The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1866-04-27
THE DAILY EMPIRE.
II. II. ROBINSON,
PUBLISHER AND PROPRIEToR.
Agnes and Her CHOICE.

BeUnef IuJlle. Sne mas set ner nearJ upon |
an aim she will not relinquish. She has
long Rugged hope from which nothing
will induce her to unclasp her hands. And |
there are some women of great sensitive
ness as well as of common sense, and who |
are beyond the years of first youth, who |
will not renounce the idol they have cher |
ished, though all heaven and earth should |
protest against them. AL their experience
has not taught them the wisdom of endur- |
Ing. in loneliness, the pangs of O love,
which, united to its object can never be
welded to respect. They invest the future
with that same sort of sanctifying mist
with which the past becomes enwrapped.
They imagine that the seductive law of pos
sibilities provides for the reformation of
the unworthy objects of their love, and
they believe that those objects themselves
are never, at the very worst, 1.-THE so bad
as they are represented to be. And so
they shipwreck their lives. The warnings
and cOunsels of friends who have suffered
become as unregarded as the unseen wrecks
that strew the oceans bed, or are cease
lessly whirled about in the eternal currents
of the deep. rl tt D. hct 'ia
| Agnes Calbert was the last woman upon
earth whom her friends would have Sc
lected as the woman to marry imprudently.
| Marry "'unadvisedly," as they would have
said only people who are said to do things
"unadvisedly" are generally those who are
advised the most. She was Of calm and
equable nature. Her great strong point
was her common sense. A phrenologist
would have gone into phrenologic ecstacies
over her perfectly balanced head. He
would have found that no bump protruded,
no organ predominated. Common sense
was the bread and water Of life to her and
imagination the cake and wine. She was
not prude, although of that age when un-
married ladies are proverbially said to be
She xyaa oinn nly 81 th0uUhtftIl pnntern-
plative, unmarried woman. who had
led quiet simple, natural life, had read
much and thought more, and tried to
do all the good she could. There was
nothing beautiful In her person, nothing
irresistible in her manner. There never
: had been. In her freshest youth no one
coming from her presence had ever ex-
claimed, ''what lovely creature !"
and, had chance even presented
! the opportunity, no Grabbed and perverse
. bette noir would have been won over by any
!. super-sweetness in her ,demeanor. In ac-
tion, as we'll as thought and word, she was
too conscientious to fascinate. All 1t is so
seldom that one meets with q refined wo-
man of common sense, and with no hum
bug about her, that / feel 1t is quite par
donable in me to say, in the hackneyed
language Of book reviewers, that Agnes
Calbert was refreshing. She was refresh
ing. She was water-brook to painting
hearts. But hearts don't usually pant af-
ter such O water-brook until the age of
adolescence is passed, and the eye longs for
something more than sensual bloom, and
the mind of man becomes as dissatisfied
} with brainless amiability as his lips with
: the brief fidelity of kisses. Agnes had
; enough poetry In her nature to understand
, poets, and enough practicality In her life
TO prove that she knew something of human
duty. She is very unromantic heroine
IN calapf fnr aha ie mt hg.ilIiant
nor fascinating, nor wealthy, nor renowned,
Few heroines are five-and-thirty, content
with simple fulf1ment of home and social
duties. willing to live without shining, and
4 to die lamented by but few. She was wo-
{ man whom no one would have noticed In a
a crowd. ..- .
i Itis not pleasant to have a reason for dis
y respecting any one whom you have long
/. respected. 1t is not pleasant TO know thai
+ your old schoolmastcr has taken TO drink
r ing, or that the lady whom you used To
Q love is addicted to snuff, or that the boy
Y idol of your school-boy days-when we all
!. have boy-idol---has gone into the pawn
d broking business. And perhaps II Is equally
Z unpleasant to learn that the sober, common.
!. sense women who made much of you in your
h boyish years, and allowed you the freedom
=, and the passionless caresses which an Older
: sister grants to much younger brother, Il
I going, quite unexpectedly TO all but herself
to be married. 1t was a very unpleasant
surprise to me TO hear that Agnes Calber
was going to be married. At the time
I. heard of Il, there was no reason in tho
|. world known to me why. she should not
i But remember the dire repugnance will
I which 1 heard of the intended match, anC
a. of the quick degrees by which the thermom
=, eter of my appreciation of Agnes fell. Sh,
! had no right TO marry, ] thought. Not tina
/ had any claim upon her. Heaven forbid
II was young enough for her TO be almost ole
= enough to be my mother. When hat
|. been a boy of but fourteen or fifteen, sh'
e had taken that kind of interest IN me which
r unmarried women Of thirty or theneabopt
% often will in youthS than whom they ar
Al too much older ever 70 be anything else Il
than elder sisters. Chance had thrown u
very much together; and /, as the impas
stoned and dreamy hoy, bad learned from
NJ her, as the all but mature woman, a grea
y deal of those pure teachings which only
4. pure Womanhood can teach. Even at tina
). early age, when the dimmest Rlimmering
., of passion first began to awake l ha,
~ CLEANED from my knowledge of her som
N inkling of what exquisite purity OF though
I'd means in the Intercourse of man with wo
~ man. We read, weiwr0te, we walked, W
4, talked, we rode, we played chess we, pail
f. Yisits, We went down TO wateHngAplaee
together, and by the time was sixteen Ag
Ines had acquired that sort of an inhnenc
over me that a very young and wise littl
mother might have been supposed 20 gal
Nm over precious and ddream-lovhg boy. Ag
mes became a sort of household saint that
i. placed among the calendar Of home. Th
lg night other marriage never entered into m
ut head. Ii would have savored Of contami
~ nation. Even when chance snapped th
ties Of daily intercourse, and, enterin
upon my young manhoodS saw her oni