The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-07-08
MISREPRESENTATION
~ "
s THE MAKING Of A MAN. J
n y
x BY GWENDOLEN Overflow. u
~><S<<<SxSSSS

thing to do Another good rule is that
if a woman is not ignorant OF lIfe' she
had better have learned it from life and
not from books.
Olive Torrey was clever and had moth
ing to do. She lived at frontier post,
end could go in neither for charity nor
clubs nor fads. She had husband who
studied, and no children, so there was
nothing for her in her home. She had
come straight from southern Cali
fOrnia tOWn-and there is less OF HE
to be seen there in q given period OF
wears than in any other spot on earth.
But she read-largely Ballac and
Ihnckeray and Crawford and Bourget'
which taught her great deal that she
had no need to know. She dreamed
dreams of love at first, while she was
bride; but they were not very realistic
dreams. She had to idealize her hus-
band vigorously to make them endure
even a year; and no one can ideal'ze
a husband successfully He is too much
on hand; more especially in a four
company post.
She was a good COMMUNICATIONS,
when she failed on the husband it did
not even occur to her to try on some one
else, though there were two promising
bachelors. Instead, she went at the
novels of manners again, and with new
devotion, and dwclt on the parts that
dealt with intrigue and ambition and
success in the world, and skinned over
the love parts She did not believe in
them much now. So her mind became
filled with this sort of thing, and there
was no vent for it. She wanted to be
brilliant, disillusioned young matron,
courted by diplomats, power in salons
which ambitions were just bit diff
cult of realization where she was.
Lieut. Torrey would not be worked
up to her pitch. He read war records
and interior department reports, and
thought great thoughts about Indians.
and would have made himself a nuisance
to the people at Washington, if they had
| not become used to that sort of thing
and thick-skinned long ago. He was
an unpleasant kind of man, and sol
der neither in appearance nor by IN
stinct, nor in actions. He was to the
service what the man who signs his let
tiers "a Citizen' is to a local newspaper.
lie was always making petty objections
| to and cOmpla intS against W hatiS. And
what is should lie bowed down to and
silently worshipcd by good officer. In
short, he was not at all the sort Of a
man for his wife, and she did not need
TO be as clever as she naturally was
to find this out.
At four-and-twenty she thought she
was old and experienced, and quite
capable of handling any sort of sharp
edged tools. Although she never posed
as unhappy, or thought herself partic-
ularlv so. the idea came to her that she
would like to have the making of a man,
to be the Egeria to some Numa. just
what she would make him she had not
determined. She would have to have
the man first. She got him. He came
straight out from West Point, and he
was hopeIess-impossible.
Joe, don't you think young Gordon
is promsing?" she asked her husband
Gordon had come the day before.
"Pmmising to be about like all the
Others" There was infinite contempt il
that "all the others''-men with nc
ideas.
II don't know. It seems to me he ha:
clever face, the face of MAINTAIN
is. man of the world, in embryo"
She was trying to see him in the ligh
Of her own imaTinings. 1t is quite hu
man and very feminine to persist IL
TRYING to idealize those about one, ant
only great many dismal failures sue
coed in curing one of the habit.
at struck me that he had the face o
a boy from West Point"
His wife's good nature was unf1ag
ging "Now-yes. But he could b.
made something Of
"A major, if he lives
Mrs Torrcv was sienccd, but no
daunted.
Mrs Torrcv continued to think tina
Thorne Gordon was good material +
work with. She liked his tlame. ]
Smaclled of the statesman. She calle'
his face impressionable, whsn it wa
just weak. She saw secrecy in his eye
which were shifting. She discovere
evasion in his specch-which was trivia
Physically, he did fairly well. He wa
tall and slender in a distinguished sor
of way. There was no cause for the dis
tinction; it was neither in himself no
inherited. If there had been any girl
at the post. he would have fallen in Low
and married, and then Mrs. Tore
couldn't have done anything with hin
As it was, he came to her naturally. Nc
body else wanted him. She set to wor
by giving him her books to read. II
knew enough West Point French t
CLEAN all the harm there is in Balza
and Bourget. When Mrs. Torrey talke
life as therein portrayed, he talked low
as they showed it forth.
I 1T seems to me that the greatest d.
| light in living that a man could hav
| would be to wind other men around hi
| finger"
| 1T seems to me that it would be t
| wind women around his finger" he
| ward would say.