Sweet Cicely | Page 4

liquor that he could hardly
stand up-- why, I should have told him plain, that I wouldn't try to set
myself up as a rival to alcohol, and he might pay to that his attentions
exclusively hereafter.
But she didn't. And he promised sacred to abstain, and could, and did,
for most a year; and she married him.
But, jest before the marriage, I got so rousted up a thinkin' about what I
had heard of him at college,--and I studied on his picture, which she
had sent me, took sideways too, and I could see plain (why, he hadn't
no chin at all, as you may say; and his lips was weak and waverin' as
ever lips was, though sort o' amiable and fascinating),--and I got to
forebodin' so about that chin, and my love for her wus a hunchin' me up
so all the time, that I went to see her on a short tower, to beset her on
the subject. But, good land! I might have saved my breath, I might have
saved my tower.
I cried, and she cried too. And I says to her before I thought,--
"He'll be the ruin of you, Cicely."
And she says, "I would rather be beaten by his hand, than to be
crowned by another. Why, I love him, aunt Samantha."
You see, that meant a awful sight to her. And as she looked at me so

earnest and solemn, with tears in them pretty brown eyes, there wus in
her look all that that word could possibly mean to any soul.
But I cried into my white linen handkerchief, and couldn't help it, and
couldn't help sayin', as I see that look,--
"Cicely, I am afraid he will break your heart--kill you"--
"Why, I am not afraid to die when I am with him. I am afraid of
nothing-- of life, or death, or eternity."
Well, I see my talk was no use. I see she'd have him, chin or no chin. If
I could have taken her up in my arms, and run away with her then and
there, how much misery I could have saved her from! But I couldn't: I
had the rheumatiz. And I had to give up, and go home disappointed, but
carryin' this thought home with me on my tower,--that I had done my
duty by our sweet Cicely, and could do no more.
As I said, he promised firm to give up drinking. But, good land! what
could you expect from that chin? That chin couldn't stand temptation if
it came in his way. At the same time, his love for Cicely was such, and
his good heart and his natural gentlemanly intuitions was such, that, if
he could have been kep' out of the way of temptation, he would have
been all right.
If there hadn't been drinking-saloons right in front of that chin, if it
could have walked along the road without runnin' right into 'em, it
would have got along. That chin, and them waverin'-lookin', amiable
lips, wouldn't have stirred a step out of their ways to get ruined and
disgraced: they wouldn't have took the trouble to.
And for a year or so he and the chin kep' out of the way of temptation,
or ruther temptation kep' out of their way; and Cicely was
happy,--radiently happy, as only such a nature as hern can be. Her face
looked like a mornin' in June, it wus so bright, and glowing with joy
and happy love.
I visited her, stayed 3 days and 2 nights with her; and I almost forgot to

forebode about the lower part of his face, I found 'em so happy and
prosperous and likely.
Paul wus very rich. He wus the only child: and his pa left 2 thirds of his
property to him, and the other third to his ma, which wus more than she
could ever use while she wus alive; and at her death it wus to go to Paul
and his heirs.
They owned most all of the village they lived in. His pa had owned the
township the village was built on, and had built most all the village
himself, and rented the buildings. He owned a big manufactory there,
and the buildings rented high.
Wall, it wus in the second year of their marriage that that old college
chumb--(and I wish he had been chumbed by a pole, before he had ever
gone there). He had lost his property, and come down in the world, and
had to work for a livin'; moved into that village, and opened a
drinking-saloon and billiard-room.
He had been Paul's most intimate friend at college, and his evil genius,
so his mother said. But he was bright, witty, generous in a way,
unprincipled,