The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-09-07
for tbe Daonlle: .Gutle,,
Lo 81 t Alice.

z
WHY did marry her2 Il often asked my.
self the question, in the days that succeeded
our honeymoon. By right should have
married no one Yet / loved her. as I love
her still. 1,sa :sa..,.
She was perhaps, the straugest character
of her age. In her girlbood, I could not
comprehend her; and often think. when l
raise my eyes to her grave, quiet face, as she
sits opposite me at dinner, that do not COM
prehend her yet. There are many thoughts
working in her brain Of which l know moth
ing and flashes of feeling look out at her eyes
now and then, and go back again, as captives
might steal glimpse Of the outer world
through their prison bars, and turn to their
brick walled solitude once more. She is my
wife. have her and hold her as no other
can. She bears my name, and sits at the head
of my table; she rides beside me in my car
riage, or takes my arm as we walk; and yet,
know and feel all the time, that the darling of
my past has fled from me forever, and that it
is only the ghost Of the gay Alice, whom I
won in oil the bloom of her bright youth, that
Fingers near me now. so - s4'', 'l ..
She was not a child when l married her,
though she was very young. mean, that
life had taught her, lessons which are general
! ly given only to the gray haired, and had laid
burdens upon her v hich belong of right to the
old She had been an unloved child, and at
the age. of sixteen she was left to herself and
i L. hor
Friends and family she had none, SO she was
accustomed langhingly. to say; but ! have
since found that her sisters were living in hap.
1 py homes even at the time when she accepted
that awful trust to herself, and went out in
the great world to fulfil it. Of this part of
4 her life she never speaks; but one who knew
i her then told me much. 1t was time of
) struggle and pain, as well it might have been.
f Fresh f,om the life of large boarding school,
I she was little fitted for the hustle of great
1 selfish city; and the tears come to my eyes as
think. with kind of wonder. on the child
who pushed her way through difficulties at
/ which strong men have quailed, and made her.
self a name, and a position, and home. She
: was . writer-at first drudge, for the week
lily press, poorly paid, and unappreciated -
8 By-and-by brighter days dawned, and the
8 wolf went away. from the door. She was ad
n mired, read. sought after, and-above all
e paid. Eveu then, she could not use the wis
e dom she had purchased at SO dear a rate
II She held her heart in her hand, and it wa
wrung and tortured every day. ...--.-. ~,
ii may as well stop brea thing as stop Low
e ling, she would say, with happy smile
all Don't talk to me about my folly Let m
1t 60 on with my toys; and if they break in m
ie hand you cannot help it, and shall not com
70 to You for sympathy a-H o,7 .f.as
y She was not beautiful; but something
u whether it was her bright, happy face, or tn
II restless gaiety of her manner-bewitched pee
y pie, and made them like her. Men did th
g 60 maddest things imaginable for her sake; an
~ not only young men in whom folly was pa
donable, but those who should have been to
5f wise to. be caught by the sparkle of her smi
re, or the gay ringing of the laugh She did nc
OF trust them; her early life had taught her bet
y, ter; but think she liked them for a while, u
ii some newer fancy came, and then she dance
es past them, and was gone. rn) asa sl
ne II was in the country that met her frs
or and there she was more herself than in th
be city. e We were distant relatives, though W
ny had never seen each other, and the Fates ser
pli me to spend my summer vacation with m
a. mothers aunt, in country village, where 81
be she was already domesticated. Had know
ms this, should have kept my distance; for it WI
re only fourteenth or fifteenth cousnship th,
nd lay between US, and had q kind of horror
% her. i hardly knew why. ] was stead
er, going, qniet sort of lawyer, and hated to ha,
~. my short holiday of rest and quiet broken, j
q upon by fine lady. said as much TO m
pi- aunt in return for her announcement of IA
lily ice Kent is here, with which she greeted N
us She looked over her spectacles in qnet wor
der as gave her slight sketch OF the lady