The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1855-08-30

they crowded advantages aud facilities
upon him, and literally opened the way
10 wealth.
For time, all succeeded that he un
dertook, and no young man in the city
seemed more certainly assured Of CON
petence than he. And Mary, how hap.
py she was We can pardon her short
period of exultation, for she bitterly sui.
fered tor it.
Some men cannot bear prosperity; and
Henry Irvine was one Of these. Give
them discouragements to meet, and un-
propilious circumstances TO combat, and
they hew their way with silent pride
and resoIute perseverance, which con.
) quer all obstacles. But let the sun shine
on them, then pride soon finds outra.
aeous utterance and their resolution de.
generates into opinonaed obstinacy.-
They take pleasure in contemnng good
advice, and will do wiIlfulIy wrong, and
against their own conviction, to mark
their independence.
Henry Irvine took early occasion to
rctaliale upon his wife'S friends, for what
he affected 10 regard as their unwarrant.
able opposition. He accused them, while
they were in no small degree the authors
of his prosperity, as being drawn to him
by it; and intimaed that selfShneSs was
the origin of their tardy friendship, no
less than il had been oil their former ell
nifty.
Mary was a true wife. She saw the
injustice OF her husband, but declined 10
acknowledge it, even to herself. Al
length the GOODNESS became more and
more chilling, until it resulted in insepa.
Bile arrangement between Irvine and the
friends of his wife. He gloried in what
he considered a complete. and, he en-.
deavored to persuade himself, righteous
revenge. tie made his former opponents
suitorS for his friendship. and proudly
spurned them. Such was his impression.
Theirs was that they had overlooked
the disagreeable character of their favor
ties husband, and striven to befriend him;
but that, true to his natural low instincts,
he had refused. Neither party was en-
tirely right.
When the breach became final, Mary,
Irvine deserted father and mother and
kindred for her husband, and identified
herself with him, so far as lingering first
affections would permit. But, if her heart
yearned over the dear first friends Of her
youth, she never suffered her conduct to
betray what she accounted a weakness
but clung to her husband with madness
of affection, which deserved better re-
turn than she received.
Henry Irvine, as we have said, could
not bear prosperity. A secret reason,
hardly acknowledged to himself, why he
disliked his wife's connections, was be-
cause they preceived his dangers and VEN
tured to warn him. His sensitive pride,
took captious alarm, and he gloricd in
mocking reproof, by persisting in his indis-
cretion.
The end of such a course is easily
prophesied. He fell among thieves and
for wounds of friends exchanged the self
ish fatterry of knaves. Plucked Of mon
ey, and bankrupt in credit and character,
he awaked at last to find himself ruined
man, with a meek, uncomplaining wife de-
pedent on him, and feeling, twice as keen,
iy as he did, all his ruin and degradation
The temptation which has ruined many
came into complete his destruction. He
sought oblivion of his degradation in the
wine cup, and there lost the redeeming
, trace or hope of mankind.
= 1t is a fearful fall, when the appetite
b triumpbs and the reason is dethronged-
d when the man awakes only to misery, ant
It ru8hes back 10 inebriation again, in the
b vain hope to forget himself
e A lower depth still remained, and Hen
ry Irvine found even nthat. His jaundice'
i thoughts dared to suspect her who, 70
:. love of him, had surrendered friends
T. home, happiness, hope. Because she di'
II not, and could not, lail against her own, a
), he did because she was meek, and quiet
and uncomplaining, he quarreled with he
e also. He charged that she hated him, ant
l. regretted that her, fate was coupled witt
d his.
W The last she could not deny; the frs
! he saw in his own heart, and judged tina
d it must be in hers also. 1t is their ow
Is fancied concealed reflection in the good
e that the wicked hate.
is And he dared, moreover, to accuse HI
r wife as the cause of all his misfortune;
l. He said she triumphed in them. Can W
d wonder that she would say she did not
III 1t might have been that she thought sue
ID charge too wickedly preposterous to ar
v swor; or, it might have been that she wa ".
wearied into hate at last, and not dis
= pleased to find that there was one mode
/. which she could inhict pain on one VIII
4. had heaped so many wrongs upon her.
'e Mary was drawing near her dark hour
IS CHAPTER II.
- There is in most, if not in all careers,
to moment-the crisis of wife; an hou
Is upon which all the future hangs. Th
le crisis came to Mary Irvine.
ir Her house disrobed of many comfort
ne was not yet quite desolate. She clunt
while glimmer Of hope remained to he
Ut faith in her husband. She belived that
ul who knew him did not know his degred'
n. ton. She thought that she had conceale
er it from maryland, fond simpleton ! in
n. ARMED that men did not see thro' the no