Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1866-05-18

WOIudn even lelb SOfIl0 ldlIlb udGuIdl burODS
of womanly affection as, in all the stateli-
ness of his commanding presence, he ap-
preached and owned allegiance to her en-
thralIing charm.
But as ever, she wearied of him. Love
is exigent, exacting, and Marion Lisle
had worn no bonds, not even the soft and
silken ones that the heart weaves. The
old instinct returned with ten-fold in
terest after few weeks Of unnatural con-
straint The instant she found that she
should soon be obliged to answer the in
evitable and binding question, she reyolted.
A new lover presented himself, and in the
excitement of new conquest Marion for
got the prize she had so sought to win, and
turned from the honest love and the hap
py life that lay before her.
And the great man watched and waited,
and hoped, and despaired. The time
came when his eyes were opened, and he
saw plainly how poor and shallow, how
narrow and ignoble were the aims and pur-
poses of the woman whom he had loved
with such an engrossing passion. He re-
turned once more to his old ambitions,
shorn of much of his strength, fettered by
the weakness that had enfeebled his char
acter, but with much of the old intensity
and singleness that had once made design
of his thing accomplished.
After a time his strength, fed upon sue
cess, grew to the stature of the demands
upon it. Men said that his brief delusion
of love passed, he had returned with a
new energy and an unwonted vigor to his
life-work. And so the years passed on
He walked among his kind, cold, glittering,
stately. 1t seemed that no human passion
had ever softened or warmed the heart
that lay beneath that icy calm exterior
Success, houors, higher grades of great
ness were his. The nation rested in his
hands, plastic thing, to be moulded at
his will, while he stood apart, mark for
envy and for worship, creature to be at
once admired and hated; reverenced and
condemned, yet by universal acclamation
towering over all, the nations loftiest cit
izen.
And Marion Lisle-where was shea
For once the art of coquetry had failed.
A word or smile had always served to
bring a victim back to her feet, and so,
when flushed from her latest conquest, she
turned to win back the great man she had
seorned, but whom she had never ceased
to set apart in her own mind as he whose
destiny it was to give his great love for
the cinders of her scorched and shrivelled
heart; in short to furnish brilliant mar
riage at the fitting close of her career as
a coquette, she found him beyond recall.
He had learned to know her, and gave
her scorn as real as hers had been simu-
lated.
There stirred, at last, at the heart OF
Marion Lsle, something like love. She
knew it by the bitter disappointment that
for time clothed her gay spirit in gloom
This disappointment had its natural eff
feet. In the proportion that she dwell
upon the concealed bitterness, she lost the
power of charming and attracting. DeeT
lines were drawn upon her once rounded
and blooming face. Her eyes grew darh
and clouded with sorrow; the soft, slow
speech, once so musical, grew quick and
1 sharp under the influence of the hidden
sting; and the gay smile that lighted heI
expressive face to bewitching brilliancy
became rarer and rarer as she brooded up
on all she had lost and was loosing.
She reused herself at last to fictitious
brilFiancy, that flashed and scintillated
meteor-like, across the horizon of society
j A host of new admirers, attracted by thi'
new phase of her character, gathered rounc
her. From among these she chose one
whose gay spirits helped her often to sus
tain the false part she played, as worthy
her favor. 1t was in a mood Of wearines
and disgust with all the world, and strange
lly enough, with him most of all, that sh'
suddenly accepted his oft-repeated offer o
marriage.
Charmed to have secured the hand o
one so much sought, he hurried as mucl
as possible the preparations for the marri
AGE; and Marion, too wretched to desir
to resist, languidly assented and with as
: sumed tranquility saw the day of sacrifc
approach.
Without one particle of love for the mai
whose hand held hers, she made the VOW
that bound her to his lifelong companion
, ship, and assumed the sacred duties G
wife. Fatal mockery! Sin previously t
, be repented!
Ten years later a throng had gathere,
one evening before one of the most brill
liant residences in Washington. Light
cleaned from every window in the broa'
facade. Music echoed, pulsing out upo
the still night air, from the open easements
and richly dressed women passed and re
passed in view of the admiring crowd.
This crowd-the poor, the wretched
the outcasts of great and wealthy city
had gathered to derive strange pleasur
| from this sight of luxury from which the
were debarred. Some of them gaze
+ with wonder only-others, few perhaps
had once mingled in just such scenes
D wrapped about them such glittering silke
robes, adorned white arms and bosom
with such cleaning jewels, and fair q
: these women, received, ike them, the ii
cense of flattery and praise.
e One was there, standing apart, shrinl
= inc with the scorn from all contact wit
her wretched associates, who once ha
/ trodden those very rooms with the be
!, and greatest of the land following her foo
e steps, and bowiug'down in homage befol
If her. AS she thought of this, with tea!
e of self-scorn and pity in her eyes and batl
it ing her sallow cheeks, carriage drove N
/, From it stepped the great statesman
5, Time had mingled in his once dark lool
e many silver thread, and some new em'
II tions had somewhat softened bis cold an
Il stately bearing. After him, leaning upc
d his arm, came beautiful woman in tt
e dress of bride-the statesman's your
e, and lovely wife. She glanced round upc
l. the wretehed crowd, and her sweet fa'