His voice and manner startled Ethelyn, but did not prepare her for what

followed after she had "dropped her finery" and was standing by

her husband.

"Ethelyn," he began, and his eyes did not move from the blazing fire,

"it is time we came to an understanding about Washington. I have talked

with mother, whose age certainly entitles her opinion to some

consideration, and she thinks that for you to go to Washington this

winter would not only be improper, but also endanger your life;

consequently, I hope you will readily see the propriety of remaining

quietly at home where mother can care for you, and see that you are not

at all imprudent. It would break my heart if anything happened to my

darling wife, or--" he finished the sentence in a whisper, for he was

not yet accustomed to speaking of the great hope he had in expectancy.

He was looking at Ethelyn now, and the expression of her face startled

and terrified him, it was so strange and terrible.

"Not go to Washington!" and her livid lips quivered with passion, while

her eyes burned like coals of fire. "I stay here all this long, dreary

winter with your mother! Never, Richard, never! I'll die before I'll do

that. It is all--" she did not finish the sentence, for she would not

say, "It is all I married you for"; she was too much afraid of Richard

for that, and so she hesitated, but looked at him intently to see if he

was in earnest.

She knew he was at last--knew that neither tears, nor reproaches, nor

bitter scorn could avail to carry her point, for she tried them all,

even to violent hysterics, which brought Mrs. Markham, senior, into the

field and made the matter ten times worse. Had she stayed away Richard

might have yielded, for he was frightened at the storm he had invoked;

but Richard was passive in his mother's hands, and listened complacently

while in stronger, plainer language than he had used she repeated in

substance all he had said about the impropriety of Ethelyn's mingling

with the gay throng at Washington. Immodesty, Mrs. Markham called it,

with sundry reflections upon the time when she was young, and what young

married women did then. And while she talked poor Ethelyn lay upon the

lounge writhing with pain and passion, wishing that she could die, and

feeling in her heart that she hated the entire Markham race, from

Richard down to the innocent Andy, who heard of the quarrel going on

between his mother and Ethelyn, and crept cautiously to the door of

their room, wishing so much that he could mediate between them.

But this was a matter beyond Andy's ken. He could not even find a

petition in his prayer-book suited to that occasion. Mr. Townsend had

assured him that it would meet every emergency; but for once Mr.

Townsend was at fault, for with the sound of Ethelyn's angry voice

ringing in his ears, Andy lighted his tallow candle and creeping up to

his chamber knelt down by his wooden chair and sought among the general

prayers for one suited "to a man and his wife quarreling." There was a

prayer for the President, a prayer for the clergy, a prayer for

Congress, a prayer for rain, a prayer for the sick, a prayer for people

going to sea and people going to be hanged, but there was nothing for

the point at issue, unless he took the prayer to be used in time of war

and tumults, and that he thought would never answer, inasmuch as he did

not really know who was the enemy from which he would be delivered. It

was hard to decide against Ethelyn and still harder to decide against

"Dick," and so with his brains all in a muddle Andy concluded to take

the prayer "for all sorts and conditions of men," speaking very low and

earnestly when he asked that all "who were distressed in mind, body, or

estate, might be comforted and relieved according to their several

necessities." This surely covered the ground to a very considerable

extent; or if it did not, the fervent "Good Lord, deliver us," with

which Andy finished his devotions, did, and the simple-hearted, trusting

man arose from his knees comforted and relieved, even if Richard and

Ethelyn were not.




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