Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-05-06

."Oh, no, you wouldn tl'' said Mary.
cit is very good for you, and you know
you are perfectly happy, so don't pre-
tend anything else -
And it was true enough. She Ger
tainly managed him and his work ad
mirably, for by keeping him up to the
mark for certain hours she was able to
be free herself at fixed time every day.
And there was never an idle minute for
either of them, for. as l said awhile
ago, Alan Stacey had always been
persona grata in society, and his many
friends all seemed but too anxious to
receive his wife with open arms.
1t was brilliant life. All that was
best and brightest in the great world of
art focked to Alan Stacey's house now
that it boasted Of SO charming mis-
tress. Mrs. Alan Stacey went every
where and was noted wherever she
went. Almost every day, i'll the col
umns devoted to the doin9s of well
known people there was mention of the
brilliant novelist and his wife Her
dress, her receptions, her tastes, were
continually chroniclcd, and for his sake
for Mary was singularly farseeing i'll
everything that concerned her husband
she put herself to. immense pains in
order that she should always create as
favorable an impression as possible. She
was essentially the very wife for such
man. She never attempted in any way
to shine him down. Rather, on the con-
trary, did she draw him ont and show
him at his best She ruled his house
hold with dignity and simplicity that
went to make her favOrite with all
classes of his friends. Her great hold
over him lay in the fact that, although
she was possessed of no artistic gift her
self, she was never dull, was not in the
least degree narrow in mind or iudg-
mert, that she was. possessed of that
scrupulous politenessw which demands as
well as gives attention. At the end of
year-a year of wholly unalloyed hap
piness-Alan Stacey would as soon have
thought of striking his wife as of omit
ting to pay her any of those small ate
tentions which are as oil to the wheel
of the matrimonial chariot. 1t was Won
derful that il was So because he had be-
slowed everything upon her. He had
changed her life from one of toll, Of
comparative penury, of dullness, of
loneliness, to brilliant existence the
light of which she had never known, and
which, had she known, she would never
have dared to think could possibly one
day be hers.
And as their happiness grew ana
flrOve apace so did Alan Stacey's star
of fame grow more and more brilliant
There had been at the time of his first
great success croakers who had furetold
that the star OF Alan Stacey 5 brilliancy
would wane in little time, hut these |
representations had proved to he |
wrong With every book that had come /.
out his genius was seen to be more in |
tense and more brilliant He had the |
magic touch, the subtle insight. the /
grace. the freshness, the romance and |
the poetry which are needed to make a |
really great and lasting success. To
some of us-to most of us, / should |
have said-the refining fires of sorrow
are necessary, but now and again there |
shines upon the world a great mind
which feeds on the sunlight. Alan
Stacey was one of these, and the more
the happiness of his life increased the
more brilliant did his work become
The untold satisfaction of his daily life,
so far from cramping or stultifying
him, seemed as if it but fed the fires of
his genius, and it WAS IL common thing
in the set in which Alan Stacey moved
for their union to be cited as an excuse,
a reason, a justification, of the great
and old fashioned institution of mar
riage.