The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-08-24
SflettfO Gale.
LOS T A LICE.
HNY HY did marry her? often
ENN7 asked myself the qaestion in

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the days that succeeded our honey -moon.
Yet love her, as loved her still. She
was, perhaps, the strangest character OF
her age. In her airlhood, could not
comprehend her; and | often think, when
raise my eyes to her grave, quiet face,
as she sits opposite me at dinner, that I do
not comprehend her yet. There are
many thoughts working in her brain of
| which I know nothing, and flashes of
feeling look out at her eyes now and then,
and go. back again, as ca2tiyes might
steal q glance of the outer world through
their prison bars, and turn to their brick
walled solitude once more. She is my
wife. I 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 carriage, on takes my arm, and [
know and feel, all the time, that the darl-
ing of my past has fled from me forever
and that it is only the ghost Of the gay
Alice whom I won in all the bloom of
bright youth, that fingers near me now.
She was not child when I married
her, though she was very young. [ mean,
that life had taught her lessons which are
generally given only to the gray haired,
and had laid burdens upon her which be-
long of right to the old. She had been
an unlnved child, and ut the age of six
teen she was left to herself, and entirely
dependent on her own exertiohs. Friends
and family she had mono, so she was ac-
customed laughingly to say; but | have
since found that her sister was living, and
in happy home, even at the time when she
accepted that awful trust to herself, and
| went out in the great world to fulfill it
Of this part of her life she never speaks
| but one who knew her then had told me
| much. 1t was time of struggle and
| pain, as well it might have been. Fresh
from the life of q large boarding school,
she was little fitted for the selfish hustle
of a great selfish CITY; and the tears come
to my eyes as think, with a kind of
wonder, on the child who pushed her
way through difficulties at which strong
men have quailed, ald made herself a
name, and position, and home. Sac
was writer-at firsta drudge for the
weekly press, poorly paid, and unappeciat-
ed. By-and-by, brighter days dawned,
and the wolf went away from the door.
She was admired, read, sought, after and
above all-paid. Even then. she
could not use the wisdom she had pur-
chased at so dear rate. She held her
heart in her hand, and it was wrung and
tortured every day.
Il may as well stop breathing as stop
loving she would say, with a happy
smile. Don't talk to me about my folly,
Let me go on with my toys; and if they
break in my hand, you cannot help it,
and shall not come to you for sym.
pathy.'
She was not beautiful; but something
whether it was her bright, happy face.
or the restless gaiety of her manner
bewitched people, and made them like
her. Men did the maddest things i'm
agil able for her sake; and not only young
men in whom folly was pardonable, bul
those who should have been too wise to
be caught by the sparkle of her smile, OF
the gay ringing of her laugh. She did
not trust them her early life had taught
her better; but think she liked them for
while, until some newer fancy came,
and then she danced past then, and was
gone.
1t was in the country that l met her
| first; and there she was more herself than
in the city. We were distant relatives,
though we had never seen each other,and
the Fates sent me to spend my summer
| vacation with my mothers aunts, in a
country village, where she was already
domesticated. Had | known this,
should have kept my distance; for it was
only fourteenth or fifteenth cousinship
that lay between Us, and had a kind OF
horror of her. l hardly knew why. /
was q steady going, quiet sort of law
yer, and hated to have my short holiday
of rest and quiet broken in upon by a
fine lady. L said as much to my aunt, in
return to her announcement of 'Alice is
here and as she seemed to wonder
l gave her slight sketch of the lady's
city life, as | had had had it from the bps
of Mrs. Grundy,' herself.
sWell-hve and learn, they say. But
who sver would think it was our Alice
you are talking of, Frank! However, ]