Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-07-08
MISCE LIZA Y.
OLD HUSBANDS AND YOUNG
WIVES

WIVES.
Il was an old fool Yes-I was an old
fool. that's all there is about it. ] ought to
have known better; she was not to blame,
poor thing is but a child yet and these
baubles pleased an ambitious mothers eye.
1t was not the old man. but his money-his
money! might have known it. May and
December-pshaw how could | ever have
believed that Mary Terry could love an old
fellow like me?" and Mark Ware surveyed
himself in the large parlor mirror
See,-it reflects portly old man Of sixty,
with rudy face, snow-white hair, and eyes
from which the light of youth has long sinct
departed. And yet there IS fire in that old
man s veins too see now he strides across
the carpet, circulating, with fresh emphasis,
Eyes, | was an old fool But will be kind
10 her; am not the man TO tyrannize over
a Young girl because her mother took her
out of the nursery to make her my wife.
see now it is not in reason for young girl
like her 10 stay cOntentedly at home with
nv frosty head and g0uty feet. Poor little
Narv No-I'll not punish her because she
cannot love me: she Shall have what she
wants. and 90 where she likes; her mother
is only too proud to trot her out as the wife
them both happy. let them DO it maybe -
and here Mark Ware paused-"Inaybe after
she has seen what the Dead Sea apple-the
world-is made Of, she viii come back and
love the old man a little-mayb aybe-who
knows? No woman who is believed IN, and
well treated. ever makes a bad wife; there
never was a bad wife yet, but there was a
bad husband first; that's gOspel-Mark :
gospel anyhow. and Mark Wae's going to
act upon it. Mary shall 60 to the ball to-
night with her mother, and l will stay at
home and nurse my patience and gbuty leg.
. There's no evil in her; she's as pure as
lily. and if she wants to see the world, why
she shall see 1t and though can't 20 dan
eng around with her, I viii never dim her
bright eyes-no-no ~
That will do, Tify; another pin in this
lace. now move that rose in my hair little
~ the left; so-that viii do,
That will do Tame praise for that
small Gracian head, with its crown Of braid
ed tresses; for the full, round throat, and
snowy, sloping shoulders for the round
ivory arms, and the tapering, rosetipt fin
gers; for the lovely bosom and dainty waist.
We'll 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 guileless and pure, as be had said; and
child as she was, there was that IN her man
ner before which the most audacious eye
would have shrunk abashed.
When the young bride had realized the
import of those words she had been made to
utter, "till death do us part" she looked
forward with shuddering horror at the long,
nonotonous, weary years before her. Her
home seemed prison, and Mark Ware the
koopvr. It's very splendor oppressed her.
And she chafed and fretted in her gided
fetters, while her restless heart cried out,
sAny where but home Must she sit there
in her prison house, day after Gay. listening
q only to the repinings of her own troubled
heart? Had God made her beauty TO fade
in the sitting atmosphere ofdarkened parlors,
listening TO the complaints of querulous old
age? Every pulse Of her heart rebelled
How could her mother have thus sold her
How could Mark Ware have so unmagnani-
mously accepted the compulsory sacrifice ?
Why not have shown her the world, and let
her choose for herself? Oh, any where, from
such home .
There was no lack Of invitations abroad /;
FOR Mary had flashed across the fashionable
horizon like some bright comet. eclipsing all
the reigning beauties No ball, no party,
no dinner, was thought to be a success with
out her. Night after night found her en-
route to some gay assemblage. To her as
constituent and her foolish mothers delight,
her husband never remonstrated-on the
contrary, she often found upon her dressing
table some choice little ornament which be
had provided for the occasion and Mary, a:
she fastened it in her hair or bosom, would
say bitterly (" He is anxious that l, like the
other appendages Of his establishment, should
reflect credit on his faultless Taste
Mistaken Mary.
Time passed on. Mark Ware was q pa
tient as he promised himself to be. His
evenings were not so lonely now, for his little
babe kept him company; the reprieved nurse
only too glad to escape to her pink ribbons
ana " chat with John at the back gate.
II y, was pretty sight-Mark and the babe
Ci9 age and infancy are always touching
slght together. Not 4 smile or a cloud PASS
81 over that little face that did not wake VI
the iatner IN Mark Wares heart and b,
paved the room with it, or rocked il to sleer
~ ns breast, talking to it, as if it could
ueisuand the strong, deep love of which il
was an unconscious object.
Il am weary of eli this >, said MarL,
lung wiie as she stepped into her carriage
] ~ tne close OF a brilliant ball. 81 an
xeary of seeing the same faces and the sam,
stupid nonsense night after night. Iwonde,
saai! ever be happy? wonder shall eve,