Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1878 — NANNIE. [ARTICLE]

NANNIE.

I cannot set down in so many words just when or how it came to be understood between my partner, John Stillmau, and myself that I was to marry his daughter, Nannie, when she was old enough. I have a vague impression that she was in long clothes at the time we first talked of it. Her mother died when she was a little girl, and old Mrs. Stillman took her home to the family house at Owl’s Corner, one of the prettiest little villages I ever had the good fortune to see. But Nannie was 18 when I first met her as a woman, and this was the scene of our meeting. John had sent for me to come to Owl’s Corner on a certain July day, promising to drive over to the station and meet me, as my elderly legs covered the ground but slowly. We had retired from business, rich men both, some live years before, and corresponded regularly. But I had been abroad, and this was my first visit to Owl’s Corner in ten years. I remembered Nannie as a romping child, fond of swinging on the gates, climbing up grape-arbors, and imperiling her neck fifty times a day, John always saying on eac i occasion; “She’s a little wild, but she’ll get over that. ” I waited at the station for half an hour; then, seeing no sign of John, I started to walk home. It was midday and fearfully hot, and when I accomplished half the distance I turned off the road and started through a grove that gave me a longer walk, but thick shade. I was resting there on a broad stone, completely hidden by the bushes on every side, when I heard John’s voice: “ Where have yon been?” There was such dismay and astonishment in the voice that I looked up in surprise, to find that he was not greeting me, but a tall, slender girl coming toward him. Such a sight ! She was dark and beautiful, dressed in a thin dress of rose-pink, faultless about the face and throat, but from the waist down clinging to her, one mass of the greenest, blackest, thickest mud and water. “In the duck pond,” she answered with a voice as clear and musical as a chime of bells. “ Don’t come near me.” “ You are enough lo wear a man into his grave!” ~ “ There, don’t scold,” was the coaxing reply; “ little Bob Ryan fell in face down. It did not make any material difference in liis costume, but I was afraid he would smother, so I waded in after him. The water is not over two feet deep, but the mud goes clear through to China, I imagine. It is rather a pity about my new dress, isn’t it?” “ A pity !” roared John ; “you’ll come to an untimely end somo day with your freaks. As if there was nobody to pick a little brat out of a duck pond but you !” “There actually was nobody else about. There, now, don’t be, angry. I’ll go up to the house and put on that bewitching white affair that came from New York last week, and be all ready to drive over to the station with you, at what time?” “About 3. Lawrence is coming on the 2:10 train.” And I had come on the 12:10. This , accounted for the failure to meet me. I kept snug in my retreat until John and Nannie were well on their way homeward, wondering a little how many young ladies in my circle of friends would have so recklessly sacrificed a new dress to pick up a beggar’s brat out of the mud. When I, in my turn, reached the house, John was on the porch, waiting for N annie’s reappearance. He gave me a most cordial welcome, or rather a luncheon, called Nannie, his mother, and a man to go for my trunk, all in one breath, and seemed really rejoiced to Bee me. Presently a slender girl, with a truly “bewitching” white dress, trimmed with dashes of scarlet ribbon, and smoothly-braided black hair, tied with scarlet bows, came demurely into the room and was introduced. But the halfshy, half-dignified company manner soon wore away, and Nannie and I were fast friends before dinner. She sang for me in a voice as deliciously fresh as a bird s carol; she took me to see her pets, the new horse that was her last .“ygift from “papa,” the ugly little Scotch terrier with the beautiful irown eyes, the rabbits, Guinea hens, and the superannuated old pony who had preceded the new horse. ’

In a week I was in love as much as ever John could have desired. Nannie was the most bewitching maiden I had fever met, childlike and yet womanly rank, bright, and full of girlish freaks and boyish mischief, and yet well educated, with really wonderful musical gifts, and full of noble thoughts. She was a perfect idol in the vfljago, her friends and neighbors thinking no party complete without her, while the poor fairly worshiped her. > John allowed her an almost unlimited supply of pocket-money, and she was lavish in all charity, front blankets for old women, tobacco for old men, to candies for the children, and rides on horseback for the urchins. And she had a way of conferring favors that never wounded th© pride of the most sensitive.

We rode together every morning; we walked in the cool evening hours ; we spent much time at the piano, and discussed our favorite authors, and one day, when I asked Nannie to be my wife, she said, coolly: “ Why, of course; I thought that was all understood long ago.” I was rather amazed at such matter-of-fact wooing, btet delighted at the result. How could I expect any soft, blushing speeches ? I suppose I ranked just where John and Nannie’s grandmother did in her affection. But one morning, when Mrs. Stillman wan snipping her geraniums in the sit-ting-room and John was reading the morning’s newspapers, Nannie burst in, her beautiful face all aglow, her eyes bright with delight, crying : “Oh, grandma! Walt has come home ! I saw him from my window riding np the road. ” She was going then, just as John exclaimed : “ Confound Walt!”

“ Who is Walt ?” I naturally inquired. “ Walter Brace, the son of one of our neighbors. He has been like a brother to Nannie all her life, but went off to Europe two years ago, when he came of age. They wanted to correspond, but I forbade that. So he has turned np agaiD.” It was evident that John was terribly vexed, and I very soon shared his annoyance. Walt, a tall, handsome young fellow, improved, not spoiled, by travel, just haunted the house. He was generally off with Nannie as soon as he arrived, atad blind to Mrs. Stillman’s ill-concealed coldness, and John’s sarcastic speeches about boys and puppies. As for me, by the time my sleepy eyes were opened in the morning, Nannie had taken a long ride with Walt, was at the piano when I came into the room, and Walt was walking beside Nannie when the hour for our usual stroll arrived.

And the very demon of mischief possessed the giri. There was no freak she was not inventing to imperil her life, riding, driving, boating, and I fairly shivered sometimes at the prospect of my nervous terrors when it would be my task to try to control this quicksilver temperament. But one day, when I was in the summer house, a very rueful little maiden, with a tear-stained face, came to my side. “Walt is going away,” she said. “ Indeed.” “Yes, and he says I’m a wicked flirt,” with a choking sob; “I thought I would ask you about it.” “ About what?” “Our getting married. Yon know papa told me I was to marry you ages and ages ago.” “ Yes.” “And I knew it was all right if he said so. But Walt says you must be a muff if you want a wife who is all the time thinking of somebody else. “ And you know I can’t help it. Walt has been my friend ever since we were always together. And when he was in Europe papa wouldn’t let us write to each other, but I kissed his picture every night and morning and wore his hair in a locket, and thought of him all the time. And he says you won’t like it after we are married.” “Well, not exactly,” I said, dryly. “ You’ll have to stop thinking of him then.” “I don’t believe I ever can. And so I thought I’d tell you, and perhaps—perhaps you will tell papa we don’t care about being married after all. I don’t think I could ever be sedate and grave like an old lady, and of course I ought to if I am to be an old man’s wife.” “ Of course.” “And I am so rude and horrid; I know I am not like nice city girls, and I am altogether hateful, but Walt don’t care. ” I rather agreed with Walt as she stood in high confusion before me, her eyes still misty, her sweet lips quivering. It was a sore wrench to give her up. but I was not quite an idiot, and I said, gravely: “But your father?” “ Yes, I know; he’ll make a real storm. But then his storms don’t last long, and maybe you would tell him that you have chauged your mind. You have, haven’t you ?” “Yes; the last half hour has quite changed my mitrimonial views.” I could not help smiling, and the next moment two arms encircled my neck, a warm kiss fell upon my cheek, and Nannie cried: “You are a perfect darling, a perfect darling, and I shall love you dearly all my life. ” So when I lost her love I gained it. She flitted away presently, and I gave myself a good mental shaking up, and concluded my fool’s paradise would soon have vanished if I had undertaken to make an “ old lady ” out of Nannie. John’s wrath was loud and violent. He exhausted all the vituperative language in the dictionary and then sat down, panting and furious. “Come, now,” I said, “what is the objection to young Bruce ? Is he poor ?” “ No, confound him! He inherits his grandfather's property, besides what his father will probably leave him.” “ Is he immoral ?” “ I never heard so. ” “ What does ail him, then?” “Nothiug, but I have set my heart on Nannio’s marrying you. ” “ Well, you see she has set her heart in another direction, and I strongly object to a wife who is in love with somebody else.” “ What on earth sent the puppy home?”

“ Love for Nannie, I imagine. Come, John, you won’t be my father-in-law, for I will not marry Nannie if you are ever so tyrannical, but we can jog along as usual, the best of friends—look!” I pointed out of the window as I spoke. On the garden walk, shaded by a great oak tree, Walter Bruce stood, looking down at Nannie with love-lighted eyes. Her beautiful face, all dimpled with smiles and blushes, was lifted up to meet his gaze, and both her little hands were fast prisoned in his strong ones. John looked. His face softened, his eyes grew misty, and presently he said : “ How happy she is, Lawrence.” “And we will not cloud her happiness, John,” I answered. “This is right and fitting. Nannie is too bright a May flower to be wilted by being tied up to an old December log like me. ” So when, half fearful, the lovers came in, they met only words of inflection. and Nannie’s face lost nothing of its sunshine. She was the loveliest of brides a few months later, and wore the diamond parure I had ordered for my bride at her wedding. And she is 'the most charming little matron imaginable, with all her old freaks merged into sunshiny cheerfulness, and her husband is a proud, happy man, while I’m Uncle Lawrence to the children and the warm friend of the whole family.