The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-05-30
ST. MARIE.

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was engaged. / never could tell
exactly how it came about. My be-
trothed was high-bred, beautiful, be-
longed to aristocratic circles, and
declared by those who had become
sufficiently acquainted with her in
tellectual development to be wonder
fully intelligent. 1 had never become
intimate enough with my lady to make
any such discovery. My mother said
it was my fault. Perhaps she was right.
Marian Cathcart was her name; and
although we had been engaged several
months, and / had made point of
spending at least two evenings of each
week in her society, had never yet pro-
crossed beyond the formal Miss Marian !;
and she did not seem inclined to invite
me to any less conventional platform
L used to wonder if, after we were
married, 1 should simply change the
Miss to Mrs, and Mrs. Marian her
through our matrimonial pilgrimage.
My mother declared 1 had chosen
wisely. 1 occasionally felt like sug-
costing that she should take all the
credit to herself, for / certainly had
had no choice in the matter; but /
argued that women must, of necessity,
have more opportunities for Judging of
the virtues of their own sex than we
masculine bipeds, who half the time
are not able to discriminate between
false teeth and natural ivory, or
sham hair and the original article. So I
pinned my faith on my maternal parents
stout sleeve OF Judgment, closed both
eyes, took everything for granted, and
event it blind"
occasionally caught myself wonder
ing if there really was such a thing in
the world as love. From boy had
been great lover of sentiment and SEN
timental poetry-had formed an ideal of
my future partner, as most boys and
girls do, 1 fancy-believed that
Love is the striving
OF two spirits to be one,
Sweetness lingering after sweetness,
Want that thirsteth for completeness,
Planets twain deoreed to be
Each others dear necessity,
Each from each its light deriving.
Till they melt into a sun.
l was quite sure that my spirit didn't
strive in her direction. My soul had no
want that she could satisfy, and the
prospect was that planets twain we
should remain-hadn't the slightest in
tention of rhyming then-to the end of
the chapter.
1t was respectable to marry Old
bachelors were held in almost as much
.odium by the public as old maids; and
none of our family, on either side of the
house, had ever been known to set aside
the conventional custom of natrimony
and they had all married well, too that
is, in their own set, as far back as we
could trace.
Love was myth" my mother de-
clared-simply "a something to fascin-
ate schoolgirls and college youths, but
which disappeared when the years of
discretion rolled around"
/ was possessed of G50,000; my
affianced would have as much more
when her father died; and so our fnar-
.cial future was assured.
Some times, as looked into the MIR
ror, and surveyed the features which
appeared as if there might be a soul be-
hind them, l was tempted to some sort
of understanding with myself but fam
lily ties, society's restrictions, and the
absence of real, Independent, manly
brain, kept me in that narrow, con-
temptible groove of prejudice in which
j had been born and reared.
a few weeks before / had proposed,
and been accepted, my lady mother en-
gagged new governess for my two
young sisters, Minnie and Anna-the
first II, the second IA years of age.
The reader, Judging by the majority
of stories, will of course imagine, the
moment this new individual is intro
.duced to their notice, that the writer
fefl Immediately in love, as is the gen.
.eral custom in such cases-but the
reader is mistaken.
Marie de We're (that was her name)
was beautiful, talented and accom-
plished, and exceedingly attractive, on
account of a womanly reticence which
was modest and captivating to the last
degree.
z had always admired shy women.
Marian-excuse me, Miss Marian -
had no such beauty. She was as self
possessed as a woman of 40, and as
smooth as frozen lake.
It would have been singular had /
caot looked with feelings of pleasure
.upon the little woman who glided so
gracefully through the house, attending
to her duties with thoughtfolness and
patience which seemed to me almost
angelic. found myself calling her st.
Marie. Rather strange name for a
woman; but it came as natural to my
lips as isis" and Dear" when speaking
TO nv sisters. Not that l ever called
her 80. By no means. We scarcely
ever exchanged a word.
Our governess (of French extraction
was INV social inferior, and my mother