Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-12-04
THE bellies" HUSBAND.

Belle Paule," of Toulouse. She was a
medieval married lady, so beautiful that
her husband received orders from the
magistrate of Toulouse to walk In pub
lie with her for at least two hours every
week. in order that the people of the
city might not be deprived Of thathappi-
ness which comes the contemplation of
lovely features in women. There is,
again, the story of Catherine Glover,
the Fair Maid of Perth, whose wonder
GUS charms drew more gallants to her
fathers door than old Simon Glover ap-
proved OF. In short, there are many
instances, both in fact and fiction, show
ing that the possession of an extremely
beautiful wife or daughter may at times
throw man of easy going ways into
embarrassment.
Charley Despard had been married
about two years before his wife's lowell
ness began, in ways at first unsupported
by him, to operate upon his fortunes.
BY that time he loved his wife not a
whit the less than he had done on his
wedding day, but, of course, he had got
accustomed to her winsome face; and
then she was so domesticated that he
never had occasion to be alarmed at the
homage paid her. During the first six
months after their marriage they travel
ed good deal; at the end of year a
baby was borne to them, and for the
next twelve-month Lottie Despard had
plenty to do in attending to this little
creature. In the meantime, Charley
Despard worked to earn money. He
was barrister without practice, who
wrote a good deal for newspapers, and
had succeeded in establishing what is
called good footing on the press. His
sfcopy" found ready markets in half-a-
dozen offices of newspapers and maya
zines, ard he got orders enough for
special work to occupy all his time
Sometimes he was sent to report state
pageant, q royal wedding, a review; or
he would go as commissioner to write
about some accident on o railway or in
mines; at other times he did the highly
colored descriptive articles of cricket
matches and races on the turf or the
river. When there was nothing of much
Importance going on, he indited leaders
at the rate of about six week, on all
kinds of subjects.
Despard objected to undertake work
which would oblige him to leave his
home for more than forty-eight hours.
He had a prettily furnished house in
Cover street, to which he was attached;
and naturally, Lottie did not like him
to go away on long expeditions where
she could not accompany him. Conse-
quenly, Despard had always declined
those tempting, because lucrative, offers
of special correspond-ships abroad dur
ing times of war or revolution. A day
came, however, when such really good
thing was thrown in his way that he did
not feel justified in refusing it, though
the acceptance of itinvolved his leaving
London for nearly a month. The editor
ship Of daily newspaper in northern
manufacturing town had fallen vacant
Just as an important Parliamentary
election was going to take place. Des-
pard was requested to accept the post
for the term of the electoral campaign,
with the option of retaining it afterwards
If he pleased But for his months en-
gagement, which was to involve an i'm
mense amount OF work and responsible
ty, he was to receive four hundred
pounds. Plums of this size are not
thrown into ones lap every day, and
Lottie, though her heart was heavy at
the necessity of being separated for a
whole month from her husband, told him
that he must go, by all means. So he
went.
It was but few days after this tina.
Mrs. Despard's surprising beauty began
to be talked about by great many per.
sons who now saw her for the first time
Lottie had resolved that she would spend
the period of her husbands absence In
discharging long roll of unpaid visits
and renewing acquaintanceships with
old friends whom she had allowed tl
drop out of sight, and almost out Of
memory, during the twenty-fou happy
Homogeneous with which she had in.
augurated her welded life. The result
of all this visiting, which was undertaken
at first as an irksome task, was that
Lottie was soon favored with number
of invitations to dinners and parties,
Charley, to whom she wrote every day
advised her to accept these, for he was
anxious that she should not be dull
while he was away. Then, when he
had been gone three weeks, Lottie wrote
to say that she had been invited to take
o part in some private theatricals. Al
the end of her letter she said:
''What am I to do, Charley, dear? II
Is Lady Styrre, mammals friend, who
has invited me- She is going to give q
performance at her house in support OF
some charity, and am afraid it would
look ungracious to refuse, though I dc
not at ali like acting in public. I am
sure shall be 50 nervous"
But Despard, who was now in the
very thick of the electoral fray, with
kilograms pouring into his Office at every
moment, dashed off few lines to tell
his wife that she ought not by any
means to miss an opportunity of oblig-
ing Lady Styrre. So Lotie performed
ut the theatricals. and achieved a re-
markable success. The performance
was not enacted at Lady Styre's house,
rs had been at first arranged, but at one
of the theatres, which had been charter
ed for one night. So many applicants
for seats had, however, failed to get ad-
mission, that it was resolved to repeat
the performance two days later; and
thus Lottie appeared before crowded
METROPOLITAN audiences two nights with
In the same week. And she was ap-
plauded to the echo, not so much as an