The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1889-11-22
UNION G. IL, SOUTH CAROLINA, NOVEMBER p,

WIS 100 Oiu Tor mot. But he lost some
OF his crotchety, old bachelor ways; moved
with certain air of conten ment and
pride about his handsome house, and
wns carefully mindful of bis delicate
and sweet-iooking young wife, whom
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 q
bed Of tulips and ranunculuses.
SO they lived their lives, those two. Not
domestic lilo by nny means; Mr.. Eower-
bank had never been used to that, nor Mrs .
Bowerbank neither. She had. dreamed of
IT once; OF the honor aud happiness Of be-
ing poor mans Wife; OF mendiug Lis
shirts md stockings; of looking after his
dinners and making the best Of everything;
counting no economics mean TINT were TO
lIghten the toll OF the bread winner; no la
bors hard that were TO add TO his comfort.
But this was not Emily's lot. She was a
rich woman, married TO a rich man; moth
ing was expected Of her but elegant idle
ness. Once this misht have been to her
wearjness iEtoierable; but she had long
been passive and lngnid. glad to do moth :
ing, and TO be just whatever she fancied
since nobody ever insisted upon her being
anything-a life that some would hnvo
aspect, have envicd exceedingly.
Sizes an old mans darling" said one
of the young Liverpool ladies, comment
ing on Mrs. Bowe;bln's TO her
ncighbor and occasional, though not
very intimate, visitor, Mrs. Knowlc.
Its better, anyhow, than being u young
mans slave"
I'm not sure of that, half grim,y, half
comically, repl cd the other. 81 hope, my
dear, you'll De pretty much of Il slave to
your husband ms / am this day to Edward
Knowle), or you'd b"st not marry at ALL"
But such love- scr,itnIo was not Tmi.ys
lot. She never trotted after J ohm Bower
bank with his big boos 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 tl.at, so
why should she2 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. owe
in her husbands carriage about the coun-
try.soli;ary, peaceful. medtntive drives;
or she paid few 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 hrr il she was
happy; tried, doubtless, in his own way,
10 make her 80. for he WIS n kindly ma
tured man; but lie was not observant, nor
sensitive, nor ever sympathetic. Besides,
he was old, and al his youth, il he ever
had any. had been buried long nso in Hale
churchyard.
Mrs. Knowle told, not Mt the timc. but
afterward, how, one Christmas Day, which
was one of the rare holidays at the Ex-
change and Mr.. Bower bank was a man
who never took holiday illegally she
saw him crossing tho long, frosted
grnss of this said churchyard, alone,
though he had not been married many
months, to stand by that grave, of which
the the .!n messy @ hsaas!9ne StHbl iEs3ef@aA tEs
turf. II his eyes cnuld have pncred be-
low, he would have found nothing Of wife
or child but n little handful of bones.
Another wife now sat Mt hi' splendid, not
humble, hearth; possibly another child
might
Yes. this was what they said of him, the
ill-natur d portion of Ills friends; how,
since the offer of tho bnronctcy, a certain
dawning pride Of race, the truly English
wish to found II family, had come into the
head of grave John Bowcrbank: that ac-
cordingly he had, in hi grave and practi-
cal way, conceived the idca. however late
in life, Of marrying, ond bnd accordingly
looked round on all his eligible young lady
acOuaintnnccs, until, in his practical eye,
he found one who, for her own sweet
dateness, he thought would be 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 like fashion
, with his old acquaintance, her father, he
, married Emily Kendall.
But when, after n year the baronetcy
being again offered and accepted there
: appeared no heir to these honors, uu-
! Goubtedly S.r John was very mu n disap-
pointed. OF course, he did not show il; lie
was too good n man for that: but the
placid men became colder aud colder; and
though they were not unhappy it takes q
certain amount of hope even TO create dis
appointment still, day by diy, the hus-
band and wife went more their own
ways SAW less and less Of one another, as
| is quite easy III tie daily 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, langnid. wistful sm;l lie and no.
body ever said nn unkind word 10 er, and
she, dear soul, had never sud a unkind
, word TO anybody in her life, still her
! check grew paler and raer, her eyes grew
larger and larger, with a sort OF !ar.n away
look, as ii gazing forward into not distant
heaven for something on ca,th never found
: something lost or incomplete-fome-
, thing without which, thou.h a man should
| give tho whole substance OF his house for,
! it would be utter.y in vain.
, Marriage must bo helven or hell. Not
, at first, perhaps. for time so'teas and
, mends all things; but a ter time has had
! its fair lice..se and failed; and then
f, comes the dead blank. tue hopeless en-
dunnce, even il the sharper pangs do not
! intervene; the feeling t. n. the last chance
' in life has been taken, the last die thrown
| and lost.
| Probably John Bowerbank did not feel
thus; his feelings were never remarkably
keen: and he had his business, his days
! occupied on Change, and his evenings de-
voted several times n week. to the long,
splendid, intensely dull and entirely re-
spectacle Liverpool dinner parties. But
his wife, left all day ut homo, with no du-
ties to fill up the idle, aimlcss. weary
hours, with no children of her own, and
too listless and inactiv to adopt the sub
stitute Of other ch.ldlcss m1trons--Mrs.
Knowle, for instance and take everybody
J elso's children, who needed it, under her
mothcrly wing--to such as oor Emily, O
| marriage like hers most resembles being
slowly frozen alive in I. G lake Of gildcd
, torment, which forms the hor or Of one of
the circles of Dante's He'll.
| INT nobody know IL Her fo,ber an :.