The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-16
A Medicinal Marriage.


zone remedy against indigestion is
matrimony."
There was an air of triumph about
Mrs. Chataway that was not usual
says Punch. She floated across the
room buoyed up by some moral supe-
riority. Her husband eyed her suspic-
iously. Her smile of welcome, her re-
membered thinking, was of little over
done this evening. Her conversation
at the dinner table had been sustained
in a manner that denoted a deep pur-
pose. Ghataway lit his cigar and set
tied himself in an armchair. Mrs.
Chataway gave a little laugh.
81 often wonder" she said, evidently
in imitation of a mans brusque tones,
"why you married girl like me-"
why 1 married your" he repeated,
vaguely.
YES" she assented.
"Oh-er-love at first sight, darling. ]
couldn't help myself"
The young wife gave a second little
laugh, full of delightful incredulity, and
looked her husband full in the face
to accentuate her entire disbelief of
the statement.
This completely upset Chataway.
"Of course, it's awful difficult to ex-
plain"
81 was afraid you would find 1t So"
why, Nina, what do you mean"
81 mean" and she stood up, and
flashed pair of pretty searching eyes
on her recalcitrant spouse, that for
two years have lived in a FOOLS para
disc That for two years l have been
fettered to a man in whom I trusted
and believed, only to find at the end
of it that have been tricked, swindled
into an ignominious and loveless mar
rage"
Chataway gazed in mute wonder.
praise my good looks now. My hair,
my taste in gowns, my housekeeping,
my thousand and one womanly charms
in your simpering phrases of adulation,
which cruel deception has taught you
to handle with such deftness. And
see the poor weak fish nibble at the
bats. Tell me all over again how you
fell IN love with the swing of my shout
ders, the poise of my head, my half
parted lips when 1 drank in your de-
centIy-veiled protestations of love and
sympathy. Paughl Thank heaven my
eyes are opened. The fish has seen
the hook treacherously concealed in
the red worsted."
The man let his hands fall into his
lap. Somehow or other she had dis
covered the motive that had urged him
to make her his wife. And yet, how?
MY dear Nina" he began again.
Tell me again." she said, with a
sneer that dried up all the blood in the
mans heart, "how you despise the man
who marries for any but the pureSt
emotions of ideal love; generous, man.
ly sentiment, true nobility of thought
The man was cowed. He could not
stand up against this whirlwind of de-
nunciation. He was ashamed, crushed,
Inundated. STILL he was a man; so
he attempted to brazen it out.
Nina" he attempted, this is the
sheerest nonsense"
The woman gurgled inarticulately.
What right have you to-? The
mans jaw dropped. For, with a quick
movement his wife took from her bo-
dice q small crumpled note and flung
it toward him. He turned ashy pale.
He recognized in the tell tale shred
of paper a congTatulation from an old
friend on his marriage. With sickly
feeling he took it; his tremulous fin
gers smoothed out the letter, and he
read: II could not think why the
deuce you married the girl, until l re-
membered you are a martyr to indiges-
ton. / hope sincerely the cure Will be
effectual" The paper fluttered to the
ground.
and this Is the end of high ro-
nance" she said, brokenly; ito find
oneself the victim of medicinal mar
riage, a cure for dyspepsia, a dose, a
mere dose. All that is best, and ten
derest and most beautiful in woman
hood compounded by pharmaceutical
brute of a man into a matrimonial ia
bloid. It's too huniliating-too degrad-
ing!"
1t was hard, after having taken the
medicine steadily for two years, to find
at the end of it that it violently dis
agreed with him.