Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-12-20
The Minister'S Wife.

The Minister'S Wife.
Mrs. Glorious held up an exceedingly
dilapidated pink apron, and as she gazed at
it she sighed. She was not woman given
to sighing and, moreover, the condition of
the aforesaid apron was no novelty in her
household but she was tired out, soul and
body,-tired with clothing and feeding five
healthy, growing children, and one stout,
somewhat nervous man, and so she INDUCED
in the Ito herr unwonted luxury of sigh.
DR.. Glorious, as the unusual sound smote
his ear, glanced quickly up from the paper
he was perusing, at the very pretty, some
what worn face opposite to him. 1t had
been, and was still, a refined and restful
face; the blue, steadfast eyes held ray of
light in them, and yet she sighed.
"What is it, Theodore 7" queried her hus-
band; care you sick 2" For such an un-
wonted, unwarranted fact as that sigh, he
thought must have cause, and he named
the most direful one that he could imagine.
A mild spasm of surprise crossed the pale
face. "No, HARRISON" she answered |;
"on1y perplexed and very tired"
He went back to the able review he had
been reading, but that sigh haunted him,
and he turned the paper impatiently over.
A notice of a great convention met his eye
Sea View, the place he used to visit when
young man, where some of his finest SER
mons had been written where he had first
met and loved Theodore. A thought struck
him; fancy" he called it then; an " in
spiration," in the years after.
"Theodora," said he, "can you be ready
to go to the convention at Sea View next
week and stay there till the close of the
week after ?"
Now this was what she would call a
special providence. She needed rest and
change and the salt-sea spray. The chill
dren, the beach, and the astounding novelty
of the request, all fioated in mixed chaos
through her brain as she answered some
what family, To Sea View? The chill
dren cannot be left alone, can theyP"
"Well, sister Wigs will be willing to see
to them and the house, and Laura is old
enough to help her."
He looked at her as he spoke. How she
came to answer very meekly, Eyes, I'll &C"
Mrs. Glorious could never tell F.; but so she
answered.
The house was duly swept and garnished,
in readiness for the minute inspection of
sister Wigs, and also for the careful re-
porting of the same inspection, the sister
being of that generous disposition that
yearns to share with the community at large
all the knowledge acquired by her in her
travels. With the soft goodbye" of her
daughter Laura, the boisterous hug of Mas
ter Tom, the wondering farewells of golden
haired Eva and sturdy Frank, and the half
smothered howl of baby Reginald (extin-
guished somewhat suddenly in thoughtful
Laura's apron), Mrs. Glorious left the par
sonage, for the first time for years, for a
fortnight's vacation.
After reaching Sea View, and getting
over the first rapture of rest, she began to
feel lonely, and perhaps little homesick.
She had been used to the chatter and hustle
OF so many children, and had now only the
very silent man, the Doctor, for company /;
and he was absorbed in visions of very
splendid address ne was to deliver the next
week. Alone she walked the beach and
roamed the large parlors of the hotel. But
on the third day came the Rev. Louis MIN
bletongue. He was an old friend of the
Doctors, and, better still, an old classmate,
and rumor added, former admirer of the
Doctors wife. Now she found company.
He was Just from visit to her native town,
and the hours were too short for the queries
and comparing of notes that took place.
In two days, as he knew everybody, he
had introduced Mrs. Glorious, right and
left with his accustomed vgor. She walked
up to the fact that once she was brilliant
talker Her pale cheek grew rosy, and her
almost forgotten soft laugh was heard once
more. And still the Doctor pored over his
wondrous essay, nor woke up to the fact
that Louis almost monopolized the society
of his wife.
But at last he woke up, and this was the
fashion OF his awaking. He sat on the
lounge OF the hotel parlor, with the eternal
notebook and pencil in hand, polishing for
the fifteenth time an intellectual diamond,
when two gentlemen just the other side OF
the closed blinds began the following dia-
logue -
"Who is that remarkably pretty woman
with Nimbletongue this afternoon I"
"That is the wife of DR.. Glorious, one OF
the big guns of the convention next week. .
"Sure of it 2" said the other skeptically
"never have seen him with her once"
"Oh he is movable lexicon, an ami.
mated sermon-mill. Don't even know that
he's got pretty wife. Nimbletongue
knows it, though, and did, they say, before
she married the Doctor. Why on earth dc
men marry who only care for dictionary
and the original Hebrew, wonder 2"
Well, she is pleasant and agreeable
woman keen talker, too. Nimbletongue
is good fellow, but dreadfully careless and
laxative, and he will get her gossipped
! about If he don't take care" And the two