The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1911-04-04
an rnterminable period.


But time was passing more rapidly
even than one realized. Before we
had had time to come to that COM
paratively prosaic period when young
people begin to talk of the love they
feel-an advanced stage on the road
to commonplace matrimony-we were
separated, going to college, she to a
seminary. However, there were four
years before us Of love dreaming. l
have always thought that we were
especially fortunate that the period of
feeling was so long in giving way to
that of speech There is in the former
delicious doubt, fear that there
will nothing come of it all, a dread
that at any time we may hear that the
loved one has entered into another
such world far more beautiful than
the first and leaving horrible void for
the forsaken one
When we returned, an educated man
and a woman, all was changed The
flower had opened, but there were a
lot of thorns bristling about it. knew
that the result of love was marriage
and between me and marriage stood a
fortune. Still / was no wise old man.
was merely one beginning life and
endowed with the propensities bestow-
ed upon mankind / felt In honor
bound since my uncle had brought me
up for certain purpose under certain
conditions to fulfill those conditions
was now old enough to realize the
responsibilities l was under and that
carrying out of the contract with my
uncle would involve the loss to me of
my love. On one side Of me was
Sylla, on the other Chaubdis.
Though was twenty-one I was no
wiser in love than when / was six
teen, and my uncle, who was past fifty,
was a greater fool as regards such
matters than l. The truth is the far
Their we get from that period when ma
ture intends we shall mate the less we
know about mating. When we are In
it we and it are the truth; when we
pass beyond it we know it by cold ex-
perience only. The boys and girls to
whom In other matters we may be
sOlons. In matters of love can act
what we cannot even feel
This analytical statement is prelim-
mary to confession. The first thing
! knew I was married clandestinely
The marrying occupied about three
minutes, the ragged edge period that
followed occupied months. Common
sense should have told me to arrange
the matter with my uncle first and
marry afterward But common sense
is very sparing of visits to young peo-
pie 1t is supposed to be a natural
faculty, but / am inclined to think 1t
an artificial faculty What does pair
of doves know about common sense?
After our clapdestine marriage we
lived In perpetual whirl between al
ternate bliss and mental torture At
least did My wife, with the delight
full stupidity of woman, said 1t would
come out all right Her prediction
was followed by my uncle's suddenly
/ falling dead of heart disease.
Here was pretty kettle of fish!
was his heir under pledge of bachelor
hood, and / was married. However, l
was glad that the blow had fallen.
was tired of living under false colors.
Then what happened? Why when
the will was read 1t was found that
the bulk of his estate was left to me
and under a condition What condi
ton? Why, that marry before
could inherit cent Of his money.
There was codicil leaving the income
of $4,000 to a Miss Arabella Wag-
staff during her life. What did this
mean? And who was Miss Wagstaff?
1t came out at last that even old
people can sometimes be natural in
matters of love Miss Wagstaff was
the woman with whom my uncle had
had trouble in his youth and who had
turned him against her sex. Shortly
before his death he discovered that
some forty years before he had made
an ass Of himself and had treated a
girl very badly He made amends SO
far as he could by leaving her enough
to make her comfortable for the rest
of her life
Didn't tell you 1t would come out
all right% remarked my wife, making
one of those Illogical. irrelative state
ments for which women are famous.
you'd better say" I retorted. that
In love matters all men, old and young.
are idiots"