The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-05-17
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MISS MARRABLE'S ELoPEMENT


Miss Martha Marrable, spinster lady O
fve-and-fifty, is the last of her race. He
only brother, Mr.. Clement Marrable, never
married and died twenty years ago al
Baden Baden, whittier he had gone t.
drink the waters; and her two sisters, Ma
ria and Letitia, although they did marry
did not live to become middle-aged women
The elder, Maria, after becoming the wife
of Mr.. Langton Larkspur, of the firm ot
Scrip, Larkspur & Co., bankers, of Thread
needle-street, gave birth to single child
daughter, who was named Lucy; and the
younger, Lsetitia, having been led to the
altar by Mr. Septimus Allerton, of the firm
of Allerton, Bond & Benedict, brokers, Of
Pancake-lane, presented her husband with
twin girls, of whom one onl y-and she wa.
called Amy-survived her extreme infancy
1t is, therefore, not astonishing that Mis-:
Martha Marrable, weli-to-do woman with
out family ties, is exceedingly fond of the
daughters of her two dead sisters. She
usually has them to stay with her at least
twice year-once in the early Summer al
her house in Grosvenor-street; and once In
the Autumn at the seaside, or in Italy
whittier she goes occasionally, accompanied
to the great wonder of the foreigners-by
a courier, man servant, two maids, eleven
boxes, and green parrot. And as she Is
very kind to her nieces, and denies them
nothing, it is not surprising that they arc
fully as fond of her as she is of them. But
Miss Martha Marrable is growing old
whereas Miss Lucy Larkspur and Miss Amy
Allerton are both young, and intend to re,
main SO for some years to come. Its not
therefore, to be expected that the three la
dies should invariably think exactly alike
on all subjects And indeed, am happy to
say that there are not many women who dc
agree with Miss Marrable upon all ques-
tions for although she is as good-hearted
an old spinster as ever breathed, she IS un-
fortunately man-hater.
have looked in the dictionary to sec
what the verb "to hate signifies, and |
find that it means ''to despise," or ''to dis
like intensely" Let it not, however, be
supposed that the word "man-hater' is a
stronger one than ought to be applied to
Miss Marrable; for | am really not quite
certain that it is altogether strong enough.
She regards men as inferior animals, and
looks down upon them with lofty contempt.
"Who," she once said to her niece Lucy,
''has turned the world upside down, filled
it with poverty and unhappincss, and de-
luged it with blood? 1t is man, Lucy.
If woman had always governed the earth,
we should have had no Caesar Borgias, no
Judge Jefferieses, no Bonapartes, and no
Mana Sahibs." And yet Miss Martha
Marrable can never see vagrant beg
ging in the street without giving him
aims. The truth is, that although she de-
tests and despises man, she pities him; just
as she pities the poor idiot whom she some
times sees grinning and gibbering by the
wayside in Italy.
These being her sentiments, Miss Maria
BILE has not, of course, many male acquain-
tances. She is ON good, but not affection
ate, terms with her widowed brothers-in-
law, Mr.. Langton Larkspur and Mr.. Sep
timus Allerton She once year invites
her man of business, Mr.. John Bones, of
Cooks Court, to dine with her and them
in Grosvenor-street; and she is civil to the
Rector of her parish, and to the medical
man whom she would call in to attend her
in case of illness. Yet Mr.. Larkspur once
told Mr.. Allerton that this feminine dragon
had had violent love affair when she was
nineteen; and Mr.. Allerton-whose con-
nection with the Marrable family is of much
more recent date than that of Lucy's faith
er-actpally declared that he could well
believe it. If, however, Miss Nafrable did
have a love affair in her youth, | am not
inclined at this time of day to cast it as a
reproach in her teeth Boys will be boys;
and girls, suppose, will be girls, though
they may live to see the error of their ways
and be none the worse for their follies.
One thing is certain, and that is, that at the
present time, and for at least fve-and-twen-
ty years past, Miss Martha Marrable has
ceased to dream Of the tender passion. She
still occasionally talks vaguely of going up
the Nile or of visiting the Yellowstone re-
gion ere she dies; but she never contem-
plates the possibility of getting married,
and beliye that she would as soon think
of allowing a man to belive that she regard
ed him with anything but polite aversion
as she would think of going into business
as a steeple.jack, and learning to stand on
one leg on the top of the cross at the sum-
NIT of st. Hauls Cathedral.
And yet Miss Martha Marrahe was last
year the heroine of terrible scandal; and
many of her misanthropic female friends
have never since been able to completely
believe her professions of hatred of man.
The affair gave rise to many whispers, and
was even, ! understand, gHardedly alluded
to, with just and virtuous depreciation, in
the columns of the Woman's Suffrage
Journal, as terrible but happily rare in.
stance of womanly weakness and friyolity;
and since the true story has never been
told, I feel that it is only fair to tell it, and
by telling it to defend Miss Marrable from
the dastafdly charges that have been made
against her established reputation for good
sense and unfinchiHg 6oltempt of the
rougher sex,
Toward the end Of August Miss Maria
BILE and her two nieces left London for North
Wales, and, after long and tiresome jour
ney, reached Abermaw, in Merionethshire,
and took rooms at the, Cors-y y-Gedol Hotel
They were accompanied, as usual, by the
two maids and the green parrot; but the
courier and the man servant, being males,
and their services not being imperatively
required, they were left behind in London.
Lucy had just celebrated her twenty-third
birthday, and Amy was just about to cele-
brate her twenty-frst; although l am
sorry to have to record it-I am by no
means astonished that they were both in
love. Lucy, during the whole of the pre-
vious season, had been determinedly flirting
with designing young artist named Robert
Rhodes; and Amy, younger and less exper-
fenced than her cousin, had been carrying
on, even more sentimentally, with Mr. Vi
Wan Jellicoe, who, being heir to baronet-
cy; found that position so arduous and
fatiguing that he was quite untitled for any