The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-11-10
MY MATRIMONIAL AGENCY.

my scheme was that marriage
should be arranged between Uncle
| James and Miss Stubbs. Not that it
was my business in the least-but
that did not hinder me from interfer-
ing; nor that l thought the chief
parties concerned were all suited to
each other-I never troubled myself
about such minor details. l have al
ways been fond of interfering with
other peoples affairs; not for their
good at all, but simply for my own
pleasure. I have the greatest SYM
pathy with people who put their fin
gers in neighboring pies, provided
they confess they do it for their own
enjoyment and not for the advantage
of the pies men do not kill foxes for
food, but for love of sport women
interfere with their neighbors for ex-
actly the same reason. Put your fin
gers, dear ladies, into one another S
pies, by all means but remember
that it is the finger and not the pie
which derives pleasure from the oper-
alton Having so much to see after
in important matters, Providence
seems sometimes in need of local
agencies to manage minor affairs in
remote country districts-at least so
I thought in my younger days-and
I was more than ready to undertake
the Office of Providence's local agent.
Therefore decided that Uncle James
should marry Miss Stubbs.
eve met Miss Stubbs while we
were travelling in Switzerland. She
was a little, timid, washed-out old
maid. Her besetting sin was gentle
ness she was too gentle for any
thing. Once when my brother Tom
was little boy he was naughty, and
mother thought her wisest course lay
i1l -Lla- t>.S>r -xk;s-1z --~fs IT,
bore mothers soft answers as long as
he could, but he was but youthful
flesh and blood after all, and naughty
at that; so at last he exclaimed, I
wish, mother, you wouldn't be SO sill
ly and gentle 7
"Miss Stubs always made me re-
call that early remark of Toms; she
was SO very "silly and gentle" "
Then she added to her gentleness
gentility, which is also trying vir-
tue to onlookers. What with her
gentleness and her gentility, she
spoke so softly that one could only
hear half that she said, and that half
was by no means stimulating mental
food. She had pale hair and pale eye
lashes and pale ideas; but under
meath all that, the sweetest, most un-
selfish nature that woman ever pos
sessed. At first I laughed at her, she
seemed so dull and colorless but as
l grew to know her better l discover
ed many virtues and no faults in the
faded little woman. She took fancy
to me-because 1 was 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 in life her father
came into small estate for which he
had been waiting for years. But the
estate was so greatly impoverished
and so heavily encountered that he
was ruined by his succession to it ;
and he died of the disappointment,
leaving his wife and only child with
miserable pittance while the es-
tate, which was strictly entailed, pass
ed on to a distant cousin. Mrs.
Stubs survived her husband several
years, but now she too was dead, and
Miss Stubs was as lonely as she was
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 We one
day when we had become intimate
with each other, don't say you want
to see life-seeing is dreary work.
never wanted to see life, l wanted tc
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?' l asked.
"'Oh no, not unhappy, my dear
but not happy, either. am moi
complaining, for every one was very
kind to me, and ready to give me lit
tie scraps of their lives to share; bu
no one seemed to realize that / want
ed life of my own."
"'Poor Miss Stubbs !! whispered
"'It is kind of you to be sorry fol
me, my dear Madge, but really an
not complaining. 1 have had very
peaceful lot compared with many
women. But I have always had th'
feeling that there is such great dea
to be got out of life, aud that hav'
somehow missed it all. There i
plenty going on somewhere, but I all
always out of it.
Il think know what you mean
it is dull to sit in the boxes when on
wants to be on the stage
Exactly and I have never evel
had the boxes have had to be con
tent with the dress-circ1e.
But did you never fall in love ?
| 1 asked, with extreme boldness.