The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-07-17
CHAPTER VIII
LADY RIVALS, WITH THE roorLwHrs be
TWEEN THEM

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
Percivars uncle died, and 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 a year which he had
50 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 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 a 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 sainsay it. And Goldmore
hands Sophia solemnly into her carriage, and
off they 20 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
incidentl
Exactly a 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 a long playful out of his pocket
Look here, Sophia, he says, in a voice of
alarm, "look at this"
The bill announces that in a neighboring
city there is to be for one night only per-
Torrance of The School for Scandal" with
Mr.. Lanigan as Charles Surface and Mrs.
Ianigan as Lady Teazie.
Il call it a serious thing for you, Sophia, T"
Egerton says "If you will take my advice
MS a relative | should keep Percival in the
background You will observe it is only for
one night, and as prudential matter should
keep Perciva in the background
Does she!
Come here, SIR she says to her husband
after Egerton has gone "Do you see this!'
She shows him the playful, and he looks a
little foolish and conscious.
Il want to see the Lanigan Percy" she
SAYS You must take ID box for us both &c
see the Lanigan.'
You are testing, Sophia
Never was more serious in my life
must, and | will, see Mrs. Lanigan"
So the abashed husband has to take box.
andsip due time they are waiting for the cur
tain to rise.
Now which is Mrs Lanigan!' Sophia
asks, after the play has begun
There" Percival says, I'm the satin
dress
The blue satin dress Surely THAT is not
Mrs Lanigan" Sophia puts a very impress
sive emphasis on that"
Eyes, that is she,n 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 ths
long train" Sophia says, resolved to disbe,
heye him In fact she implies that it is quite
incredible that THAT can be Mrs. Lamgan
"Yes, the woman with the long train, " he
replies.
"Why, Percival. you said she was SO pretty
swell, you know" Percival says, "that was
In Australia"
Had she the same nose in Australia" in
quires 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 il as plain as Euclid TO Percival that
sire 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,
reader, that Sophia, with all her charms. was
only mortal woman after ALL and would let
fly an arrow at rival as swiftly as any of
her sex. But it mattered nothing to Mrs
Lanigan, who was three times recalled. And
it nattered nothing to Sophia, who only
warted TO punish her husband, and never
loved him more tenderly than that night
And so it really comes to this, that need not
have recorded so trivial an occurrence at ALL