Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-06-20
CHAPTER III.
NY SWEET SOPHIA.

dsresay some of taoss readers who are
never satisfied want 10 know why IN the
world | have not told them more about
Percivsl Brent, our Sophiss worthy and
happy husband. Now, the snsysr to this
I shall at once supply. he was so good
and wortSy, snd 80 successful and happy
after his marriage, tSst o: him there Is
nothing TO tell. What can ysu sGy IN q
story shout o man who goes to bed ana
gs,s Nd again taree hundred M sixty-hve
times every year like the rest OF usY 1t Is
vour men who either never wish to 60 to
bed or have no bed to 90 to, who make
me fortunes of us novelists. PerciVal CON
tip.ed q devoted student of science sll his
life, and has already attained q very re-
sn.e,able eminenee among lep OF research
I hsye been told that, but for his great
modesty, his psme would be more widely
known than it is; and even now am as
snred ne will make ssnsstion beyond MS
own circle of thought by new work ne
has in hand. Sophia loved him well aud
constantly, and be never wavered IN his
devotion 10 her for an instant. His only
o. her mistress was Science, who is harm
isss Isme, and never broke wites hsart
vet; for, indeed, she rather promotes mat
riuonsl eoustsncy. Children came to these
happy two in fair succession, girls sad boys
the eldest being at Cambridge when the
Youngest was yet toddEng from chair TO
chair. | fancy Sophia never quite shared
the enthusiasm of her lord and master for
the physical sciences; and she did not
quite care Tor al his learuedprotessors, who
had not enough humanity for her; but she
swsys entertained them gsnleliy. AT
times she would flip her husband little.
For instance, ono day hearing him say OF
a scientific friend, He is successful and pro
Fo1rd" which Percivsl uttered with IN
usual elaboration. Mrs. Sophia comes to
her husbands side, and, looking sauclly
over his shoulder, says she:
"By successful my husband means that
;se gentleman has discovered new beetle,
and by, profound that he believes abso'
utsIy nothing" >,
Which Percival answered With a laugh
and 8 SINGH. Beyond these harmless pleas
sntries there vas never difference on gen.
ersl subjects between the two.
And here is why have said nothing about
Percival Brent. Happy somebody cries, is
the nation that has no history. Happy the
husband, say l. about whom the novelist
can find nothing to tell Happy Percivsl
Brent of whom all we now record is that
be- called Sophia his wife; and that she was
mother to the children who are now rising
I'D like Young palm treesin that happy home
where once down the dining room moor our
merry little mother stepped her minust.
But Sophia, Sophia, 70 you / have not
done Justice. We all called you Lady
BeRuty," but have failed to describe you
bright. You are not interesting in my
pages. You are interesting in life Who
could moke real your thousand little graces
OF mind and way, Of dress and look and
speech2 / feel that had drawn q woman
who knew the way to administer strychnine
safely, aud did not administer 1t; or had /
written about a woman who had four hus-
bands. but had never realized her ideal, and
described her in q cab, or q yacht, or some
other energetic conveyance flying away TO
iey with the man of her heart; or had de,
scribed : lively young woman who smoked
Three Castles tobacco. wore a billycoc
hat sloped on her head, knew how to swear
and whistls-she might have been . sue
cess in my hands. But you have not been
able to draw, my sweet Sophia. A blurred
dim tracing is al | have Of your clear and
pArfect beauty. You will be called insipid;
you whose hands sud eyes and presence, had
! hey been about me- would have made me
all / might have been, and now shall never
be. Forgive me, who, trying to paint you,
Rave painted only your pale shadow, and
who feels now, as the brush slips through
tired fingers, II have tried, and tried, and
failed"