The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-09
CHAPTER XXI.
THE MOTH BY THE CRATE.

THE MOTH BY THE CRATE.
Shacklett staid at the Heights that even
ing until very late, and as he and Mary
Stoddard sat on the settee made from the
twisted, live grapevine, at the very edge OF
the bluff overlooking the moonlit river and
the stretch of land on the other side fading
away in the western haze over Missouri
and Iowa. their talk was in low. cooling
tones. What they said may be reproduced
from any love story of the sentimental type
the memory of any happily married
couple. 1t was the most conventional time
in Shacklett's life because it was the first
time that they two had met an exactly
identical plane and found absolutely moth
ing between them. The girl said afterward
that their married life began just there,
and she was not far wrong.
The wedding was not for ten days, not
withstanding Shackletts quick decision
given first to the Rev. Mr.. Bradbury. There
were no cards. and the time was suited to
convenience largely. shacklett had never
entered society in his new home. and
in the ignorance of his private life
that prevailed there the news Of
his marriage came as another
great surprise to the people Mckee sent
there, but there was little to say of the
wedding itself, and he filled the most of
the space with biography, character sketch
ing and personal description of the bride.
which suited the papers exactly, for every
woman in the State-and especially those
in the capital-was dying to find out what
sort of person she was.
The ceremony was in the large front par
lor, with flowers everywhere, and about
dozen girl friends present. Mckee was the
only man invited. The fine lace curtains
were yelled over the large window, and into
them were worked threads of asparagus
fern, and here and there a white rosebud,
making a charming background of delicate
white and green for the two they stood
facing the minister and the company there.
The honeymoon was spent at the Heights.
Shacklett declaring that it was the prettiest
place in the world, and Mrs. Shacklett be-
| ing delighted at his saying so, with the
childlike Joy Of young girl whose home
| is praised. Nobody came out to call upon
them, and they spent the time alternately
| between sentimentalism, overlooking the
| ever-changing river, and the instruction by
| Shacklett Of his wife about the new world
| she would enter when the honeymoon was
over. She once told him that the most
| foolish couple in the world is a bride and
| groom of advanced years, and her ques-
tons about what would be expected of her
out West as the wife of a United States
| senator brought more indirect knowledge
by inference and insight than direct infor-
nation from Shacklett's actual knowledge
When she reached her new home in the
mountains it did not take Mrs. Shacklett
| long to see that her duties were quite as
| important as her husbands were in po,it-
| ical life. Shacklett had come out into the
| glare of his new position through a pas
sageway that was not only tortuous, but
| one which had hid him from the public
view to a considerable extent On that
! stage he had been seen unobtrusivey a
| few times but, now that il was his scene
| and he was down in the center close to the
| footlights, it was vastly different. If he
caught the applause of the audience, ex-
| tending from the orchestra seats in the
capital city to the galleries down in the
mines, he was safe; and his wife really
brought out the first hand-claps. which
were joined by others until the whole State
was enthusiastically applauding.
She met people with an open frankness,
that was not emphatic. and a refinement
which was felt rather than observed. and
met them on their own ground in such a
way that each felt that she had been es-
pecially educated In his own school of ex-
perience.
1--WE just been talking to Mrs. Shack
| lett" said a member from a distant dis
trict with pride in his voice that he could
I'm n
| if she's not the greatest woman that ever
come to this State. There's two things
she's proud of; one, that she's the wife of
the senator, and the other, that she was
raised on a farm. Told me the last her
self, and proved 1t by what she said when
she found out 1 was raised on a farm my
self. There's no more stuckupishness about
her than there ought to be, for she bears
more metal to the ton of ore than anybody
I've seen lately"
| And while he was saying this at the hotel
one of the larger of the ordinary mining
kings of the State was telling his own wife
in a house that was a little too gaudily
| decorated:
81 don't know whether you women will
| like Mrs. Shacklett, but you'd better act
like it. for she's going to have the swell
| men around her. She is open and above
| board in admitting that she's tenderfoot,
but her family is one of the very best in
Illinois. She's aristocratic as the devil, and
she's had money TO burn ever since she was
old enough to buy macaroons for herself.
She strikes me as being pretty sharp, too,
and 1 wish you'd get on as good terms with
her as possible. 1 imagine her friendship
would be useful in a pinch"
| All unconscious OF these descriptive OBJ
servations, Mrs. Shacklett herself was talk
ing to lawyer who had been judge once
and came up to the Legislature every ses-
sion to escape the ennui Of the continual
clatter of mining stock and real estate
transfers at home. He was saying with
j fine, old-fashioned dignity:
Mrs. Shacklett. you must allow me to
express my qualification at meeting you.
! Do you know, you're the first woman I've
met out West who knew anything about