The Congregationalist

THE TEMPER- AN ANECDOTE

I recollect reading an anecdote some time since, in the journal of one of our popular tourists, which exhibited the disastrous effects that sometimes ensue for the want of self-government on trifling occasions. As far as I can remember, the story ran as follows :

The American tourist encountered, while travelling in a diligence in France, an elderly lady, who was a native of the country, and whose amiable and attractive manners and good-humored endurance of fatigue and inconveniences, excited the commendations of the American. The prepossession was mutual, and before the travellers separated, the matron threw out sundry hints for the practical guidance of her more youthful associate. Among these, was a judicious caution to him against marrying any woman, before he had become well acquainted with her domestic virtues. To this end, she advised him never to visit any young lady as an admirer, at a regular hour on each returning day. The traveller manifested surprise, and inquired, " what possible evil could result from paying his visit to the object of his admiration, at stated seasons?"

"Very great deception as to character," she replied, " might probably be the consequence, inasmuch as the young lady knowing when her lover was to be expected, would be prepared in holiday dress and smiles, to welcome him. A friend of mine," she said, " had learned a painful lesson, by thus regularly making his calls at a particular hour of the evening, on a fair acquaintance. So admirably had she uniformly appeared at these times, and so attractive, that his heart had been taken captive ; and the young lady and her family smiling on his suit, it was about to be consummated; when a very short time previous to that fixed on for their marriage, having occasion to leave town on business during the afternoon, he called unexpectedly, at an early hour of the morning, to take farewell. The hall door was open, and he entered unannounced : while he stood just within the threshold, he heard strange and discordant notes issuing from the family sitting room, which was near at hand. The sound was so unusual, that his foot was arrested, and he found himself undesignedly a listener in a scene, never intended for his ear. It was, alas! the voice of his betrothed engaged in an angry discussion with her mother, about some article of dress, in which the taste of parent and child differed -one impassioned word followed another until finally the refractory child prevailed. and the mother, with flushed face and swimming eyes, left the apartment, and passing through the hall, disappeared. Shocked and astounded by the alarming discovery which he had so unexpectedly made, the gentleman retreated with a sorrowful heart to his lodgings-a painful and heart-rending struggle ensued, the issue of which may be readily imagined; he wrote a kind and feeling letter to her who had thus deceived him so grossly, relinquished her hand for ever; since he felt assured, that one who could not command her temper on such an occasion, to her mother, was illy qualified to render him happy as his wife.

How many such discoveries are made, my dear E - , by both man and woman, when, alas! it can profit them nothing--the irrevocable vow has been pronounced, and they have been joined together, until death shall sever the tie, with tastes uncongenial tempers unsanctified, and wills unsubdued.

Young Ladies' Companion.