28S 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



October 



it's the wife's second houeymoou. Aft- 

 er that three months' exquisite, almost 

 mad joy, then four months of happi- 

 ness, followed by three of contentment, 

 ending in a year of gradually increasing 

 misery. " 



"Of course the honeymoon was a fail- 

 ure, "she answered. "The next three 

 months were happy, the following four 

 not bad, the subsequent three indiffer- 

 ent, and the year was intolerable. You 

 got more out of the business than I, for 

 you put more in. Alas, I bad not the 

 beautiful mud love's capital, and yet" — 



"And yet," interrupted the man, 

 misunderstanding, "you have wasted 

 that capital, and the beautiful mad love 

 has gone, and I, who once would have 

 died for you^more than that, would 

 have lived disgracefully for you. I do 

 not believe in the 'loved I not honor 

 more' — am content to dissolve joartner- 

 £hip, willing that we should part as 

 friends. " 



"Content? Willing?" she asked. 

 "Tell me, what do you regret most?" 



"I regret my bankruptcy, " he said. 

 "I began our loartuership with what I 

 thought a splfendid, inexhaustible fund 

 of love. I look back to moments of hap- 

 piness beyond description, and now I 

 am insolvent in love. After all, I be- 

 lieve, " he continued, with a pleasant, 

 manly smile, "I believe that it is 'bet- 

 ter to have loved and lost," even if it 

 be the love and not the sweetheart that 

 cue has lost. Do you regret nothing? 

 What clings in your mind?" 



She shook her head. 



"Come, you should tell me. There, 

 on the table near you, is the deed of 

 dissolution, the separation deed — it 

 hasn't even been engrossed on parch- 

 ment, but is printed on paper. At the 

 end are two seals. We execute the dis- 

 solution deed by putting our fingers on 

 the seals. The partnership was executed 

 with our liiDs. In a quarter of an hour 

 Mr. Hawkins, the lawyer, will be here 

 to witness the execution. Tell me. " 



She shook her head again — her splen- 

 did head, regular in feature, delightful 

 in complexion, crowned with gorgeous 

 auburn hair, illumined by deep, large, 

 violet eyes. 



"You regi-et nothing?" 



With a sigh she answered: "I regret 

 that you have cast your pearls before 

 me. i regret that I have misprized and 



lost your love; that I gave you little in 

 return. I regret that my very inability 

 to return your love truly has irritated 

 me by making me feel your debtor ; that 

 feeling of irritation has helped to make 

 you miserable and me miserable too." 



"I did not use the word regret quite 

 in that sense," he answered. "I meant, 

 is there nothing that you look back to 

 of happiness that yet lives in your mem- 

 ory?" 



She put down the fan that had flut- 

 tered in her tender hands, and with half 

 a smile, half a blush, answered, "There 

 was one thing, one moment, that I re- 

 gret. " 



He rose and walked up and down the 

 room, the daintily furnished room, ev- 

 erything in which was a note in a dead 

 love song. 



"A year ago, almost to the day, cer- 

 tainly to tomorrow, we were at Staples, 

 you recollect?" 



"It was for economy I went, because 

 it was ridiculously cheap and very petty, 

 and I hated Boulogne. " 



"I remember how we wandered 

 about ; how, alas, we quarreled in the 

 lovely pine woods, or, to be true, I 

 quarreled, and you suffered, and the 

 splendid seashore, where I said bitter 

 things because my friends were at 

 Trouville and I at the quiet Paris 

 Plage, and you were sad and silent. " 



"My dear," he interrupted, "I was 

 greatly to blame." 



"Hush! You must not interrupt. 

 Then cue day we took a boat — a clumsy 

 boat — and sailed out, despite the warn- 

 ings of the lishermeu. I didn't care, you 

 didn't care — what hajipened. We had 

 quarreled, or, rather, i, afc lunch, said 

 harsh Iniugs. " 



"Mydea^-, " he interrupted, "there 

 were fc^-slts on both sides. They render- 

 ed li<' ■ntolerable and love impossible, 

 but"— 



"Knsh! We rowed out. You had the 

 sculls and I steered — at least I lay in 

 the stern and .splaslied the waves with 

 my hands — the hands you used to kiss 

 so often. " 



She paused and looked at the hands — 

 firm, plump and white and decked with 

 lovely rings of curious workmanship. 

 He, too, looked at them and sighed. She 

 sighed. 



"But out we went. Then the skies 

 became dark, the water darkened, too, 



