The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1875-09-03
ONE OF THEM.

lzation here which we trust she cX.
pcrienccd above. Every body remcm.
5crcd her loneliness and her MARTYR
dom; nobody-but Mr.. March-rc-
mcmbered an irritable, selfish body,
little more than a baby when she mar
ricd, and a baby ever since. Nobody,
however, pretended to have met such Il
loss aS Maria, Il girl of fifteen, who,
having been the slave of her mothers
whims, was bcwildered by her idle
hours. The child had been fond of her
pretty, helpless mother, and she sat
crying in her room, or wandered about
~slipshodly and ordered away the chill
,lren, who were in mischief from the
time they were out of bed till they were
in again.
Mr.. March's home life had always
been an outrage on d~ecency. Now
breakfast with three haIf-waShcd chill
drcn, without Maria's society; dinner
varied only by ragged tiers and bruised
faces and Maria's appearance is an or
namental gravc-stone; lonesome even
ingS, with Maria at Il %neighhor'S for a
iiSh of tlattery As the model daughter
Of Il sanity mother-thiS was subject for
thought. And Maria had no right to
surprise when Mr.. March told her that
he was about to bring into the house a
second wife, who would be II kind
mother to his children.
Miss Maria went out of the door with
! bang, and was found in Mysteries on
the best bed. But Mr.. March, giving
the servants the same intelligence,
kissed the children, and was off to the
home of Miss Bell, which hadmadc him
tremble, remembering the domain
where Maria was mistress.
Miss Meliccnt Bell was Il sweet-faced
woman, not yet forty, and 50 win>ome
Is TO attract those tired of beauty. her
expression of goodwill, patience and
purpose having grown with practice of
her virtues. Mr.. March thought if a
thinner would sketch an angel, here was
the face for him to study. She was
walking in the garden when he went
down the path. 1t was hardly changed
since he strobe up it twenty years ago,
swapping off the peoples with his stick,
and slamming the gate behind him.
The box had grown some inches-it
reached Miss NIcliccnt'S shoulder now
but it gave the same spiced OdOr as
the wind stirred it, as that robin ruStled
from point to point along it; and Miss
Melicent had changed only us the box
had-to sweetcr growth. When she
<urned, with her gentle Sunday mcdita-
tionS-She was thinking of that verse,
E'ThOu wilt show me the path of life:
in Thy presence is fullness of JOY; at
Thy right hand there are pleasures for
evermore and saw Mr.. March, she
put out her hands with a start, as if to
ward off q ghost. But her hands were
taken with such a pressure as only flesh
and blood gives, and it was Melicent
who looked most like a ghost, as, with
white lips whispering his name, she
would have fallen if he had not fore
shortened matters by putting an arm
about her. Poor Miss Melicent, Twen-
" years since that lovers quarrel had
left her alone in the garden-years in
which hope had died, and love, if it had
not withered, had been pressed away
ike Il sacred flower that has lain in the
hands of the beloved dead. Poor Mr..
March! Twenty years, in which he had {
learned that ''as a jewel of gold in a
snout, so is a fair woman which {
IS without discretion"
But Melicent was herself again direct {
y. 1t was only the apparition of her
youth in Mr.. March that had startled |
her: in that evening light he was young 5
IS ever. But Mr.. March waited for no
comparisons between now and then; he
plunged into his Grand; he said he had L
'egretted to the core of his heart his
leadstrong temper, his subsequent III t
satuation. He did not utter another S
about his wife; he only told the +
of his home and his neglected f
children. She vas silent, and her tears t.
ell. Then she replied that he must h
Know any thing like that old girlish love W
vas impossible to her now; but her in
had always lived, and her affec- Il
ion-her Affection And then Miss \
sIelicent's tears obscured her voice, and Ii