Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1882-09-14

gentry and the professional men live.
At the end of the Woodleigh road
was DR.. Enderby's house, large and
old-fashioned, and hither he brought
his wife Margaret not long after their
first meeting in the Cloverleigh woods
1t was a change from the intense quiet
of her girlhood to large circle OF
friends and few secret enemies. But
she was Johns wife, and her sweet
gayety filed his house with sunshine;
and she shaped herself home in all
gladness.
In Margaret's room John Enderby
loved to rest in his intervals of leisure,
watching his wife with an interest and
a strange timidity thas grew deeper day
by day. Poor Margaret felt him further
from her, and shadow fell across her
life that the birth of her little son could
not wholly chase away. When the child
was about nine months old it happened
that she was often alone, for it was an
unhealthy autumn, and DR.. Enderby's
services were in great requisition, not
only among the rich but also among the
poor, for he was gentle as well as skill
full. Now and then he would come in
and resume his old habit Of silently
watching and listening to her talk about
little Jack. How she loved that child !
What sweet music his tiny fingers dis
coursed on that mothers heart-strings |
One afternoon her husband came in
as she was sitting with the child on her
knee-a bright, fair-haired, brown-eyed
boy, very like his father. The baby
stretched out his dimpled arms to his
father. then with child's mischief
withdrew them, and hid his face on his
mothers bosom with cooling laugh.
She bent her head down on the fluffy
curls. and caught his bare little feet in
her hand Che had pulled off his shoes
and socks, the tiny rogue y and she
kissed the rosy toes with lovely mother
worship.
sLook, john" she said, "isn't he the
most wonderfully sweet child, this
precious baby. What should we do
without him? ~
She was flushed and laughing, arms
and heart full too; but sharp pang
flashed through him.
He answered, quietly, eyes, he is a
fine boy for his age" and bending down,
kissed him; but he went away after that
without further speech. 1t often hap
pened so now, and Margaret could not
divine the cause; SO she was hurt, and
turned more and more to the baby for
comfort.
On this occasion the doctor went to
his study, locked the door, and sat down
to wrestle with himself, also to take
stock of his forces for that wrestling.
Terrible and sweet revelation to the
man! He had, as the phrase goes,
fallen in love-fortunately with his
wife. This, then, was the meaning of
his silence, his jealousy, of the tearing
away Of his old pleasant friendliness to-
ward her. This love of his was no flame
that would flash and die out, but the
strong white heat, the very soul Of the
heavenly fire.
aforementioned now how she had said,
lam not worthy" Now he understood
she had loved him at that time-how
far away it seemed-with the whole
force Of her being; and he-well, with
self-depreciation and some well deserved
self blame, he saw his blindness and the
terrible risk he had run. He wanted
only his wife, his Margaret; but what
if he, Margaret's husband, had never
felt this delight in her? Might he not
have met some other woman for the
sake of whom he would possibly have
been tempted to repent his marriage.
He was good man, upright and true;
but he had often played at love before
his marriage, "ere lifetime and love
time were one,'' and he was being pun
ished now, for he doubted whether her
love had not declined into that friendli-
ness which he had given her before, and
she was absorbed in the child.
Was she, then, one of those women in
whom the instinct of motherhood is
stronger than all other? He worshiped
her now with the full sacred passion of
his manhood, and was his own child to
come between and shut him away from
her? She would be always sweetly
dutiful, he knew that-but duty, wifely
duty A man is nothing if he does not
want more than that and what was
his life to be if she and the child dwelt
apart in a little paradise of their own?
He was jealous of his own child. At
this point the man threw himself on
his knees and finished his conflict there,
and it was well for him that he did so.
Nv.
The very names Of Eliphaz the
Temanite, and Bildad the Shuttle, and
Zophar the Naamathite, carry US back
in thought to the worlds dawn; but
their modern antitypes are to be found
everywhere in the fullest perfection
among women, sad to say, and more
perceptible in country town than in
city.