Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1858-01-28
Alisffllaneons.
OLD HUSBANDS AND YOUNG WIVES.

OLD HUSBANDS AND YOUNG WIVES.
~ was an old fool! Yes-I was an old
fool; that's all there is about it. I ought
to have known better; she was not to
blame, poor thingl she is but child yet
and these baubles pleased her ambitions
mothers eye. 1t was not the old man, but
lis maoney-his money-I might have
known it. May and December-May and
December-pshaw! how could ever have
believed that Mary Terry could lore an old
fellow like met" and Mark Ware surveyed
himself in the large parior mirror.
See!-It reflects a portley old man of
sixty, with ruddy face, snow-white hair,
and eyes from which the light of youth
had long since departed. And yet there
is fire in the old mans veins too; see how
he strides across the carpet, calculating,
with fresh emphasis, "Yes l was an old
fool! But / will be kind to her; I'm not
the man to tyranize over young girl be-
cause her mother took her out Of the nur-
sery to make her my wife. see now it is
not in reason for young girl like her to
stay contentedly at home with my frosty
head and gouty feet. Poor little Mary =
No-I1l not punish her because she can
ont love me; SIZE shall have what she
wants, and go where she likes; her moth
er is only too proud to trot her out, as the
wife of the rich Mark Ware. If that will
make them both happy, let them do it;
maybe-and Mark Ware paused maybe,
after she. has seen what that Dead Sea ap-
ple-the worlds made OF, she will come
back and love the old man Gttle-maybe
who knows? No woman who is believ-
en- in, and well treated ever makes bad
wife; there never was bad wife yet, put
there was bad husband first; that's gos-
pel,-Mark's gospel, anyhow, and Mark
Ware is going to act upon it. Mary shall
60 to the ball tonight with her mother,
and 1 will stay at home and nurse my pa
tience and my gouty leg. There's no evil
in her; she as pure as lily, and if she
wants to see the world, why-she shall
see it; and though I can't go dancing
round with her, l never will dim her bright
eyes-no-no"
"That will do, Tiffy; another pin in this
lace; now move that rose in my hair lit
tie to the left; so-that will do"
THAT will do" Tame praise for that
small Grecian head, with its crown of braid
ed tresses; for the full, round throat, and
snowy, sloping shoulders; for the round,
isory arms, and tapering, rose-tipped fin
gers; for the lovely bosom and dainty
waist. Well might such beauty dazzle
Mark Wares eyes, till he failed to discern
the distance between May and December.
Mark Ware had rightly read Mary. She
was guiltless and pure, as he had said; and,
child as she was, there was that in her
manner before which the most audacions
eye would have shrunk abashed.
When the young bride first realized the
import of these words she had been made
to utter, III death do us part" she look
ed forward with shuddering horror at the
long, weary, monotonous years before
Her home seemed a prison and Mark
Ware the keeper. Its very splendor op-
pressed her. And she chaffed and fretted
in gilded fetters, while her restless heart
cried out-"Anywhere but home" Must
she sit there in her prison-house, day after
day, listening only to the repinings of her
own troubled heart? Must the bee and
the butterfly alone be free to revel in the
sunshine? Had God made her beauty TO
fade in the sitting atmosphere Of darkened
parlors, listening to the complaints of quer-
ulous old age? Every pulse of heart re-
belled. How could her mother have thus
sold her! How could Mark Ware so un-
magnanimously have accepted the COM
pulsory sacrifice? Why not have shown
her the world, and let her choose for her
self? Oh, anywhere, anywhere, from such
q home!
There was no lack of invitations abroad,
for Mary had flashed across the fashiona-
BILE horizon like some bright comet, eclips-
ing all the reigning beauties. No ball,
no party, no dinner, was thought to be a
success without her. Night after night
found her enroute to some gay assemblege.
To her own astonishment and her foolish
mothers great delight, her husband new
er remonstrated-on the contrary, she Of
ten found upon her dressing table some
choice little ornament which he had provid-
ed for the occasion; and Mary, as she fas-
tened il in her hair or bosom, would say
bitterly, ale is anxious that l, like the
other appendages of his establishment,
should reflect credit on his faultless taste r'
Mistaken Mary.
Time passed on. Mark Ware was 'pa-
tient" as he promised himself to be. His
evenings were not so lonely now, for his
babe kept him company; the repricved
nurse was only too glad to escape to her
pink ribbons and 'chat with John at the
back gate" 1t was pretty sight-Mark
and the babe. Old age and infancy are al
ways a touching sight together. Not a
smile or cloud passed over that little
face that did not wake up all the father in
Mark Wares heart; and he paced the room
with it, or lulled it to sleep on his breast,
talking to it, as if it could understand
the strong, deep love of which it was the
unconscious object.
Il am weary of all this" said Marks
young wife. as she stepped into a carriage,
at the close of brilliant ball. 81 am wea-
ry OF seeing the same faces, and hearing
the same nonsense night after night. /
wonder h if 5, shall ever be happy; I won