Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-02-02
From THE ALDYNE for February.
INSIDE THE DOOR.

the corner did need something
more than the bay window which
occupied nearly the whole width of
the building; something more than
the luxuriant wisteria which wreath
ed and draped the window; some
thing more than the pretty iron
balcony, and the exceeding neatness
suggested of the interior, to make
it the home it seemed to be to foot
passengers, who often found them
selves lingering as they approached
the place, enchanted by the scent of
mignionettc that flourished in the
grass plot and by the lovely tints of
the wandering jew, which seemed
to diffnse themselves, like pleasant
atmosphere, around the enclosure.
But did the organist ofSt. James
Church, who lived three blocks
beyond, suspect it? How could
she? Hurrying past the house, on
her way to music lesson and rehear-
sal, she often found herself slack
ening her pace, and taking in the
attractive scene, and going onward
felt refreshed by what she had per-
ceiyed, and still more perhaps by
what had been snggcsted; for give
the woman a single thread of beauty,
and in her hand it was equivalent
to a clue to all desired delight. The
only difficulty with her was, that
she never found time to follow its
leading far-clse, times over, she
had discovered heaven upon earth.
The outside Of the house sugges-
ted to her no end Of interior beauty.
Sometimes, in passing, she heard a
violin, sometimes a piano, some
times voice that, as she declared,
electrified her-it was so genuinely
sweet, rich and so unworn. So that
turning the corner wearied and
raspcd to impatience, the mere
sight of that small abode was a re-
freshment. She hailed it as a pill
grim halls the green spot in the
desert-and, alas! not seldom, the
mirage also.
Within the little Birds Nest as
the organist, with more poetical
feeling than originality, was wont
privately to designate the house
(she had some secret sources of
comfort, this hard-worked creature,
which we're not for every ear),
within this little Birds Nest, ON q
sultry Jupe evening, behind the bay
window, and the wisteria and honey
sucklc, wandering jew and migni-
onette, stood, a desperate-hearted
woman, with as playful and COM
posed a countenance as some of the
martyrs, let us believe, have shown
ere now on their way to the fagot.
This woman is .hirty-fve, per-
! haps, but she looks older. Find
her upstairs any hour of the long
day, when she is alone with her sad
thoughts for company, and you
shall see woman who is looking
towards the future with distracting
fears, but who, in the effort to with
stand their draft and pressure, is
foretasting all the bitterness of dis
appointed ago. She has now bright
ribbons in her hair and around her
neck, and, by gas.light, she looks
almost happy, almost young. AT
the piano sits her husband. And
now the story is nearly alltold.
1t is Saturday evening, and what
is she doing if not endeavoring, by
every kindly artificc, to keep at
home the halfdrunkcn man who
sits on the piano-stool! So she has
persuaded him to the piano, and he
has been singing, and they have
talked now for at least an hour
about their favorite compositions,
and discussed, as critics, one work
and another, and in their judgments
they have not agreed with. each
other so constantly as to make the
conversation tiresomc. But the
talk is proving too much Of good
thing to the husband; evidently he
is wcaried Of it. He has allowed
himself to be persuaded into playing
and singing . good deal and into
talking much, but during the last
half-hour he has betrayed in
creasing restlcssness, and begins to
speak at last with undisguissd
! impatience. An indifferen; listener
might almost say, in the blunt
speech of Indifference, that he was
getting cross and quarrelsome, and
awfully disagreeable. Ishe becom.
ing suspicious Of his poor Louisa
Does she design to keep him al
home when she knows very we'll
about his Saturday-night engage.
ment to 60 to the Architects' Club
Poor architect, whose own founda'
ton seems to be tumbling in, he mus,
be faithful to his club, though "a
everything else unfaithfnl! 90 ''F'
He even begins to suspect the
pleasure which hc knows his wift