The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1895-12-11
A DECREE OF SILENCE.
ny MRS. NJ. L. RAYNE.


Clark, persons who we're not consulted
in the matter-as very few were
wondered what he saw in that girl TO
fall in love with; not her beauty, cer-
tainIy, since she had none; nor her
intellectual grnces. which were few
and far between; nor her amiable
character, for she had sharp tongue,
and they left the matter as one be-
yond their comprehension. But if
any Of them had asked Allan himself
he could not have told them. 1t was
enough for him that love goes where
it is sent, and that he did love Luella
with his whole true heart, no one
knew better than he.
So they we're married, and I wish /
could add the dear old storybook
formula, "lived happy forever after"
but as this is true story and not
romance, it must follow out the beaten
track of real life, even to the bitter
end.
All knew when he married his wife
that she had a complaining tongue.
He had heard her talk to her old
father, and not even his great love for
her could make her stinging words
spoken without any apology or passion,
seem other than discourteous and un-
filial. Aud when the meek old man
beat his head to the word that was
more cruel than blow he-Allan-
blamed him for submitting SO tamely
to woman's invective, promising to
himself different state Of affairs,
when he should have the right to OBJ
iect.
For brief time Allan was as happy
as any of us are permitted to be in
this transitory life, and Luella,
pleased with her new estate, and her
handsome, loyal husband, was like a
creature of different nature, and the
old father having passed peacefully
away, left an interim of suspended
hostility, in which Allan established
kingdom of happiness, which he
imagined to be on firm foundation.
He was never more mistaken.
For the ruler of this kingdom was
the queen of discomfort. Allan had
never been nagged, but Luella was
perpetually nagging. Having found
the vulnerable point in his armor of
peace, she thrust the javelins of anger
in, with the slightest pretext, and
smiled to see him vince. 1t gave evil
dence of her power. The old father
had escaped; but her husband was
hers, he must stay and hear.
Iknow this is not a pleasant story,
and readers need go no further unless
they are interested in a curious psy-
Geological fact. myself am a be.
lever in heredity. I am sure tina,
somewhere in the past this woman
had an ancestor with sharp tongue,
which she had never tried to bride.
If there is sympathy for the man who
inherits a consuming thirst for drink,
why not for the woman who has hat
bcqueathed to her bad temper which
she took with her hair and eyes ?
Luella had everything to make hel
heppy, from the standpoint OF any
reasonable being, but she never ceased
complaining, and at last the goot
nature and fortitude of her husband
deserted him and he turned, not a
the worm turns. but rather like
raging lion, and Luella held her peac
in sheer astonishment.
81 wish you were dumb, he said, il
whisper of concentrated wrath an,
scorn. II wish I might never hea
the sound OF your voice again..
Like all evenly balanced natures
when he overstepped boundaries b
went too far but there was this in ez
tenuation. his words came from tn
, lips and not from the heart; the
sounded far worse than they inter
toned, and they recoiled on himself
even before he had seized his hat t
leave the house.
He turned to see their effect on LII
ella and found to his horror that sh
had tainted.
Then he called himself brute, sci
? for friends and a doctor, and hun
l q -