uty had
the power to detail him and the constable to scour the plain while he
remained behind in company with Sue stopped Ira's further objections.
Yet, if he could only get rid of her while the deputy was in the
house,--but then his nearest neighbor was five miles away! There was
nothing left for him to do but to return with the men and watch his
wife keenly. Strange to say, there was a certain stimulus in this which
stirred his monotonous pulses and was not without a vague pleasure.
There is a revelation to some natures in newly awakened jealousy that is
a reincarnation of love.

As they came into the house a slight circumstance, which an hour ago
would have scarcely touched his sluggish sensibilities, now appeared to
corroborate his fear. His wife had changed her cuffs and collar, taken
off her rough apron, and evidently redressed her hair. This, with the
enhanced brightness of her eyes, which he had before noticed, convinced
him that it was due to the visit of the deputy. There was no doubt that
the official was equally attracted and fascinated by her prettiness, and
although her acceptance of his return was certainly not a cordial one,
there was a kind of demure restraint and over-consciousness in her
manner that might be coquetry. Ira had vaguely observed this quality in
other young women, but had never experienced it in his brief courtship.
There had been no rivalry, no sexual diplomacy nor insincerity in his
capture of the motherless girl who had leaped from the tail-board of her
father's wagon almost into his arms, and no man had since come between
them. The idea that Sue should care for any other than himself had been
simply inconceivable to his placid, matter-of-fact nature. That their
sacrament was final he had never doubted. If his two cows, bought
with his own money or reared by him, should suddenly have developed
an inclination to give milk to a neighbor, he would not have been more
astonished. But THEY could have been brought back with a rope, and
without a heart throb.

Passion of this kind, which in a less sincere society restricts its
expression to innuendo or forced politeness, left the rustic Ira only
dumb and lethargic. He moved slowly and abstractedly around the room,
accenting his slight lameness more than ever, or dropped helplessly into
a chair, where he sat, inanely conscious of the contiguity of his
wife and the deputy, and stupidly expectant of--he knew not what.
The atmosphere of the litt