The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-04-21
MY CHOICE.

MY CHOICE.
"You went away very abruptly the
other day, Mrs. Marbury," said Mrs.
Chappell to me, when 1 called as l was
passing about a fortnight afterward Q
had in the meantime been nursing sick
child.
"Well," l answered, "you were busy,
and had stopped short in my narrative
just at that point of my life where fic-
tion ordinarily ends; and such flood of
recollection came over me as / stood
leaning alone against your counter, that
1 did not feel inclined to disenchant even
myself.
"You see, Mrs. Chappell, went ON,
into the dremland of her courtship and
honeymoon she does not like the jolting
Journey back to common life. So when
on left me thinking of Oliver Marbury
8 he appeared in his short wasted, tight
hitting, claret-colored coat, his white
satin stock and waistcoat, pale, stone
colored trousers, and patent leather
boots, and myself in my pretty white
satin drawn bonnet and blonde fall, my
white book muslin dress and satin sash,
my small white Paisley. bordered Nor
wich shawl and sandalled slippers, was
so full of that happy marriage morn in
our old church at s, and the dinner
afterwari, when my father astonished
Amos and Leah by giving me the thou
sand pounds, that did not care to shut
out the picture, and took myself off in
stead"
"Then did your marriage turn out so
badly9" questioned Mrs. Chapel, with
one eye ON the shop-door the while.
Badly 1t was an unfortunate day
when David Beech allowed himself to be
talked over, and let his pet daughter be-
come Mary Marbury. Better ten thou
sand times have remained Mary Beech
to the end of my daysl"
"Yet as l went with Oliver inside the
hired chaise to the new home had not
yet seen, and his arm held me close to
him all the way, and he stopped now
and then to whisper, My wife, and tell
me how much he loved me, and how
happy we should be, thought that one
word wife comprehended all that was
ecstatic and sublime, and the vista of
the future held not cloud.
"Two things struck me about our
house (Which had been father's)-the
unused, dusty look of the library, q
small room like an offshoot at the back,
but crammed with books, and, secondly
the hunting whips, gig whips, spurs,
racing calendars framed and glazed, the
guns, shot-belts, and powder-fasks, the
boxing-gloves and foils hung up or lit
tering about the whole house. Then,
too, there were cigars and pipes, cards
and dice in drawers and boxes, and the
first faint, impalpable shadow of doubt
crept over me.
"'Oliver will forego these things now
that he is married, said I to myself,
and / will make that delightful old
library quite snuggery. 1t is the
most cosy room In the house.
At first he drove me about here and
there, and one or two of his fathers very
old friends called upon me but his own
acquaintances were mostly men in New
market coats like his own, who talked
slang, smoked necessarily, stared hard at
me, or made freer than liked, and who
walked in and out of the house, ordered
the servants, drank beer and brandy,
went and stayed with a freedom very
foreign to my notions, and altogether
upset my theories of the privacy of do.
mestic life.
"There was one, Capt. Thornton,
especially disliked, and told Oliver So
He will ruin you if you continue to as
sociate with him, / said.
"Oliver laughed, patted my cheek
and replied, knowingly, My dear, ht
might if were not too deep for him.
mean to make fortune out of the Cap
tain before long,
81 had heard from my father tina
divers property was not large, and, lit
tie as 1 knew of such matters, could
tell my f1 900 would not go far to sup
port such mode of life. But he onl,
laughed when said captains and coun
try squires were not associates for him
Never You mind, Mary know wha
I'm about. And then he grew anQr,
when L spoke on the subject, 80 de
sisted.
p" Frequently he was away for weel
or two together, and then the who'll
tribe went with him-not that at othe
times we dt,Odys had the house full bu
it was seldom quite empty. We rarel,
had quiet evening to ourselves. II,
was away when my baby was born. an,
/ was partly glad Of il for the house wa
quiet.
"Olver had insisted upon christep
ing feast, and gave his orders as IL Potos
had been at his command.
Hang the cost What do care
was his reply to my wish to keep exper
diture within bounds.