The Florida agriculturist., 1889-07-24

Iond But she stipulated that the mar
r;ooo was TO remain for the time being
secret: for she had come ON to WISH some
relatives of hers and was unwilling lof
reasons satisfactory to herself tt'a' Uiley
should know anything of the nope Siie
privately entertained OF becoming lazy
Martin Valentine. on his side, oHereo
no objection to this arrangement; ne hdu
his place to make in the colony, and the
necessity OF providing suitable nome
Tor his wife at the outset would nave
seriously hampered him. She went TO
her relatives in Napier. and he' as mas
been already related. cast in his lot WIN
his friend Brown, and visited her in town
whenever opportunity served
Now that she was his wife, however,
she no longer felt any necessity OF con-
cealing from him her real belief as TO
the extent of his means; she proceeded
from yelled intimations to plain speech,
and he became aware for the first time
that she had married him, not for him
self. but for something that he did not
possess. Her plain speech led to explana-
tions on his part equally plain, and thus
they speedily arrived at perfectly clear
understanding of their mutual attitude.
The consequence was a bitter quarrel
and recriminations. The woman ap-
peared in her true colors. which were
not engaging; she called him variety OF
hard names, and if he had refrained
from retorting in kind it was not because
there was any lack Of suitable express
sions waiting behind his lips. But they
were still husband and wife, and the
bond between them could not be severed.
AS their marriage was secret, however,
there was no difficulty about a separa-
ton: and Valentine agreed to whatever
pecuniary conditions she chose to die
tate. In case of his brothers death she
would come in for her share of the In
heritance; but here he stipulated that
she should receive the money only on
condition that she forbore to assume the
title, or allow her relation to him to be
known. She at first demurred to this;
but on his offering to hand over every
thing except the real estate and lands
an offer extremely advantageous to her
from a pecuniary point of view-she
finally consented, probably refecting
that it would be difficult or impossible to
make such contract legally binding and
that when the time came-if it ever
should come-she would be able to repu-
diate it with impunity.
This affair produced bad effect on
Valentine; he became reckless and in
different to his business interests, and i'll
fortune attended him. He welcomed the
Maori revolt as an opportunity of ridding
himself of his troubles by stopping bull
let; but though he stopped the bullet. the
bullet failed to stop him, and the legacy
that he received changed considerably
the complexion of affairs He placed
half the sum in the bank at Napier for
the benefit of his wife, and sailed for
San Francisco with the rest. He had
had no settled plan in leaving New Zea-
land, except to appease his restless desire
for change and excitement, The future
could hold nothing good for him, be-
cause however good in itself it might be,
IT would be defled by the chronic and
inevitable necessity of sharing 1t with
That wife of his-for whatis the greatest
blessing, stimulus and joy, to man hap
PLY married, is the dreariest of miseries
to the man mismated.
One misfortune, however, he did not
look for; one danger he did not fear;
one emotion of all others he was con-
hdent he could not feel. And vet
this emotion, this danger, this misfor-
tune were precisely thnso 70 ,,rL;oh L.