The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1889-03-08

Il
bank. Perhaps she may be happy-a
least, less unhappy than she looks now
! God bless her!"
And with that cordial bless ing. unheard
and few kindly tears, unseen by her fo
whom they were shed, for in truth tn,
bride did not seem much to hear and SO,
anything, the carriage drove away. Thu
terminated the principal scene, and thu
vanished the principal actors In that grand
show wedding, which had been quite salts.
factory and successful in all its elements
with the exception of one trifiing omission,
not unfre4uently occurring in similar cere-
monies-Loye.
CHAPTER IL
Before telling. the simple, sad story-ii
does not pretend to be anything but a sad
story-of John Bowerbank's wife, 1 should
like 10 say word for John Bowerbank.
The most obvious description of him
and almost universal criticism upon
him., was the common phrase, "He was
thorough man of business" q
character which, out Of business circles,
It is little the fashion to decry, or, al
least, to mention with condescendIng
APOLOGY. Hard to say why, since any acute
: 9esoner may perceive that it takes some of
.sArery finest qualities of real manhood ia
Nc te thorough man Of business" A
man exact, persevering, shrewd, enterpris-
ing, with strong perception Of his own
rights, and an equally fair Judgment, and
an honest admission Of the rights Of his
neighbor; who, from conscience, common
sense, and prudence, takes care ever to do
TO others as he would be done by; who has
hrmness enough to strike the clear bal
ance between justice and generosity; who
is honest before he is benevolent, and
righteous before he is compassionate; who
will defraud no man, nor, il he can help it,
suffer any man TO defraud him; who is
careful in order to be liberal, and accurate
that he may compel accuracy in those about
him; who. though annoyed by the waste
or misappropriation of q pound, would
not grudge thousands spent in q lawful,
wise. and creditable way; man of whom
us enemies may say, sarcastically, that he
Is near" man, n "sharp" man, a man
who can push his way in the world" vet
half the worlds work-and good work, too
lis done by him, and the like of him;
done far more successfully, far more nobly.
than by your great geniuses, who aim at
everything and effect little or nothing;
your grand incompletenesses who only sad
den one by the hopelessness of their
failures. Better than to be poet, whose
ignoble life lags haltingly behind his noble
poetry; statesman, who tries to mend the
world and forgets that the first thing to be
mended is himself; or philanthropist, who
loves all mankind, but negiects his own
family-better far than all these in the long
run is the thorough man of business, the
secret of whose career is the one simple
maxim, Anything worth doing at all is
worth doing WE'LL"
Whatever else people might say of John
both 6ada and go6 aRs sHEf hfs ff9 fe OF
ly sixty years-they always said Of him
hi hnf ha hoI oil, In6 NY,f <,f
undertaking, nor broken q promise; never
begged, bori owed, nor stolen-cheatinR is
stealing shilling from any man; and
though his aims might not be lofty, and
his daily life far removed from the heroic,
still lie was good, honest man, and Gas
repeat, with exceeding respect for the cpl
thet) thorough man of business.
But there was nothing the least interest
ing about him. His figure was short and
stumpy, and his gray hair bristled funnily
round his smooth, bald head. He could
not, by any force of imagination, be turned
into romantic pcrsoHagc. That his life
had had it's romance was not improbable;
few lives are without. 1t might have been
who knows?-c connected with certain
grave (Which Mrs. Knowle once found
when visiting her own little grave in Hale
churchyard, and ever after looked kindlier
on tho man for the sake of it,, which bore
the inscription, "Jane, wife of Mr.. John
Bowerbank" (he was not Esquire then),
who died in childbirth, was here inferred
with her infant son." nearly forty years
ago.
But so completely forgotten had been
this episode in his life, that most people
thought John Bowerbank an old bachelor;
and when he grow in years and honors, SO
much so that it was rumored that he had
declined being made Sir John Bowerbank
solely because knighthood was small
thing, and baronetcy, to a man without
heirs. a blank sort of dignity, nobody sus-
pected he would marry; nor, when he did
marry, was he suspected of marrying in
any but a business like way-to secure q
pleasant mistress for his splendid house, a
cheerful companion for his declining years.
And, let the truth be owned, he did marry
only for this. He was not one bit in love.
The solitary passion Of his life had blazed
extinguished by the hand of fate, and il
was too late to light up any other.
He did not marry Emily Kendall for love,
nor which, perhaps, was the secret of hei
finally consenting to marry him-had he
made any foolish pretense OF doing SO.
lie respected her character, lie liked heI
well, in tender, fatherly sort of way; but
"Jane, wife of Mr.. John Bowerbank," now
sleeping in her peaceful grave, need moi
nave uuu lne sllSnlcSI JeulouSy over, nay
would hardly have recognized the middle
aged gentleman who was the "happy BRIDE
groom" that sunshiny morning in st
Georges. Hanover Square.
Perhaps this was II good thing fo>
Emily. In her husbands unexactin9
and undemonstrative regard, more pater-
nal than lover-likc, she found the rest
which was the only thing for which
she crayed; and III his steady, sedate,
persistent character, which aimed at moth.
ing higher than it accomplished, and
sought from her no more than she was
able to give, she found little of the com
fort which she once thought was hopeless
to her in this world. She, who had begun
lifo with girls dreams of perfection, and
proved them oil false. who, in her weak
ness weaker than most woman s-had
leaned on one stay after another, and found
them all pierce her like broken reeds, ex-
pericnccd in her calm, cold marriage with
this kind, good, practical man, certain
peace, which after all the tempests of her
youth. was not without its soothing charm
Also, TO one of her weak, hesitating nature
the mere sense Of her fate being irrevoca-
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