The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-06-28


journey, and in due time returned, sister in
company sure enough This astonished me a
little, for ii appeared to me that her coming
so readily showed that she was a trif1e too
willing, but on reflection it occurred to me
that she might have been prevailed on by her
married sister to come without anything con-
corning me ever having been mentioned to
| her, and so concluded that if no other oojec-
ton presented ITSELF would consent to waive
this All this occurred to me ON hearing of her
arrival in the neighborhood, for, be it remem-
! .bered, had not yet seen her, except about
! three years previous, as above mentioned. In
| few days we had an interview, and although
/ had seen her before she did not look as my
| imagination had pictured her. l knew she
was oversize, but she now appeared fair
match for Falstaff. l knew she was called an
''old maid, " and felt no doubt of the truth of
at least half of the appellation, but now, when
l beheld her,PI could not for my life avoid
| thinking of my mother, and this not from
| withered features, for her skin was too full OF
! fat to permit of its contracting into wrinkles,
! but from her want of teeth, weather beaten
appearance in general, and from kind of no.
| ton that ran in my head that nothing could
have commenced at the size of infancy and
reached her present bulk in less than IS or 40
| years, and, in short, was not at all pleased
with her. But what could / do? l had told
her sister would take her for better or for
| worse, and / made point of honor and con-
cially if others had been induced to act on it,
which in this case had no doubt they had,
for was now fairly convinced that no other
man on earth would have her, and hence the
conclusion that they were bent on holding me
to my bargain. ''Well thought l, 81 have
said it, and, be the consequences what they
may, it shall not be my fault if fail to do it,"
At once determined to consider her my wife,
and this done, all my powers of discovery
were put to work in search of projections in
her which might be fairly set off against her
defects. l tried to imagine her handsome,
which, but for her unfortunate corpulency, was
actually true. Exclusive of this, no woman
that have ever seen has finer face. l also
tried to convince myself that the mind was
much more to be valued than the person, and
in this she was not inferior, as l could discov-
er, to any with whom had been acquainted
Shortly after this, without coming to any
positive understanding with her, l set out for
Vandalia, when and where you first saw me.
During my stay there / had letters from her
which did not change my opinion of either her
intellect or intention, but on the contrary,
confirmed it in both.
All this while, although was fixed, firm as
the surge repelling rock, in my resolution,
found l was continually repenting the rash
ness which had led me to make it, Through
life have been in no bondage either real or
imaginary, from the thraldom of which l so
much desired to be free After my return
home saw nothing to Change my opinion Of
her in any particular. She was the same, and
SO was l. ! now spent my time in planning
how might get along through life after my
contemplated change of circumstances should
have taken place, and how might procrasti
nate the evil day for time, which l really
dreaded as much, perhaps more, than an Irish
man does the halter.
After all my suffering upon this deeply in
teresting subject here am, wholly, unexpect-
edly, completely, out of the "scrape, " and now
want to know If you can guess how got out
of it, out, clear, in every sense of the term,
no violation of word, honor conscience. !
don't believe you can guess, so / might as well
tell you at once.
AS the lawyer says, it was done in the man
ner following-to wit: After had delayed the
matter as long l thought could in honor
do-which, by the way, had brought me round
into the last fall concluded might as well
bring it to a contamination without further
delay, and so mustered up my resolution and
made the proposal to her direct; but shocking
to relate, she answered no. At first l sup
posed she did it through an affectation of mod
esty, which l thought but i'll became her under
the peculiar circumstances of her case, but on
my renewal of the charge l found she repealed
1t with greater frmness than before. tried |
it again and again, but with the same success
or rather with the same want of success. /
finally was forced to give 1t up, at which very |
Unexpectedly found myself mortified almost |
beyond endurance. was mortified, 1t seemed |
to me, in a hundred different ways. My vani- ,
ty was deeply wounded by the reflection that
had been too stupid to discover her inten-
tions, and at the same time never doubling
that / understood them perfectly, and also
that she, whom had taught myself to believe
nobody else would have, had actually rejected
me with all my fancied greatness. And, to cap
the whole, then for the first time began to sus-
pect that l was really little in love with her.
But let it all go. I'll try and outlive it, Others
have been made fools of by the girls but this
can never with truth be said of me. l most
emphatically in this instance made fool of
myself. l have now come to the conclusion
never again to think of marrying, and for this
reason-I can never be satisfied with any one
who would be blockhead enough to have me.
When you receive this, write me long yarn
about something to amuse me. Give my re-
spects to Mr.. Browning. Your sincere friend
A. LINCOLN
Mrs o. II. Browning.
AS before mentioned, Miss Owens was
afterward married and became the mother
of five children. Two of her sons served in
the Confederate army She died July 4,
1877. Speaking of Mr.. Lincoln a short
time before her death, she referred to him
as "a man with heart full of kindness
and head full of sense,