Litchfield enquirer., 1876-11-23
tFi oin Harper g Msgazins.l
 MY WIFE. V

l Dub SbJll " U HI 11UEcIGu dluOu& tuO n1OCh0 on the shore-a gay and picturesque party from the great hotel on the hill above us. Ellen Bond, her delicate aquiline features and smooth brown hair relieved against the black rock where she leaned her beau ] tlful head, the belle of Newton and of Hill Beach; Mrs. Ford, a demure little widow. much more gay and girlish than ] any of her girl friends when she chose to forsake her role, but just now as pensiye as her piquant face permitted, and appar- ently thinking of the deceased Solomon Ford, who died five years ago in the odor of million ty forgive the new coinage. words will sometimes grow of necessity; Miss Hall, a dark and proper maiden lady, as prim, and orthodox, and canonical, and rubrlcal. and conservative as-she liked to be; Marian Hall, young lady; Gratia Henningsen, my fathers ward and an orr phan, tall gil. with a varying face, dressed in dark gray. now solely distin- guished from the shore and stones by the drapery of carnation- -colored shawl, that clung to her pliant figure and caressingly defined it's unconscious grace of position. She completed the ladies' part of our cir cle: and here and there were scattered Steele the artist, jovial and genial; Edwin Vernon the clergyman, delicate, refined, | 1iSAIs @no CApLCACAJ PoASUAAAOu0: AAohA> Ledyard, dolorous, hairy little man, who 1 wrote poetry as a profession, and talked weak wickedness and strong sentiment, just now attitudinizing on the rocks at Ellen Bonds feet. and gazing up into her fair and subtle face like an entranced spaniel; MT. Gains Clark, very excellent tyoung man from New York, merchant; MT Grifipg, 8 senior of Yale's last fruit age; and I, do-nothing just then, son of John Hamilton Tanning, M. O., from Massachusetts. wearing my fathers name and spending bis plentiful money, other wise no way like him - clear-headed, strong, steady, magnanimous man that he was! These were the men. Steele sat facing us all, swinging his feet from 9 perch on top of great rock; MT. Vernon sat near Gratia, looking at her over his white neckcloth with an air at once benign and uneasy; MT. Grifing talked mitigated misanthropys high, art, and didactic litera- ture to Marian Hall. interspersing fre- 1 quent quotations from Mrs. Hemans; MT. Gaius Clark sucked the top of his cane, now and then removing it to utter an as- senting word, all the responses that Miss Halls fluent moralities and theses requir- ed in what she called conversations; and sat at Mrs. Ford's feet, keeping sympa- l that I was mourning for Solomon Ford. if she was. So we sat. growing slowly visi- ble in calm light that grew brighter and colder in the east till at length the round disc of the full moon lifted itself with the slow ID otion of perfect power across the heaving sea-line, and the ocean was paved with sudden weltering silver to our feet. Every body became silent for an instant, the half-articulate waves whispered to l each other with 8 rushing hush among l the stones, and low wind rustled the sea-grass on the shore behind us.
 "Oh, isn't that! That 1872
 We were indebted to Miss Marian for the characteristic remark. Ben Steele looked stony for one second. and then be- | gan to whistle ''VilIikins and his Dinah." ''Oh!" calculated Ellen Bond. ....'.
 "Why don't you swear?" drawled the poet. .-3 ,a.. tsag s. She looked at him as if she could have at him; and answered with a tone of | strict propriety: 's
 ''It isn't right to swear, Mir. Ledyard. !" 'I'm sure you wanted to do it, Miss Bond, at that profane creature Steele; why, was it any worse to say than to think? l Now swear to relieve my mind; it lets | the feeling express itself and go, instead | of working about and making me uncom- l fortable.
 "Theh I should have been profane as we'll as MT. Steele, and somebody else would have sworn at me, and the evil would have spread"
 'Evil always spreads" sententiously re- marked Mir. Vernon. a5 a< 1 .Nothing could be evil from such lips as Miss Bond's!' languished in the deep- est drawl from Ledyard. A% e4" 14' \" Gratia Henningsen's attitude changed, as if she stirred because thought stirred her; she always moved so, her soul sway ed her perpetually, like bee in a flower. ''Mr Steelel'' said she, in her deep, un- certain contralto voice, ''why are you l turning your back to the moon?" .i. l Because I had rather look at the group before me. Miss Gratia. ..f 4,1f | "Saul among the prophetsi' Mrs. Ford se-enely sniffed. ''Mr. Steele compliment tary?'' 4.as1 sz a.g.s 5s
 Mot at all, Madame, to some of you over therei don't yon know that moonlight is traitor? Come here, Tanning; the rest of you sit stilll'; I obeyed. az
 "Now look at them, said he, in voice inaudible to them, moonlight brings out the spiritual expression of a face like no other light; you are face reader; take your book up and interpret"
 "Not aloud!" sad I. Fj..e@ l--.#.
 ''Oh noH laughed MT. Steele, stunless you are in hurry to lose all your l friends" ~ t.fss 8--.e5lTs ! I looked at Ellen Bond; the delicate outline was sharp, the eyelids cold and critical, wanting color, the cheek was un- impossible as that of statue, and in the 1 lines of her usually deserved and defiant 1 lips now lurked avery spider-line of cun- ming. interruptions yet weak; and her round chin betrayed in it's unshadowed like her. Frank Ledyard looked like low style of pirate; such as miss of being 1 peaceful tailors by reason of weak feroc- ity that units them for anything very good or intensely bad. 'a -s'SstfA sS
 Miss Halls dark face deepened into the likeness of Bloody Mary's morose and scanned visage; Gaius Clark, with his peaked beard, only wanted the proper ad- juncts to have stood for John Rodgers in the primer, smirking with Puritanism and paternity, over his Geneva band and the fagots a.---sa
 Marian Hall became doll, washed of Its charming pinkness. Mir Grifing need ed nothing but reducing and condensing to have made just such Noah as lives, blandly wooden and grim, in the Ark of toy shops aas g 'a T as aaSsa5 #tsf I Mrs. Ford's retrousss nose and full lips lost their widowed meekness and develop ed the sauciness of the grisette, sparkling in her inquisitive eyes, and coquetting in | the play of her pretty foot under the float 1 ing folds of her aerial black dress. MT.
 Vernon should have lain back on the
 rocks and folded his hands on his breast.
 mild, chalk saint, ready for worshiipers. ! got up regardless of aesthetic expense; Icoc ocscientious. cautious. but chalk-alto- l gethel hopeless of achieving or inspiring V Gralia changed most of all: her face grew quite difereit from it's daylight l mask, pale, variable. and, irregular; every shadow brought out depth ofexpression sing alarly unusual in q woman's face; the ] defined lips were full of tender power; the te,,.s brilliant with clear darkness. as am | hrrNx