Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1871-09-30

him; but his sermon was Just gorgeous, and if it
weren't for Charley Coates, and you hadn't
warned me so aPpallingiy against marrying
sFor the minister's sake, Pussy, you know"
interrupted Aunt Fanny.
"-I don't know but should have surrendered
Internationally.
Aunt Fanny was so thoroughly acclim ated
to my torrid rhetoric that she only smiled and
brushed away at her soft looks.
But you haven't told me al this tina who
preached, my dear; who is this new light that
almost outshOne our Charley?"
"Dr. -, let ms see, Hooper? Yes, Hooper,
and what is more, Clarence Hooper. Isn't that
romantic?"
Clarence Hooper, Goodness gracious metz
As surely as i live it was immaculate A ant
Fanny who used these improper words; she de-
MES IT 10 this day, but she 1t was who said or
rather shrieked them, in as shriu tones as her
mellow voice could assume. Her face was all
afiame-it could not be Strawberries" now; and
her brush fell from her hand In her agitation.
sprang up in culver Of delight; 80 Aun-
tie, how jollyi Are you at the bottom OF this
splendid old fellow romances? Is he one of the
tens of thousands of your slain? Tell me all
about il, there's darling. You never will tell
me anything nice. Mamma says every theo-
lOgue at the Seminary felt himself foreordained
to convert you out of Emersonianism, and into
had more offers than she ever heard of outside
of novel.
Aunt Fanny never even smiled In response to
my vehemence. The color fickered on her
cheeks and went out. her eyes had a far-away
dreamy expression; her lips were silent. Alto
eether she was most exasperating image to
confront an impetuous girls curiosity.
. Say something, Aunt Fanny, if it is only
boo What on earth has Clarence Hooper, s.
L. d., ever done to you, or you to him, to cause
brush.
81 beg pardon, Fanny" U am Aunt Fanny's
hamesake, though if they had only given me her
nature, they might have called me Karenhop-
puch-) 80 hadn't heard his name for years, and
ms ir,-i Of -
Now, Auntie, don't drive me crazy with
your mystifying generalities, but give me every
single particular; all the says Is and says he's
end, etc, etc. II you will ;" added. with reck.
less bribery, " I'll 'do' your hair for you'll,
Now Aunt Fanny delighted in this toilette
service, and rendered it less reluctantly to her
than to any other mortal because of the exquisite
softness and tneness of her hair; but, selfish
sinner that was, held it in reserve as a final
cajolerv when had an end to gain with her.
this: Mr.. Hooper once did me a service for which
L should like to have thanked him."
why didn't you thank him?"
How foolish Of you, child! I never saw him
"Goodness, gracious me!-You needn't look so
at me, Aunt Fanny, you said it yourself only ten
minutes ago-yes you did, with your own gra-
cious lips. But now, please, put me out of nv
misery and explain YOURSELF why didn't YOU
write gratitude if you could not speak it?"
But 1t was such peculiar service, and II
L was SO peculiarly situated at the time 1t was
rendered, that that was out of the question.
could neither speak nor write my thanks, You
know, under the circumstances.
No. don't know, Aunt Fanny. You talk as
one OF the foolish women talketh, and not like
your own wise, iorderly self. Now give me the
brush, and begin at the beginning and end at
the end, while make your hair look heavenly
III you would only braid il in front at night-not
fr1zz 1t, you know, but wave it little-yOu
would be perfectly bewitching."
III send you into your own room, Fanny, If
you treat your old aunt as if she were an IDIOT to
be beguiled by batteries"
"Sh-'sh. Stick to your text, my logic
teScher; DR.. Hooper is your text. Now begin:
" once upon time, when L WAS a beautiful
young minister's daughter-l mean the beauti-
iul young daughter OF minister-Dr. Hooper
rescued me from burning house by means of a
palr OF tongs two miles long, so that we never
met; and "a was not in full toilette AT the time
1T being the witching hour OF night, 1 never
could muster the requisite indelicacy to say
Thsnk you, SIR"
don't think she had heard a word had said.
lot when peeped aSound into her face Il stood
beh nd b r, wi mig he brush vigorously to
see .he effects or my pertness, her eyes had lap
SEQ into their dreaminess again, and she neither
spoke nor looked the rebuke / deserved.
L changed my tactics, and gave a malicious
t"iri OF the brush which summarily arrested her
wandering thoughts, and seizing the opportunity,
once upon time DIR. Hooper"
well, you audacieus tease, / suppose I shall.
nave no peace until you hear just how little
have to tell; only please don'tuproot any more of
my sparse locks than is Indispensable to the ar
rangement of a heavenly couture, L remem-
Der very well that my hair was long and abln-
CANT q: enough the first and only time that saw
Mr.. Hooper"
Eager as was for the story, interrupted her
win the re minder that she had before said that
she rever saw him.
I" No, did L? should have said that never
had met him. L saw hum once, and heard him
talk at times during the space of two or three
hours, but only took "a limited view of him, like
the Marchioness, through akey-hole."
You! Aunt Fanny! through-a-key-hole!"
Yes" sighed she, with fresh influx of
strawberries" to her cheeks and brow; "but
really didn't see that L could help it at the
g Aunt Frances Draperi" said l. impressiyely,
8 am fast approaching a state in which I shall
be dangerous to friends and foes alike. Will YOU
obGge me by beginning your story, and going
straight through it, whatever NAV OPPOSE?
Now then,-
'One to begin,
Two for show,
Three to make ready,
And fOnr TO co."
once there was an amOrous YOUTH ycl,pt
Clarence Hooper"
Not at all. prefer to tell my own story.
once there was, on the contrary, an I'LL condit-
Toned youth who used to darken the dear Old
parsonage with his presence frequently during
my younger days.
:. He had been liberalIy educated as we say,
but his nature was so essentially common that
all MS years in college and at the theological
seminary had only given ii a niggardly gloss.
through which it was always betrayfng its vulgar
" Your grandfather was so loving and generous
that be even embraced this man in his friendIi-
ness Indeed he wished special courtesy to be
shown this person whenever he came to the
was often, as the seminary was
only lew miles from US, and several of the stu
dents, and John Leggett among them. used fire.
4uently to walk over t. the parsonage
John Leggett?" interrupted /; lyon don't
mean that FOSTERING revivalist whom Won
wouldn't let me 90 and hear preach last winter
When ne was making such a stir in Apr
- Inc very same. Some remote connection of
his had been fathers friend and this blindedthe
dear mans eyes. i doubt If he had the dimmest
suspicion OF how ineffably offensive Mr.. Leggett
" as TO me.
" He could talk glibly of the hottest things.
how he used to ring the changes on
spiritual and spirituality" and they have been
tabooed terms with me ever since. He inyaria-
bly, pronounced any man whom he feared, en-
We'd, or misunderstood, "unspiritual."
His own grOsSness was perhaps too deep
seated to challenge fathers notice, and there was
no particular overact on which 1 could base a
complaint; yet his mere presence made me
fringe, and to give him nv hand in welcome was
absolute torture 10 me. Isuppose that a woman
must always be more sensitive to such impress
ons than man, even one of delicate organiza-
ton, can be.
. But this is not my story.
. " One day, when / was-'et me see-twenty-
three or twenty-four years old, was alone at
nome. rather was making pastoral calls, and
)ur one servant had awav IN snaud Christ