The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-05-22
And thus, reader, was the second, the beau
dful, Miss Temple engaged to be married.
CHAPTER v.
AN INTERCEpTIoN.

CHAPTER "
AN INTERCEPTIoN.
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 Lee was passionately in love. and love
made thousand things delights to him which
a 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 chance
meeting, and if, after he had executed a
perfect walking match in slow time, he met
Sophia, and she gave him smile, or ex-
changed few words, he would return home
all aglow, and could hardly sit down to his
geology, so hot his flame would burn. Week
after week this went on. Silly young fellow,
when he might have been bathing in the full
tide of courtship, 10 be thus timidy treading
the margin of the golden seal Yet perhaps
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 will say in defense of him. Sophia,
more than most women, was fitted for this
slow, worshiping kind of courtship,. 1t often
struck me that she was already what one
might imagine a 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 a
nature reconciled to life in the best sense.
| am going to mention a trivial occurrence,
Int to me it was significant ! saw her
one morning greatly interested in All account
of wedding robe, its color, tri innings, and
the usual sequels-Just serio usly inter
eSted as the most dressy of her sex could have
been A little while after, when a piece Of
poetry was read aloud by somebody in the
company-one of Tom Hoods, ] think, Just
published, little fragment written in that
note OF mingled humor and sadness which
was 80 much his own--I saw Sophia's face
with a ripple of fun on it passing, with the
peem, into seriousness. 1t seemed as if the
soul of the poet, i'll its double mood of laugh
ter and tears, We're expressing itself in her
lovely features. 1t is small matter to men,
tioii-laughable, perhaps-but it impressed
me, and it was indeed q disclosure Of her char
acter She had 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
ierested in what was going on, and the very
quality which subdued her individuality in
one way made her character fresh and de-
Iightful in another. Sophia charmed, by her
constellation Of charms the grouping Of viz
tues and graces of body and mind, which
seemed to make her sympathetic with the
most opposite persons, and at home i'll the
most various scenes.
Was there a key 10 all this, or was she a
Phoenix in muslin, n paragon, admirable and
| inexplicablei 1t is my conviction that her
mothers constant lectures on the subject Of
| women making themselves fascinating-le
! lures which fell on ears that interpreted
every word into new and higher language
= hat L.,,-
position which made her what She was The
little morning room dispositions, with ball
rooms and lawns and dinner tables for texts,
concerning dresses and marriages and car.
riages and fortunes and smiles and pastures
and witty answers and complaisancy-t
all Sophia carried up to "A higher level of idea
| and aspiration. She resolved to charm Others
with happiness and goodness in view, moi
mere society eonquests- Mrs Barbara TEN
pies projections We're delivered in the spri,
of Lord Chesterfield, low and selfish
under thin disguise of good humor
| Sophia by tho instinct of a lofty
nature, resolved to use the means hel
mother recommended, but with a diff
ferent end in view And here was the pleas
ing originality of her life; she used worldly
| methods for most unworldly ends tn,
polish, the graces the social attractions tn,
accomplishments, literature and wit, which
saints either despiSe or at best only tolerate
she used as the very material out Of which
her noble purpose must be woven. And 81
sha remained rather worldly than otherwis.
on tie face of her life, and serious peopl
| declared she needed conversion. But in tn
cret interior of her intentions she was truly
devoted. trying, by the spell of beautiful
| womanhood, to make those with whom sh,
lived better and happier. Certain wise mel
explain the miracle of Pentacost as having
lain in the ears that heard, not in the tongue
that 81 oke, the listeners clothing the speed
with sense of their own. So worldly, good
humored Mr.. Barbara Temple said he
| shrewd say; but the words, as they pattere,
from her lips, caught from the daughter
finer ear music and a meaning which tn
| speaker never understood.
With slow delight, with many a blush
with stolen glances and few shy words, til
courtship of Percival and Sophia progressed
and each had commended the other in thei
inmost souls long before any love was eS
pressed. Brent senior had quito recovere
his spirits in the presence of Mrs Barbar
1
heard in dining room and drawing room a
of old. Accordingly. to and fro, from hous
to house the families went; and the youn
people had plenty of occasions OF maxim
love, though it was as yet love unspoken.
There are, then, two schools of lovers
those who plunge, and those who inch; an
those who plunge are wise, but those VIII
inch are wiser
Percival, either by foresight or simpl
through circumstance, was an .'incher.
Pleasant work he found it. But is a grav
history like mine to detail every nod, glanc,
bush, smile, sigh, and so oni or are grav
students like my readers to bc 50 uiie
With Let me, with wise reserve, he cor
tent, for this chapter at least, with on
closing scene.
End of January. Weather, much rain an
windy; tine, 3:15 p. M scene, dining ROOF
at Mrs Barbara Temples; persons presen
Percival and Sophia. Mark, reader, the
have been here since the rest rose from hincl
talking about anything or nothing, but grow
; ing warmer-at least Percival was CROWN
| Ha t.l;