Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1881-03-24

Cuc nhu OOIue slA NAlAulcl, al Va
whom we're alive and healthy. She
was a cook and model housewife an
expert seamstress and economist; feared
God; honored as king her husband;
served as princes and princesses the
children she had given him.
Years ago she had seen that her lord
and master had grown away from her
mentally. The friction Of other minds
had frightened and developed the pow.
ers of naturally excellent intellect /;
the exigencies of business had thrown
him into competition that was in itself
an education.
The discovery had not troubled her
seriously. He was the stronger vessel
St. Paul and nature taught her to look
up to him. So long as he loved her,
liked to have her sit near him in the
evening, the Argand burner that il
lumined his books or letters shedding
light upon her mending- basket, she was
content.
Her children filed, colored, glori6ed
her life. Being shy, undemonstrative
and unearned, she could not have put
this into words, but surely they must
have known it.
Her husbands wealth, their own
personal endowments, beauty, intelll-
gence and tact hal opened to them the
doors of the best society," fact that
elated, but did not surprise her.
They deserved the highest places
the world could give-belng, as We
have said, royal in themselves. In her
quiet way, she enjoyed seeing their So
cial triumphs.
Her daughters had smiled at her
company manners. She had done her
best--it appeared now in the wrong
direction. As by flash of Lightning
through riven roof, she saw that in
service for others she had forgotten
herself, and to her hurt.
What draughtp Cary broke off
her work to say. i will shut the libra
ry door
The heavy leaves rolled together
and the back room was silent and dark
er than before.
Shut out in the coldt
The faded lips whispered it, and the
heavy eyes responded in bitter tears
The mother got up, clasping her fore.
head to steady her thoughts, and
CROPPED silently from the room, lest
the girls should suspect they had beer
overheard.
Stealthily she crept in the opposite
apartment. The twins spoke of it as
the drawing room 1T was English
and sounded we'll Mechanics wives
, and small trades people had parlors.'
/ They had good taste, those sunny.
, haired sisters. Their visitors had said
so often that the newly furnished
rooms were the most artistic in the
city, that 1t was easy to believe this.
All that harmony of tints, richness
of material, well-chosen decorations
could do, contributed to the agreeable
} effectiveness of the whole.
In the midst of the luxuriant space
, the nominal mistress paused to survey
her image in the mirror built into the
wall between the front windows. An
} other tall glass in the far depths of the
carpeted vista repeated and multiplied
the forlorn figure, in scanty black mer
inc, linnen collar and white apron. A
chambermaid would have been smart
er.'
Her hair, thin and lusterless, was
strained from the holiows of temples
and cheeks, and bound into knob
at the back of her head. She hao
dressed 1t in this fashion when the
abundance OF the brown tresses hac
obliged her to twist them snugly and
} pin them firmly lest they should inter
, fere with her care of house and babies
She had not abated halrpin for TWEEN
J ty years, and they made bristly show
on their own account in the lessenec
; knot, fastened, for additional security
!, with tuck comb.
, Her husband, her boys, were used t.
her looks and ways, and Carry anc
J Kate, amiable and careless, did no
) trouble themselves to alter mamma
: notions. Recalling this, the 'imprac
, ticable' woman should not have mar
, veled that she had never given two
, thoughts to the unfashionableness o
, her coiffure and attire. So long as she
was clean and neat, and had rea
, nice silk, and laces for show occasions
| her mind was easy.
4 didn't s'pose they minded, she
; said aloud to the unhattering reflector
= in the tall mirror.
Her voice was shallow and dry, tn,
intonations crude; very unlike the full
fresh tones and refined modulations o
the prattlers in the library over there
A Partisan toilet and false hair coul'
not disguise her into the ideal matron
The first word and movement woult
, betray her. She was forty-six year
, old, and might have been fifty y-ive i
{ one had judged from her appearance
: Il shouldn't know where to begin
she said truly, even if | wasn't out o
J the way Of studyin.' They're in th'
, right of it. I'm too old to be learned
: Poor soul Ungrammatical, i'm
practical in her very lament
I Her next action was characteristic