Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1903-03-20

DEFENcELEsS.


THEY had been married hve years
and love had lasted-as II gen
orally does last If the first critical
Elk months Of matrimony can be tidcd
over without disaster He, Jack
Alston, was g fortunate young man
who stepped into his fathers busi-
ness shoes shortly after being we'd
ded to Clara Fayworthy. the girl Of
his choice. Prosperity and happiness
had waited on them from the com
meneement of their married life.
There were no children; but Jack
did not want any to divide his wife's
attention. and he scarcely noticed
her deep disappointment as each
succeeding year brought no change.
Clara adored him, and he was one
Of those men who like TO be Worship
ped. Her negative qualities suited
him exactly He played upon her
sympathies and mental susceptible
ties as upon the responsive vibrations
of a musical instrument. If he were
glad she must share his gladness;
if things had gone wrong with him
from the loss of a collnr-stud to a
depression in the money market
his glum hwmors must affect her al
so If it pleased him TO discourse i'm
tellectually, his wife sat at his feet,
as was expected of her, and listened
with proper reverence to the words
of wisdom.
As for Jack, he was Just the sort
Of man TO inspire q delicious kind Of
idolatry in one of those simple, trust
ing natures that can only be found
among women. He was tall gazed
unspeakable things out of a pair of
llmped brown eyes, and concealed the
weakness Of his mouth and chin by
a heavy dropping mustache. These
outward charms were considerably
heightened by a leaning toward art
In general
Jack sang sentimental songs in an
unframed tenor voice, leaving out,
with marvellous resource, only the SUI
perfuous harmonies In the accom-
paniment. He slSetched from nature
in water colors, putting in the sky
with circular movement of the fore
finger, and hestowing a painful at
tention on unnecessary detnil. He
wrote obscurer poetry than Brown
ing, and was much addicted to finding
meanings in unintelligible passages
of minor poets that nobody else
pretended to understand.
Can any person wonder that Jacks
wife looked upon him as genius
and felt every day more grateful to
the fate that had linked her to the
destiny of so noble a specimen of
mankind
OF Clara little need be said, eHcept
that she was pretty when he mar
| ried her, and her Uniformed charac-
ter was captivatingly feminine and
moldable. Such traits are the para
| disc of the selfish man, and Jack was
not mistakeR,-from his egotistiC
point of view-in believing that he
| had secured a treasure. Everything
that could make home life attractive
was combined in Clara's lovable quail.
ties and quiet domesticity. In the
winter, when Jack came home cold
and tired from the city routine, q
CHEEKY wife was sitting waiting foi
him by the tea table, the kettle sim
mering on the hob, ready to make
tea the minute he should appear
and down beside the freside a warn
pair of slippers rested against the
fender
Them blush to write it-Jacl
would fling himself down into the
armchair that had been drawn NJ
for him close to the blaze, while the
adoring little woman went down OF
her knees and uudid the laces of his
boots. If he was in good temper h'
patted her fluffy head with amiablt
eondescension, but if he happened tC
be out of humor he flung his foot al
her in surly silence, or growled al
the world in general, and her clum
siness in particular, all the time tha'
she was performing that humble of
flee for him.
Jack belonged, in fact, 10 the typ,
that men OF finer material long tC
kick, but which, for some inexplicabl,
reason, possesses an enduring fasci
nation for the class of women who
are least capable OF defending them
selves against masculine mastery.
Judging by appearances, fiv,
years of welded bliss had not treate,
Clara so well as her husband. Hei
face had lost much of its girlisl
roundness, and the deep blue eye
that were her chief beauty burne,
feverishly, rather than brightly
within the dark rings that encircle,
them. Her chest had become deli
cate ever since the day Jack ha,
kept her waiting in the cold outsidl
his Office for half an hour Che did no
like receiving ladies' within the sa
her keeping an appointment to NEE
him there at a fixed time, in orde
that they might proceed TO som
social function together.
The result was a chronic cough tina
irritated Jack a good deal at night
and heavy Doctors bill, at which h.
swore so tremendously that shl
screwed the money out of her house
keeping allowance, and began to pa,
OFF the debt by installments. Late
on, however, Jack found it cut, an
nearly frightened the poor little wo
man out Of her wits by the wrathfu
manner in which he scribbled tn
check for the balance, and threw /
at her with some ungracious remark
about her intellis ence.
One evening the Alstons went L
an "at home" Social obligation
soon parted husband and wife in tn
! crowded dra1vinp-room. but the lai