Smyrna times., 1874-05-06
N MSSc eIIUn e OuS.
The Doctors Wife.

DIR. NOyes married, | think, some where
about ,6S or SO. There is very little to be said
about his wife. Mrs. Sarah Tanning, indeed.
gave decisive verdict upon her at first sight
She Is one OF the rank and file of humanity"
said she: one of the weight.ess molecules that
60 to make up the mass" Mrs Tanning was
that brilliant little woman from Andoyer.
Mass, who essayed to take the well known
Mrs Rush's place in Philadelphia that win
ter She used to give weekly reuniOns-wth-
out supper; she cannot understand, even now.
why she could not form a literary ne,Ieus'i
thsre.) Notody cOntradicted her verdict she
always claimed humanity as her own preempt-
ed property and besides, there really was so
little to say about the doctors wife Mrs
Tanning remarked that an American woman
if no other, ought to have some salient points
good or bad to justify her right to live, and
this woman was an America Of the Americans.
descended on one side from a colonial Mary
land family, and on the other of Pennsylya
MIA Quaker stock, race Of reformers, who
lived only tor great ideas. But there was
| absolutely nothing in the creature-nothing
It was lnexpllcable, by all the rules of race
The little ladys specially, by the by, was
trace" and strains of blood" Size could
lay her finger on the very great-grandfather
from whom you inherited your long upper lin
or gluttouOns prOpensities, and reason for you,
out of these inheritances, such sequences Of
fatallsn that your Christianity tottered quite
to its foundations.
! Now there had been no salant points about
the doctors wife when she was fat baby, or
girl at school. Dode Near was daily set
down as a Ounce In every class, from spelling up
to international law, and daily took up her
book with cheerful ut really Is too bad in
me, and went out with fresh zeal to skate and
run races with the boys. If she had been one of
the delicate "Lilys" and Violets' whom the
other girls set apart to adore her lack of brains
could have been over looked but she was a
short thickset little body, with shock of rod
hair tied back from freckled face which was
lighted by laughing blue eyes-eyes in which
there was an uDdeniable cast She never,
however, gave hint of her opinion of herself
and always seemed to be in high good humor
with her lot in life, stupidity and squint inclu-
ded. A certaiR indeinable something about
the girl would prevent any one from limiting 8
disagreeable truth to her. The same impal
pable reserve or old fashioned courtesy in her
too, made the boys who skated and raced with
her treat her with respect which they did moi
show to the Lilys and Violets. Her condition
on graduation day would have been pitiable i
her placid good humor had not made it ex
asperatlng. One of the class was going tC
sail as missionary to Africa we all made {
} heroic martyr of her; we all looked forward
with hysteric enthusiasm to speedily becoming
famous authors, leaders in society, or at leas
wives and mothers. Trustees and faculty spok,
and prayed at us, the very air kinded will
hope and tervOr; and there sat that plumI
little Ounce at the foot Of the bench, smelliDI
bunch of the red Burgundy roses, of which
she was so fond, quite contented 10 be a oi
pher now and in the future.
Here she was again, DIR. Noye's wife, shape
less and freckled and bright-eyed as ever; bu
the ugly lair was always deicately coiffured
and her simple dress a marvel of exquist
1t art. She did not care in the least that every
II body believed that she had sold herself for a
e establishment. Why else should girl of he
: age marry a cynical soured widower Of fifty
= with a half dozen hObbIe-de. hoys of sons
: "Dr. Noyes," Mrs. Tanning said, "was a
ambitious man, thwarted in his aims by tn
J.: drudgery of supporting family. He shoul
- have chosen an intellectual woman as his sea
ond wife, who could have helped him to regal
his lost ground.
n. The doctors mistake was soon apparent
&c his wife's course. The faded carpets an
hair-cloth sofas were swept out of the drear
old house. The money spent in making
bright and pretty, as Mrs. Tanning said, woul
have kept open q soup house all winte
- Noye's old friends, instead of smoking the
meerschaums in his dirty Office came in now
cozy dinners; where each man found his +
vorite dish his wife had fine taste in COO
cry, it appears; in that, as in everything ell
she took life with zest aud joyously Il
Noyes boys, who bad begun to hang arour
Variety theatres and engine houses, gave
series Of dancing parties and privite theat
Gals at home, to which girls of their own ella
IS came. Now all these things bring in bill
the doctors long boarded money was spe
like water. 1t was an inscrutible mystery
our society leaders why he and his boys, al
in fact all other men clustered around MI
Dode, as they called her, affectionately, Ii
bees about honey. She never said anythi
worth remembering for FIVE minutes; $
81 made no professions of love or friendshi