Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1873 — IN AND OUT OF LOVE. [ARTICLE]

IN AND OUT OF LOVE.

How did I know that she was a widow ?J Don’t you give me credit for any common sense or discrimination at ail? How do you know that a’rose is red? How do you know lobster salad from sardines? I knew she was a widow from the very moment I took the corner seat in the car, opposite to her little black bonnet with its buttering wreath of crape vail, and the Astrakhan muff that held her two-tiny, black-gloved hands.. How I'envied that muff. Don’t tell me of your Venuses, your Madonnas, and your Marys, Queen of Scots —they couldn’t have held a candle to this delicious little widow. I never.did believe in grand beauties! A woman has no business over awing and impressing you against your will. And she was one of your dimpled, daisy-faced creatures, with soft, brown eyes, long-lashed and limpid. and a red mouth, which looked as if it was just made to be kissed. And then there was a tangle of golden spirals of hair hanging over her forehead, and braids upon braids pinned up under her bonnet, until a hair-dresser would: have gone frantic at the sight. Just as I was taking an inventory of these things, in that sort of unobservant way that I flatter myself belongs to a man of the world, she dropped her muff, and, of course, it rolled under the car seat. Wasn’t I down on my knees at once after it? I rather think so. “Thank you, sir,” said the delicious little widow. “Not at all,” I replied. “Can’t Ido anything more for you?” “No, thank you—unless yon can tell me what time we get into Glendale.” “Glendale,” I cried. “Why 1 am going to Glendale.” ' Of course we were friends at once, and the daisy-faced enchantress made room for me beside her, “lest,” as she said, “some horrid, disagreeable creatureshould crowd in and bore her to death,’’ and I stenned right out of tho musty, ill-venti-lated world of railway carriage iiito an atmosphere of Eden. When a bachelor of forty falls in love at first sight—oh, what a fall is there my countrymen. No half-measures, I tell you. Before we had been speeding through the wintry landscape an hour I had already built up several blocks of chateaux il'Espagne, in my mind. I saw my bachelor rooms brightened by her presence. I fancied myself walking to chuich with her hand on my arm. I heard her dulcet voice saying, “My dear Thomas, what would you like for supper to-night?” 1 beheld myself a respectable member of society—the head of a family. What would Bob Carter say now— l meant then f Bob, who was always rallying mo on my state of hopeless old-bachelorhood, who supposed, forsooth, because he happened to be a trifle younger and betterlooking than myself, that I had no chances whatever. I’d show Bob! “What did we talk about?” The weather, of course, the scenery, the prospects—all .the available topics, one after another; and the more we talked, the deeper grew my admiration. She was sensible, and so Original, and so everything else that she ought to be! I discovered that she preferred a town life to the seclusion of a country residence —so did I. Who would stagnate when he could feel the world’s pulses as they throbbed? She loved the opera—so did I. She thought this woman’s suffrage movement all ridiculous—with % bewitching little lisp on the last syllable—l agreed with her. She thought a woman’s true sphere was home; my feelings surged up too strongly Tor utterasceraaff I merely bowed niy assent. - , Here was a delicious unanimity oi soul —a mute concord fit sympathy. What would Bob Carter say when he saw this beautiful little robin lured into my cage. How I would lord it over him. How I would invite him to “happen in at anytime.” Hew I would—figuratively, of course—hold up Mrs. Thomas Smith over his envying head. I uttered an audible chuckle as I thought of these things, which I had some difficulty in changing into a cough. “You’ve got a cold,” said the widow, sympathetically. “Do, please, have one of my troches; they are so soothing to the throat.” I took the troche, but I didn’t swallow it. I would as soon have eaten, a priseless pearl. I put it in ruy left-hand breast, pocket, as near my heart as practicable 5 Her first gift! “A bachelor like me is used to such things,” I said„in ap off-hand manner. “A. bachelor!” echoed my traveling companion. “Dear me, then you are not married?” - t “Unfortunately, no.” never too late to mCnd,” hazarded t?e widow, roguishly. "That is my sole consolation,” I like married life,"

sighed the widow, with a momentary eclipse of the limpid, brown orbs, beneath the whitest of drooping lids., “But what’s the use of my talking about it to you? You can’t understand.” “I can imagine,” I replied modestly. “You must find a wife as soon as posr sible,” said the widow, looking intently at the hem of her pocket handkerchief. “You’re only living half a life, now. Ah, you can not think how much happier you would be with some gentle, clinging being at your side—some congenial soul to mirror your own.” Instinctively I laid my hand on my heart. “Do not fancy that I shall lose an instant in the search,” I said. “I have already pictured to myself the pleasures of a newer existence.” “Have you?” The brown eyes shot an arch, challenging sparkle toward me. “Tell me all about her.” “Do you really wish to know;” “Of course I do." I congratulated myself mentally on the fine progress I was making, considering •the small practice in love-making thatl had had. Bob Carter himself, with all his ready tongue and good-looking face, could not have carried on a flirtation more neatly. “Is she fair or dark?” questioned the widow, with the prettiest of interest. “Neither—about your complexion. ” “Oh!” laughed my interlocutor, with a charming pink suffusion over her dimples. “Is she young?” “Yes, abc *t your age. ’ “Pretty?” “More than pretty—beautiful.” The widow arched, her .perfectly-pen-ciled eyebrows. “What a devoted husband you will make! And when are you to be married?” “As soon as I can induce her to name the day.” “That’s right,” said the widow, clasping her hands over the Astrakhan mutt. “Because, you know, you’ve no time to lose.” I sighed ostentatiously. “I am quite aware of that. You will let me call on you ip, Glendale?” _ •* “Oh, certainly, if she don’t object.” “She’ll be willing, I guarantee. Where are you staying,” I asked, eagerly. “I shall be Mrs. Alvern’s guest. Dp you know njany people in Glendale?” “Only a few. I am going down on some legal business for one or two of my clients. ” “Are you?” “Yes/’ And then there was a brief silence. “Are you acquainted with Mr. Carter, Mrs. Alvern’s brother?” asked the widow, presently^ “Yes,” I answered, with a little grimace.' “A self-conceited, disagreeable puppy.” “Do yoH think so?” asked the widow, doubtfully. “Of course, as does everybody else. So will you, when you meet him.” “Shall I?” “A man who thinks because he’s got a handsome face and a smooth tongue, that nobody else has any business in creation.” “Dear, dear!" twittered my companion; “that’s very bad indeed.” “Of course, he will pay a good deal of attention to you, if you are to be his sister’s guest,” I pursued; “but it won’t do to encourage him.” “No!” “By no means. He’s a professional flirt. “Is it possible?” lisped the widows And I mentally shook hands with myself for having thus deftly put a spoke in Bob’s wheel. First impressions are everything, and I certainly had been beforehand with the pretty widow. Neither had I any compunctions of conscience, for hadn’t Bob been playing practical jokes of all styles and complexions on me, ever since we entered the bar side by side? “Stupid Tom,” that had been his pet name forme, always; but this wasn’t so very “stupid” a game, after all. While I was tnus metaphorically hugging myself, the conductor bawled out, “Glendale,” and I sprang up to assist my lovely companion out of the car, cherfully burdening myself with bags, baskets, parasols, and bulky wraps. As we stepped Upon the platform, I nearly tumbled into the arms of—Bob Carter. “llullo, Tom!” was his inelegant greeting, “You don’t grow any lighter as you grow older.” I was about to retort bitterly, when a sudden change came over his face, as he beheld the pretty widow behind me. “Gertie!” he exclaimed, clasping both her hands in his. “Yes, Robert," she answered, with sparkling eyes and flushed cheeks. “That fentleman has got my parcels; he has een very kind to me.” “Oh, has he, though? Well, we won’t trouble him any further. I am much obliged to you, Tom, and we’ll send you cards to the wedding.” “To what wedding?” I gasped. • “Didn’t you tell him, Gertie? Why, to our wedding, the tenth of next month, to be sure. Aurevoir. Tom, he careful of yourself tor my sake.” And that was the last I ever saw of my daisy-faced widow. For if you think I was mean-spirited enough to go to that wedding, you are mistaken in my character. . A Memphis paper gives an astounding account of a man in Tennessee, who;.© wife dmd leaving him with eight children. Touched by the tender kindness of their grandmother toward them, he concluded the best interests of the orphans would be promoted by marrying her. After he had lived with her two months, they were enlightened with the fact that such marriage was unlawful. Following the advice of his brothers in the church and learned men in the law, the parlies ceased to dive and applied for a divorce, a vincula , or that the marriage be pronounced a nullity, which was granted, and the mother set back into ner grandmotherhood, with her original name. A too faithful dog came very near being responsible for the death ofni's master, in Scranton, Pa. The canine was following his owner, Mr. John Snyder, a gentleman of seventy years, when the latter was overcome by the intense cold, and fell in the snow on the street.. The old gentleman's predicament was discovered by a watchman, but all efforts of the latter to afford relief was frustrated by the i dog, ttho would not , allow him to approach the prostrate form. Finally a party, of laborers came along, the trusty dog was drlveA off with clubs, and the old man rescued just in time to satfe his lit#, although very badly frost-bitten.