But the story of a person's life does not end with marriage, as some would have us think, for marriage generally brings out one's best qualities or develops the worst, and is sure to make or mar the life of every woman; consequently, this story is not yet finished. Yet why should I trouble myself to write out the remainder of it until I have discovered if the reading public are interested in Dexie's life so far as it has been already told? It may be that no one cares to follow her fortunes any further, or feels the least desire to know what the future has in store for her, to say nothing of the friends who have been associated with her; and as I have no wish to bore you, dear reader, gentle or otherwise, it rests with you to say if their married lives shall be laid bare or not.
I am aware that the marriage of my heroine lacked the eclat which usually attends events of that kind—in story books—but I fancy the average reader is well acquainted with all the details of an elaborate wedding, and must be surfeited with the various accounts of them by this time. However, if that is the style of wedding you prefer, I can give the names of several volumes which contain everything you can possibly desire in the way of description of gorgeous wedding costumes and all the rest of the paraphernalia that goes along with them, and you can read any account that suits you better, then take up my story further along. See?
Those that take objection to Dexie's home-life—particularly to that immediately preceding her marriage—are reminded that such lives do exist. When death visits a family, and removes the restraining head, the petty faults of the remaining inmates are apt to grow apace, unless the Angel of Death has touched their hearts with divine grace. Lacking this, the development of character has a downward tendency. It does not make pleasant reading, but I have not told an impossible tale. But who knows "how the other half lives?"
The question is—Do you care to know if Dexie has chosen her life as wisely as she might have done? Would her married life have been happier if she had married Lancy Gurney? The affection they had for each other was akin to love; there was a sympathy between them which those who have an intense love for music can alone understand, and which might have proved a source of happiness, even during a life-long existence. They might not have experienced the rapture of heartfelt love, but their lives might have been more peaceful and contented without it, for deep love often means keen sorrow.
Or would it have been better if she had accepted the love as well as the money which Hugh McNeil was so anxious to lay at her feet? She might have learned to care for him in time, and to have found pleasure in a life surrounded by all the joys that wealth can bestow. To have an abundance of worldly goods, and to be exempt from the petty cares and economies which a limited income necessitates, is a condition much to be desired, even where no love exists to soften the heart of husband and wife, and in this case Hugh McNeil could not be charged with possessing an unloving heart.
Dexie thinks she has made the wisest choice in accepting Guy Traverse and marrying for love, but she has yet to face the question—Is mutual love alone essential to secure a happy married life? or in the language of the world:
"Does it pay to marry for love alone?"
ABOUT SHORTHAND!
The need of a simpler and swifter mode of writing is felt by all who have much writing to do—by newspaper men, by legal gentlemen, by clergymen, by students in taking class lectures and making notes of many things valuable for future "refreshment," authors and scientific men in recording important facts.