Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1859-06-03

| ueDt ana lueal lSnlHcallOHS-I lurueu
over the music stores to select ballads
and love ditties for the guitar brought
home petite books, gorgeously bound,
and bits of jewelry and little rings to
her fingers, and everything else that
money could be lavished on. In short,
| was exceedingly foolish.
Yet, long after the roseate atmosphere
of these first bright days had faded into
the dull gray tint of prosaic lifelong
after my fair young First Wife lay in her
graye-my heart went back to ponder on
these times with yearning, sorrowful
tenderness. / cannot tell exactly when
the gradual change passed over my nome
nor when the childish pretty ways fell
slowly into disuse-but the curtain de-
scended on the days of youthful sonti-
ment, and my First Wife died, and |
buried her girlish sweetness and fancies
deep, deep in my heart!
Lizzie still sat in the corner opposite
but my First Wife was dead and Sc
pulchred in the past.
=" | say, Lizzie, this button isn't sewed
on yet. and | can't go down town holding
my collar together"
Lizzie was sitting at the table, biting
the end of pen, with books, papers and
pamphlets scattered broadcast around
her. My Second Wife was disposed to
be literary. The guitar lay neglected,
for "the noble intellect of woman was
not to be dwarfed to such idle pursuits"
The workbox was locked and powdered
with dust, for Lizzie left such trifles for
those who could stoop to them" The
masculine appendage who had the honor
to be called her husband might go and
come as he pleased now-she would rot
know or care.
Lizzie !" l repeated. " Lizzie l'
go, Charles how you do annoy me !
What is it o, that wearisome button
again +! Do 60 to Mary"
Mary be hanged" quoth I pettish-
ly. The last time I went to her she
sewed black horn button on my waist
band. Come, put aside that everlasting
pen, and pay some little attention to
me-"
Don't talk to me now, Charles; I'm
just getting little inspired" And the
pen ratified away over the foolscap like a
locomotive.
Breakfast, ma'am," announced Bid
dy, in stentorian tones.
Go down, Charles, dear" said Liz
zie. IN be down presently. 1 can't
bear to break this chain of ideas"
So / went down to the breakfast ROOM
where a great deal of smoke betokened
that that the fire Gas usuaD positively
declined to burn. The coffee was cold
and muddy, the beefsteak obstinately
resisted all attempts to cut it, and the
bread was moldy.
rose abruptly, in despair, and went
upstairs again. My Second Wife looked
up with that dreamy, distracted air that
showed she was Gin the clouds"
"Lizzie."
"Well?" The pen paused for an in
slant.
:. am going up to Albany tonight,
to be gone, perhaps, a week"
She did not seem to hear me, and
repeated my speech.
care you? O, Tn glad-I shall
have such nice, quiet time e .ish my
story -
All, what would my First Wife have
said, even to an hours absence? Had
Lizzie, then, forgotten those pleasant
hours, when my football on the stairs was
wont to make the sweetest music in her
ears?
tried the experiment, accordingly,
but it failed. My Second Wife seemed
neither to know nor care that was gone.
She was "cultivating her mind"
became rather dlapidated. My toes
| peeped through rent stockings-my hand
kerchlefs were never hemmed-the but
tons dropped one by one from my gar
ments. In vain went to the tailor and
TO Genn's-all the furnishing estab-
lishments" in town won't make a man so
neat and trim as little care from his
wife.
Those were dreary days. How many
night ! sat by the smouldering CRATE,
amid all the discomforts of an ill-con-
Quoted home, and listened to the hurried
scratching of my wife's pen, or the Aut-
ter OF the leaves as she pored over some
transcendental author What wonder
that sometimes sighed to think how the
freight had shone on the sunny head of
the sweet First Wife, as she sat beside
me IN the olden times, singing softly to
the dreamy melody Of the silver-voiccd
guitar
1t was the identical Lizzie who bent
over her papers then, with ink on the
slender fingers, and the curls twisted
carelessly back from her face; but the
soul seemed to have passed away and
been replaced by something essentially
different.
One night came home detected and
full Of dreary forebodings There had
been great commercial crisis, and my
little bark of fortune-one among a.
countless armada--had been swept away
down the rapid current of bankruptcy.
! stood hesitating on the doorstep, won
dering how | should break the news to
my wife, and feeling at my heart the
dull, heavy pang that weighs down him
who expects no sympathy.
But she had heard the news already,
and met me at the door with that old,
bright smile. !