The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-08-24

band, though be never afterwards thought. u
worth while to own as much, and that Win
the view of Furnishing by frightening her' ne
first schemed TO absent himself for snort
time from his home. The plan in us lnceP-
ton was easy enough, but row 10
b ing il TO satisfactory conclusion was an
other and more difficult matter to manage,
because his return, while his absence was still
a conse of uneasiness and surprise, must nee
essarily involve explanation or justification.
more or less explicit and complete He kept
on postponing, therefore, his return, until the
exhaustion OF his resources made POSTPONE
mentno longer possible. After his seventeen
years absencehe must have seemed to his
wife very much in the light of a stranger, of
whom 1t was not easy to demand explanation,
SIMPLY as matter of conr5e. He was not
the same to her as husband from whom she
ii;ld recently been parted. She had become
leconciled and resigned in great measure to
his disappearance, and the extent of her sur
prise at his return would, for time, at any
rate, absorb every other feeling. Yet, be
sure, that afterwards, and to the end OF her
| days, Mrs. Howe-lf she shrunli from ques-
| tioning him-was nevertheless, always won
| dering within herself why her husband had
| quilted her,
He was not in debt, as we have seen, and it
| is not probable that he was involved In any
trouble of political kind, or he would surely
| have Quilted the country or hidden himself
far more completely from the eyes of his fel-
lows. Indeed, day after day, he must
have been in extreme danger of his seere.
being discovered. lie was forever haunting
the neighborhood in which his wife resided
| as though curious to know how she bore his
absence-how she supported her widowed
condition; whether, by her conduct undeJ
her aihiction, she gave proof of her un
Worthlness to bear his name, of her title t.
the love he had once felt, or proiessed to fee
or her. Yet, for long years, Mrs Howe Dor,
this inspection, patiently as Penelope: he
Ulysses contemplating her the while-witI
this difference, that although disguised, b,
had never wandered. He had been absen
most ngloriously-hiding himself, for m
known reason, but a few streets off. IF sh
had beaten him well on his return, who coul
have blamed her? Who, except perhaps, he
husband, would not have forgiven her? HI
{ had been guilty of wanton cruelty, and de
served punishment of condign kind.
Hawthorne imagines the man to have bee
possessed of curious selffshness, rustipe i
his inactive mind,-of peculiar sort OF var
ity, OF disposition TO craft, which up to Tia
time OF his going away, had seldom produce
mole positive effects than the keeping of ne
ty secrets hardly worth revealing. Undoub
etly there are many people much enamore
of mystery for lis own sake,-prone to Sc
value upon secret, and withor
any regard to its intrinsic worth; lust 8
the thieving magpie in The old story hid til
silver spoons-not because the spoons coul
be OF the slightest use to it, but because ii
mlschieyous propensities found pleasure i
hiding away all sorts of things Mr.. How
may have been man Of this kind; it ma
have been source Of pleasure to him to r,
. fleet that he had securely hidden himse
away from his wife and his friends. ~.
1t may be that the man was slightly ma
Over indulgence in a crotchet may Ian
many man in an absolute craze And thos
who are addicted to sowing whims should |
! counselled to take heed lest, as consequent
they reap manias. Yet, if Howe was ma
there was certainly method in his madnes
and it endured for seventeen years. Enyli,
, Magazine. IN :