The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1859-02-16
The Wife,s Mistake

III pOIlB9 UN6I udY UOOhS anu ieu9GIS.
These tresome accounts still she exclaimed.
viii you ever find time for anything but busi-
ness, Ralph? Have you no taste for anything
beyond fgures2
Margaret but the sadness in the tone was
unheeded as she continued,
We hadsuch a charming evening at Mrs. C's
Capt Hill related many interesting incidents of
his residence in Egypt, and Mr. Warren, the
famous young poet, read MAUD" and some
of the most beautiful passages in aurora
Leigh must read to you some of Romney's
"Great Thoughts on Duty"
She went hastily to her chamber for the
volume When she returned, her quiet en-
trance was unheard by her husband, whose
pen was rapidly moving over the almost inter
mnabIe colums of figures. With an express
sion of impatience, almost of scorn, resting on
her face, she hastily turned away.
''And this is the end of all my dreams Of
marriage said she, as she reached her room.
He has taste for drudgery. His pursuits and
tastes are all commonplace, and | must go from
home to find the sympathy need, to find those
who will appreciate, with me, the books love,
and the beautiful in art for which he has nei-
ther eye nor ear. Why did he not marry a
woman who had neither heart nor mind to be
continually unsatisied?
In the room she had left, Ralph Hale sat,
hour after hour, till his brain was weary. and
his eyelids dropped. Then, laying aside his
books, lie remained long time in deep thought.
God bless my Margaret he prayed, and give
me strength to bear all things Give me power
to make her happy.
Putting far away all thoughts of her has
bands real nobleness of character, jealousy
preserving the memory of every slight differ
ence in their tastes and pursuits Margaret
cherished the spirit Of discomfort, till it embit-
tered every hour of her life, and sent suffering
she never dreamed of to the heart of her hus-
band, who would gladly have sacrificed every
earthly good for her happiness
A sudden and severe sickness came to her,
while Ralph was in distant city. One day
during her slow recovery, an aged friend, who
had known her from infancy was sitting by her.
| Margaret he said, after steadfastly watching
her troubled face, you are very unhappy.
have seen it long time, l should not recog-
nize in you my once cheerful, happy child.
May | know what great sorrow has come to
you?
Then, with her sobs and tears, she told him
all her unhappiness.
After short silence the old man spoke
again, and there was sadness, almost sternness
in his voice.
Years ago, Margaret, wealthy New York
merchant became involved in a speculation
whose failure suddenly took from him the ac-
cumulated wealth of his years of commercial
enterprise. There were few years Of weary,
vain struggling TO regain what he had lost, then
deep dependency. lingering disease and
death. His wife and four children were left
penniless The child, boy of sixteen, had
finished his preparatory studies, and was abou
to enter college. By this stroke, he found hi:
prospects for the future cIouded; but with t
noble self-forgetfulness, he turned cheerfully
into the way marked out for him, and walked
resolutely in it.
He obtained situation with merchan
who bad known his father, where his faithful
ness and untiring devotion to his duties, VOL
the confidence of all who knew him. During
the first years of her widowhood, bis mothe
had taught a private school for young ladies
and it was the boys highest ambition to relieve
her of this necessity, and give her the rest 0
her feeble health required. | cannot tell yol
all his privatons, his willing sacrifice of every
recreation his continued selfdenial, that ht
might tighten the burdens Of those so dear t(
him.
Year after year, success crowned his efforts
In the village where his mother had passed tht
years of her childhood and the first years 0
her married life he purchased pleasant resi-
dence for her, and then lucrative business
beginning to rise in the west, he came here.
At the time Of his removal here. acciden
revealed to him the fact, that the widow ant
invalid daughter of one whose fortune was, by
his fathers advice, rsked 10 that unfortunate
speculation which had so changed his own life
were living in extreme poverty. To him they
are indebted for the pleasant home that nov
shelter them, and for the delicate, thoughtful
ninistrations to their daily comfort.
Now, when the commercial world IS cIoudet
and disasters crowd thick and fast upon him
and upon others. bis anxious thoughts turn e
the mother. and suffering sister in the llttl'
village home, whose comfort depends upor
him, to the other lonely freside, TO which hl'
constant thoughtfulness imparts its own light
and to his own home and the young wife
whose happiness is dearer to him than life Fol
this, Margaret, Ralph Hale gives bis days t
incessant toll, and willingly sacrifices the socia
pleasures he is so eminently fitted TO enjoy.
| have been in these three homes. With ;
love that is almost reverence, his mother anc
sister speak his name, and with full heart
thank God for his life-that life so filed will
the beauty of self-renunciaton. The widow
and daughter, whose hearts he has made glat
tell Of his numberless acts Of kindness, of hi
delicate and unceasing watchfulness, and dali.
they ask Gods blessing on him whose life is
, blessing to others.
In his own home, the wife, whose lov
should bless him, whose gentle ministry shoul
comfort and strengthen bin, turns coIdly from
him, because he prefers the happiness of 9th
ers to his own qualification, because the press
t ING duties of lie claim all his waking hours
leaving him little leisure for the claims of socet
or for the high Intellectual culture which fe,
attain whose lives are not wholly devoted to il
even at the expense Of all that is noble.
The old man continued: Some men tai
poetry, some write itin words, and some write
in their lives The true heroism which poet
: have sung, the beauty of self-abnegation an
of ceaseess devotion to duty, which have bee
their inspiration, Ralph Hale has lived. Th
. woman who has won the deepest love of sue
2 a heart should reverentIy and gratefully chez
T. IL L. e