The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1869-12-02

: castically, without any regard for IN
distress.
Poor Mrs. Foster looked great
troubled. "You must try to bear wit
. each other" was all she had time t
say when callers we're announced, an
: Tom seized me and dragged me ou
through the back parlor.
"No~, Tom," said /, calmly, for tn
fresh air revived me and I had erie,
! of some Of my emotion, "do Jon cal
, this CONCESSION 2"
"'Concession =" replied he, as if h,
had never heard of the word before
"Wcll, no-not exactly"
"Wcll," said I, "don-t you remem
Der that you told me you should al
ways be 6 lad to make concessions, an(
that my will should always be you
law !"
NO." said Tom, stoutly, II do not
and if I ever said such silly thing,
should desire to forget it. Everybody
knows that it is woman's place to
yield, and every true woman finds her
! highest pleasure in doing SO = and
! then he began little whispering whis-
Ting of "Yankec Doodle" which he
kept up all the way home, as if de-
termined to show all the contempt he
could for me. -----~s ~ -
For aught I could see, Tom was be-
coming as bad as my father and BROTH
ers, and this, too, when he had explic-
itly; and of his own accord, promised
to conce1e:2 1t was only four months
four little month-since that promise,
sealed with that impessioned kiss, and
now I was expected to find my highest
pleasure in submitting to his will.
One thing was certain: Tom had
told; = lie, whether I had "'given' it to
himm b Or not. If he would tell lie
about one thing, Why not about another
why not about everything? My days
Of happiness were over, for it was plain
1 never could trus: Tom as had
done. ~,
1had entirely forgotten that I had
told him with. equal sincerity at the
time, that he never would have to make
any concessions to me, and that it was
this lamb.like sentiment which had
called forth his final declaration and
kiss. thoug ght We should have a
wretched time after this walk, which be-
gan so pleasantly and ended so sadly,
but diversion came from an unexpected
source.
Esther Flanders and her brother
Philip came in to pass the evening: I
liked Esther very much, but her broth
er I had never seen before. He was
most captivating maa. "Captivating"
is just tie word to describe: him. He
took ones judgment, taste and fancy
by storm such fine manners, such rare
culture, such. delicate tact l had never
seen united:in one person, and although
Tom and I were in such miserable
state, he succeeded in calling US out
wonderfully. I was conscious that I
had never talked So we'll, nor had l
ever sung and played better than I did
with this magnetic stranger to turn the
leaves for me. !
Tom was pleased with his evident
but respectful admiration of me, aud
told me, with half attempt at recon-
ci)iation, that be was pr oud of me, for
Philip Flanders was the most fastidi-
GUS and critical man he knew, and that
he especially admired a woman who
talked well, aud I certainly did. I was
not much grati6ed by Toms praise,
for I could not understand how he
could so soon get over our storm of the
afternoon he seemed to have done 50,
however, and never alluded to it again
but it ranked in my mind, aud with
every differencc-we had them pretty
often nova sense Of my wrongs 10
this matter. of concession famed up
afresh. But l forgot my wrongs when
with Philip Flanders; and: indeed, in
his presence / forgot everything but
music, culture aud the gifted man who
sang SO well and fer me alone, Tor he
was often in of an evening ana i, so
happened that his calls come on Toms
club evenings rather more frequently
than at any other time. 1t was very
pleasant, and l did not always tell Tom
when he had been with me: I did not
want to tell him everything, as at first,
aud by degrees I found myself thinking
quite rs much Of Philip Flanders aud
his sympathy in any emergency as of
One evening, when Tom and ] had
exchanged ,scme unusually hard words
as hard, l fancied, as those which he
| told me, at the time of the concession
proposal, he had heard pass between
his father and mother-Tom strobe out
| through the front parlor, cxclaiming
angrily, "Den't try sulking with me
am not the fellow to stand it," jus,
| IS Philip Flanders entered tho back
parlor no'selessly,ato find: me sobbine
almost hysterically. l was sure he had
heard Toms last words: how much
more / could not tell. I. .s5>* =:
ut woald take very high-principlet