Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-04-29
MISCELL A N Y
A Romantic Marriage.

A Romantic Marriage.
An English adventure has recently given food
for gossip in Paris and as "AlIs well that ends
welln we are happy to record it. A few years
ago. a Young English nobeman, just fresh from
college. raw and inexperienced, fell in love with
the laundry of the castle where his family
resided. 1t appears that the passion first seized
upon his soul while attending divine service at
a village church, where Susan by her modest
demeanor and bright blue eyes completely over
set all the resolutions which the young noble
mans mother had conceived upon the subject OF
his future alliance with the daughter ofthe Earl
of c., whose estate joins that OF the young
nobeman. How the acquaintance first began
between young nobleman, who was reading
for his degree, and young laundry maid, who
could not read at ALL no chronicle will ever tell
but in a short time we find that, by the assist
ance of an old college friend just received into
orders, at the very village church where the
Young lord had first beheld his Susan, in the first
rosy blush of an April morning, with no other
witness but the well-fed parish clerk and pew-o-
pener-with no epithalamium but the joyous
chant of the early birds-no pomp and spendor
but those afforded by the great spring festival
of nature, which the young lord, just then deep
in Virgil, appreciated more than any other kind
was he united to Susan and before the sun was
risen to it's MONDAY height the happy pair were
already on their way to France.
For some months the young lord lived in the
happy delusion which had presented to his
youthful imagination the fair Susan as the en-
chanting and most lovely of her sex. But honey
moons are like moons of every kind-they have
their waning hour; and at the end OF certain
time the young lord began to perceive, to his
utter astonishment-for he had never perceived
it betore-that the gentle Susan was not merely
innocent as he ever thought her, but profoundly
ignorant likewise. Every act and every express
sion of the poor laundry-maid now Jared and
shocked the nerves of the young nobleman. In
short, the dreadful fact was soon revealed to
him in all its ugliness-he was no longer in
love!
Just about this time the young mans family,
to whom his fight with Susan was well known,
but who still remained in ignorance concerning
the marriage, began to be importunate with
respect to his return. No longer held by the
ties of that all.absorbing love which had cost
him so much sacrifice, the young nobleman a.
greed in spirit with the views of his family
But how to break the terrible fact to Susan !
To his astonishment, however, he found her
grown as reasonable as himself, consenting, with
ont q murmur, to the proposition that she should
remain in France to imbibe some sort OF educa-
ton while he repaired to England to pave the
way for an avowal of the truth to his lady moth
er. Susan, who had learned to believe that ev-
ery idea emitted by her lord was the right one,
consented to everything; and, accordingly, with
tears and sorrow at the separation, but with
gratitude for all the goodness and forethought
displayed by her husband, she took up her resi-
dence at a school in the Faubourg st. Honore,
where as dame en- cham6re Qady boarder) she
was to receive the benefit of the first instruction
which Paris could afford.
Time passed on. The young lord was pune
tual in his payments, and amid the gaieties of his
new life, as master of his own actions, and the
gatherings and caolngs of the fashionable world,
he soon began to look upon himself as bound by
no other obligation to the hapless Susan. His
letters grew more and more rare, always telling
of the extreme restraint in which he was held
BY his relations, and the want OF means by which
he suffered, urging the greater necessity for Sc
cresy, until at length Susan, who believed all,
wrote to him letter full of affection, announc
ing with pride that an opportunity occurring Of
relieving him of the burthen OF her maintenance,
she had accepted situation as companion to
Lady E., who was going to Montpelier for her
health, and had been staying at the same school
with her.
This took place five years ago, and during all
this time it would appear that the young lord,
caring but little for the embarrassment of the
introduction or recognition of his wife, content
with the assurance given him from time to time
of her health and welfare, of the entire purity
and responsibility of the life she was leading was
maintaining at home the freedom and liberty of
an unmarried man, until short time since, by
the death OF his mother being necessitated to
make fresh family arrangements, he was aroused
from his apathy with regard to the patient Su-
san.
Lady E. was then residing at Passey, and
it was thither that Lord M directed his foot
steps on his arrival. What passed at the inter-
view, which had been sought by the husband as
mere acgUit de conscience, and because he
thought it derogatory to the family pride that
his wife would live longer among strangers, will
never be known. To the astonishment and de-
light of Lady E, who had long been admit
ted into the secret, Lord M remained abash-
ed and staggered at the difference which few
years separation had made in the rustic Susan
now grown into an elegant and accomplished
woman, listening with perfect self-possession to
all his pretensions, and expressing herself with
all the reserve and dignity of woman of the
world. Needless to say, that his old passion was
revived in full force, and that Susan is again the
queen of his soul, as in former years; nor will it
astonish our readers to learn that the husband
and wife, once more bride and bridegroom, have
returned to England together.