The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1897-06-04
Observation-Disclosures
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If a stupid woman is unoccupied,
pothing serious will come of it. But q
clever woman should be given some
/ 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 a frontier post,
md 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 a southern Cali
fornia town-and there is less of life
to be seen there in a given period Of
years than in any other spot on EARTH
But she read-Iargely Balzac and
Thackeray and Crawford and BouTget;
which taught her great deal that she
had no need to know. She dreamed
dreams of love at first, while she was a
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 idealize
a husband successfully. He is too much
on hand; more especially in four
company post.
She was a good Woman-therefore,
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 dwelt 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
filed with this sort of thing, and there
was no vent for it. She wanted to be a
brilliant, disillusioned young matron,
courted by diplomats, a 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-sEinned long ago. He was
an unpleasant kind of man, and a 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
He was always making petty objections
to and complaints against what's. And
what is should be bowed down to and
silently worshiped 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-
ularly so, the idea came to her that she
would like to have the making of 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 hopeless-impossibie.
Joe, don't you think young Gordon
is promising?" she asked her husband
Gordon had come the day before,
promising to be about like all the
others" There was infinite contempt il
that "all-the Others" men with nc
ideas.
Il don't know. It seems to me he has
a clever face, the face of a man-that
is, man of the world, in embryo"
She was trying to see him in the light
Of her own imaginings. 1t is quite hui
man and very feminine to persist in
trying to idealize those about one, and
only a great many dismal failures sue
coed in curing one of the habit.
1T struck me that he had the face OIL
a boy from West Point"
His wife's good nature was unfag
/ ging. Movies. But ne could be
made something of"
"a major, if he lives"
Mrs. Torrcy was silenced, but not
daunted.
1t must not be supposed that TOrrey
was iIl-natured; only he had an earnest
repulsior for service autOmatons whc
went to reveilIe, and early stables, and
retreat, and went on as officer of the day
and had no soul above company funds
Otherwise, he was an distracted, good
natured, tidy little man.
Mrs. Torrey continued to think tina
/ Thorne Gordon was good material t
work with. She liked his name. 1
smaeked of the statesman. She called
his face impressionable, when it was
Just weak. She saw secrecy in his eye:
which were shifting. She discovered
evasion in his specch-which was trivial
Physically, he did fairly well. He wa
tall and slender in a distinguished scr
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. TOrrey
couldn't have done anything with him
| As it was, he came to her naturally. No
body else wanted him. She set to Worl
by giving him her books to read. II,
| knew enough West Point French t,
| CLEAN all the harm there is in Balzal
and Bourget. Wien Mrs. Torrey takes
| life as therein portrayed, he talked lov
as they showed it forth.
ct seems to me that the greatest de
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.
"0nly as a means to an end, she sug