CHAPTER VIII.
THE FLIGHT AND THE RETURN.
_WE_ will not speak of the cause that led to this serious rupture between Mr.and Mrs.Emerson.It was light as vanity--an airy nothing in itself--a spark that would have gone out on a baby's cheek without leaving a sign of its existence.

On the day that Irene left the home of her husband he had parted from her silent, moody and with ill-concealed anger.

Hard words, reproaches and accusations had passed between them on the night previous; and both felt unusually disturbed.

The cause of all this, as we have said, was light as vanity.

During the day Mr.Emerson, who was always first to come to his senses, saw the folly of what had occurred, and when he turned his face homeward, after three o'clock, it was with the purpose of ending the unhappy state by recalling a word to which he had given thoughtless utterance.
The moment our young husband came to this sensible conclusion his heart beat with a freer motion and his spirits rose again into a region of tranquillity.