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"FSTalr AN INDEPENDENT FAMILY NEWSPAPER " "T" '''Z&'Js?
"Vol. "VIII. New Bloomficld, I?n,., Tuesday, .A-iinst IS, 1874. TVo. 33.
6V
P Ioomfifltr (hiub.
. 1BPUDUBHEDETKKT TUESDAY UOHNINO, BY
FEANE MORTIMER & CO.,,
At New Bloomfleld, Terry Co., Pa.
Being provided with Steam Power, and large
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JOSEPH HANNAFORD'S WIFE
RESPONSIBILITY bad come to Jos
oph Ilannaford early in life, for be
was not more than sixteen when big father
died, and left bis mother and bis young
sistor to bis keeping. There was property
enough for them all, to he sure ; but it was
chiefly in land and stock, and needed Jos
eph's vigilant superintendence to make it
profitable. This superintendence be gave
faithfully and willingly, and never once
complained that to do so forced him to re
sign sundry secretly cherished personal am
bitions of bis own. But all this responsi
bility wrought its own work upon his na
turemade him provident, thoughtful,
calculating, thrifty precisely an old young
man.
This state of things continued for ten
years. Thou bis sister married, and re
moved to the next town. His mother de
sired to accompany her, and was only
prevented by the difficulty which attended
obtaining a suitable housekeeper for Jos
eph. You perceive, therefore, that at twenty
six Mr, Joseph Ilannaford was just in a
position whore marriage became convenient
and' desirable; ' Uthorwise, I rather think,
he was quite too well disciplined to have
chorished any idle fancies or importunate
longings. .
.Whether, before this epoch, he had over
suffored any truant thoughts to wander in
the direction of Miss Carrie Fay, who had
been growing towards her sweet woman
hood not very far away from bis door, I
cannot conjecture. I only know ' that
about this time he began to discover that
her eyes were blue, and her hair golden,
her cheeks ; wore flower o' the, poach, " and
hor lips blossomed with a sweetness which
he longed to taste. lie told her these
things in some discreet fashion of his own,
and she he was her first lover, and the
right of discovery has gone for a good deal
in all ages. .
. . Every one said he was making a great
mistake. The neighbors thought they
knew what be wanted a great deal better
'than be himself did ; and were sure that a
good, strong, thrifty girl, used to working
and saving, would be just the one for
him. Carrie was pretty, and fanciful, and
dainty. She was an orphan ; but an uncle,
who bad no children of his own, had kept
her feeling from any sense of loneliness or
desolation by bis constant and fatherly
kindness. Under his roof she had grown
up to seventeen years, and at that period
the old young man came along, and wooed
and won her. , ) i
Her uncle felt secretly uncomfortable,
for be understood just what Carrie ws
belter than any one else did ; and be knew
that it would be no easy matter to mnke a
working-bee out of a goldon-wlnged butter
fly. But, ou the other hand, Carrie was
evidontly In love with her suitor ; and Mr.
Ilannaford was certainly well-to-do quite
able to marry to please himself, and make
his wife comfortable in her own way after
wards. . , j
Bo, in due time, the wedding took place,
and Carrie Ilannaford went away to her
new home, where, before very long, a
change came over the spirit of her dream.
She had begun by first idealizing, and
, thou adoring her lord and master. He
was, certainly, well-looking," in a kind of
regular massive way. - His face had in it
not much suggestion of sentiment. His
eyes were clear and shrewd, though kind ;
and his lips were firm and rather thin.
He knew beauty when be saw it, but he
would never be ruled through his senses.
His features were well-shaped. There
was power in his face. He was a man who
knew how to say no to himself and to
othors. There was a tuanly vigor and
symmetry in his well-knit frame ; and, in
short, he possessed a good many of the
attiibutes which go to the making up of a
girl's hero. But Mistress Carrie reckoned
without her host when she proposed to
make a post-matrimonial lover of him.
He evidontly did not believe in connubial
love-making. ' Philandering, as he called
it, was not to his taste. Courting was
very well In its way. It had not been
without its shy delights, even for bim.
But they were married now, and it was
time to settle down, and begin life as they
could hold out. Their wedding-day was
in September ; and when the late October
winds blew away the sapless, withered
leaves, Carrie felt as if her hopes, which
had blossomed so fairly, where blowing
with the leaves, and withered as they, down
the wind. .
She was a conscientious, well-intentioned
little creature, and she tried her best to put
aside all these feelings, which she taught
herself to believe were morbid and un
grateful. She was constantly striving to
justify Joseph, making little pleas for him
at the bar of her heart. He was nine years
older than she ; it would not be natural for
him to have so much romance. Of course
he loved hor ; why else would he have mar
ried her ? What a goose sho was to expect
of a big, strong, busy man the little soft
nesses which belong to and delight women.
Then she would try to be bravo ; make a
pretty little toilet, perhaps ; wear the dress
and the ribbons he had praised six months
ago ; and meet bim, hor eyes bright with
hope, her cheeks pink with expectation.
Was he blind to all this such an old young
man that the sweet devices of youth had no
longer for bim any language ? At any rate,
he made no sign. '
How dull, and prosy, and commonplace
were the long winter evenings which they
passed together. They got through supper
and were seated before the Franklin stove
in their little sitting-room, at six o'clock,
punctually ; ; and there for three mortal
hours they sat in unbroken quiet, be read
ing his newspapers through and through,
and she watching him, and wondering,
wondering, wondering whether life was t&
go on at this dead level forever. Punctual
ly as the clock struck nine, he would get
up, light his lantern, and go his nightly
rounds among cows, and oxen, and horses.
Then he would come in, take off his boots,
leisurely warm his feet at the open fire,
and go to bed. She grew to bate the pre
cise epoch at which he pulled off his boots.
It seemed to her that juBt up to that pass
she could bear on silently, but ' as if then
sho must utter somo outcry, or silence and
constraint would choke Tior. '
' Once or twice sho made some few for
lorn ' attempts to better the condition ' of
things brighten them up, if possible.
Once she planned tho beguiloment of a
little supper. Having ' made alt ready be
forehand, while he was out upon bis eve
ning round sho stewed some oysters and
browed 6ome codec, fondly fancying her
small least would be a success ; but tho
wise old young man would not see the fun.
Ho did not believe iu oysters at bedtime ;
thoy would disagroe with , him, he knew.
As for coffee, he was sure a single cup
would keep him awake all night j but if
Carrio could take such things at nine
o'clock, and not have them hurt hor, be
bod not tho slightest objection. So, with
no heart . to taste it herself, sho carried
away lief little , treat ; and if a few tears
cooled the coffee sho had poured for him iu
vain, he, at least, was nono tho wiser.
Slowly the winter wore away" the
long, sad season of snows and sins." Birds
came back from over seas, and began to
siug. Violota opened shy blossoms. Grass
blados sprang up greenly ; aijd oven Carrie
Uannaford brightened with the brightening
of nature, and began to remember that she
herself was young. -
One day in May, her hubband came to
her with the proposal that they should take
a summer boarder; He put the matter in
the most ungracious way, as is the matri
monial wont of precisely this class of men.
As she would bo having a hired girl any
way, he said and ho used, in saying it, a
tone which made her feci herself a monster
of extravagance they might just as well
have something to keep hor busy ; and this
boardor who wanted to como, this Mr.
Hugh Waring, would pay woll, and make
very little trouble. He knew this, be
eauso three years ago, in his mother's time,
Waring had boarded with them for some
months.
Of course, Mistress Cariie consented
for what could she do else? and kept se
cret her own dissatisfaction with the pros
pect before her.
It only took Mr. Waring' arrival, how
ever, to reconcile her to his presence. With
his first deferential bow over her hand, she
became his willing hostess. He was a per
son of such type as the wife had never be
fore, in her short, quiet life, encountered
a man of wealth and of leisure, high-bred,
scholarly, and belonging to the ancient
Ordor of Oentlomcn, He was a handsomer
man, too, than one often moots, with his
clearly-cut features, his warm coloring, and
the chestnut hair and flowing beard, which
the eyes matched.
He was not an old young man. Impulse
was strong within him ; discipline had not
yet taught him discretion. When he folt
strongly, he would speak strongly, and,
perhaps, act rocklessly ; but, under ordinary
circumstances, be had the aplomb and
the oool self-possession of a man of the
world.
Very soon ho began to perceive that to
board with the Hannafords now was a
slightly different thing from what it had
been in the administration of Joseph Han
naford's self-contained mother and ' staid
sister. Joseph Ilannaford's wife was of
altogether another order of women. It may
be questioned whether sho would have
made any serious impression on him had
he met her as Miss Carrie Fay.. But, since
hei marriago, a soul-subduing pathos had
grown into her look which somehow went
to bis heart. Perhaps, too, the strongest
appeal which can be made to a man's chiv
alry, is the sight of a sad and disappointed
woman, who neithers parades nor confesses
her misery. .
Hugh Waring was not a bad man. In
some espccts, indeed, his heart and his
life wore purer and fresher than those of
most men. He certainly meant no harm
to his fair young hostess. He would not
have added a feather's weight to the bur
den which had already borne so hardly
upon her life. But be commenced by
pitying her; and Love has been : Pity's
neighbor ever since the world began.
Ho was tender and gentle to hor as no
one bad ever been before. Ho was not too
busy to notice the blush roses in her hair,
or the blushes on ber cheeks. If she liked
a wild flower be had brought homo, he
niado light of a long tramp to fetch ber its
kindred. While she sewed, ho read to hor,
and taught her to love Keats and Shelley,
and Browning. ' At nightfall ho. used to
sing to hor while hor husband was busy
about the late "chores" with which a New
England farmer fills up the summer twi
lights sweot, suggestive lovo-songs, and
old ballads which have filtered down
through the centuries their tearful music.
All this time I doubt if he had thought
of danger for himself or her. She, certainly
never had. Her delight was pure and
sweet. She would have said, if any one
had questioned ber, that Mr. Waring was
her friend, the best friend she ever had ;
but, unquestioned, sho did not say even so
much as that to herBelf. : Sho scarcely
know that it was summer with hor heart,
as well as with the year ; or that the sum
mer days were flying fast.
Nor did anything in the aspoct of affairs
make ber husband uneasy. To do this
young, man whom perhaps circumstance,
rather than nature, had made old, justice,
he was neither mean nor ungenerous. His
confldonco in this young wife of bis was
perfect. She loved him ; she was bis to
havo and to hold J why should he grudge
hor a few hours which gome one else mado
pleasant after a fashion not his own ? I do
not think he was likely to lose auything
by this gonerosity, or that aiiy amount of
suspicious espionage on bis part would
have served his own cause better.
There came, at last, an evening of revel
ation to the two who were going ' on so
blindly ; or perhaps it had come to Waring
before Ho had boon sitting ' silently
through the sunset, watching tho play of
the warm light of Mrs. Ilannaford's fair
face and golden hair. She looked wondor
fully young and helpless, with hor extreme
delicacy, hor appealing eyes, and her soft
white dress, mado as simply as a babe's,
and girdled with a blue ribbon. A languor,
born perhaps of the summer heats, op
pressed her. She drooped towards him,
loaning her head upon hor hand, and look
ing frail as a snow-wreath which a wind
might blow away. . Waring sat silently, as
I said, and watched her, untty the sunset
lights bad gone out of her, and a curious
awe bogan to steal over bim, as he saw ber
through the gathering shadows, white, and
still, and unearthly as a spirit. Then, out
of the semi-darkness, bis voice came to her
in a sort of chant, too low and even to be
a song. The first line was follows :
" Bwcet la true love, though given in vain,
Iu vain."
Hor tears were falling fast bofoie he had
finished. A spoil was upon her which she
did not understand, and could not evade.
Still, she kopt silence, and waited for his
words, words which, when they came,
pierced hor like a sword.
"Mrs. Ilannaford, I think 1 must go
away to-morrow. ' It is midsummer, and
all the hay is down." ' .
" But I thought," she faltered, timidly,
"you were to Btay the summer through."
" So I should, if all things had been as of
old. It is not good for me to be here un
dor the now regime."
, " I have tried," she bogan ; and then she
stopped. Her tears choked ber. She could
not go on, and tell him, iu simple common
places, that she had tried to make him
comfortable.
"If you bad done no more than you
tried to do, all would have been well," he
cried, bis tones fervent with sudden pas
sion. " I saw you just what you were, and
your husband Just what be was. I saw
how much it was in you to give to some
man ; how little you were even asked to
give to him. God help us both, for I havo
loarned to lovo you. I covet my neigh
bor's wife I daro not stay here."
Sho said nothing ; but he heard through
the stillness tho bitter sobbing which she
strove to smother. It was more than he
could bear. He crossed over to hor, but
he did not take her in his arms. Some
shield of purity was about her which still
held him away from her, though he was
close at her side. '
' " Carrio," he said, calling her for the
first time by ber name, " I must go away
to-morrow ; but you shall go, too, if you
will. Your love would be worth to me any
sacrifice. ' What would mine be worth to
you ? You know just how much your hus
band cures for you. You have' seen what
life with him is. Do you think it would
break his heart to lose you? I 'tell you, no.
He would very composedly get a divorce
from you, and marry more wisely next
time. You would be free in a few months,
and the moment yon were free, you should
be my wife. So help me God, I would
deal honorably with you. Don't you be
lieve me?" ' : '
He caught a low " Yes," murmured un
der her breath. " Then will you come ? I
think I can make life a different thing for
you from what it ever, has been. You shall
know what it is to be loved by a man with
a man's heart in him. Will you come, or
will you settle back on the old life, and
send me away alone to curse the fate that
ever brought me to the knowledge of
you ?" '.''.,.
He stopped, and then she could hear his
heart beat in the silence. Temptation be
set her sorely. How sweet this love would
be of which he spoke this love for which
she had so hungered this passionate,
lover's love, which Joseph Uannaford
would never give her. , She had a tempera
ment to which love was the supreme thing.
It was her one idea of Heaven. But she
bad not gone for enough away from the in
nocence of childhood for her guardian
angel to have forsaken her. Clearly, as if
some human voice had spoken' it, she heard
a whisper, which came, again and again,
and would be obeyed " Pray 1" She got
up at last, and saying to Hugh Waring
nothing but "Wait," wont away to her
own room.
In the darkness she did not see her hug
band, who sat thore in an arm-chair, too
tired to care for a light, and waiting for
her. Ho would have spoken, but somehow
he felt the excitement of her mood, and
silenced by it. She knelt down, and tried
to obey the voice. But sho could not col
lect her thoughts, and only two words
would como, over and ovor again " Help,
Lord, help!" ' -
Vaguely Joseph Hanuaford comprehend
ed that she was passiug through the crisis
of an agony such as ho, in all his placid
lifo, had never experienced or witnessed.
Some intuition withheld him from trying
to comfort her mado him feel how idlo
would be any consolation which he could
offer ; but when at last She left the room,
he arose and stole softly after her. A
deep, yearning tenderness for ber filled his
soul full. ' He thought be had never loved
her half so well In bis life J and what this
trouble was which was breaking her heart
he rou know. '
Down-stairs she went, and into the dim
room whore Hugh Waring waited for hor ;
and her husband stood just outside the
open door, and listened breathlessly for hor
words. tihe spoke at first with a certain
feverish eagerness, as if she doubted her
owu strength, and must hurry through
with what bIio had to say before it failed
her ; but, as she went on, a deeper and
calmer earnestness grew into hor words.
'"Your tenderness," she said, "has
made life very sweet to me. I never knew
what it was before to bavo a friend who
cared for the same things I oared for ; and
no one else was ever so gentle to me as
you have been.- I did not know bow much
you were to me until you spoke of going
away. I want love more than I want any
other earthly thing ; but I do not think
this is love which we feel for each other.
You pitied me because you saw that my
life was a disappointment that I was love
ly, and unreconoiled to my fate ; but I do
not believe you would have chosen me out
of a world full of women, if you bad found
me free and happy. As for what I feel for
you but I will not talk about that-J have
my duty to do. And then I did love my
husband first. If he had loved me in the
way I once fancied that he did, I should
have gone on feeling the same for him for
ever. And I know I could love him even
now, if he cared to be again my lover. In
any case, I will be true to him. I will not
make myself unfit to meet my dead father
and mother again in Heaven. I do believe
that you would be faithful and tender, but
your best tenderness could not console me
if I bad lost for your sake my own soul ;
and I should grow old, and sad, and be a
burdon to you presently."
" I think not I think never I" , Waring
cried, passionately. " O, Carrie 1 I could
make you happy."
" Not in despite of God," she said, Blow
ly, and then she turued away. .
Standing still in the shadow,' her . hus
band watched her go up-stairs, and then he
stole noiselessly out-of-doors, for he was
wise enough not to go to her. '
What in him was really true, and noble,
and worthy of a woman's loving, came out
now, as never before. He looked straight
into his own hoart, with eyes which tried
to be as just as the justice of Heavon.
He did not stop to blame Hugh Waring,
as a hotter-tempered man might have done.
He understood jnst how Carrie's sad, sweet
face, and lonely seeming lifo, had touched -the
man's heart, and so forgave him, even
for the rashness which would have mado
bad worse. ' '
Ah for Carrie herself, he seemed to have
only now began to love her at all.' He
opened his eyes and saw what he bad been
doing when he took into his keeping this
mere girl, this young creature whose nat
ural ailment was love, and then deliberate
ly starved her expected hor to be as self
contained and independent as his mother
bad been. How. reckless he Had been
throwing away his pearl of great price 1
But what if it were not altogether too late
for him to recover it? She had loved him
once she had said that she ; could love
him, even now, if he cared again to be her
lover. Did ho not care ? His pulses be
gan to throb, very much as if he were not
an old young man. If love, tender and
patient, could win her back, she should yet
be more his own than ever, please Heaven.
He would never pain ber, he resolved, by
tolling her what ho had heard. If ever she
felt near enough to bim again to confide in
him, her confidence should come unforced
and unsought. But be would use every
power which God had given him to make
her happy. He would not be too proud to
knock again at hor heart's door; would
any tender voice ever bid him enter?"
At last he saw from the covert whore he
stood, with eyes grown used to the dark
ness, Hugh Waring come out and walk'
rapidly down the path, as if trying to es
cape from himself. Then ho went into the
house, lit a. light, and looked at the clock.
It was ' midnight ; now, at last, he would
go up-stairs to his wife. He found her ly
ing, with white, still face, upon the scarce
ly whiter pillow. He knew that she was not
asleep ; but he saw that she wished him to
think her so, and respecting her wish, he
got into bed silently.'
The next day, making some exouse of
just receiving letters, Hugh went away.
For ono moment, just before he left, he
managed to see Mrs. Ilannaford alone,
though she had carefully avoided him all
the morning. '
"Do I bid you good-by forever?" he
asked, looking into those sad, entreating
eyes of hers which hod wrought bis woe.
" I think that is best," she said, gently,
" unless you can come back as much my
husband's friend as mind."
He bent ovor hor hand, and left on it tho
kiss he hod never dared to press upon her
lips.
" I want to tell you that you have done
right. You have refused me the only
thing I cared for in lifo. You have sent
mo out into the world a wayfarer, without
a hope or on interest, but you have done
right. We'shall be thankful, both of us,
concluded on second fAOB.