The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1889-11-22

he took 10 state dinner parties. and
introduced among tho blooming, forid
and little too conspicuously dressed
unlike lily Of the valley in the midst of o
bed OF tulips and ranunculuses.
So they lived their lives, those two. No
domestic lilo by any means; Mr.. Eower-
bank had never been used To tbat, nor Mrs
Bowerbank neither. Sh. had dreamed OF
1t once; OF the honor aud happiness Of be-
ing poor mans Wife; OF mendiug Lis
shirls and Stockings; of looking after his
| dinners anu making the best of everything;
| counting no economies moan TINT were 10
tighten tho toll OF the bread winner; no la
bors hard that were to add TO his com fort
! But this was not Emily's lot. She was a
rich woman, married to rich man; moth
| ing was expected Of her but elegont idle
moss. Once this might have been to hei
WEAKNESS iatoleratie; but she had long
! been passive and languid. glad to do moth :
ing, and TO be just whatevoS she fancied,
since nobody ever insisted upon her being
anythlng-a life that some would hnve
called happy, and, especially in it's outside
aspect, have enyicd exceedingly.
Size an old mans darling" said one
OF the young LIVERPOOL ladies, comment
f, ncighbor and occasional, though not
very intimate, visitor, Mrs. Knowlc.
1T better, anyhow, than being IA young
mans slave"
"lm not sure of that" half -grim,y, half
comically, repl cd the other. 81 hope, my
dear, you'll BE- pretty much of slave TO
your husband ms / am his day to Edward
knowle), or you'd b"st not marry at ALL"
But such love- sCrN itudN was not Imi,y'S
lot. She never trotted after John Bower
bank with his big hoos in the morning, or
brushed his coat or found him his gloves;
she never ran to open the door of evenings
or settled his cushions 70: his after-dinner
sleep. They had servants TO do that so
why should she? In truth, 1t never oc-
Cured to her to do it.
She dressed herself care uliy and sat Mt
the head of her husbands table; shc d!
III her husbands carriage about the coun-
try-soli;ary, peaceful, meditativc drives;
or she paid 4 frw courtesy calls after the
entertainments to which, arrayed in the
most perfect Of costumes, he seemed
p'eased to take her. lie never was cro.s
with her; never asked h'r if she was
happy; tried. doubtless, in his own way,
10 make her 30. for he WAS n kindly ma
turcd man; but le was not obscrvant, nor
sensitive, nor ever sympathetic. Besides,
he was old, and al his youth, if he ever
had any. had been buried long nco in Hale
churchyard.
Mrs. knowle told, not Mt the time. but
afterward, how, one Christmas Day, which
was one of the rare holidays at the Ex--
who never took holiday illegally she
saw him crossing tho long, frosted
grass of this said churchyard, alone,
though he lad not been married many
months, to stand by that grave, of which
the the messy hsaas!0ns still iGSVTt w;, me
turf. If his eyes could have pncred be-
low, he would have found nothing of w.fs
or child but little handful of bones.
Another wife now sat Mt his splendid, not
humble, hearth; possibly another child
might -
Yes, this was what they said of him. the
ill-natnr d portion of his friends; how,
since the offer Of tho haronctcy, a certain
dawning pride Of race, the truly English
wish to found family. had CON. into the
head Of grave John Bowcrhank: that ac-
cordngly he had, in hi grave and practi-
cal way. conceived the idea, however late
in life of marrying, and had accordingly
looked round ON all his eligible young lady
acGuaintanccs, until. in his practical eye,
he found one who, for her own sweet
dateness, he thought would be n suitable
mate for an elderly man. and accordingly;
without much inquiry as TO her feelings,
and having. indeed. arranged tho whole
matter in the most business lik" fashion
Z. with lis old Acquaintance, her father, he
married Em ly Kendall.
But when, after n year tile bnronctcy
being again olerel and accepted there
appeared no heir TO these honors, uu-
Goubted!y ST. john was very mu h disap-
pointed. OF course, he did not show il; lie
was too good man for that; but tho
placid mien became colder aud colder; and
though they were not unhappy 1t takes
certain amount of hone even to create dis
appointment still, day by diy, the hus-
. hnn W
ways; saw less and les Of one another, as
is quite easy III TIE duly life of wealthy
people, who have. Or think they have SO,
many duties owed to their position and TO
society. And tough Emily still smiled -
her soft. 1anGn;d. wistful SIN .le and no
body ever said an unkind word TO | er, and
she. dear soul, had never S nd Al uukind
word TO anybody III her ife. still ber
ch, ek grew paler and ralcr, her eyes grew
larger and larger, with II sort OF ar away
look, as ii gazing forward into n not distant
heaven for something on cath never found
something lost or incomplete some
thing without which, tho,i- h a man should
| give tho whole substance OF his house for,
it would be uttery in vain.
, Marriage must be hewen or hell. Not
, ut first, perhaps. for time 50 tens aud
mends all things; but a ter t:ma has had
! it's fair lice:.se and failed: and then
comes the dead blank. the hopeless en-
: dumuce, even if the sharper pan"s do not
! intervene; the feeling t: a the last chance
in life has been taken, the last die thrown
| and lost
Probably John Bowerbank did rot feel
thus; his feelings were never remarkably
! keen: and hc had h,s business, his days
! occupied on Change, and his evenings de-
voted several times week. to the long,
| splendid, intensely dull and entirely re-
spectacle Liverpool dinner parties. But
! h.s wife, left ali day AZ home, with no du-
ties to fill NJ the idle, amIcss, weary
hours, with no children of her own, and
! too lstlcss and inaciv II adopt tho sub
! stituto Cf other ch ldlcss Elltrons Mrs.
: Knowle, for instance and take everybody
J elsc's children, who needed il, under her
mothcriy wing 10 sucl rs ! oor Emily, q
I marriage like hers most resembles being
slowly frozen alive in {! lake of eildcd
: torment, which forms tn" hor or Of one of
the circles of Dantrs He'll.
! But nobody knew it, Her father, en-
gagged in tho same dining-ou exist
ence in London that her husband, in n
lesser and more harmless degree, enjoyed
IN Liverpool, never visited Ter, seldom
wrote 10 her. When he did, his letters
brcqthcd the most cnriable slf-satisfac-
! ton that he had done the very best for
/ hot bo IL,