congratulations.—reconciliation.—true love triumphant.—the wedding.—the end.
o
ne of the first of mr. cowdrick’s friends who called to congratulate him upon the result of the painful ordeal to which he had been subjected was father tunicle.
“it must have been,” said the faithful pastor, “a terrible strain upon a man of delicate sensibility to sit there, uncertain what your fate would be. i sympathize with you heartily, and rejoice that the end was not worse.”
“you are very kind,” said mr. cowdrick, smiling. “life is full of sorrows and afflictions for all of us; and of course i cannot expect to escape bearing my share of them.”
“no; and it is a comfort to reflect that these troubles are sent to us for our good. i shall expect you now to be a more efficient worker than ever at st. cadmus’s.”
“i don’t know,” replied mr. cowdrick reflectively.204 “possibly it might be better, all things considered, if i should not resume my official position in the church.”
“but, really, you must,” answered father tunicle. “you are still a member of the vestry, and matters will move more smoothly now, for yetts has resigned. he was the thorn in my side.”
“where has yetts gone?”
“i believe he has taken a pew at st. sepulchre’s, which, you know, is extremely low church. poor yetts! he has fallen very far! do you know that the rector of st. sepulchre’s positively will not use a red altar-cloth on martyrs’ days; and that he walks to church with an umbrella upon the festival of st. swithin,—a positive insult to the memory of the saint.”
“incredible!” exclaimed mr. cowdrick.
“i have it upon good authority. such practices do much to hinder the progress of the work of evangelization.”
“i should think so,” said mr. cowdrick.
“and speaking of that work,” continued father tunicle, “i want to obtain a little pecuniary assistance from you. i have just prepared for circulation among the depraved poor a little tract upon the sufferings of st. blasius of cappadocia, but i have not money enough to print it. can you help me?”
“certainly. how much do you want?”
205 “fifty dollars are all that i ought to ask for. that sum, i think, will enable me to increase the religious fervor of the poor in my parish to a notable extent.”
mr. cowdrick handed the money to the devoted clergyman, who thereupon withdrew.
another early caller upon mr. cowdrick was an agent of the widows’ and orphans’ life assurance company, in which the banker held a policy. this gentleman, representing a corporation which a week before was preparing to take legal measures to contest mrs. cowdrick’s claim, brought with him the company’s last annual statement, and a formidable array of other documents, with an intent to persuade mr. cowdrick to have his life insured for an additional twenty thousand dollars.
upon the second day after mr. cowdrick’s release, also, the de flukes sent to mrs. cowdrick an invitation to a kettle-drum, together with a note explaining that a former unfortunate recall of an invitation was due to the colossal stupidity of a servant who had since been dismissed.
this very considerate behavior on the part of the de flukes had a favorable effect upon mrs. cowdrick’s spirits. she brightened up in a wonderful manner, and there seemed to be every reason for believing that her load of sorrow was lifted at last.
colonel hoker, writing in the crab of the trial and its results, explained to his readers that the206 verdict was rather technical than indicative of intentional wrong-doing, and he congratulated the community that one of its most enterprising and valuable citizens had succeeded in escaping from the toils of complicated financial transactions in which he had been enveloped by injudicious friends.
colonel hoker was disposed to criticise with some degree of severity coroner mcsorley’s absurd, not to say wicked, performances with the unearthed bones; but the violence of the indignation with which he contemplated the phenomenal stupidity and the grasping avarice of the coroner, with respect to the remains in question, was greatly tempered by the consideration that coroner mcsorley’s brother was sheriff of the county, with an advertising patronage estimated by good judges to amount to not less than fifty thousand dollars a year.
when mr. cowdrick received the note addressed to him by mr. weems, he replied briefly, asking the artist to call upon him at his residence; and when mr. weems did so, mr. cowdrick received him with gravity, and with some degree of coolness.
“mr. weems,” said the banker, “i sent for you because i wished to discuss with you the matter referred to in your note. my first impulse was to take no notice of the communication, for i will not conceal from you that your treatment of my daughter had embittered me against you to such207 an extent, that i felt as if i could never forgive you. but my child’s happiness must be considered before my own feelings. it is my duty and my privilege so to consider them; and, to be frank with you, her sufferings have been so intense within the last few days, that i have felt myself willing to make almost any sacrifice in order to alleviate them.”
“miss leonie is not ill, i trust?” asked mr. weems, with an admirably simulated look of alarm upon his countenance.
“mr. weems,” said mr. cowdrick, seriously, “it may be injudicious for me to say so to you, because it will give you an unfair advantage at the outset; but leonie has been deeply distressed at your treatment of her. if i were a sentimental man, i should say that her heart is breaking. she refuses food, she is continually downcast and melancholy, and in her broken sleep she babbles continually of you.”
“poor thing!” said mr. weems, wiping his eyes.
“mrs. cowdrick and i have been much distressed because of her condition; but we should have been at a loss for a remedy if your note had not suggested one.”
“i have been equally unhappy myself,” said mr. weems. “i wrote because i could find relief for my feelings in no other manner.”
“now that you are here,” continued mr. cowdrick, “we might as well have a complete understanding.208 are you prepared to make a proposition of any kind?”
“i should like to offer a suggestion, if i dared.”
“you have my permission to speak freely; and i would add, in order to remove any misapprehension, that leonie cowdrick need not seek an alliance unless she chooses to do so, for her parents are well able to maintain her in luxury.”
“well, mr. cowdrick,” replied mr. weems, “what i have to say is, that if leonie can forgive and forget the past, it will give me the greatest happiness to renew my engagement with her, and to return to the conditions that existed before that miserable quarrel occurred. do you think she will consent?”
“under some pressure from me and from her mother, i think she will. for my part, i am willing to overlook what has happened, and to receive you once more into my family.”
mr. cowdrick extended his hand, and mr. weems shook it warmly.
“and now, mr. weems,” said mr. cowdrick, “there’s another matter, of which i wish to speak. i refer to your art. pardon me for asking you, but although i shall make some provision for leonie, you, of course, must do something also. what is the condition of your art—in a financial sense, i mean?”
“well, business is a little dull just at this moment.”
209 “i thought so. the proportion of old masters in the market to the purchasing population is too great. can’t you take up something else?”
mr. weems reflected for a moment upon the painful lack of opportunities to rob banks with impunity and profit, and then said,—
“no; i am afraid not. i am a painter and must live by painting.”
“just so; but why not paint pictures that can be sold readily?”
“there is no money in landscapes, still-life, or figure-pieces, unless a man has genius. a painter of ordinary powers has no chance.”
“but why not imitate genius, just as you imitate the old masters?”
“how do you mean?”
“genius is apt to be eccentric. if you make a show of eccentricity, most persons will accept that as a sure token of genius. you want to be odd, novel, peculiar, altogether different from other people.”
“there may be something in that.”
“paint a venus with feet like a fishwoman, and with a cast in her eye. paint a moses with a moustache and spectacles. daub off a jet-black night-scene, in which you can perceive nothing but absolute, impenetrable gloom, and label it ‘a meditation upon darkness;’ cover a canvas with blots of white paint, with nothing but the bowsprit of a210 ship visible, and call it ‘a misty morning in the harbor.’ that is the way to provoke criticism and discussion, to acquire notoriety, and to find purchasers.”
“it is a good idea,” replied mr. weems. “i am much obliged to you for it; i will accept it, and act upon it.”
“would you like to see leonie before you go?” asked mr. cowdrick.
“if she is willing, i should very much.”
“i will speak to her about it, and prepare her for the interview,” said mr. cowdrick, withdrawing from the room.
a moment later he returned with leonie upon his arm. she had her handkerchief to her eyes.
“leonie,” said mr. cowdrick, “this is julius. he asks you to forgive him.”
“then she flew into his arms.”
leonie lifted up her head, and the lovers looked at each other for an instant. then she flew into his arms before a word had been spoken by either of them, and as he clasped her closely, she nestled her head upon his bosom.
mr. weems retained his self-possession so perfectly during this touching scene that he was conscious of the fracture of some cigars in his waistcoat pocket by the presence of leonie’s shoulder; but he bore the disaster bravely, without flinching.
before he released his hold of her, mrs. cowdrick entered the room, and was so much overcome by211 the intensity of her emotions when she saw the lovers, that she dropped upon the sofa, and remained in a hysterical condition for at least ten minutes, despite the efforts of mr. cowdrick to soothe her.
when mrs. cowdrick’s emotion had at last been brought to some extent under control, mr. cowdrick suggested that it might be as well to fix at once upon a day for the wedding, so that the two lovers, after all the sorrows and misunderstandings that had kept them apart, might enter the perfect bliss and the sure serenity of wedlock.
mr. cowdrick pressed for an early date, and although mrs. cowdrick betrayed new and alarming hysterical symptoms when her husband expressed the opinion that all the arrangements might be made within a week, she finally reconciled herself to the selection by leonie of a day exactly three weeks distant.
upon the very next morning mrs. cowdrick and leonie began the work of preparation; and it is unnecessary to say that while the labor continued, both of them were in a state of nearly perfect felicity.
if earth is ever to a woman a little heaven here below, it is when she is called upon to go shopping upon a large scale with a long purse. the female mind experiences the purest joy when there are bonnets to be trimmed, fabrics to be matched, dresses to be made, underclothing to be stitched212 and frilled, pillow-cases and sheets to be made up, towels to be fringed and marked, furniture to be selected, crockery to be purchased, and a general fitting-out to be undertaken. mrs. cowdrick soon had a dozen sempstresses employed, and every day she and leonie, in a frame of exquisite happiness, made the round of the shops, gathering huge heaps of parcels. one single touch of alloy came to mitigate the intensity of their enjoyment. the diamond merchant and the dealer in sealskin sacques, having learned from harsh experience the peril of mrs. cowdrick’s enthusiasm for nice things, unkindly insisted upon making their contributions to leonie’s outfit upon a basis of cash in hand before delivery of the goods. but then we must not expect to have absolutely pure joy in this world.
cards for the wedding were sent out at once to all of the friends of the bride and groom, and of mr. and mrs. cowdrick. of course, it can hardly be expected that the union of two lovers should excite very tender sympathy among disinterested persons; but it is rather melancholy to reflect that most of the individuals who received cards from the cowdricks did not accept the compliment with unmixed satisfaction. the first thought that occurred to them upon reading the invitation was that they would be compelled to expend something for wedding presents, and many of them had a feeling, not clearly defined, but still strong, that the marriage213 of cowdrick’s daughter was somehow a mean kind of an attempt on cowdrick’s part to levy tribute upon them.
the presents, however, soon began to come in. father tunicle was heard from among the first. he sent a sweet little volume of his sermons (the lithographed discourse not being included among them). the book had been published at the cost of a few of the reverend gentleman’s admirers, whose expectations of the result were rather disappointed by the sale of no more than thirty-four copies within two years. father tunicle sent the book to leonie, with a touching note, requesting her especial attention to the sermon upon auricular confession, upon page 75. colonel hoker, of the crab, sent a handsome silver-plated tea-set, whose value to leonie was not in any manner decreased by the circumstance, unknown to her, that the colonel had taken it from a former advertiser in payment for a bad debt. the de flukes sent a pair of elegant fish-knives quite large enough to have served at a dinner where a moderate-sized whale should follow the soup, and certainly utterly useless for the dissection and distribution of any fish of smaller dimensions than a sturgeon. the higginses, who were not in very good circumstances, and who were trying hard to save up enough money to pay for a fortnight’s visit to the seaside in the summer, reluctantly sent a cake-basket,214 because mr. cowdrick had given one to maria higgins the year before, upon the occasion of her union with dr. turmeric. if mr. higgins had ventured, in the note he sent with the gift, to express his true feelings, the vehemence of his utterance would have made leonie’s head swim; but, happily, he controlled himself.
a perfect outrage was, however, perpetrated by mr. john doubleday, who had lost heavily by the failure of mr. cowdrick’s bank. he positively had the impudence to enclose to leonie, with his compliments, a cheque for one hundred dollars upon the aforesaid late financial institution. mr. cowdrick said that a man who was capable of doing a thing of that kind was not fit to live in civilized society.
mr. weems’s artist friends all sent pictures, evidently with an intent that weems should begin his married life with the walls of his dwelling covered with “pot-boilers,” whose unsalable qualities made them as ineffective in that capacity as they were in their pretensions to be regarded as works of art. weems felt, as he surveyed the collection, that there must have been among the brethren an organized conspiracy to unload upon him the corners of the studios.
among the other presents received were travelling-cases, which held nothing that anybody ever wants upon a journey; cheap spoons put into a case marked with the name of a first-class silversmith,215 with an intent to create a wrong impression respecting the quality of the wares; and a host of trifles, most of them completely useless, and all of them accounted by the bride and groom as so much spoil collected under the duress of a custom which is idiotic when it requires anything that is not a genuine expression of affection or esteem.
at last, when every indignant friend had sent in a contribution, when all the dresses were made, the bonnets constructed, and the frippery and fiddle-faddle and frills arranged, the day of the wedding came. it must be described, of course. but why should an unpractised hand attempt to tell of it, when there is, within easy reach, the narrative written by the expert and dexterous fashion reporter of the daily crab? far better would it be to transfer bodily to these pages that faithful and complete description.
(from the “daily crab.”)
a wedding in high life.
“st. cadmus’s church, perkiomen square, yesterday was the scene of one of the most brilliant weddings of the season. for some weeks past the approaching event has been an absorbing topic of conversation in fashionable circles, the loveliness of the bride-elect, the popularity of the fortunate groom, and the high social standing of all the216 interested parties having invested the matter with more than ordinary importance. the bride was miss leonie cowdrick, only daughter of the well-known ex-banker and philanthropist, henry g. cowdrick, esq., and herself one of the leading belles of the bon ton. the groom was julius weems, esq., the artist, a man whose skill as a wielder of the brush, not less than his qualities of head and heart, have made him the idol of a large circle of friends.
“the wedding ceremony was announced for half-past four in the afternoon; and long before that hour the streets in the vicinity of st. cadmus’s were thronged with equipages belonging to the élite of our society. none were admitted to the church but those who were so happy as to possess cards; the edifice, however, was densely thronged, with the exception of the pews which were reserved in the front for the immediate family and near relatives of the high contracting parties.
“the ushers, who officiated with rare delicacy and discrimination, were messrs. peter b. thomas, arthur mcginn dabney, g. g. parker, and daniel o’huff—all of them brother artists of the groom’s, and men well known in cultivated circles.
“professor peddle presided at the organ, and previous to the arrival of the bridal party he discoursed most delicious music.
“among the distinguished persons who graced217 the occasion with their presence, we noted the following:—
“major-gen. bung, colonel growler, professor boodle, rev. dr. wattles, judge potthinkle, captain dingus, major doolittle, hon. john gigg, m.c., judge snoozer, of the supreme court; miss delilah hopper (minnie myrtle), the famous authoress of ‘the bride of an evening,’ ‘a broken heart,’ etc., etc., professor blizzard, state entomologist; governor tilby, ex-governor raffles, dr. borer, u.s.a.; rear-admiral mizzen, u.s.n.; senator smoot, signor portulacca, the venezuelan ambassador, general curculio, minister from nicaragua; general whisker, the railroad magnate; colonel and mrs. grabeau, dr. hummer, thos. g. witt, esq., hon. john grubb, captain mahoney, of the state militia; professor smith, of the university; galusha m. budd, president of the board of trade; hon. p. r. bixby, mayor of the city; and many others.
“at precisely five o’clock, rev. mr. tunicle entered the church in full ecclesiastical vestments, accompanied by rev. dr. pillsbury, and by rev. john a. stapleton, an uncle of the bride’s. at this juncture the organ sounded the first notes of the coronation march from ‘il prophete,’ and the bride entered upon the arm of her father. following her came the groom, with miss lillie whackle, the first bridesmaid, and these were succeeded by the remainder of the bridal party.
218 “the bride was dressed with exquisite taste, in a white satin costume, which had creamy lace in jabots down the waist and sides, mingled with pearl trimmings; while the sleeves coming only to the elbow, were made entirely of lace. the back was left quite plain, with waist and skirt in one. upon her head she wore a dainty wreath of orange blossoms, and, of course, the usual veil.
“among other costumes in the bridal party, we noticed a lyons tulle, made up over satin, with flowing rosettes, and ribbons of white satin for trimming.
“attention was directed also to a white tarletan trimmed with breton lace and insertions, and covered with bows and loops and ends of satin ribbon.
“one of the ladies of the party wore a distinguished costume of cream-colored satin, with paniers of pekin grenadine, with stripes of white alternating with stripes of cream-color; there was a satin corsage, plain, like a basque; and across the front-breadths of the skirt there were soft puffs of satin and grenadine.
“mrs. cowdrick, the mother of the bride, appeared in a regal toilette of black velvet and diamonds.
“the ceremony was read in a deeply impressive manner by rev. mr. tunicle, the bride being given away, of course, by her father.
219 “mrs. cowdrick was so strongly affected by the consciousness that her daughter was being taken from her, that at the conclusion of the ceremony she displayed some slight hysterical symptoms, which for a moment threatened to create confusion. she became calmer, however, and was led out from the church by one of the ushers, weeping.
“professor peddle then began mendelssohn’s wedding march, and the proud and happy groom, with his lovely wife upon his arm, turned to lead the bridal party down the aisle.
“we learn that a magnificent entertainment was given later in the day at the residence of mr. cowdrick, to his friends, and that the festivities were prolonged until a late hour. it is understood that the newly-married couple will spend their honeymoon at saratoga.”
the reporter was not admitted to the entertainment, and so there is upon record no description of it. but we might, if we chose, safely guess at hot rooms, so crowded that motion was nearly impossible; at absurd attempts to dance within narrow spaces; at rows of wall-flowers along the sides of the rooms; at inane attempts at conversation between guests who were strangers to each other; of groups of uncomfortable people trying to appear as if they felt very happy; of a supper-table loaded with rich viands for which well-dressed men220 scrambled as if they had been fasting for weeks; of ices spilled upon costly dresses, and champagne glasses emptied upon fine coats; and, finally, of departing guests in the gentlemen’s dressing-rooms, saying unhandsome things to each other in sneering whispers of the man whose hospitality they had accepted.
we can imagine these things; and perhaps if we could have looked into the house at two o’clock in the morning when the last guest had said farewell, we might have heard mr. cowdrick say, as he threw himself weary and worn in an easy-chair,—
“well, thank goodness, louisa, leonie is off of our hands at last!”
