Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-08-20
e;aoife ss,isfrllany.
fXliILDy'T AFFORD To MARRY,

wounded him, and the pain found no
abatement night or day Was the mai
den coy or unkind? No-the maiden
was familiar and tender. There was
healing in the eyes that shot forth ar
rows.
And the pain found no abatement
night or day? Nonei George Lane was
no blind lover. ready to risk all conse
quences in pursuit Of any obiect-but a
sensible young man, who counted the
cost. This was the reason of his trouble.
Love is sweet; but life is g thing of So
Der earnest: and as George put the love
aad life together, taking things as they
were, he could not see how love was to
leave any permanent sweetness.
An intimate friend holding him by
She hand one day said:
/" George, my dear fellow, what has
come over you? / don't believe you
have smiled for q month. Are you in
love?u
"Yes,ii was the frank reply.
Ahai q sickness of the mind. Well,
I'm glad to know it's nothing more seri-
Gus. Love wounds to heal. If, as the
poet says:
"Keen transport throbs through every vein, y
it is also true that we never know
$50 sweet a PAIN
Iu6EG 10 nO SnCCtnCoS III O1Sc,
said the young man. "The pain is sharp,
aud there was no medicineSon the arrow
point.n s
Then the maiden is unkind?"
"No.n
"She loves you in return ?"
:" If have any skill in reading eyes. F"
What, then? Are her parents un-
wiiling?'
~"I never asked them"
You are strange lover to look SO
woe-be-gone. Where rests the trouble ?"
"That is much beyond love-" said
Lane.
"Yes.n R
{ Marriage and cost of living"
"True. But you have good salary.
Has the young lady nothing?"
business; but the family live at an Aex-
pense which must cover, if not more
than exhaust, all the profts.n
"Who is,the young lady? / will not
betray your confidence
The youngest daughter of Abraham
West"
Hardware merchant ?"
"The same"
"I know her, and sweet girl she is,
Nellie West. Why, George she's the
very one for you. And you have favor
in her eyes! congratulate you"
"You needn't then" was the somber-
faced reply of Lane, ''for am not wit
less enough to bare my neck to the halter of
matrimony, ii the act is to bind me to a
perpetual serfdom.n
What do you mean ?"
"Simply, that the manner in which
Mr.. West has raised his daughters units
them for the position of wives to young
men of my condition. They have the
education; the tastes and the accom-
plishments we desire and must have
but their habits and expectations are ia
tai dowerites for any poor young man to
accept. They have no fortune to bring
their husbands, and yet must be sup
ported in comparative elegance. The
idea of useful employment does not seem
to have entered their minds. Work, in
their view, involves something of deg
radiation. All, well I must dismiss a
fond illusion, that was sweet while it
lasted. 1 shall go no farther in this un-
safe direction. Some other man, bolder,
or less inclined to count the cost, must
win consent from heart it would be a
life long happiness TO call my own"
Nonsense, George" replied the
friend. ''If the young lady really loves
you, she will adept herself to your cir
cumstances. Nellie is a charming girl.
Press your suit and after gaining her con-
sent talk over life's sober realities with
her. She has sense and right feeling,
will readily comprehend how much of
happiness is involved in your prudential
ideas. A woman who loves man well
enough to marry him. will cheerfully
accommodate herself to his circumstan
ces.n
I" Accommodate y, said the young man
curling up his lips. "I don't like the
word. 1t hurts my PRIDE"
Pride Is never good counsellor,
friend George"
my manhood, then. 1t hurts my
manhood. A young woman without a
dollar in the world, accommodate her.
self to the circumstances of young man
whose income is but twelve hundred a
year! You can't reconcile me to the
case under that plea. My pride, manli-
ness, self-love, or self-esteem-as you
will-revolts against the humiliation
No, no-George Lane has independence,
as well as prudence, and thinks their
counsels worth heedina.n ,r
"While I think. answered the friend,
THAT George Lane is little too high
strung for the case under consideration,
l know Nellie very well. and think her
q sensible girl. True, the way i'm which
her parents have conducted her home
education is not favorable to just views
in life. But love is clear-sighted and
strong-hearted. Take her out of her
present false relation to society, and she
VIII make you, am sure, good wife in
every respect"
No, SIR" was firmly answered.
Even as talk with you, and listen to
what you say, grow more resolute in
my purpose to recede from dangerous
position. If Nellie was alone in the
world might act differently. But look
at the case as it stands, and see what
risks are involved There are two older
sisters both married; and their hus-
bands noses, to use homely phrase,
are well down upon the grindstone and
likely to remain there. Already both
have gone through the ordeal of fall in
business-and no wonder.
mot being able as clerks to maintain
theirdomestic establishments, they were
foolish enough to set up in imitation OF
other people as silly as themselves
they must have stores of their own, from
the income which they drew with such
inscriptions hands, that more than ali
theprofits were consumed in fast living"
Somehow or other, in their break
Gown they have managed to keep their
fine furniture and houses, and still live
before the world in what to me is shame
less extravagance. Both are clerks
again; and how they manage to keep up
appearances as they do, passes my COM
prehension. l have met their wives a
few times at Mr.. Vests, and they hold
their heads as high as queens. I am no.
body in their estimation! Why, the
jewelry, lace. and other snowy things
that they faunt in peoples eyes so
misunderstanding that somebody be-
sides their husbands have actually paid
for them-cost more than third of my
years salary
"But you have nothing to do with
these ladies, y interrupted the friend.
"True, and don't mean to have any
thing to do with them. But the case
uould have another hearing were T q