Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-07-15
CHAPTER VIII.
LADY RIVALS, WITH THE FooTLTGHTs Be
TWEEN THEM.

LADY RIVALS, WITH THE FooTLIGHTS Be
TWEEN THEM.
Percival got his own way, after ALL in the
matter of marrying as poor man. Fortune,
Henry Fielding tells us somewhere, never
does things by halves. Two months after
Percivals uncle died, and it was found that,
in spite of his wife's cajoling, he had remem-
bered his nephew; and, though the bulk of
his property went to his stepsons, he left Per-
cival the fifteen hundred year which he had
so long allowed to his father. So Percival
did not marry as poor man, after all, and
the little mother, had she lived, might have
confessed that sometimes love finds out the
way to fortune too.
Wedding bells come ringing in as my story
nears its end. Sophia Temple is the bride the
sun shines ON. 1t is a quiet marriage; but
loving eyes are about her and upon her.
Seven long years she has waited, and now the
day has dawned that makes her happy. All
is sunshine The little wedding feast is full
Of pleasantly Egerton Doolittle makes a
speech, in which he assures the company that
he always maintained, in the face of every
body, that Sophia would find some one to
marry her some day. He did not exactly
mean what he said, but that some one would
turn up; for he had heard that there never is
Jack but there is Jill-not that he meant
to imply that Sophia was not most charming;
quite the reverse; but still it requires fore,
sight to say how any given thing will turn
out, and he always said SO, in spite of every
body; and there the thing was that day,
and nobody could gainsay it. And Goldmore
hands Sophia solemnly into her carriage, and
off they go for life and love, and the story is
told
They come back again and settle in the
| Beeches which has lain vacant since Mrs.
Temple gave it up They began their mar
ried life with every promise of happiness and
| with the brief sunshine of this life warm and
bright about them. May l relate one little
| incident?
Exactly month after their return home
Egerton Doolittle came in one morning and
asked to see Sophia privately; and when he
was alone with her, and the door shut, he
drew long playbill out of his pocket.
"I.ook here, Sophia, he says, in voice of
alarm, 'look at this" ..
The bill announces that in neighboring
city there is to be for one night only per-
formance of "The School for Scandal, with
Mr. I.anigan as Charles Surface and Mrs.
I.anigan as Lady Teazle.
II call it serious thing for you, Sophia"
Egerton says "If you will take my advice
as relative, 1 should keep Percival in the
background You will observe it is only for
one night, and as prudential matter should
keep Percival in tie background"
Does she?
"Come here, sir" she says to her husband
after Egerton has gone. do you see thiss"
She shows him the playbill, and he looks a
little foolish and conscious.
II want to see the Lanigan, Percy" she
says "You must take box for us both to
see the Lanigan."
"You are jesting, Sophia"
"Never was more serious in my life. l
must, and will, see Mrs. Lanigan!"
So the abashed husband has to take box
and in due time they are waiting for the cur
tain to rise.
"Now, which is Mrs Laniganp Sophia
asks, after the play has begun.
"Thsre," Percival says, 'in the satin
dress.n
"The blue satin dress9 Surely THAT is not
Mrs Lanigang' Sophia puts very impress
sive emphasis on ''that"
@Yes that is she," Percival replies, with
obvious awkwardness He feels very much
ashamed Of having admired her. He can see
nothing in her now at all.
'Mrs Lanigan is not the woman with the
long traina" Sophia says, resolved to disbe-
lieve him. In fact, she implies that it is quite
incredible that THAT can be Mrs. Lanigan.
"Yes, the woman with the long train" he
replies.
"Why, Percival, you said she was 50 pretty
"Well, you know" Percival says, "thatwas
In Australia"
"Had she the same nose In Australian In
Iquires Sophia, crushing her husband by this
sarcasm,
And hereupon Mrs. Sophia Brent sets to
work and picks the renowned Lanigan to
pieces, from her eyebrows to her toes, and
makes it as plain as Euclid to Percival that
she is not at all prepossessing; and Percival,
having the woman of women at his side, be-
lieves all he hears, and begins to remember
now that Mrs Lanigan's complexion was
sometimes a little doubtful So you see,