I saw them take the direction of
the depot.
"Here is trouble!" I said, sighing to myself. "Trouble that gold
cannot gild, nor the sparkle of diamonds hide. Alas! alas! that a
human soul, in which was so fair a promise, should get so far
astray!"
I met Mr. Floyd half an hour later. His face was pale and troubled,
and his eyes upon the ground. He did not see me--or care to see
me--and so we passed without recognition.
Before night the little warning sentence, written by the Saratoga
correspondent, was running from lip to lip all over S----. Some
pitied, some blamed, and not a few were glad in their hearts of the
disgrace; for Mrs. Dewey had so carried herself among us as to
destroy all friendly feeling.
There was an expectant pause for several days. Then it was noised
through the town that Mr. Dewey had returned, bringing his wife home
with him. I met him in the street on the day after. There was a
heavy cloud on his brow. Various rumors were afloat. One was--it
came from a person just arrived from Saratoga--that Mr. Dewey
surprised his wife in a moonlight walk with a young man for whom he
had no particular fancy, and under such lover-like relations, that
he took the liberty of caning the gentleman on the spot.
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