The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1897-04-10
A MARRIAGE SCHEITE.

My scheme was thaea marriage should
be arranged between Uncle James and
Miss Stubs. Not that it was my bust
ness in tie least, but that Gid not hinder
nj from interfering, nor that I thought
the chief parties concerned were at all
suited to each othc.-I never troubled
my head about such miner details. i
have always been fond Of interfering
with other peoples affairs, not for their
good at all, but simply for my own
pleasure. | have the greatest sympathy
with people who ppt their fingers into
n~eighboring pies, provided they confess
they do it fer their own enjoyment and
not for tic advantage Of the pies. Men
do not Kill ioxes for food, but from love
of sport. Women interfere with their
neighbors for exactly the same reason.
Put your fingers, dear ladies, into one
another's pies, by all means, but re-
member thati t is the finger, and not the
pie, which derives pleasure from the
operation. Having 50 much 10 see after
in important matters, Providence seems
sometimes III need Of local agencies to
manage minor affairs il remote country
districts-at least SO I thought il my
young days-and Twas more than ready
to undertake the office of Providence's
local agent. Therefore l decided that
Uncle james should marry Miss Stubs.
We met hiss StlDus while we were
travelling III Switztiltnf. She was a lit
tie, timid, washed out Old maid. Her
besetting sin was gentlencss. She was
too gentle fer anything. Once when my
brother Tom was a little boy he was
naughty, and mother thought her wisest
course lay in the proverbial soft an
swer. Tom bore mothers soft answers
as long as he could, but he was but
youthful flesh and blood after all, and
naughty at that, 50 at last he exclaimed,
Il wish, mother, you wouldn't be SO
silly and gentle."
Miss Stubs always made me recall
that early remark of Toms. She was so
very silly and gentle" Then she add
ed to her g~entleness gentility, which is
also a trying virtue to onlookers. What
with her g~entleness and her gentility,
she spoke SO softly that II could only
hear half that she said, and that half
was by no means stimulating mental
food. She had pale hair and pale eve
lashes and pale ideas, but underneath all
that the sweetest, most unselfsh nature
that woman w possessed. At first I
laughed at her, she seemed so dull and
colorless, but as | grew TO know her bet
ter I discovered many virtues and no
faults in the faded little She
took a great fancy to me-because Twas
so young and strong and full of life, she
said-and told me all her dreary history.
Her parents were gentle people of good
family, and late i'll life her father came
into a small estate for which he had
been waiting for years. But the estate
was SO greatly Impoverished and SO
heavily incumbered that he was ruined
by his succession to it, and he died of
the disappointment, leaving his wife
and only child with a miserable pit
tance, while the estate, which was strict
~ entailed, passed Oh to q distant cous-
in. Mrs. Stubs survived her husband
several years, but now she, too, was
dead, and Miss Stubs was as lonely as
she wa poor. There was something very
pitiful to me about Miss Stubs. She
seemed to have missed all that makes
life worth living, to have sat alone on
the bank while the stream flowed by,
and it has always seemed to me sadder
to die of starvation on the bank than to
be dashed to pieces by the current.
"My dear" she said to me one day
when we had become intimate with each
other, don't say you want to see life
seeing is dreary work. I never wanted
to see life-I wanted to live life. But I
have never done either"
I took her thin little hand in mine
and stroked it. "Were you unhappy
when you were young?:" / asked.
sob, no, not unhappy, my dear, but
not happy either! | am not complaining, !
for every II was very kind to me and
ready to give me little scraps Of their
lives to share, but no one seemed to
realize that WANTED a life of my own"
Poor Miss Stubbs!" I whispered.
cit is kind of you to be sorry for me,
my dear Madge, but really | am not
complaining. have had a very peace
full lot compared with many women.
But I have always had the feeling that
there is such a great deal to be got out
of life and that | have somehow missed
IL all. There is plenty going on some
where, but | am always out of it.
81 think I know what you meant
10 dull to sit in the boxes when one
wants to be on the stage"
Exactly, and I have never even had
che boxes. Ihave had to be content with
the dress circle"
"But did you never fall in love?" /
asked, with extreme boldness.