Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-03-24
ONE in A MILLION.

| ONE in A MILLION.
"All these divorce proceedings among
the Four Hundred, remarked the colonel,
throwing down his newspaper, ~''recall an
affair that happened down south before the
war and which furnished the plantations
gossip for u year."
Let us have it, colonel, - we cried in
chorus.
swell, don't mind, +" he replied, light.
Ing his pipe and assuming the attitude
that is always an index Of his being in a
reminiscent mood.
"Miss Cynthia Pillow was the toast Of
our county, not only for her beauty, which
was of a splendid brunette type that would
have caused even a Carmelite monk to for
swear his vows Of celibaey, but for her" wit
and many accomplishments. Among her
numerous suitors was a Mr.. Martin, a man
Of wealth and culture. He was fonder of q
musty old book than of hunting and rae
ing, the favorite pastimes Of every south
ern gentleman, and therefore every one
marveled that he should admire Miss Pill
low, who was an enthusiast about these
sports.
"But admire her-nay, worship her-he
did, and though she had often said NO to
his wooing he refused to relinquish hope
Is long as she remained unwedded. At
length, wearying doubtless Of queening 1t
over county courtiers, she visited Memphis,
and there her beauty and intellect evoked
the accustomed homage.
"Gadsl" And the colonel raped his pipe
with a vehemence that almost shattered 1t
against the marble mantel. "What do you
eastern bellies know Of the autocratio pow
er a southern girl yields over the hearts Of
her admirers, and what do you cold blood
ed Yankees know of performing deeds Of
ch1valrous Devotion for a woman? Well,
In the Bluff City her proud heart found it's
conqueror. He was a lawyer named Mo-
Lean, a very Alcibiades In looks and char
acter, with the dash and insouoiance that
prevail so with women, good and bad,
even If they suspect or know that vice goes
hand in hand with them.
"Despite the warnings Of her friends
about his fondness for the wine cur, his
p%enchant for gambling, ere she returned
once more to the doting father his be-
trothal ring glittered upon her hand. The
letters her loveliness had fastened upon
his selfish heart were riveted there by the
wealth that she had inherited from her
mother. One can only imagine the an
guish that Martin endured at this time,
for he spoke to no one of 1t, but continued
to worship daily at the shrine Of his idol.
1.-THE wedding was to take place on the
9th Of June, but when on that day Nc
Lean, wearing an air of victory and an
vv1tro fashionable o,,fh Jroro ,n - A.
doors of Beechcroft In his new coach, from
which white ribbons f1uttered and where
on sat q grinning coaohman and lackey,
each adorned with an immense bridal fa-
vor, he learned that Miss Pillow, yielding
to the %pleadings Of her friends or prompted
by some womanish caprice, had the day
before welded the faithful Martin.
"They said that 1t was a very funeral
looking vehicle that dashed through the
gates a few minutes later, and that the
Cufies on top were almost as white as the
rosettes they had been ordered to doff, for
they well knew their masters f1endish
wrath would be wreaked on their kinky
heads. A few days after he married a
damsel who had long sighed for him.
II believe that Mrs. Martin strove ear
nestly to repay her husbands devotion, but
in the effort her yivaoity departed, the
bloom faded from her cheeks, the luster
from her eye, and be, poor man, sought
with every art Of which affection and
wealth were master to insure her happi-
meas. At the end Of q year a certain means
Of doing 10 presented itself. McLean's
wife died.
"Of course you'll say that Martin was q
fool, but he himself suggested a divorce 10
the woman be adored in order that she
might marry the man who possessed her
heart. Then another man, after layishing
90 much love upon a woman and getting
nothing in return, would have learned to
hate her and %revenged himself by keeping |
her apart from his rival. Other men would
have been content with the metaphysical
possession Of such a magnificent woman,
but Martin was not that sort Of man.
"He loved her 80 truly that her happi-
ness was more to him than his own, and
as he saw that her union with Mclean
alone could secure it he resolved to bring
about that union.
"Now, l don't want you to think that |
was a Mandy PANTY, but he had such
exalted ideas about love, and he was sim
ply executing them.
"Well, to be brief, the divorce was OBJ
tanned, the grounds being incompatlbility
temper, although Judge and Jury knew
the real reason and did not want to thwart
the happiness OF three people.
"a year later CYNTHIA and Mclean were
married, and then Mrs. Grundy said Mar.
tin was avenged, for Mclean abandoned
bis profession, %squandered his wife's mon.
ov nau,octad har and OWN ala hor bodily