Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-12-23
A ROMANCE.

good time he would tell me all he cared
TO have me know.
( at is impossible" he began when he
/ awoke from his reverie, 'to give you or
/ ANYBODY a clear account of the causes
which combined 10 make me desOlate
old man without yenturing upon senti-
ments and emotions that are supposed to
belong to romance alone, but which in
/ truth are the every day possessions OF
mankind. Touching heart histories are
all around us, but we are too busy or too
careless or too selfish to feel interest in
( them save when circumstances bring them
into conspicuous view. Then they are
/ thought to be extraordinary and the
/ writers Of romance and of tragedy shrewd-
/ ly turn them TO account.
~ am nu4 a sentimentalist; | never
killed wo,lan; yet have suffered the
/ unspeakable pangs Of jealousy even TO
the limit of Othello's suffering. A thou
sand deaths and burials were preferable
| to the living death of jealous man. II
] is
Agony unmiIed. incesssnt gall
Corrodng every thought and blasting all
loves Paradise
''If have never spoken Of this TO you
before it as because | shrank from inv8d
ing the grave wherein are buried the
sweetest hope and the master grief Of life,
for my love and jealousy lie there side
by side.
In youth was fortunate TO escape the
common accident of falling in love, and
when at length love came my way the
| little rascal found me man of solid years
and settled habit. The immediate result
was that he laid vigorous siege and gave
I hamlnI down
| flag. marched out of my iutrenchments
and signed articles of unconditional sur
render. For time he proved msgnani-
nous captor He was tireless in hospital
ity, fertile in devising ways and means TO
mitigate the natural humiliation of de-
feat, and the most adept tiattersr that
ever tickled lovers willing ear. j
blush now, old as | am, at the reCollec-
ton OF the small labor love had to per
shade me of my irresistible charm. BY
and by it became familiar thought with
me that the woman who had singled me
out for affectionate devotion (and whom
had honOred by condescending to accept
ought TO have done so long before. She
certainly had known me longer than she
had loved me but / couldn't quite make
that out According to loves logic (which
discovered later was only sOphistry mas.
uuerading rs logic she should have adored
me from the first moment flashed across
her sky--for had not love assured me that
/ was as beautiful as irresistible'
That idea gradually enlarged until It
obscured my view of the woman in the
case. / was more in love with myself
than with her at that stage of my vanity's
growth; but like the noble and loyal
creature that she WAS she bore my in
sufferable and petty tyranny without
protest nor saw, what others must have
seen and despised, that had become an
offensive mass Of self conceit. Still was
not wholly unworthy Of her devotion.
True, | had monstrously overestimated
myself, but for that she-the woman /
loved-was in some degree also charge
able. She had helped me in the easy
work OF persuading me that | was the
only man in this world. For she had
forsaken and almost forgotten every
friend and half a dozen suitors. For the
privilege Of being often near me she put
away the pretty feminine employments
that had been the chiefest pleasure OF her
leisure hours. She artfully learned what
books had read and by unexampled in
dustry acquainted herself with what was
I'm the best of them. In the glow Of her
would sometimes declare that she conld
joyfully go through war and plague and
fiery trial for me or with me. Whatever
work came from my hands was in her
esteem, the ravishment Of genius. She
believed in me utterly and lost no chance
to tell me So Her deathless love was al
ways struggling for some new expression.
To her mind was the universal symbol
nf N
those endowments and qualities which in
men compel the love and admiration Of
women.
do not imagine that was insensible
to that wOrship-for worship it was and |
can say 50 now with none of the vanity
that | have long despised. owe il to
myself to say that loved her, but the
trouble lay in the fact that she had
powerful rival. That rival was l. No |
woman will patiently endure a petted |
rival No love can survive in its first
freshness the continual presence of an |
other love of divine supremacy.
The woman who had given me years |
Of idOlatry grew querulOus. l had not |
yet dreamed that | could lose her. l |
thought only of myself, when | thought |
at all, but went on loving her quite as of |
old, for | must repeat that little as l |
showed it, she was indispensable to my |
happiness. \ gradual change came on |
oIiro,;o,, 81, ra,I,r,, - ~ 80, - r.
-, ~ bod ,orsata,, Co. - "a ~
her -a,i,.iD,, irts-est T., ~ Ii,.Ia r,,,-sI,i,s
that bad for,,'arI,, 80 r. -,
r,IIar,,na TiI,'s,suoS -, - =, a..
al ,riod 20 H. a. -, ,,.;th - ~
earnest, but she only sighed wearily at
r,-or. II - ,Dn. - nc - ~ -
r. r,roa+ ~, -, .Satsa' - ~. -
ner obserratior ~ bar r,annar oonsr,"o'i
NV faar a,S ;ntansi,,ad 80 ',nn'i,
sa;,,n,Hn, ahsnrra , - o - IL
onsy, Lnd me in r. oII,toh ~ all
viii raTo ~ go, "a. - -, %, - 80.
-. I' '. " ~ o-e sa,e
. onost en- % iuenounceu 'ile very employ
Ii'S 'h'I aaheu VI heI iiio'iieh' ''iie
VI. Si Ia was ,'ouiiy lAsne" u ,,i'idtiess
y! "eL 0on riueu Ilioiilelence' VI! "od'