Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1867-09-05
WILMINGTON, DEL, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER s, 1867.

ish curatc of ST. Jude's, of which DR.. Philip
Raymond was rector.
Fifty PAGES lower down, on the opposite
side of the way, in large, old-lashioned,
bow windowcd house, resided Mr.. Fcrgu-
son, barristcr and widower, with his
called the Ferguson
girls. They were four, all nearly Of height
and all dressed alike; and as they walked
abroad in pairs only-one pair going out
when the other pair went in-they had the
effect of parading Norminster streets good
deal. They were nice girls and clever-one
sang one etched, one read, and one was do
mcstic and pretty. They called on Mrs.
Wynyard with an Introduction from Mrs.
Fcathcrstone, who was their eldest sister,
and attempted to get up friendship with
Anna; but Anna was reserved, and they
did not make very promising progress. The
Martin girls-the two dashing daughters of
Col and Mrs. Martin-had no better success,
and in talking her over with the Ferguson
girls, she was pronounced dull and exces-
sively proud. The colonels dandy son said
she was fine figure of girl, but deuced
cold; and before she had been many weeks
in Briggate she was perfectly well known
by sight and name to the idle strollers of an
afternoon between her home and the Minis
ter, whittier she established practice OF
going to evening prayers with Lois three or
four times week-for the sake of the music.
Before midsummer Anna had settled into
her new groove quite contentedly. She
even liked it. 1t was much more cheerful
than Eastwood. Pressing anxieties were
past: no misfortune to come menaced
them. Her mothers means were small, but
luxury had long been too strange to be felt
as need. Nobody around them was osten-
tatiously splendid, and Anna discovered that
she had only to wish for agreeable society to
have it. DR.. Philip Raymond made his
kinswomen acquainted with friends Of his
own; and by-and-by, when Anna marched
stately down Bleak Street.-The Pail Mall OF
Norminster-with Lois beside her, many
hats were lifted in acknowledgment of her
serene bow, and many ladies smiled on her
formal recognition. But at present it was
not Annas whim-or policy-to be intimate
with any; and no one got beyond the res
pectful sort of criticism which defined her
as handsome, naughty, and hard to know.
No one professed to have any familiar idea
of her whatever. She might have lived to
be thirty in Briggate, and the most free-and-
easy Of men would never have presumed to
class her in the same category with the
popular Ferguson girls, or the fashionable
Martin girls.
Wishing Anna to marry, Mrs. Wynyard,
as she became at home in Norminster, natu-
rally endeavored to make her drawing-room
pleasant to few select friends. The socia-
bic custom Of kettle-drum did not then pre-
vail, but she set the fashion. Tea and cof-
fee in old silver and old china were cheap
and choice there any day from five to half
past six in summer; and often, when Anna
and Lois returned from the Minister service,
they found mamma holding conversation
with the exquisite Captain Martin and sis
ter, with Ferguson girl or two, with the
reverend young Mr.. Scrope, and by-and-by
with higher dignities from the rarified at
mosphere of the Minster-yard, introduced
by DR.. Philip Raymond.
1t was understood that no evening invita-
tions could he accepted for Anna until the
first year of her mourning for her fathor had
expired, though her mother did not object
to her joining occasional garden parties for
croquet or archery in the mornings, if she
liked But Anna did not often like. In
deed, she was so calmly Indifferent to the
amusements and company suited to her age,
that other girls began shrewdly to suspect
that she must be in love with somebody
who was not to be met with in Norminster
gardens and parlors. 1t may be admitted
that this idea was not altogether without
foundation. Anna liked to dream of Esk-
ford better than TO play at any game, or to
engage in any diversion in any company.
Early in July Bleak street grew annually
dcsolate, and everybody in Norminster who
could afford 1t fled to the sea-sidc-to Filey,
Burlington, Redcar, Scarborough, or Whit
by. DR.. Philip Raymond went to Whitby,
and carried Maurice with him. He invited
his sister-in-law and the girls to accompany
them; but Mrs. Wynyard knew his income,
and the tax she was on 1t already, and firm
ly declined. Lois was severely disappointed,
for she had looked forward to being with
Maurice in the holidays. Anna, who knew
such self-denial must be practlscd, saw the
prospect vanish without murmur, though
not without modification, when she had to
reply to Bella Martins question-wherc
they were going for sea air ?-that they were
going nowhere. Soon after the Martins,
Mr.. Clarkson, Mrs. Bingley and her boys,
and all the Fergusons disappeared from
Briggate; and when Anna took her usual
way OF an afternoon through the sultry
streets to Minister, she missed the gossipping
groups that were wont to assemble about
the door of Liversedge's library, and en-
countered instead vacant captains lounging
companionless from drcary barrack to de-
serted club, and back again; and dusty, un-
benefited clerics, of the laborious type, left
to do the work of rec,ors and canons gone
into breezy retreat.
During the first week of August all the
world hogan 10 return for the two days
races, and the ball which preceded n second