The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-06-18
534
Miss Marrable's Elopement.
CHAPTER !

OF nV6-and-HIuy, is Ille ldSb vi ACA sSS'
Her only brother, Clement Marrable,
never married, and died twenty years
ago Baden-Baden, whittier he had gone
to drink the waters; and her two sisters,
Maria and Laetitia, although they did |
marry, did not live to become middle
aged women. The elder, Maria, after
becoming the wife of Langton Larkspur,
of the firm of Scrip, Larkspur y Co.,
bankers of Threadneedie street, gave
birth to single child, daughter, who
was named Lucy; and the younger Lac
titia. having been led to the altar by
Septimus Allerton, of the firm OF Aller-
ton, Bond q Benedict, brokers, OF ran
cake lane, presented her husband with
twin girls, of whom one only-and she
was called Amy-surviyed her extreme
infancy. 1t is, therefore, not astonishing
that Miss Martha Marrable, well-to-do
woman without family ties, is exceed
ingly 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 at her house in
Crosvenor street, and once in the au-
tumn at the seaside, or in Italy, whittier
she goes occasionally, accompanied to
the wonder of foreigners-by courier,
a 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 are
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 remain so for some time to
come. 1t is not, therefore, to be expect
ed that the three ladies' should invaria--
bly, think exactly alike on all subjects.
And, indeed, / am happy to say that
there are not many women who do agree
with Miss Marrable on all questions; for
although she is as good-hearted an old
spinster as ever breathed, she is I'M
fortunately man-hater.
have looked in the dictionary to see
what the verb 'to hate" signifies, and /
find that it means eto despise," or to
dislike intensely" Let it not, however,
be supposed that the word 'man-hater"
is stronger one than ought to be APP
piled to Miss Marrable; for am really
not quite certain that it is altogether
strong enough. She regards men as in
ferior animals, and looks upon them with
lofty contempt. ''Who," she once said
to her niece Lucy, "has turned the world
upside down, filled it with poverty and
unhappiness, and deluged 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
wftilout fvff MN iffff "a tssssssas
that although she detests and despises
man, she pities him; just ass she pities
Che poor idiot whom she sometimes sees
grinning and gibbering by the wayside
in Italy.
Marrable has not, OF course, many male
acquaintance. She is on good, but not
affectionate, terms with her widowed
brothers-in-law, Langton Larkspur and
Septimus Allerton. She once year in
vites her man of business, John Bones,
of Cooks Court, to dine with her and
them in Grosvenor atreet; and she is
civil to the Rector of her paish, and to the
medical man whom she would call in to
attend to her in case of illness. Yet Mr..
Larkspur once told Mr.. Allerton that
this feminine dragon had had violent
love affair when she was but nineteen;
and Mr.. Allerton-whose connection
with the Marrable family is of much
more recent date than that of Lucy's
Enthusiastically declared that he could
well believe it. If, however, Miss Mar
rable did have love affair in her youth,
l 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 GER
time and for at least five-and-twentv
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 yell
lowstone region before she dies; but she
never contemplates the possibility of
getting married, and | believe that she
would as soon think of allowing man
to believe that she regarded him with
any thing 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
summit of st. Paul's Cathedral.
And yet Miss Martha Marrable was
last year the heroine of terrible scan
dial and many of her misanthropic fe-
male friends have never since been able |
to completely believe her professions of
hatred to man. The affair gave rise to |
many whispers, and was even, under
stand, guardedly alluded to, with Justly |
virtuous depreciation, in the columns Of |
the Homdn's Suffrage Journal, terrible |
but happily rare instance of womanly |
weakness and frivolity; and since the |
true story has never been told, l feel that |
it is only fair to tell it, and by telling it
to defend Miss Marrable from the das-
tardly charges that have been made
against her established reputation for
good sense and unfiinching contempt for
the rougher sex.
Toward the end of August Miss Mar
rable and her two nieces left London for
North Wales, and, after long and tire
some journey, reached Aberinaw, in