News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-02-14
A PLEASANT PICTURE.
THE LOVER AND THE HUSBAND AS
Tx. MARVEL FOUND HIM.
A Graphic Description of n Mans Life Be-
fore and After Marriage.

You grow unusually amiable and kind
you are earnest in your search of friends
YOU shake hands with your office-boy as
if he were your second cousin. You joke
cheerfully with the stout washerwoman
and give her a shilling overchange and
insist upon her keeping it. and grow
quite merry at the recollection of it.
You tap your hackman on the shoulder
very Familiarity and tell him he is q
capital fellow, and don't allow him to
whip his horses, except when driving to
the post Office you ask after the health
of his wife. He says he has no wife
whereupon you think him a very miser-
able man and give him dollar, by way
of consolation.
You think all the editorials in the
morning papers are remarkably well
written, whether upon your side or upon
another. You think the stock market
has a very cheerful look, with Erie-of
which you are large holder-down to
seventy-fve. You wonder why you
never admired Mrs. Hemans before, or
Stoddart, or any of the rest.
You give a pleasant twirl to your
fingers as you saunter along the street,
and say-but not so loud as to be over
heard: ''She is mine she is mine p
You wonder if Frank ever loved Nelly
one-half as well as you love Madge. You
feel quite sure he never did. You can
hardly conceive how it is that Madge
has not been seized before now by scores
of enamored men and borne off, like the
Sabine women in Roman history. You
chuckle over your future like boy who
has found guinea in cropping for six
pences. You read over the marriage
service, thinking of the time when you
will take her hand and slip the ring
upon her finger and repeat after the
Clergyman: "For richer, for poorer, fol
better, for worse pa great deal Of
''worse" there will be about it, you
think
Through all your heart cleaves to that
sweet image of the beloved Madge as
light cleaves to day. The weeks Leap
with bound and the months only grow
long when you approach that day which
is to make her yours. There are nc
flowers rare enough to make bouquets
for her; diamonds are too dim for hel
to wear; pearls are tame.
- And after marriage-the weeks
are even shorter than before. You won
der why on earth all the single men IL
the world do not rush unanimously tc
the altar. You look upon them all as 6
travelled man will look upon some con
ceited Dutch boor who has never beer
beyond the limits of his cabbage-g gar.
den. Married men, on the contrary, you
regard as fellow-voyagers, and look upor
their wives-ugly as they may be-as
better than none.
You blush little at first, telling YOU
butcher what ''your wife" would like;
you bargain with the grocer for sugars
and teas and wonder if he knows you are
married man. You practice your new
way of talk upon your office-boy; you
tell him that ''your wife" expects you
home to dinner-and are astonished that
he does not stare to hear you say it.
You wonder if the people in the omni-
bus know that Madge and you are just
married, and if the driver knows that
the shilling you hand to him is for "selt
and wife," You wonder If anybody was
ever so happy before or ever will be so
happy again.
You enter your name upon the hotel
books as ''CIarence - and lady," and
come back to look at 1t, wondering II
anybody else has noticed it, and think
ing that it looks remarkably well. You
cannot help thinking that every third
man you meet in the hall wishes he pos
sessed your wife, nor do you think it
very sinful in him to wish it. You fear
it is placing temptation in the way of
covetous men to put Madge's little
CATERS outside the chamber-door at
night.
Your home, when it is entered, is just
what it should be-quiet, small, with
everything she wishes, and nothing
more than she wishes. The sun strikes
it in the happiest possible way; the
piano is the sweetest-toned in the world;
the library is stocked to a charm, and
Madge-that blessed wife-is there,
adjoining and giving life to it all. To
think, even, of her possible death is a
suffering you class with the internal tor
lures of the Inquisition. You grow
twain of heart and purpose. Smiles
seem made for marriage, and you Won
der how you ever wore them before.