Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1895-04-18


meeting the postman. which he always
did though few letters ever came ana
never those which, his wife could see, nc
missed and looked for still, RoderlcR
threw down before her heap of notes.
at never rains but it pours. Evidently
as old Black says, the hale countrle has
fallen in love with young Mrs Jardine
-Four invitations to dinner and one to q
Understanding over three weeks ana
an area of fifteen square miles. 10 ac-
eept them would take half our quarterly
income, in carriage hire, etc, and to re-
fuse them, Why six Caleb B0lderstones
could scarcely accomplish that feat"
She read and laid the notes aside, with
rather sad face.
"You would like to go? Well, then, my
darling shall we don our purple and fine
linen-we have few rags Of splendor
left-and fare sumptuously at our neigh
bors' expense for four days? We can
starve afterward for fourteen; I'm will
ing if you are"
"Rodcrickw
'Else-we must get up some excuse
you must have cough, and be unable to
90 out evenings
"But am able--they may see me at
church every Sunday"
"MOst literal of women! OF course it
is a big lee'--as Black would call it. But
any lie will do; the bigger the better, since
we can not possibly tell the truth"
"Why notT'
The question was so direct and simple,
yet so perfectly natural, that it staggered
him. lie laughed, though not very mirth-
fully, and made no reply.
"Why not tell the truth?" Silence re-
peated. st would be much the easiest
way. Why not say to everybody, what
everybody must know, or I'll soon, that
we are not rich enough to keep a carriage
or give entertainments, but that we ap.
precate our neighbors' kindness, and
WILDE glad to meet them whenever chance
allows. Shall write and say this? No
body could be offended, for it is just the
simple truth. And surely the truth is bet
ter than even the whitest of lies"
He had lived beside her and with her
for whole yeNrEow-this woman, so diff
ferent from all other women he had ever
finding out something new in her-some
divine simplicity which made all his world
ly wisdom useless; some innocent courage
which put even his manliness to shame.
But he was too truly manly not to own
this.
"My darling" he said, not laughing
now, II did not propose to tell lie-not
seriously, But the truth must be hid
sometimes, when it is an unpleasant and
humiliating truth. Come, then, shall we
make a great effort, and appear at all
these fine houses en- grande tenue, and in
carriage and pair BLACKS, perhaps,
borrowed for the occason), and make be-
lieve,' as children say, that we are rich
peopleY
"Would not that be acting lie, which
comes to the same thing as telling it? Did
not your father once say SO? And you
once told me that f''-she paused u mo-
ment-"if you had boys you would teach
them exactly as your father taught you,
that either to tell or act lie was abso-
Mtely impossible to gentleman and
Jardinew
"You little JesuitW
Don't call me that! and her eyes filled
with the quick tears, which, however, she
rarely allowed to fall-she was not n "cry
ing woman. 81 cannot argue, can only
feel and think. Dearest, | sit and think
great deal-more than in all my life be-
fore. . ought, you know"
Her head dropped and a sudden flush
came over the sweet young face firm
through all its sweetness, much firmer
than even little while ago. Her brief
eight months of married life had made
woman Of her. And there were the long
lonely hours-alOne, yet not alone-when
n wife ever so young, cannot choose but
sit thinking of what God Is going to give
her; of the mingled joy and fear and
solemn responsibility, stretching out into
far generations, Well, indeed, may she
say, even as the holy woman of whom it
is recorded, Behold the handmade of the
Lord, be it unto me according to thy
word"
Something of this-eXpressing what she
never said-was written in Silence's face.
Her husband could not quite understand
it-nO man could; but he saw the soft,
tired look-tired, but not weak-there
was nothing weak about her; and he put
his arm around her very tenderly.
MY darling, speak; you know l will al
ways listen to you, even though may diff
fer from you. No two people can always
think alike. But want wife, coun-
selor; did not want slave"
She laughed; still she paused a little
before answering. 1t was hard to 20
against 'him-hard to put into plain, ugly
words the fact that she, wife, dared to
think her husband wrong. Dear as he
was to her-this passionately loved Rod
erick-there was something in the ether
love, dimly dawning, growing daily into
n mysterious vet most absolute reality,
which made her ut once clear-sighted and
brave, with the courage that all women
ought to have when they think of them
selves, not as themselves, but as the
mothers of the men that are to be.
"Roderick'-he was startled by the
sweet solemhity of her tone-"this seems
a smaller thing than it is. Whether we
accept these invitations or not matters
little but it does matter a great deal
whether we begin our married life with
truth or untruth; whether we meet the
world with an utterly false face, or else
sullen face, rejecting all its kindness.
Why not with a perfectly honest face,
saying openly, We are poor; we know it,
and it is not pleasant; but it no disgrace
we are neither afraid nor ashamedY"
'That might be all very well in Utopia
but here? Did you ever know anybody
who did it?"