The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-06-19

IN OMANCE had ceased to play part
X and a large onc-in the of Edith Cor
don. The one regret of her life that
John Gordon her husband had become so intensely
practical 1t had been Jack in those days when
the blood burned and the heart prodlgal with
vows and protcstations but that time was long past
and the erstwhile dashing Jack had developed INTO
the stout somewhat prosac entirely unromantc John,
4 man eminently unsuitcd to play Romeo to Ediths
Juliet.
Edith herself had not stood sti-ouwardly- the
advancing years While, of course tho freshness of
youth longer shonc in her face the classic features
about which Jack had been wont rave, but which
John % viewed with such complaoency had been
left unravagcd by the of time. The gloss and
sheen gone from the abundant chestnut hair that
waved above her low brow, but the soft light of
the somewhat premature gray crown of advancing
provided substitute scarcely less charming
Her figure, too. quite what it had been. The
fulness Of ripc-Edith thought sometimes with dsmay
overwhelmed the slender curves of girlhood but the
result still satisfactory, especially when aided by
those mysterious devices by which feminine humanity
successfully concca the overlooking tendency of aging
flesh No greater insult could have been offered Edith
Gordon than have said that she was getting fat"
No in the house said it, either although il-naturcd
Io 1(r-
"slandcr and evil speaking y; but Ediths heart
young fresh, vcrdant her mind imaginative,
as subtly apprehcnsive of the mysterious the beautiful,
the heroic, it had been when she girl
In that of development she had stood still 1t was
a nevcr-endng of grief to her that John-she
hated that name, and called him that except in
public in private it was often Jack darl or something
else equally afectonate-tha John was so changed so
unresponsiye unromantic Why, he had actually de-
olarcd that he would rather be comfortable his clothes
than look we'll in them any day of the year That he
didn't really enough about growing diet
himself That nothing earth would induce him to
bant" and as for exercise, he abhorrcd it! He was
never happy as IN Sha00y old dressing gown and
disrcputablc pair of his slippers by his rcside,
with Edith, beautiful than ever lie averrcd-and
with truth too-in his eye opposite him. and the chill
drcn OF this singular pair six in number, clustered
around them
But, after ALL John good sort of a He
tho best OF husbands and absurdy devoted Edith in
1
help it When he went away from the city business
he always took her with him He delighted to see her
beautifully dressed and while he sometimes Knocked, he
inwardy approved of all her efforts to maintain and
tain the charms which had won him to her affections
many years before But he wasn't dcmonstrative No
contingencies that could arise would prevent him from
eating his dinner. Edith furiously jealous times
of the children who n,oicd and toiled about him and
him. and to whom he frequently addressed those
pct names and cndcarng which she had once
thought were her peculiar property,
But she had the slightest chance to be jealous of
anyone elf She sometimes wished that he would give
her an opportunity to rise of the placid hundrum
consciousness OF MS steady auecuon ana III moro OAR
ing flights of imagination she frequently wished that in
some way without doing anything wrong compromis-
ing herself any way, she could make John ragngly
jealous sec him lose meal or and get thin.
But nothing happened She often thought, with
sigh that all the romance of her life past there
nothing before her but to live in this contented
full unevcntfu way until the end II Edith had had
wider experience of lifc-snd hubands-she would have
known that she was blessed almost above all women.
John honestly tried at times to rise to the
her requirements. He never consciously forgot an
nversary. There were anniversaries in Edith
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