity. Hut she felt that he told her nothing because he held her in light consideration. She did not mind it —it is only love which aims at the knowledge aud comprehension of the past; but she estimated by the ftct the great distance which diudes the experience ol a woman who has married 'for lo\e' from that of a woman I who has married lor any other motive. j ' If Mr St Quentin and I had not strange places and new people to discuss, I wonder what we should find to talk about 9' said Miriam, one evening, when Rose was arranging her hair —a portion of her assumed duty w Inch she persisted in discharging ' What did you and Walter talk about ?' 'About oui selves, I'm afraid ; about our want of money and the very little prospect we had of getting any ; about how glad we were we had run all the lisks involved in our maiiiagf, and about all the things we would do if we were nch. Very commonplace, but interesting to us. And then ■we talked a good deal about you —l always wanted to hear about you —and Walter had always something to tell. He was a most amusing and entertaining companion, as you know; I nevei could have been dull with his society to count upon ; and he is such a wondeiful mimic He would have made a capital ai-tor. Do you know I should have i|Co ignised your voice in a crowd, fiom his perfect imitation of it.' ' Ah !' said Miriam, leaning hack in her chair with an impatient sigh, ' Mr St Quentin .and f will never have anything half so interesting to discuss. There is not a third pcison in the world he would caie to hear me talk of; and except the most ordinary acquaintances he never talks of any tbiid person to me. I wonder what sort of woman Ins wife was. I wonder whether it was a love-match. I wonder what he was like then.' ' You could haidly expect him to tell you much, or indeed anything about her,' said Florence ; 'he would probably think the subject not a pleasant one.' ' What nonsense ! as if I c\ied, as if any rational being ■\\ould caie ! It would be a relief to have something leal to talk about, for at present t feel as if it were all sham. However, we aie not likely to be reduced to the necessity of enteita'iiing each other. And now for a good ten minutes of compliments in lieu of conversation.' She drew her white and gold bournous over her shoulders, kissed Florence, and went wcaiily away. They were going to a great entertainment that evening at the palazzo of the English ambassador at Naples ; and Mr St Quentin was more than usually anxious that Miiiam should be \v,ell dressed and in good looks. At Miriam's age, even if one has a fair allowance of good sense, one can endure an immense amount of admiration and attention on the score of one's beauty, But these tributes, in themselves welcome, are apt to pall after a time, unless they come from the right person. Miriam was beginning to find out that Mr St Quentin was not the right person, and she was very tired —when her husband had repeated the assurance several times a day for thiee months —of being told that she was an an"cl, and that each diess she wore was more becoming to her dt}le than the preceding one. This was only a slight annoyance, however, and the monotony of Mr St Quentin's admiration was atoned for by the vaiiety of that which Mu lam received from other sources. They had travelled rapidly to the south, in puisuit of fine weather, and weie now settled for some time at Naples. Mr St Quentin leberved his morning hours to Ins own special benefit as ngidly as he had done in London, to Miriam's great pleasure aud relief, and she really had as little to complain of as was possible The gloss was upon her new life of wealwl), and case, and luxury, and she had as yet been Visited by only a momentary occasional thull of appiehcnsion that it might ever wear oil". She was accustomed to reveit, in her convei satHms* with Florence, to the great coiisulciatiou of her emancipation from the Firs, to her ticin^ nd of the place and of papa, moie frequently than •was quite pleasant to Florence, who had always fearedthat she w ould need constant remembrance of that consideration ; but she was unconscious of the existence of these symptoms, and had she recognised them, would still have been lgnoiant of the nature and gravity of the disease they betokened. Mr and Mrs St Quentin excited a gopd deal of curiosity evcrywheie that they went, and, as was to he expected, some comment which was not altogether gaod-natured. But it was geueially admitted that he waB quite a model husband, do\oted to his beautiful young wife, and yet so little foolish, so chaimingly free from jealousy —a passion which would have rendered him equally imha,ppy and absurd, because, at his age, to expect a young girl like Miriam to do more than tolerate him, would, of course, be quite ridiculous And she toleiated him —she really did. The manners of Madame weie perfectly charming--so attentive, so pleasant, so leverenfcial. If Mr St Quentin had b(en aware of these comments, he would have been very Jittlj obliged to the discerning individuals who had made them. Mirhm'b enjoyment of society was very "eneral; as ye>, she wa- u t in danger of any particular attraction. As a i ule she did not like foreigners —as she, in hei thoroughly Knglnh way, designated Fiench and Italian people in their own le&pcetivo countries —and the English whom tiiey met did not interest her deeply. The fact was that Miriam wa-. still so young, ai d so much occupied and di lighted with material things, fiat she was hardly .obnoxious to the real and deadly danger of her position— the danger of finding out that her unoccupied heart was ciavimj a tenant. She honestly supposed all old men weie as tiresome as Mr St Quentin, and she did not think about young men t all ; though, if she had thought about their, or any one of them, the general notion of prcju 'ice, which stood in the place of sound principle in Mi- i Ham's mind, would have precluded all idea of the topic being 'j\ dangerous one, until she had been gently and pleasantly conducted into peril and sullering by hei mingled unconsciousness ami incredulity—yes, mciediihty, for it was remaikablc that since her marna'.'o Miiiam had own more than ever impatient of sentunei.s and duuuncutoi y of 1 omance.

riic recent distuurv of an inscription-pillar on the Bhoio o( I lie Rod Spm, hy M Clermont-G-ui.npii^, dragoman to the French Consulate at .JVrusidi'm, mm be remcmbeied. That -(on.- Ims bten purch.Hed b> the Frcnuli Minister of Public lii^Li iiction lor 2l),000f., of whiuli 12,000f. will|be furnished fi mi Mic funds of the Mu^um of Antiquities at tho Louvre an I tlie remiunder by tho .Ministry, uud in a few days, ufter an mdi-pensiblc repair, it will bppkeed in the Judaic col,ilLi,,i» '11113 lvlic of King Mes'i ii« c.irher hy se\cwl contunps fch.in tl>" ci-ltbi a ed tomb ol i'ic Plicenician Jvin^ JSs'inmiii'Kiir, .1 i'l IxMr^ nn iu«cupti>«n, ni winch the King ol Moab rul.ites, ncai'iy nine centuries before Jesus Christ, hibattles with the King of Israel.

Late exchanges ami -ipeoial tli--pat rlios horn New Yoik fully confirm the intelligence heieloloie gnen by the A T cws Leila) as to the completion oi a contract bv Ueneral Burnside and Thoma* A. Scott, by wlmh we -m to li i\e n highly effective steam lino between San I'rjiici-i o Aiiiiral'si, >e\\ /oiilunii, and way ports. The mam line, ai'.er le.u ng S,m Fihuchco, is to touch at Honolulu, Samoi, Fiji, New Ciilodoniti, and terminates at Sydney, wlnUt a brnneli line is to eitiier iiuin tSumoa or Fiji, conn 'ctiii>> mli the \.imoui >>e\\ Zvn land ports. The iirst \e-.M 111 1- to li ,i\e Kn^l:inil an I proceed to Australia, to commence the smiic at th.it ei»d within t hree months from the •present dale. For twehe months chartered steamers are to be used. In the meantime new iron propellors are to be built in this country, with ventilation, and other requirements specially smted to the fine weather route proposed to be traversed. The whole of the arrangements, it is understood, aro to be mado in such a manner as to insure tho establishment of a lino effective in every respect. The importance of this undci taking to the future interests of San Francisco it i-> dillieiilt to overrato It is in good hands, uud success is assured. — Han Francisco Xews Letter.