Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1918 — The Fifth Intermarriage [ARTICLE]

The Fifth Intermarriage

By JANE OSBORN

(Cwyricht, 1918. by * h « McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) Mrs. Stewart’s house parties were always admiringly planned, and It was because everyone was always sure of finding a congenial companion at her house that the younger members of her kindred and acquaintance always accepted her invitations. For if truth were tn be told there was nothing luxurious in her hospitality, and there was little amusement or entertainment save what the guests and the hostess could provide by their own wits, for the fine old Stewart mansion contained none of those short cuts to hospitality and amusement If one wished to dance there was no phonograph to provide music—and the dancing could not progress unless one of the guests happened to know some dance tunes to be placed on the old piano. There was no nearby country, club and there were no automobiles in the Stewart stables. But despite these shortcomings Mrs. Stewart never wearied of getting up little parties and thought nothing of filling her eight guest rooms at a time, and the guests always came with enthusiasm, ffhe secret of her success was that she was at heart a matchmaker, and though she did not think of every girl at her parties as a possible wife for one of the other guests, she always did think of them as partners for a country walk- She never invited a girl unless she was sure she could provide some bice young man who would find her society delightful, and never invited even the least prepossessing of young men without making sure that there was one young woman in the number gifted enough to appreciate the fine points of his personality. Mrs. Stewart even went so far as to make little lists of her guests on the backs of discarded envelopes—for she was instilled with the spirit of oldtime thrift as well as with the lavishness of old-time hospitality. And in these lists she would pair her guests off, making sure, of course, that they would pair, and that there would be no three-handed affairs—no two men hanging at the feet of one young belle while one of 'the young girls went partnerless. For the first party of the season she had planned to have all the guest rooms filled, and as four of them contained large double beds, this meant that she would have 12 guests. Most of them were young people who had already met at similar parties—some of them already engaged as the result of her careful planning. The only names on her lists that she had not been able to link up with any other names were those of Miss Nancy Marbury and Mr. Nathaniel Stobridge. “There really isn’t anything they can have in common,” sighed Mrs. Stewart. “Miss Nancy is a college girl', keen about suffrage and a tennis shark, and a perfect dance fan —and poor Nathaniel can’t abide college women, is an anti at heart and the most indolent old dear that ever drew breath. He could He all day in a hammock under a shady tree with a dusty book of family records in his hands and an occasional renewal of cooling beverage at his side and think himself delightfully entertained—while to keep up with Nancy a man would have to take cross-country tramps, play tennis madly and know all the new dance steps.” Mrs. gtewart tried to revise her list so as to pair some one off with Mr. Stobridge and have some one left over that would be congenial with Nancy. But the arrangement "for the other guests was perfect. The affinity between each of the other two couples was inevitable. So Mrs. Stewart took the most recent letter she had received from Nancy and" the letter she had from Mr. Stobridge accepting her invitation from her desk and read 'them through in search of some sympathy in common. “I shall be mighty glad of a little rest,” said Nancy in her letter, “for I have been working night and day for a ijlonth or more on the Marbury Family Record. Our family association commissioned me to get the data together and put it in shape for publication. You’d be surprised how interesting it has been and of course my work in college fitted me for that sort of research. What we were most anxious to show was that the Marbury family is one of the Stobridge-Claridge connection. You have heard of them, I am sure. It is an aUiance of a group of the most distinguished colonial famines in the state and to prove our connection we have to show at least five intermarriages with either of the two families since they came to this country. Well, I have at last been able to find the fifth intermarriage, though it was not easy, as the Marbury records are fragmentary. Now that the, Record is practically complete I shall be delighted to come to your house party and take a little relaxation before sending the copy to the printer.” v Mrs. Stewart had on first reading the letter glanced but hastily over this passage, as she was not herself, particularly interested in genealogical matters. But now the mention cA the Stobridge family—that to which the indolent Nathaniel belonged—caught her attention and then she recalled that Nathaniel himself had dabbled more than casually in the study of bls ewn and allied family records. _

“Well. Til get them started on genealogy and perhaps they can find enough in. common to keep them amused for the week-end.” And rather reluctantly, for she still felt that the temperaments of Nancy and Nathaniel would lx'* no more sympathetic than oil and water, she turned her attention to ordering the wherewithal to keep her large family abundantly provisioned, seeing that the old-fashioned fourposter beds in her guest rooms were newly made up with linen sheets and otherwise making ready for the house party. Nathaniel had at first shown only a polite attention to Nancy when, on the first day of the party, Mrs. Stewart proposed that they be partners for one of her nice little woodland strolls that were so important a part of the program for the other members of the party. She could not fall to potice that conversation between them lagged as they wound their way after the others through the freshly leaved trees in the woodland. “And you aren’t interested in tennis, either,” she heard Nancy say, laughing, to Mr. Stobridge—“really you are most hard to talk to.” “Oh, Nancy dear,” Mrs. Stewart said suddenly coming up to them. “I forgot to tell you that Mr. Stobridge is almost as enthusiastic about genealogy as you are and he is ope oi the colonial Stobrldges. But I know you have found much In common,” she fibbed, “without discussing anything so dry as family records.” Thus having sowed the seeds of congeniality she sauntered ahead to watch over the interests of the other members of her little party. “It is really most extraordinary,” Nathaniel told his hostess that night as the party broke up to retire, “to find a young woman of Miss Marbury’s type so seriously interested in genealogy We’ve had a delightful time talking —perhaps I should say that I have and now I am impatiently looking forward to tomorrow.” The next day—Saturday—Mrs. Stewart was content to notice that Nathaniel and Nancy actually did continue their discussion and comparison of notes. “But don’t you see how important it is to prove that fifth intermarriage?” she heard Nancy saying almost pleadingly. “Because if I don’t my little volume of Marbury records will be almost useless. I was so sure that Hannah Jane did marry Nehemlah Stobridge. It was Nehemiah, I am sure, and the rest of the name was blurred in the family Bible!” “Positively, my dear girl,” she heard Nathaniel reply. “He was a confirmed bachelor. There always have been bachelors in the Stobridge family, and I am true to type. It must have been some other Nehemiah.” That.night after all the guests had retired, Mrs. Stewart heard low voices in the hall below and only slightly alarmed at a vague thought of burglars, she started to descend the broad stairs of the front hall. Then she stopped short. For there by the last dying- glow of the fire that had been lighted to drive off the chill earlier in the evening sat Nathaniel and Nancy. Nancy had met him there to show him her records.

“You see, there is every reason to believe that it was Nehemiah Stobridge that my Hannah Jane married.” “But my dear little girl—” Mrs. Stewart’s pulses began to beat fast for words like that are dear to the heart of a born match-maker —“my dear little Nancy, Nehemiah was an old bachelor.” Then Mrs.. Stewart tiptoed back to her room and slept content. She forgot the discussion and disagreement about Hannah Jane and Nehemiah and thought only of those words of Nathaniel’s. It was two weeks after her little bouse party had come successfully to a finish and all her guests had declared it the most wonderful party they had ever attended, when she got a letter from Nancy. "Nathaniel and I want you to know first,” the letter began, “and I think perhaps you knew which way the wind blew before your house party ended. Yes, we are engaged and we are so congenial. And this is how it happened. I just had to find that fifth intermarriage, and the idea struck Nathaniel first that we could do it — I mean provide a fifth intermarriage between the Marburys and the Stobridges. Only of course we would have done it any way—we just couldn’t have helped it And you, dear, are responsible for it all.”