Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1845-06-12
From the Pennsylvania Enquirer.
CONCEALMENT AT HOME.


few days since. which the narrator
attributed to a disposition on the part
of the husband, to conceal the real
state Of his financial affairs from his
better half The fair one was young,
lovely and fascinating-the ornament
of gay circle, fond of display, Of So
ciety, and of making a figure in the
world. Her husband doated upon her,
and at the time of her marriage, be-
lieved himself, and was generally re-
garded as rich. He purchased a fine
house, furnished it in splendid style,
and started forward III dashing man
ner. His wife dressed, not only with
elegance, but in the most expensive
style. She was ambitious to move in
the best circles, and believing that her
husband could afford it,she lived at the
rates of several thousand dollars year.
Shortly after they were married, the
husband met with several serious loss
es: but they were in the way of bust
ness, and although they alarmed him
for the moment, they produced no Sc
rious effect upon his mind. He was
naturally cheerful and sanguine, and
he could not muster courage enough
even to inform his of his pecuniary
disaster. His views were that she
could not mend the matter--that it was
a pity to annoy and disturb her by the
disclosure, and that in the end ne
! would recover. But his affairs contin-
ued TO grow worse; and seeing this, he
often determined in his thoughtful mo-
ments, to tell the whole story to his
wife, and thus induce her to be more
economical as well as to make less dis
play in the eye of the world. But
he still lacked the nerve. The wife
had formed many new associates in the
fashionable circles, was regarded as
quite leader in the gay sphere in
which she moved, was everywhere ad
mired, and her mistaken husband
could not, or would not, wound her
pride and her heart, by disclosing the
condition Of his falling fortunes. The
worse affairs grew the more studied
were his efforts to conceal them at
home; With this object, he resoIted
TO many new expedients to obtain
funds, borrowed money at high rates
of interest, disposed of his goods and
his property at a sacrifice, and finally
found himselfin the hands of Sheriff.
The blow then fell upon his young
wife with fearful effect. She had new
er imagined such a result. True, at
times, when shs felt that she was rather
extravagant, she had ventured to apol-
ogize to her husband, and to ask, rath-
er indirectly than otherwise, as 10 the
condition of his business. But the
subject was a painful one to him, and
he avoided it with singular delusion.
He had married her rich man, he had
in measure induced his wife, TO be-
come gay and extravaganza; and thus
he persisted in the weakness of decei-
wing her, concealing his gradually de-
preclating fortune untilltoo late. Then
she was all agony and remorse. Then
the true woman, and her fidelity in the
hours of gloom, We're exhibited in all
their beauty and truth. She reproach-
ed him, it is true, for his concealment;
but it was IN any but an unkind spir-
it. She had been misled, the gaities
: of the world had tempted her on, and
thus while mingIing in the fashions
and frivolitles of life, she had overlook
ed the real stateof her husbands fnan-
ces, and disregarded thousand indi-
cations of change, which now flashed
, upon her with vivid truth and warning.
The young merchant, in telling the
: story of his reyerses to friend, admit
: ted his folly, confessed the madnes that
induced him to conceal the real state
of his fortunes, but acquitted his wife
ofall censure, at the same time remark
I ing that she had in their adversely, ex-
; hibited qualities which had endeared
), him far more than those which she had
displayed in the gay, the dashing, and
the extravagant portion of her life
sThe lesson,' he added, shas been a
bitter one in monetary point of view,
| but it has had its uses. 1t has taught
me to appreciate the true enjoyment Of
domestic life, the blessings of The in
door-world, and to contrast them favor
I ably even in changed circumstances,
{ with the giddy, tri1ing, and the wild
excitement Of the merely fashionable,
empty and cold.'
Are there no cases of concealment,
such as we have described, among our
readers & i not too frequently the