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One Morning

One Morning image
Parent Issue
Day
6
Month
October
Year
1876
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A small, pleasantly-furnished morn ing-room ; long Windows opening o5a the piazza ; closed Venetian blinds, that kept out the heat and dust, and gaVe a soft, quict light to the room ; an open piano, with music on the raok ; sojmo pretty pictures on the wall; cool lace curtains at the Windows ; books, papers and magasines on the tables : easy canebottomed rocking-cha'rs scattered around ; a low sofa in tle cOmer ; a French clock on ths inantel, pointing toward 10 J ft general air of utility about the wnole department - this was the j ting for two figures, one bright nummer morning. The lady mu fruniüft very lightlyback upon the sofa, with some dainty pretenso at work in her lap- a handkerehief to be embroidered, I believe- her white fingers occasionally taking a lassy stitch. Dressed in some white, cool stuff that feil iu graeef ui folds around her, a daah of red at her throat, and long, fiowing sleeves, showing her firiely-roünded arm, she made quite a pleasant picture. She would scarcely have been called handsome - her features weiO ttto irregular - but she possessed to a marked 1 gree that nataeless charm we desígnate as " prettiness. " Blue eyes and ! pling brown hair, rather a wíde forehead, a nondescrípt uose, a good complexion, and a large mouth redeemed by beautiful teeth, were the main and i ing features. But a mere catalogue of a person's features gives about as much idea of the real living appearance au piles of brick and mortar of the strücture to be erected. For all that she leaned back so carelessly, and toyed So lazily with her work, there was a look of annoyanCe about her eyes, and her lips were shufc tight, in a way that argaed well f or a strong tinge of flrmness- obstinacy, her girl friends wonld cali it- in her character. EviJently the cause of that annoyance wai? bef ore her- a tall, athleüo j oung f ellow of about 23, neither positively handsome nor ugly, yet negatively good-looking ; dark hair and eyes, and skin buined to a deep bronze by expoSure to the sun, were the main points to be noticed. Angry, impatient, all but enraged, he eertainly was. He had been tramping back and forth, and at length paused a few feet from her, his hand grasping the back of a chair, and looking down with admiration plainly struggling with his provoked feelings. " So, Nell, you are the same willful, stubborn, obstinate girl you were three I years ago. In return for all my patiënt faithfulness you seem determined to thwart and cross me ia every thing. It is unjust of you, ungrateful, cruel ! Here I!m not home three days, and there hasn't been a single solitary instance in which your ladyship has deigned to see any thing pleasant, any thing to accord with your singularly turned mind, in whatever I may have advocated. Just so sure as I propose any thing, you espouse its direct opposite ; if I make even the simplest request, you refuse it pointblank ; and eyery thing I may happen to do is diametrically opposed to what, in your captious eyes, I ought to. And yet, all this time you stül loveme ! Love me ! If this is love, I prefer hate - for you certainly could not torture me more, nor make me more uncomfortable, were I your bitterest foe." "And hasyour highnessreallydone ?" she drawled, without looking up, in a peculiarly mocking and exasperating manner. "If Mr. Arnold has ceased to dtsire to tramp up and down the room, and lash himself into a frenzy, after the proverbial manner of caged hyenas, and if he really has poured forth all 'the vituperative abuse he for the moment desires to, and if he will sit quietly down at a safe distance, and stop chewing his mustache, he may hear of something to his dvantage." "NelJ, you'd provoke a saint. Are all girls like you ?" " You have had quite good opportunities to judge. You seem to have selected me as not being of the general run of modern young ladies - as one peculiarly suited to thé requirements of your fastidious taste. But, sir, pray be seated ; the exertion of standing during this hot weather may be highly deleterious in your present qnestionable condition ; and, ah ! - really, you weary me by clutching tho chair sa tightly; and theu I'm afraid lest, in your present frame of mind, you might be tempted to annihilate me." "By heaven !': he bursb forth, throwing hiinself into a ohair, "Iverilybelievo the Beven devils that were cast out have taken possession of you this ïnorning." "Many thanks," she murmured. "If I were equal to the exertion, I would sweep you a courtesy. But eince j ou have condescended to yield to my request, listen to my vcty mild ana depreoatory justiücatiou. Weil, theu, you say you have been home three days, and in ihose three days I havo thwarted you in ev tjf thing you have proposcd. You gorfciuiiiy have made three requests- oommands, jf you will - which I have seen fit to refuse; three questions so manifestly absurd that no one but your royal highnesa could .have evolved iheta froni the deptlia of bis inner öohsciousness. Pray don'fc interrupt or get excited. Your first request was that, on the hottest oí summer morDÍngs, I should leave my guests entirely to their own devices, and take a wild gallop with you under the flercest of suns, on ahorse I had never mounted and which is reported to be a very ugly brute. Bosult of my veto, you go off enraged, and sulk for the greater part of the day. Last evening you endeavored to persuade me to slip quietly away from the company it was my dutv to entertain, to wander with you over the damp grass in thin boot3, at the imminent risk of a sore throat; and this morning, with sublime assurance that really does you credit, you ask me to bunule off my guests as brusqüeiy and toncwreilloniously as possible, and with auntie and your amia'olc self take a fiying cruise on yotlr yacht. How modest, how unassuming, how considérate of others ! How impressed with the demanda of etiquette and proper politeness to our visitors!" " Perdition take the visitors ! "How refined and gentlemanly his years of absence have mada Mr. Arnold !" " I beg ytrar pardon, Nelly ; that ! slipped out aecidentally. I ee what a fooi I have beeh to íinagino that a young lady iii modern society would retaih the affection she perhaps once feebly feit during the absence of her betrothed ; and how absurd it is in me to ask opyortubities for the old friendly converse, the old interchange of thought and feeling, the old days of love I and interest in each other. There was a time when the prospect of a cruise on the Titania would have elicited at least ! expressions of delight. But the dream has ended ; I have been awakened." "Don't be absurd. Frank' said she, alittle softer and with ft sllght mist in her eyBS, wkich in his blindness he did not Bce, as he aróse and stood before the window. " We are not the girl and boy we were then, seein nothing beyond each öther, éaiiihg about in an enchanted sea, and drinking deep draughte of nectar, with no thoughts óf the morrow. Very delightful it UÏ as, ï will I own ; but you m'dsl remember we have I no our duties to society to perform. I have social claims now that 1 had not then, and which to avoid wonld argue myself ill-bred. Yoti have come back expecMöft eVerything at once to run in ite oíd groove, "and in your hot impetuosity making no allowance for added years and changed circumstances. Itis yon who is unjust, ungrateful, cruel. But what can one expeot from, a man '( They are all alike"- everything must yield to their eelflsh egotism ; and if anythihg does happen to cross their humor, if we cannot yield them everything they desire, straightway, forsooth, they become children, fly into a passion, iñveigh against everybody, and iinally go off in a fit of the sulks." "The tongues of mocking wenches are keen as is the razor's edge invisi1ble," he mnrcnured, sotto voce, thenadding ftlouti, uMr. Frank Arnold's compliments to Miss Elinor Durand, and his thanks, both on behalf of his sex and himself, for her very flattering opinión. And if Miss Durand has fimshed, and can spare the time, and if the he&t is not too oppressive, and if there be positively nothing she thiuks she must do, and if her atteiltion to guests can allow of a few moments more relaxation, Mr. Arnold would like to address her." "Mr. Arnold has liberty to use Miss Durand's time as he pleases." He turned from the window and stood before her. She looked up lazily, trying to appear nonchalant, büt raging inwardly. He bi oke forth flercely : " Nelly, three years ago, when I was but a boy and you a biïght, fresh, innocent, lovely girl, you won what there was to win of my heart, and you loved me in return. There were then no deceit, no bowing to fashion, no yielding to the heartless dictates of society; and when, af ter weeks of close intimacy, I told you I loved you asked ou to snare my life, laid my heart at your feet, and urged you to return my affection, there was no hesitation, no coquetry in you. You didn't stop to think of prudence, of what Mrs. Grundy might say; but straight from the heart carne the answer you could not utter, but spoken by your truthful éyes. We, a boy of 20 and a girl of 17, became engaged. Then followed some weeks of enchantment and delight, marred only by occasional exhibitions of your willful obstinacy. Over this, we had one or two quarrels; but you were kinder in those days, and we loved each other, and, somehow, they were reconciled. Then we had to part, and for three years we have talked to each other only on paper. And how those letters have cheered and encouraged and helped me ! For you I have striven ; for you I have become what I am. Your bright image has been ever before me ; your memory has kept me pure in the midst of every temptation. W hate ver success I may have had is entirely due to your influence. Your letters were like your old self, willful at times, but, on the whole, sweet and delightful. They gave me no hint of the change I was to flnd. I returned home with my heart swelling with pride and love ; ï came to you the very first moment, expecting to find my old, loving, fresh, bright Nell, and what do I flnd ? Imagine my bitter disappointment when, instead of what I had fondly hoped for, I see a cold, polished, fashionable woman of the world, plunged and absorbed in tha exciting whirl of society - nothing left of the old, playful, inipetuous, innocent girl who won rne- seeming to care nothing of me nor my desires, should they happen to conflict with the demands of society ; worshipiug fashion first, and placing everything in her affections before the man she truly loved. It is a bitter awakening ! My belief in human nature is shattered. 1 think we had better part : we can never make each other happy- our tantes, our ideas, our roquirements are too different. What pleases me most is your iele noir; and of all things, a fashionable existence is the most distasteful. Oh, my darling, my darling ! Why is it so ? Why are you not the fresh girl of 17 3 Why did lever leave yon? üut, alas ! what is the use of complaining ? We are what we are, and it isuseless to mouru?" And the strong man dropped back in the chair, with a dry sob in his throat. Her face had grown very pale, her eyes had lost their mockiug expressiou, and eho seemed transforinod from the lazy, nonchalant, exasperating creaturc of a few moments before, who had drawled out her words with such insufferabie accent. She safc upright with her eyes fixed before her, her hands clasped in her lap, and began in low, quict tones, yet with nn undorcurreut of yassiou ; " Fraiik, yon are not just-yon are not fait You are bitter-, and Say things yon -will Soiiie day repent. Since you nave called up the past, let me do so also - let me, perhaps, expjain mnch that to you seema wrong, and then, after you have patiently heard me- then, if it seems to both of us tiiat we had better part - whyv thon we ban bid eacñ othér good-by at least, with a faint smile, in a quiet, ujitragic marmer - and - and drift apart. The world is largo enougli for both to live in, without bitterness. Don't interrupt me, please ; let me teil my 'story in my own way. You know. yoii say i'm willfttl, 60 ytekt to iüe. 'ïhree yeaïs agó,when we- when we knew eabh other, I was, as you say, a fresh, innocent girl of 17. You were my first love, my first hero ; 'on you I poured the whole wealth of a young heart. I lived in heaven when you weïe with me, and that summer was a long dream of delight, an idyllio poem, a bit of Mahomet's paradiee. We had faults, as you say. If I waa obstinate, you were impetuous, exacting, jumping hastily into conclusions - a fiery, nncontrollable boy ; but, with it all, so loving, so tender ! And then we reaily tried to soften the asperitiea in our characters, to become like unto each other, to understalid and condone eaeh pfcher'S faults and WaknesseS; ahd to help each other to be better. Ah ! we were enthnsiasts in those days ; we dreamed of love in a cottage, of a Utopia in which we would live a perfect life. Well, you had to leave me, and I settled down from romance to the prosaic business of life, cheered only be our frequent letters. I was yery happy for a while- I thiük I remained about the same girl you left me - and then - and then - you know my motker died." " Poor little Nelly I" Waait a trhisper ? He had not moved, and she did not look at him. "Well( after those weeks of gloom I came to live with auntie, and then began ánother kind of life. She was one of the leaders in fashiönabl'e society; and I was forced into it. Öf course the first year wna qmet ; but then I was cattght m the vortéx, and at first I was intoxicated. We went everywhere ; night after night I speñt in rounds of fashionable dissipation ; I became a fashionable butterfly, with no higher thoughts or aspirations - except when I thought of you - than dresses, jewels, baila, partíes ahd operas. I had a feeling you would not altogether approve of it, and so said nothing in my letters. After a while it palled upon me, and I became surfeited ; but still I must keep it up - when you have once commenced, there is no escape, no chance to stop. Aunt enjoyed it to the uttermost. She found the care and supennteüdehce of tlie house more thán she could undertake, 'and still live up to the demands of fashion. So, gradually, I became almost the lady of the house. She resigne d all details to me, and henee it is I am charged with all the care, the amusement and entertainment of the guests. Believe me or not, the artificial life has grown very wearisome to me. But que vöulezvoust J. have had to live it, and it has changed me, apparently, a great deal. T have never feit it so much as while you were talking. But I do not believe ray mind or my heart has been warped by it. You do not like my manner, and yoü jüdge of me by my superficial app'earance. We meet almost as strangers. Three years of absence, just at the moet critical period of our lives, has had the effect of making new people of us, and we have not yet had time to get acquainted. We should learn again, as we once did, to bear and forbear. We have both of us expected to find our oíd frienis, and we have both been disappointed. But shall this part us ? Shall all those old vows be as though unspoken? Shall three years' devotion to an ideal go for naught ? Have we drifted so far asunder we can never be reunited ? Are we each to live out our destinies alone and apart ! Ah, dear ! what shall it be ? Shall we say good-by ? Can we have no charity for each other s faüings? Has tne past taught us no lesson ?" Sho paused, and then for the first time looked at him. He rose and paced slowly across the room. " I'm waiting, dear," she said. He turned toward her ; she roso, and they looked in each other's eyes. The next moment she had glided across the room, and was sobbing on his breast. What had she seen in his faco ? Pity, repentance, self-condemnation, hope, and, above all, a great yearning love shining through all. " My poor little girl," he tenderly said, "what a brute I have been - how cross, unmannerly, boorish ! But I have been long from ladies' society and I have much to learn. Wili you forgive, and teach me ? We will learn charity and forbearance together, and we will yet have our Utopian home !" " Oh, Frank I you are too good - too good to me !" " Hush, my darling !" he said. And when, an hour or so afterward, the people returned from their ride, they fouud Nelly still demurely embroiderüig in the morning-room, while Frank wa3 composedly reading a volume of poetry upside down. Mrs. Durand's eyes were very sharp, and she cried : ' ' Have you named the day, you two humbugs?" "The21st of October," whispored Neil, with a happy blush.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus