The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1910-03-29
DEFENCELESS.



They had been married five years
and love had lasted-as it generally
does last IL the first critical six
| months of matrimony can be tided
I over without disaster. He, Jack
Aston, was fortunate young man
who had stepped into his fathers
shoes shortly after being welded to
Clara Fayworthy, the girl of his
choice. Prosperity and happiness had
waited on them from the commence
ment of their married life. There
were no children; but Jack did not
want any to divide his wife's atten-
ton, and he scarcely noticed her
deep disappointment as each succeed
ing year brought no change.
Clara adored him, and he was one
of those men who liked to be wor-
SHIPPED. Her negative qualities suited
him exactly. He played upon her
sympathies and mental SUSCEPTIBLE
ties as upon the responsive vibra-
lions of a musical instrument. If he
were glad, she must share his glad
ness; IL things had gone wrong with
him-from the loss of a collar-stud
to a depression in the money market
his glum humors must infect her
also. If it pleased him to discourse
intellectually, 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 a delirious kind of
! tdolatry in one of those simple and
/ frtt
found among the women. L He was
tall, gazed unspeakable things out of
a pair of limpid brown eyes, and con-
! cealed the weakness of his mouth
and chin by heavy, dropping mus
tache. These outward charms were
considerably heightened by a lean
ing toward art in general.
Jack sang sentimental songs in
an unframed tenor voice, leaving out,
| with marvellous resource, only the
superfluous harmonies in the accom-
paniment. He sketched from nature
, in water colors, putting in the sky
with circular movement of the fore
finger, and bestowing a painful at
tention on unnecessary detail. He
wrote obscurer poetry than Brown
ing, and was much addicted to finding
meanings in unintelligible passages
of minor poets that nobody else pre-
tended to understand.
Can any person wonder that Jacks
wife looked upon him as a 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, except
that she was pretty when he married
her, and her uniformed character was
captivatingly feminine and mould
able. Such traits are the paradise
OF the selfish man, and Jack was not
mistaken-from his egotistic point of
view-in believing that he had Sc
cured a treasure. Everything that
could make home life attractive was
combined In Clara's lovable qualities
and quiet domesticity. In the win
ter, when Jack came home cold and
tired from city routine, a CHEEKY wife
was sitting waiting for him by the
tea table, the kettle simmered on the
hob, ready to make tea the moment
he should appear, and down by the
f1reside warm pair of slippers rested
against the fender.
Them blush to write it-Jack
would fling himself into the armchair
that had been drawn up for him close
! to the blaze, while the adoring little
woman went down on her knees and
undid the laces of his boots If he
was in a good temper he patted her
| fluffy head with amiable condescen-
sion, but If he happened to be out of
humor he flung his foot at her I'm
surly silence, or growled at the world
\ In general, and her clumsiness I'm
particular, all the time that she was
performing that humble office for
him.
Jack belonged, I'm fact, to the type
that men OF finer material long to
kick, but which, for some inexplica-
| Bile reason, possesses an enduring
fascination for the class of women
who are least capable Of defending
themselves against masculine mas
terry.
Judging by appearances, FIVE years
OF welded bliss had not treated Clara
so we'll as her husband. Her face
I @-NtN AFHe AhhRh VI 10 kiiAAhu IUuUu~
ness, and the deep blue eyes that
were her chief beauty burned fever
ishly, rather than brightly, within
| the dark rings that encircled them.
Her chest had become delicate ever
since the day Jack had kept her wait
| ing in the cold outside his office for
half an hour Che did not like receiv-
I ing ladies within the scored pre-
cincts) on the occasion OF her keep
/ ing an appointment to meet him at n
fixed time, I'm order that they might
| proceed to some social function to-
/ gether
The result was n chronic cough
| that irritated Jack a good deal at
night and n heavy doctors bill. at
I which ne swOre so tremendously that
she screwed the money out OF her
housekeeping allowance. and began
| to pay off the debt by instruments.
u .f -