WITH all Ethel's excited ways, she was not to be
reckoned a fool when she had in mind to ac-
complish some purpose. She understood full
well, that it would be up to her at this time to keep Orlean
from returning West with her husband, unless she recalled
her father. This she did not wish to resort to, until she
had exhausted all her force without avail. She appreciated
the fact that Jean Baptiste could and would influence her
husband as well as her mother, while as to Orlean, she
would only need a half a chance to fall away from her influence and go back to her husband.
So with this in mind, Ethel, who had inherited from her
father, much evil and the faculty of making people miserable began, as soon as Baptiste had left the house, to fomulate plans to counter any effort on his part to see Orlean.
Her first move, therefore, was to recall Orlean who was
visiting near, a fact which her mother had feared to tell
Baptiste. She convinced her forthwith that she was sick,
in danger, and sent her to bed, not telling her that Baptiste
was even in town. She followed this by sending her mother
to the kitchen, and keeping her there.
" Now what I must do succeed in doing," she muttered
to herself, " is to keep Orlean from seeing or meeting him
in private and even in public for as much as an hour." She
realized that keeping a man and wife apart was a grave task,
and that she could not trust to the sympathy of any friends.
But one person could she trust to be an ally in the task she
was trying to accomplish, and that was her father. She
rather feared her husband at this time, for, while she held
him under her control at most all times, he was by disposition inclined to be kind and good. And, although he was
jealous of Baptiste in a measure, this did not reach pro-
portions where he was likely to be a very ready accomplice
with the plan in hand. Indeed, if it was left to him, Orlean
would sleep in her husband's arms that very night !
" I wish papa had stayed just another day," she grumbled
as she walked the floor and tried to formulate some effective plan of action. " To think that he left only this morning and that man came this afternoon ! " She was provoked at such a coincidence. She did not like to think too deeply, or to scheme too long, for it hurt her. So she was compelled to take a chair for a time and rest her mind. She was not positive how long Baptiste would stay, and she would have difficulty in keeping her sister in bed for any length of time. But she decided to keep her in the house if she had to sit on guard at the front door.
And it was while she was yet undecided upon her plan
of action, that Glavis came home. Once in a great while,
when she wanted a change, a diversion, she would have
his supper waiting. Other times it was left to her mother.
He loved her in spite of all her evil, and was always
pleased when she had his supper ready. So when she
heard his footsteps outside, she was suddenly struck with
an inspiration. ' She rushed toward the rear, and began
hurriedly to set the table. Her mother had the meal ready,
so she affected to be very cheerful when Glavis came into
the room, and even kissed him fondly. He was so surprised,
that the instance made him temporarily forget what was on
his mind, which was just what she wished him to do.
" Where is Orlean ? " he inquired after a time, where-upon his wife's face darkened.
"Oh, she's sick, and in, bed," replied Ethel guardedly.
Glavis grunted. He was thinking. For a time he for-
got all that was around him; his wife, the supper, his
work, all but Jean Baptiste and the wife that was being
harbored under the roof that he kept up. He suddenly got
up. He walked quickly out of the room and hurried up-
stairs while his wife's back was turned, and knocked at the
door of the room wherein Orlean was supposed to lay
sick.
" Come in," called the other.
" Oh, it's you, Glavis," she cried, dropping back into bed
when he entered the door.
"A ah Orlean," he said in his stammering sort of
way. "A ah how are you ? "
" Why, I feel well, Glavis," she replied wonderingly. She
had never felt just right mentally since before she left the
West. And when she allowed herself to think, she found
that it hurt her. She had always been obedient her
father had told her that time and again, and gave her great
credit for being so. " Think of it, my dear," he had so
often said, " in all your life you have never ' sa**ed ' your
father, or contraried him," whereupon he would look
greatly relieved. So her father had laid down the rule she
was following trying to follow. Her husband must certainly have been in grave error not that she had observed
it, or that she had been badly treated by him, for she had
not. However, whenever she tried to see and understand
what it all meant, it hurt her. She was again the victim of
those nervous little spells that had hara**ed her before she
married, but which had strangely left her during that time.
But to do her father's will for he never bid always his
was an influence that seemed to need no words she was
trying. So she looked up at Glavis, and observed something
unusual in his face.
" What is the matter, Glavis ? " she inquired, sitting up in
bed again. Glavis shifted about uneasily before replying.
" Ah why Orlean, it's Baptiste, your husband."
"Jean!" she cried, forgetting everything but her husband forgetting that she had allowed herself to be parted
from him. " What what is the matter with him, Glavis ?
With Jean ? Has something happened ? Oh, I'm always so
afraid something will happen to Jean ! "
" No, no," exclaimed Glavis, pushing her gently back upon
the pillow. " Nothing has happened. Ah er ah "
" Oh, I'm so relieved," she sighed, as she fell over in the
bed.
" He's here in the city," she heard then from Glavis.
" He is ! " she cried, sitting suddenly erect again. For a
moment she hesitated, and then, raising her hand to her
forehead as if in great pain, she groaned perceptibly. The
next moment she had again sunk back upon the pillow, and
her breath came hard. Perspiration stood upon her brow,
and he saw it.
" Orlean, oh, Orlean," he cried then upon impulse.
" Great God, this is a shame, a shame before God ! " he
lamented with great emotion.
Suddenly he rushed to the door and then halted as he
heard his wife calling him from below. He turned to where
Orlean lay in the bed, sick now for true.
" Aren't you coming down to supper, Orlean ? " he called.
" No, Glavis. I am not hungry."
" But you should eat something, Orlean."
" No, Glavis," she repeated in a tired voice, a voice in
which he detected a sigh. " I couldn't eat anything now."
He looked at her a moment with great tenderness, let escape
a sigh, and then as if resigned to the inevitable, he turned
and pa**ed down the stairway to where his wife waited
below.
She regarded him keenly, and during the meal, she kept
casting furtive glances in his direction. " I wonder what
he's been saying to Orlean?" she kept muttering to her-
self. She concluded then, that she would have to watch
him closely. He had never been in accord with her and
her father's plan, and they had borne false witness to influence him against Baptiste. But he had seen Baptiste she
knew, and was also aware of the fact that Glavis liked both
her sister and brother-in-law, and it was going to be a
task to keep him from following his natural inclination.
She thought about her father again, and wished that he
was in Chicago".
She had never been delegated to handle such a task alone,
and she disliked the immense responsibility that was now
upon her, and no one to stand with her in the conflict.
" Well, Ethel," Glavis said, arising from the table when
the meal was over, " I'm going to walk out for a while."
She started up quickly. Her lips parted to say that he
was going to meet Baptiste and conspire with him against
her father, but she realized that this would not be expedient.
He might revolt. She rather feared this at times, notwithstanding her influence over him, therefore she decided to exercise a little diplomacy. Accordingly she sank back into
the chair, and replied:
" Very well, dear."
He regarded her keenly, but she appeared to be innocently completing her meal. He sighed to think that she
did not make herself disagreeable, the anticipation of which
had made him fear and dread the task that was before him.
But now he was compelled to feel a little grateful because
she was apparently very prudent in the matter.
He hurried quickly to the hall tree, slipped into a light
overcoat, and left the house. As he walked down the
street, he was in deep thought.