KATE'S WINTER IN WASHINGTON.345.
for excitement has worn off, you will see where
you stand.”
“I shall not ask your sid, at least.”
“Oh! you never loved me!” he groaned, in mingled anger end despair. “You wore false from the first—you have no heart.”
“If T had, you would have broken it,” she answered. “Now go; I will not speak again.”
More insane words were on his lips; they died suddenly, for Circe’s laughing voice sounded from the door-way, where she stood as preity as a flower-crowned sylph, calling out.
«Babes in the woods, please to come back to the ordinary world—you are both wanted.”
Everett dashed past her out of the room without a word, and hurried from the house.
“Bless me, what a tragic exit!” exclaimed Mrs. Marsden, “Such a combination of King Lear and Hamlet I never saw in all my life.”
Then, as if she, for the first time, perceived Kate's strange look and statue-like attitude, she hurried toward her, saying, in her tenderest voice.
“My darling, what has happened? Are you ill?
“No, no!" cried Kate,
“What has he said or done? Oh, Kate! that aan will kill you yet.”
“That man will not trouble me any more, Lily.”
“What, is it all ended?”
“Yes! There, don’t ask me questions! 1 aust go and dance. Where is your husband? this waltz is his. Where is Mr. Marsden?”
“Here—always at your service,” said Phil Marsden’s silky voice.
“And he had always better be, if he expects me to tolerate him,” laughed Circe, “Remember that, Kate.”
Kate laughed in return; and as Marsden whirled her away among the dancers, it seemed to her as if the whole world were sweeping into chaos before her eyes.
CHAPTER VI.
Dating from that night, Kate's willfulness and craving for excitement seemed daily to increase.
It was the gayest winter Washington had known for years; a new Administration was coming in, so that, beside the unusual festivities, party plots, and political machinations of all sorts and sizes were more rife than usual.
Everett was gone, he firmly believed forever: though the fact that he could not bring himself to start on his southern trip, and the eagerness with which he devoured every scrap of Washington intelligence, where its social life was concerned, might have made him doubt the stability of many of his stately revolutions, if it had been another's case, and be able, with all the facts before him, to give a more unbiased opinion than he could do in this personal matter.
For a time his anger kept him strong, as that unchristian passion generally does; but not being blessed or cursed with quite so much obstinacy as many, when the separation from Kate dulled the edge of his rage, such hosts of painful thoughts made his heart ache, that he was forced to confess he had by no means succeeded in uprooting her empire over that very necessary but exceedingly uncomfortable organ.
Showing him to you only as a man in love, I dare say you have gained no high opinion of Harry Everett’s abilities. That is your mistake, owing to my stupidity; but he was a man really possessed of an unusual amount of brains, That, in a certain way, some of the best talents he owned had been slower in development than is customary with most of our precocious youths, (who graduate from college at eighteen with such eclat that, if they lived to the age of the patriarche, they would never get a step beyond the promise of their early successes,) was the very best augury for his future.
While Harry endured his heartaches, his remorse for whatever he felt had been his fault, struggled along under the dreadful feeling that the world had come to an end, and that all coming time could hold no hope of peace or happiness for him, Kate was rushing on in her career, and piling up troubles enough to dash her youth out when the final crush should come.
As far as an unmarried girl could be, she was at the head and front of all social triumphs—and you can imagine how women hated her. It was not enough for her to have the ordinary excesses of young ladyhood, she must needs rush into the married women's province—make her uncle's parties and dinners the notable feature of the season, flirt with married men, and do petticoated politics. Her triumph was complete, and neither she or her uncle had the slightest suspicion of alt the harsh things that were whispered about her.
Her intimacy with the Marsdens increased daily, and though there were those who could have warned her—-of course, nobody did it; probably she would not have listened if anybody had. Did you ever profit by another person's experience? �
