The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 153: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

UNCLE BENJAMIN’S PAST. | 345 ‘That remark only shows the severity of your fever—nothing more. Why should you marry? ,.Now, at all events. You are in receipt of a good income as manager of my business ; will be admitted to a junior partnership next year if you go on as well as you have been doing; and when I die you will be Dobley & Co. ‘Then, if you have another attack of the fever, you will be in a position to humor expensive and hazardous whims, and, if you are prudent meanwhile, will be able to make such rational selection of a Mrs. Chester as would be impossible now.’’ ) ‘“T don’t see why I should. Risk is inherent in the venture at any time —according to you.”’ ‘So it is ; so it is, my boy. The risk is always there ; but I have thought of a way in which it may be minimized. You were with me, last week, when I bought a horse. Did I take a young, unbroken, untried animal, simply on its good looks? I should say not. I bought. one that had an established record, and a good report from the preceding owner for soundness and gentle disposition. I also, it is true, gota guarantee from the seller, and that is something nobody can give with a wife ; but barring that, the principle is the same. Instead of marrying this girl you have your mind set on now, let some other fellow take that risk. Keep an eye on her and see how she turns out, what sort of a wife she makes. If she proves sound, capable, free from vice, you will be comparatively safe in marrying her when he dies.’’ The young man’s face reddened with indignation. He could not trust himself to reply, but, springing up from his chair, rushed out of the little private office in which he had been holding this conversation with his uncle. The old gentleman, Mr. Benjamin Dobley, was a merchant in coffees, teas, and sugar; a stout little man, smoothly shaven, bald, very precise in his ways,. fixed in his notions, and rich. A more confirmed misogamist than he did not live, and when his nephew, Lawrence Chester—for whom he had a truly paternal regard—evinced a desire to plunge into what he deemed the perilous sea of matrimony, he naturally did his best to dissuade the rash young man. But his really kind intent did not seem to make his opposition seem any the less a hardship to Larry. As for his atrocious theory for con- servation of the maximum of approximate safety in marrying, it will be readily imagined that Larry said nothing about it in his interview, a few hours later, with his fiancée, Miss Nelly McBride. . It had been fully understood between the young people that Mr. Dobley’s consent to their marriage was almost an essential. Jarry, who was of an in- dependent and somewhat impetuous disposition, and too deeply in love to be judicious, would have married at once, taking all possible risks of his uncle’s serious displeasure, but Nelly was more prudent and would not consent to such a rash proceeding. ‘‘ No, dear,’’ she argued. ‘‘ You: might, as you say, procure other em- ployment—though, in these dull times, the chances are against you. But think how long it would be, in a strange place, before you could gain such a position as you-have now. And perhaps you might never attain such pros- pects as are now almost a certainty for you. It might doom you to a life time of struggling if we were to marry in defiance of your uncle. | I will wait Eomichbooks