Year: 1859

|


matfimony, until the fire of youthful passion


was all spent. and matrimony had become a
problem to him as dry and as formal as one in


old Walsh's arithmetic to be ciphered out
for answer as much as that proposition "a
| bout carrying the fox, goose, and bag OF corn


across the creek, that every body .sproblemly''
| remembers. Being phrenologist he left the
| province of hearts altogether, and went TO e1


amining heads to ascertain by genealogical
! developments woman's fitness tor the posi-
| tion of wife to Martin Speed, Esq, as letters


came addressed to him at the Speedwell post
office. The town of Speedwell was named
for an ancestor of his, and boasted OF several
| thousand inhabitants and as it was factory
place, it had goodly share of good-iooking


marriageable girls.


Martin studied Combe, and Spurzheim, and
Gall, and grew bitter as disappointment saw
him enter his forty-frst year bachelor. He
looked back on the past, and saw the chances
he had neglected, and the happiness. OF those
who had started with him, and were now port
ly people, the heads and fronts OF families !;
and the delicate damsels he had sighted re-
Spected mothers in Israel, and exemplary and
amiable wives. He sought every opportunity
OF examining the heads of such would sub
mi; themselves to his hand with hope OF


catching the bachelor; for they knew his
weakness, and he was well-to-do, and an eigi-


BILE match. But in vain he looked for perfec-
ton. The bumps would not be arranged as
he wished them. If he took liking to p
pretty face, phrenology impertinently gave it


the lie straight, and he at once avoided it.
1t was at this juncture that biological lee
turer-a grave professor in that science-came
to Speedwell and gave series OF exhibitions.
These Martin attended and biology at once be-
came an SEintensitv' with him-a 'Enew emo
ton" He attended al the exhibitions; saw
men perSonate roOSterS and crow; hens and
scratch shIver with cold or burn with heat,
at the will of the operator; saw a miser en-
deavor TO clutch an eagle held out to him
while under the influence of the wonderful
spell, and the tongue of a woman stilled who
for twenty years had been the pest OF Speed
well by her loquacity.


This put the mind of Martin on new track.
| He sold all his chronological works snd devo-
| ted himself TO the study of the wonderful


science through which such marvels were per-
| formed. The professor was such fine teach
er, and Martin placed himself under his tut
ton. He succeeded admirably. In short
time he surpassed his instructor, and had more
| than his power in influencing the susceptible
| among his weak brethren and sisters.


| He formed a resolution to himself that
| through this means he could gain wife
| Could he find one that bis science,coul control
one that at a glance he could transfX, like
| the man whow stopped by mesmerizer half
| way down, as he was falling from the roof of
| a house-he would marry her for the reason
dear reader that Martin had not married, was,
that he had heard of wives wearing the--au-
thorItysover their lords, and he was timid


man. In this new science he saw security land
sedulously sought for one of the right de-
scriptiOn. At every party where he was in
vited, at every sewing circle, at every knot
of factory girls in which he mingled in the
evenings he tried his art, but without success
At last, when on the point of deSpairihg, ac
cident gave what he had failed to obtain by
earnest seeking. A widow-dangerous to Il
bachelors peace, as edged tools are to the
careless hands of the uneXperenced-came
to the village visit. The weeds had not
been removed that marked her bereavement,
and the merest touch of melancholy rested
on her brow but her eye was laughing, and
a sweet curl strayed away and aylike chsl-
ed eddy upon the marble of her cheek. She
had level on her hand, and the black dress
she wore cut judiciouSy y-the mllllner
that cut it had been widow herself and knew
how to manage such misunderstanding beau
tiful white shoulder, and revealing bust of
rare loveliness.


Martin met the widow at the residence OF
a friend and liked her. He had never seen so
prepossessig woman he thought. But she
had buried one husband, and that was rather
a drawback. One visit led to another; the
liking still increasing, until he broached the
subject of his biology, with wish ferventiy
that this might be the woman he sought. She


was fully acquainted with. it, and in answer to
his question if she was susceptible to its in
huence she replied that she did not know, but
was willing to have the fact tested. What a
position for Martin Seated by her side on
sofa, with her hand laid in bis, her rich dark
| eyes resting upon his with look equal to that
which the widow Wadman poured into the
eyes of the unsuspecting Toby in the stiffness
| of a summer evening, But science held him
secure. and his nerves were as calm as the sum-


mer day of that evening. y-and-by the
beautiful lids dropped, the head bent gently
| forward and the widow, with sweet smile
| upun her lips lay fast asleep. Martin could
| have shouted Eureka in hfs delight at the


discovery. Now his pulse quickened, and he
| stoopcd to kiss the lips that lay unresiStIng
| before him but he didn't. By the exercise
| of his power be awakened her, and she was so
much surprised at being caught mapping, and
| blushed at the Strangenesss of 1t; and blushed
| more when Martin told her how he had been
| tempted, and how gloriously he had resisted;
| and laughed little when she slapped his cheek
with her fingers as he took pay from the Wild


ow's lips for his self-denial, and went home
! half crazy with his new-found treasure, more
! like a boy of nineteen than matured gentle


man OF forty.


Every night found him visitor at the wld-


! owls and every night the success OF the SCI


| ence was proved, until by mere look or wave


| of the hand the beautiful widow became a


subject to his WILL and he became at the same


time subject to hers She was Splendiu
! creature. tool You would not find in long


Journey a fairer or more inteligent, or more
! yirtuous. The question might he asked,


which was the most pleasant subJugation,


his or hers. But he thought only of his own,


NOT deeming that he was in spell more pow


| erful. that was irrevocably binding him. what


| could an old bachelor know of such thing


This state of things grew to crisis at last,


and Martin formally proposed to the widow
| that the two should be made one by the trans
| .a.ion of the church. To this she assepted