Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1867-07-26

cured I'd him that 1T would be delightful
to have somebody in the house with whom
no cor,Id discuss Macauly's England and
the nliocene period. Mrs. Pullet, alas
was helplessly idiotic on those subjects.
"WelI, my DEAR" he said, "that alters
the case. IF they are people OF that sort,
7 don't care how l make their acqua1n-
tance. They shall have the spare bed
room, and they shall eat with us, if they
want to, until Mrs. Ottoman can take them
off our hands"
Mrs. Pullet was, of course, delighted,
and rewarded hun in properly Affection
Two DAYS later Captain Francis Stein
way and his wife Louisa Swammerdam
Steinway occupied the best bedroom of
the Pullet house; and on the day follow
ing, after one trial of Mrs Ottoman's
crowded dining room, they had seats at the
Pullet table Their host, who supposed
that literary ladies were rights, was much
surprised to find in the reputed authoress
an extremely pretty woman who dld not
look to be more than twenty-five, although,
as she talked of an absent boy eight years
old, she might have been thirty. Her hus-
band was a tall, broad, shouldered, hand
somely-built man OF thirty-fve, with a
stern, bronzed face, but quiet manners and
very gentle way Of speaking. At times
he showed a strong vein of humor in his
conversation, especially when discoursing
of his campaigning trials and dangers. He
was undoubtedly a brave man; no one but
a hero would have confessed so frankly the
fear with which humanity goes into bat
tie; no soldier whose record was not stain
less would have told such anecdotes about
himself as did Captain Steinway. k4s5
81 never shall get used to fighting" said
he. 81 have been fighting for fifteen years,
Mrs. Pullet, and / don't like it yet. 1t is
Just tolerable ;lyou can't praise it, Every
time I go into battle wish | YVES lady.
Yes, Madame, wish was lady, and had
husband to do my fighting for me.
There's nothing like cannon and mUsketry
for taking the conceit out OF man. l
have been brought to give up my own
opinion of what was right, on the battle
field, Mrs. Pullet. have wished that one
aide would beat, or else the other"
The Captain made these modest avow-
ais with hearty laugh; but still it was
easy TO. seethat he was fighting man, and
that he had temper.
"That is O. severe sort of fellow" OBJ
served Pullct to his wife, with some awe !;
g and he's been accustomed to do good
deal of governing. But he's a perfect gen.
tleman. He keeps himself under curb
bit, and says Sir or Madame every time.
must say | like his style. - ia h
He did not say how much he liked the
style of Mrs. Steinway. He was dclibe-
rately tender of Mrs. Pullet's feelings, and
lie was instinctively tender OF his own, so
that he, avoided causes OF jealousy. But
the truth is, that his admiration, for the
Captain was feeble compared with his adj
miration for the Captains wife. He had
never before conversed with such fasci-
mating woman, not even across his cOun-
ter. So gay, and yet so lady!like; so full
of Jokes, and yet so familiar with stratifi-
cations, able to instruct his wife in the arts
of the toilet, and himself in the correlation
of forces; describing in one moment a
European court ball, and in the next Civ
ing "reminiscences Of her friend Washinton
Irving; leaping. easily from the fashion
plates in La Mode to criticism on In Me-
h1noriam and all the while graceful, natu-
Fral, unpretending; she was to PUllet a
dazzling wonder We must not unduly
blame this intelligent retail grocer if he
was fascinated by the first lady of high
social and intellectual culture whom he
had ever met. Had she been as homely as
literary females are generally supposed to
be, he could not have failed TO perceive
that she was more agreeable than simple,
uneducated, unrefined Mrs. ,Pullet. Per
haps it is well for the peace of society that
its differing grades do not mingle
And Mrs. p. in her weakness for fine
people, helped tShatch the incipient mis-
chief. She was delighted to watch her hus-
band as he discoursed with Mrs. Steinway,
apparently on equal terms about the neb-
sular hypothesis, or something else that was
as far above herself as those aristocratic
attitudes to which. she incessantly aspired.
She perceived that this accomplished well
descended lady could command entrance
into the best circles of our little city, and
she imagined herself following her into
those hitherto unattainable parlors where,
perhaps, seraphim swung incense before
the descendants of the Knickerbockers.
"Now do be attentive, Joseph" she urg-
ed, in the family privacy. "You did pick
up her handkerchief so handsome this
evening" She really blushed."
|" rshaw!" exclaimed Pullet, blushing
himself until he felt the curtains warm
around him. "That's because her skin is
SO delicate. She changes color at every
thing" 10 0rkeaas 4oH
i"0h, you needn't tell me- giggled Mrs.
Pullet, with faulty. Il know women.
They'd love to have men attentive"
+ Meantime Mrs. Steinway was not ILL
pleased with her temporary boarding
place. She thought milk and water of Mrs.
Pullct she had taken her measure at the
first glance; she considered her mere
woman. And of the mere woman, that
curious moral being who considers dress
the reality of life and the individual an un-
important shadow, Mrs Steinway had a
very contemplate opinion. =. 49, s.sr /,
But Mr.. Pullet was creature of posi-
bilitles. Could he have gone to college, he
would have honored his alma mater: could
he have lived among highly educated peo-
pie, he would have absorbed their culture
The fact that he could turn from the weigh
ing of brown sugar and the bottling of SUI
perior double-canned Santa Cruz rum to
an eager inquiry into the nature of the
Darw,nian hypothesis made him as res
pectable in her eyes as if he had been bred
a professor of all the sciences. The spec
tacle of a soul struggling daily out of the
realms of bread and-butter toward the
heights of scientific mystery strongly at
tracted her broad, intelligent sympathy.
'Mr. Pullet is really man worth motto.
ing" she said to her husband ado show
him your Simplitication of Field Fortifi-
cations He is capable of catching and
approaching your ideas; and think you
might fad his criticism valuable 1t might
be all the more valuable for being fresh,
and not biased by preconceived theories"
AS am anxious to show something of
Mrs. Steinway's character, l will explain
that this little speech was made under the
influence of more than one idea. In the