AN EXHAUSTED HUSBAND.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 338, 14 July 1874, Page 2

AN EXHAUSTED HUSBAND.

My Dear A.UXT, — Although you told me when I invited you to my wedding that I was too young to marry, and not capable of choosing a mate for life properly and with duo consideration, I know that you may now feel that I was wiser than you thought. In selecting dear Orlando I have gained a most affectionate and attentive husband, and one who has neither a fault nor a vice. Heavens ! What must a girl suffer who finds herself united to a dissipated person, neglectful of her, and disposed to seek the society of unworthy persons, who drink, smoko, and do all sorts of wicked things ! Thank Heaven, Orlando is perfection. To-day is my ISth birthday, and we have been rcarricd a year. We keep house now, and I can make pretty good pies, only the undercrust will bo damp. However, I think that must be the oven. Onco I put peppermint in the pudding sauce, instead of lemon flavoring ; but then Orlando wa3 trying to kiss me right before the girl, who didn't much, like either of us going into the kitchen at all. The flowers are coming up beautifully in the back garden. We sowed a great many, but hardly expected so many plants. Among tho most numerous is one variety with a very large leaf, that scratches one's fingers and don't smell nice. I wonder what it is ? Orlando frightens me by talking aboat weeds ; but seeds always come up, don't they. Dear Orlando ! I come back to him again — so excellent, temperate, and true. Tell all the girls to marry as aoon as they can if they can find a husband Jike mine. I havo but one trial — business takes him so much away from me. A lawyer must attend to business, you kno\% j. and sometimes they carry on the cases until two at night. > Often he has examined witnesses until 12.30, and comes \ home p3rfectly exhausted. Anrt the nasty things will smoko, so that his coat smells quite of it. And as it makes him as ill ns it does me, I have to air it and sprinkle the lining with cologne water before he dares to put it on again. I had a terrible fright the other night — dreadful. Orlando had told mo that business — I think bo said it was a ca3e of life and death — would detain him late. So I sat up as usual, with a book, and did not worry until 1< o'clock. After that I was a little anxious, I confess, and caught a cold in my head peeping through the window-bhnds up-stairs ;. jor, dear aunt, it was not until 3 o'clock that I heard a cab driving up tho street, nnd saw it stop at our door; then I thought I should faint, for I was sure some dreadful accident had happened to Orlando. I ran down to open the door, and Mr Smith, a friend of Orlando's, who is not, I confess, very much to my taste — — such a red-faced noisy man— was just supporting my dearboy up the steps. ' Oh, what has happened ! ' cried I. • Don't be frightened, Mrs White,' said Mr Smith. ' Nothing at all ; only White is a little exhausted. Application to business will exhaust a man, and I thought I'd bring him home.' « All right, Belle,' said Orlando, « Smith tells the truth— I'm exhausted.' And, dearest aunt, he was so*, much so that ho spoke quite thick, and couldn't stand up without tottering. Mr Smith was kind enough to help him up-stairs ; and he lay upon the bed so prostrated that I thought he was going to die. Then I remembered the French brandy you gave in case of sickness. I ran to get it out. ' Havo a little brandy and water, dear ? ' said I. 1 The very thing. Smith is exhausted, 100. Give some to Smith,' said he. And so I reproached myself for not having thought of it before Mr Smith was gone. But I gave a glass to Orlando, and, under Providence, I think it saved his life j for, oh,. , how bad he w as ! 1 Bella,' said he, quite faltering in his speech, ' the room is going round so fast that I can't catch your eye. And besides there's two of you, and I don't know which is which.' I knew theso were dreadful symptoms. ' Take a drink, dear,' said I, ' and I'll try to wake Mary and Fend her for the doctor.' ' No,' said he, ' I'll be all right in the morning. I'm nil right now. Here's your health. You're a brick. I — ' and over he fell, fast asleep. 01), why do men think so much of money-making ? Is not health better than anj thing else ? Of course, as he lay down in his hat, I took that off first. And I managed to dhest him of his coat. But when it came to his boots— dearest aunt, did jou ever take off a gentleman's boots ? probably not, as you arc a single lady — what a task! How do they ever get 'em on? I pulled and 1 tugged, and shook and wriggled, and gave it up. But it would not do to leaAe (Vein oh all night; sol went at it again, and at last one enme off so suddenly, and over I went on the floor, and into his hnt t which I bad put down there for a minute. T could have cried. Anel the other came off" the same way, just as hard nnd jnst as sudden ns last. Then I put a soft blnnket over Orlando, and eat (in my sewing chair all night. Oh, how heavily he breathed, And I had, as you mny fnncy, the most dreadful fears. He might have killed himself by his over application to business, for all that I knew . The perfect ones go first it is said. Oh, how differently should I have felt had anything happened to my beloved Orlando. He has not had so exhausting a day since, and I think he sees the folly of overwork j (.hough if courts will keep open so late, what can poor i lawyers do ? I think it is very inconsiderate of the Judgo I wonder whether ho has a wife — the mean old thing. — Mercury.