The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-04-02
TRUE TO HER LOVE.

LQ0 GQuE hundred. remarked the COLO
mel, throwing down his newspaper, ire
call an affair that happened down south
before the war and which furnished the
plantations gossip for a year"
Let US have it, colonel, y we cried in
chorus.
We'll, don't mind" he replied, light
ing his pipe and assuming the attitude
that is always index of his being in a
reminiscent mood.
Miss Cynthia Pillow was the toast of
our county, not only for her beauty,
which was of a splendid brunette type
that would have caused even a Carmelite
monk to forswear his vows of celibacy, but
for her wit and many accomplishments.
Among her numerous suitors was a Mr..
Martin, man of wealth and culture. He
was fonder of a musty old book than of
hunting and racing the favorite pastimes
of every southern gentleman, and there
fore every one marveled that he should adj
mire Miss Pillow, who was an enthusiast
about these sports. But admire her
nay, worship her-he did, and though she
had often said no to his wooing he refused
to relinquish hope as long as she remain
ed unwedded. At length, wearying doubt
less of queening it over county courtiers,
she visited Memphis, and there her beauty
and intellect evoked the accustomed hom-
age Gads!' and the colonel raped his
pine with a vehemence that almost shat
tered it against the marble mantel. what
do you eastern bellies know of the auto
cratic power southern girl yields over
the hearts of her admirers, and what do
you cold blooded Yankees know of per-
forming deeds of chivalrous devotion for
woman? Well, in the Bluff City her proud
heart found its conquoror. He was law
yer named Mclean. a very Alcibiades in
looks and character, with the dash and
insouciance that prevail SO with women,
good and bad, even if they suspect or
know that vice goes hand in hand with
them. Despite the warnings of her friends
about his fondness for tho wine cup his
penchant for gambling, ere she returned
once more to the doting father his betroth
al ring glittered upon her hand. The fet-
tiers her loneliness had fastened upon his
selfish heart were riveted there by the
wealth that she had inherited from her
mother. One can only imagine the an
guish that Martin endured at this time
for he spoke to no one of it, but contin-
ued to worship daily at the shrine of his
idol.
1.-The wedding was to take place on the
5th of June, but when on that day Nc
Lean, wearing an air of victory and an
ultra fashionable suit, drove up to the doors
of Beechcroft in his new COACH from
which white ribbons duttered and where
on sat grinning coachlnan and 1ackey,
each adorned with an immense. bridal ia
vor, he learned that Miss Pillow, yielding
to the pleadings of her friends or prompt
ed by some womanish caprice, had the
day before welded the faithful Martin.
They said that it was a very funeral
looking vehicle that dashed through the
gates few minutes later, and that the
Cuffies on top were almost as white as the
rosettes they had been ordered to doff, for
they we'll knew their masters fendish
wrath would be wreake0 on their kinky
heads A few days after he married
damsel who had long sighed for him.
u believe that Mrs Martin strove ear
nestly to repay her husbands devotion.
but in the effort her vivacity departed, the
bloom faded from her cheeks the luster
from her eye, and he, poor man. sought
with every art of which affection and
wealth were master to insure her happi-
ness. At the end of year certain means
of doing so presented itself. Mclean S
wife died OF course you II say that Mar
tin was fool, but he himself suggested a
divorce to the woman he adored in order
that she might marry the man who pos
sessed her heart. Then another man, after
lavishing so much love upon woman and
getting nothing in return, would have
learned to hate her and revenged himself
err men would have been content with the
metaphysical possession of such magnif-
cent woman, but Martin was not that sort
of man.
He loved her so truly that her happi-
ness was more to him than his own, and
as he saw that her union with Mclean
alone could secure it he resolved to bring
about that union.
''Now, I don t want you to think that
h. NV h11t ha hoR
exalted ideas about love- and he was sim
ply executing them.
| well to be brief the divorce was OBJ
tanned, the grounds being incompatibility
of temper, although judge and jury knew
! the real reason and did not want TO tn wart
the happiness of three people.
IA year later Cynthia and Mclean were
| married, and then Mrs. Grundy said Mar
! tin was avenged, for Mclean abandoned
! his profession, squandered his wife's mon
ey, neglected her and even did her bodily
injury when under the influence of liquor.
''Soon after the war began he one
night in a drunken orgie walked out a
second story window and broke his worth
| less neck, and Cynthia was left poor, shat
tered in health and spirits, with an infant
| daughter. For two years she waged most
bitter battle with want. Those from whom
her pride would permit her to accept help
were themselves too poor to offer it, for
you know how the war desolated and i'm
| poverished the south.
''Then Martin came home on a furlough
from Virginia, where he had been fight
ing gallantly, and hearing of her destitu-
ton craved the privilege of assisting her,
for, strange to say, the Yankees never Wis
tied his plantation, and To negroes there
went on with the planting and harvesting
as though no cruel monster of war was
devastating the country.
But she told him that after what had
passed between them it would humiliate
her too much to take his charity.
q Then share what have as my wife!
he cried. And she did and never repenteC
it.
"By Jove thatwas man in million, >
and the colonel relighted his pipe, and fol
ten minutes not a sound was heard in the
nom save his Yignrnus nnffino - Philadc