The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-03-25
REDEEMED.

Inc 1act IS, we were DOtn TOO young
TO marry. She was eighteen, 1 was
barely in my majority; but she was a
poor desolate little orphan sent out into
the cold world to do the best she could
for herself as a governess; L was madly
in love with her, and L was my own
master; we had no wiser heads to advise
lis and no more experienced hands to
guide us-so we took our own way, as
was but natural, and married on my
clerkship of three hundred year.
need scarcely say we were happy. For
the first two years indeed it seemed to
me as if / had never really lived until
now. Our pretty little home at Kilburn
was bright and cheerful. Edith was
always affectionate, and always good
tempered, and like Annabel Lee seemed
to live 'with no other thought than to
love and be loved by me-" My work
sat on me easily; and being young peo-
pie of moderate tastes, we had money
enough for all we wanted. There was
not flaw anywhere, and the days were
scarcely long enough for the Joy that
filled them with sunshine from beginning
to end.
All this continued for two years, and
then my wife became a mother.
This was the first break in our manner
of life, the first shadow cast over the
brightness OF our happy love. 1t
changed the whole order of things, and
the change told heavily against me.
Edith was no longer my companion as
she had been. The baby was delicate,
and her health also gave way. She was
obliged to go to her own room quite
early in the evening, sometimes at seven
O'Clock or so, and even when she was
well she was up in the morning with the
child, and the evenings hung ON me
heavy and long. L was no student in
those days. Lkwas social, and if not in
ordinately yet undoubtedly fond of
amusement; hence, sitting alone for all
these hours after my solitary dinner-for
Edith dined early by the doctors orders
was dreary work for me, and l grew
daily more fretted by the dullness of my
once sunshiny home.
tell the story just as it was; not to
excuse myself. but to explain.
Also, too, the desire for more expert
ence natural to my age began to make
itself felt, and more than once L found
myself confessing "We married too
young" Yet did not wish for dissipa-
Il
wild oats that [ was longing to SOW, but
L did want little change from the dead
monotony of my spoiled home. was
yearning for the society of men of my
own age and standing, and naturally the
boy, though | loved him well enough
for all that thought him the ugliest and
oldest little imp L had ever seen-was
not to me what he was to his mother. To
her indeed he was everything. The
mother had superseded the wife, and
the husband was nowhere in comparison
with the child. Edith was angry too
that 1 did not, as she phrased it, +" take
to him more, and L was angry that she
took to him so much. May be that was
jealous. On looking back l should say L
was.
Just when BERTHE was three months
old fellow in our Office introduced me
to Jack Langhorne. Handsome, we'll
hammered, rich, gay, good tempered,
generous, Jack was Just the man to fas-
cinate comparatively raw lad, as still
was. He knew everything, being one OF
the kind who start at seventeen as men,
and "see life" Systematically from that
time. There was not an accomplish
ment in which he was not proficient ;
not a game he could not play, giving
long odds and winning. He was lavish
of his money, and a gambler by inbred
instinct. He was always stalking his fate
on chance, and hitherto chance had been
his friend. He used often to say that he
had been too lucky, and that he should
have to pay for it before he had done.
Nevertheless the day of payment gave
no sign of dawning, and Jack went on