Howells_Their_Wedding_Journey.txt topic ['13', '324', '378', '393']
that their regret for the supposed decline of the as
a summer resort was nowhere popular in the village, and they desisted in
their offers of sympathy, after their rebuff from the restaurateur.
got his family away to the station after dinner, and left them
there, while he walked down the village street, for a closer inspection
of the hotels. the door of the largest a pair of children sported in
the solitude, as fearlessly as the birds on 's island; looking
into the hotel, he saw a few porters and call-boys seated in statuesque
repose against the wall, while the clerk pined in dreamless inactivity
behind the register; some deserted ladies flitted through the door of the
parlor at the side. recalled the evening of his former visit, when he
and had met the in that parlor, and it seemed, in the
retrospect, a scene of the wildest gayety. turned for consolation
into the barber's shop, where he found himself the only customer, and no
busy sound of "" greeted his ear. the barber, like all the rest,
said that was not unusually empty; and he came out feeling
bewildered and defrauded. the agent of the boats which descend
the of the . must be frank, if went to him and
pretended that he was going to buy a ticket. a glance at the agent's
sign showed that the agent, with his brave jollity of manner and
his impressive "-morning," had passed away from the deceits of
travel, and that he was now inherited by his widow, who in turn was
absent, and temporarily represented by their son. boy, in supplying
with an advertisement of the line, made a specious show of haste,
as if there were a long queue of tourists waiting behind him to be served
with tickets. there was, indeed, a spectral line there, but
was the only tourist present in the flesh, and he shivered in his
isolation, and fled with the advertisement in his hand. met him
at the door of the station with a frightened face.
"," she cried, " have found out what the trouble is! are the
brides?"
took her outstretched hands in his, and passing one of them through
his arm walked with her apart from the children, who were examining at
the news-man's booth the moccasins and the birchbark bric-a-brac of the
aborigines, and the cups and vases of spar imported from
.
" dear," he said, "there are no brides; everybody was married twelve
years ago, and the brides are middle-aged mothers of families now, and
don't come to if they are wise."
"," she desolately asserted, "that is so! has been hanging
over me ever since we came, and suddenly realized that it was the
absence of the brides. --but--down at the hotels--'t you see
anything bridal there? the omnibuses arrived, was there no burst of
minstrelsy? there--"
could not go on, but sank nervelessly into the nearest seat.
"," said , dreamily regarding the contest of and
for a newly-purchased paper of sour cherries, and helplessly forecasting
in his remoter mind the probable consequences, "there were both brides
and minstrelsy at the hotel, if had only had the eyes to see and the
ears to hear. this world, my dear, we are always of our own time,
and we live amid contemporary things. daresay there were middle-aged
people at when we were here before, but we did not meet them, nor
they us. daresay that the place is now swarming with bridal couples,
and it is because they are invisible and inaudible to us that it seems
such a howling wilderness. the hotel clerks and the restaurateurs
and the hackmen know them, and that is the reason why they receive with
surprise and even offense our sympathy for their loneliness. you
suppose, , that if you were to lay your head on my shoulder, in a
bridal manner, it would do anything to bring us en rapport with that lost
bridal world again?"
caught away her hand. "," she cried, "it would be
disgusting! wouldn't do it for the world--not even for that world.
saw one middle-aged couple on , while you were down at the
of the , or somewhere, with the children. were sitting on
some steps, he a step below her, and he seemed to want to put his head on
her knee; but gazed at him sternly, and he didn't dare. should look
like them, if we yielded to any outburst of affection. 't you think
we should look like them?"
" don't know," said . " are certainly a little wrinkled, my
dear."
" you are very fat, ."
glanced at each other with a flash of resentment, and then they both
laughed. " couldn't look young if we quarreled a week," he said.
" had better content ourselves with feeling young, as hope we shall
do if we live to be ninety. will be the loss of others if they don't
see our bloom upon us. get you a paper of cherries, ?
children seem to be enjoying them."
sprang upon her offspring with a cry of despair. ", what shall
do? we shall not have a wink of sleep with them to-night.
is that nux?" hunted for the medicine in her bag, and the children
submitted; for they had eaten all the cherries, and they took their
medicine without a murmur. " wonder at your letting them eat the sour
things, ," said their mother, when the children bad run off to the
newsstand again.
" wonder that you left me to see what they were doing," promptly
retorted their father.
" was your nonsense about the brides," said ; "and think this
has been a lesson to us. 't let them get anything else to eat,
dearest."
" are safe; they have no more money. are frugally confining
themselves to the admiration of the bows and arrows yonder.
have our taken to making bows and arrows?"
despised the small pleasantry. " you saw nobody at the
hotel?" she asked.
" even the ," said .
", yes," said ; "that was where we met them. long ago it
seems! poor little ! wonder what has become of them?
'm glad they're not here. 's what makes you realize your age:
meeting the same people in the same place a great while after, and seeing
how old--they've grown. don't think could bear to see
again. 'm glad she did n't come to visit us in , though, after
what happened, she could n't, poor thing! wonder if she 's ever
regretted her breaking with him in the way she did. 's a very painful
thing to think of,--such an inconclusive conclusion; it always seemed as
if they ought to meet again, somewhere."
" don't believe she ever wished it."
" man can't tell what a woman wishes."
", neither can a woman," returned , lightly.
wife remained serious. " was a very fine point,--a very little
thing to reject a man for. felt that when first read her letter
about it."
yawned. " don't believe ever knew just what the point was."
" yes, you did; but you forget everything. know that they met two
ladies just after they were engaged, and she believed that he did
n't introduce her because he was ashamed of her countrified appearance
before them."
" was a pretty fine point," said , and he laughed provokingly.
" might not have meant to ignore her," answered thoughtfully;
"he might have chosen not to introduce her because he felt too proud of
her to subject her to any possible misappreciation from them. might
have looked at it in that way."
" didn't you look at it in that way? advised her against giving
him another chance. did you?"
"?" repeated , absently. ", a woman does n't judge a man by
what he does, but by what he is! knew that if she dismissed him it was
because she never really had trusted or could trust his love; and
thought she had better not make another trial."
", very possibly you were right. any rate, you have the
consolation of knowing that it's too late to help it now."
", it's too late," said ; and her thoughts went back to her
meeting with the young girl whom she had liked so much, and whose after
history had interested her so painfully. seemed to her a hard world
that could come to nothing better than that for the girl whom she had
seen in her first glimpse of it that night. was she now? had
become of her? she had married that man, would she have been any
happier? was not the poetic dream of perfect union that a girl
imagines it; she herself had found that out. was a state of trial,
of probation; it was an ordeal, not an ecstasy. she and had
broken each other's hearts and parted, would not the fragments of their
lives have been on a much finer, much higher plane? not the
commonplace, every-day experiences of marriage vulgarized them both?
be sure, there were the children; but if they had never had the
children, she would never have missed them; and if had, for
example, died just before they were married-- started from this wicked
reverie, and ran towards her husband, whose broad, honest back, with no
visible neck or shirt-collar, was turned towards her, as he stood, with
his head thrown up, studying a time-table on the wall; she passed her arm
convulsively through his, and pulled him away.
"'s time to be getting our bags out to the train, ! , !
, we're going!"
children reluctantly turned from the newsman's trumpery, and they all
went out to the track, and took seats on the benches under the colonnade.
they waited; the train for drew in, and they remained
watching it till it started. the last car that passed them, when it
was fairly under way, a face looked full at from one of the
windows. that moment of astonishment she forgot to observe whether it
was sad or glad; she only saw, or believed she saw, the light of
recognition dawn into its eyes, and then it was gone.
"!" she cried, "stop the train! was !"
" no, it wasn't," said , easily. " looked like her; but it
looked at least ten years older."
", of course it was! 're all ten years older," returned his wife in
such indignation at his stupidity that she neglected to insist upon his
stopping the train, which was rapidly diminishing in the perspective.
declared it was only a fancied resemblance; she contended that this
was in the neighborhood of , and it must be ; and thus one
of their most inveterate disagreements began.
own train drew into the depot, and they disputed upon the fact in
question till they entered on the passage of the .
rose and called the children to his side. the left hand, far up
the river, the great shows, with its mists at its foot and its
rainbow on its brow, as silent and still as if it were vastly painted
there; and below the bridge on the right, leap the in the narrow
gorge, like seas on a rocky shore. " on both sides, now," he said to
the children. " you must see this!"
had been preparing for the passage of this bridge ever since she
left . "!" she exclaimed. instantly closed her eyes, and
hid her face in her handkerchief. to this precaution of hers, the
train crossed the bridge in perfect safety.