Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-05-20
CHAPTER v.
AN rNrERcEprroN.

AN lNTEhCHfIlON.
The course of true love, il it never runs
smooth, very often runs slowly. No one can
say that Car or Sibyl Temple married for
love; we need not assert that they sold them
selves; marriages such as theirs are made
every day, with the sanction Of the church
and the praise of the world; but they are not
ideal marriages, not romantic-not the stuff
out of which love can be made Sweet
Sophia Temple, the beauty and heroine Of
this tale, was not proposed to so abruptly,
nor married SO hastily.
Young Brent was shy. To increase his shy
ness he was passionately In love, and love
made thousand things delights to him which
well-informed modern man might do for
his lady once, but not twice, certainly. For
instance, young Brent would stroll about the
town half morning waiting for q chance
meeting; and if, after he had executed a
perfect walking match in slow time, he met
Sophia, and she gave him a smile, or ex-
changed few words, he would return home
all aglow, and could hardly sit down to his
geology, SO hot his fame would burn. Week
after week this went on Silly young fellow,
when he might have been bathing in the full
tide Of courtship, to be thus timidly treading
the margin Of the golden seal Yet perhap1
not so silly after all; since most people agree
that loves preludes are so delicious that they
may well be heightened; and some say that
the water is pellucid near the shore and tur-
bid when we venture further out
This viii say in defense Of him. Sophia,
more than most women, was fitted for This
slow, worshiping kind Of courtship. II often
struck me that she was already what one
might imagine good, warm-hearted and
beautiful woman becoming in more ex-
alted state of existence. She had the gold Of
our nature, with very little Of its dross From
her, more than from any woman ever
knew, or man either, did learn how comely
human nature may be when harmoniously
developed; how various qualities Of mind and
soul, which we are apt to think conflicting,
such as humor and devotion, passion and
purity, may, when combined In proper pro
portions, be each the complement Of the
other. Sophia changed from mood to
mood with an ease, an absence Of
constraint, which was the sign Of q
nature reconciled to life in the best sense
am going to mention trivial occurrence,
but to me it was significant. saw her
one morning greatly interested in an account
Of a wedding robe, its color, tri INNINGS, and
the usual sequels just as serio usly inter
ested as the most dressy Of her sex could have
been. A little while after, when piece Of
poetry was read aloud by somebody in the
company--one Of Tom Hoods, think, just
published, a little fragment written in that
note Of mingled humor and sadness which
was so much his own--I saw Sophias face
,gith ripple Of fun on it passing, with the
poem, into seriousness. It seemed as If the
soul Of the poet, IN its double mood Of laugh
ter and tears, were expressing itself In her
lovely features It Is small matter to men
| ton -laughable, perhaps-but it impressed
me- and It was indeed disclosure Of her char
acter. She had a frank, spontaneous sym
pathy with life all round and in every part,
such as never met in any one beside herself.
By reason Of this virtue she was always In
terested in what was going on, and the very
quality which subdued her individuality IN
one way made her character fresh and do,
hghtful in another. Sophia charmed, by her
constellation Of charms, the grouping Of vir-
mes and graces Of body and mind, which
seemed to make her sympathetic with the
most opposite persons, and at home in the
most various scenes. n s5 II
j Was there key to all thisa OF was she a
Phoenix in muslin, q paragon, admirable and
linexplicablea Il Is my conviction that her
mothers constant lectures ON the subject d
women making themselves fascinating lee.
tures which fell on ears that interpreted
every word into new and higher language
| than the original gave that bent to her dis
| position which made her what she was Tht
little morning room disquisitions, with ball
rooms and lawns and dinner tables for texts