New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-18

g called them), and settled him ia the |
amily of solemn old minister Il
Two or three other motheiless boys and
Hiss Temperance made up. the family. l
Ion't know whether she liked Bombay any
,etter for having taken his first step Off
and spoken his first word near
cape Horn; but he seemed to bring into
Ter life the freshness of the trade winds-a
breezy flavor that she had never felt before.
He had known no other woman; and his
slightly tempered with awe, was
deeply grateful to her.
AS for Miss Temperance, she reminded
him of a ships figure head, carved out OF
heart of oak, that had breasted all weather
till its first good looks are battered out OF
all shape of cOmelness.
She had bowels of compassion for al the
weaknesses that boy flesh is heir to-her
heart would have held the fifty sons OF
Priam; but all women were talthless as
Helen in her eyes, or would be II they iad
opportunity. She looked upon young girls,
and their ways, with eyes of such fierce
condemnation, that not one had ever dark
ened her doors in Shirleys time In Tie
nature of things, Miss Temperance must
once have been a girl herself; but she couio
never have been ''of girls, girlish.
Shirley cherished certain bashfui wor,
ship for all women in his boyhood. lie hau
lived among sailors in cabin and torecasht;
be had touched pitch, but he had not heeh
defled: the most abandoned wretch among
them had held up to the boy only the true
saiior-;deaI of womanhood, which never
fails him, though he may not have seen the
semblauce of 1t since he left his mother
knee.
II was Miss Temperance who set IN order
before him the depths OF deceit OF which the
girlish mind is capable. The shortest way
to the manly heart may or may not lie
through the stomach Miss Temperance
certainly commanded that avenue. She
tended her kitchen fire like a vestal virgin;
and the marvellous products of genius which
came from it were things to remember, and
to aggravate ones wife, with through lie.
Shirley's last vestige Of unbeliet in the gen
eral worthlessness of young and pretty wo-
men vanished when his fathers death
brought out all the tenderness OF MISS
Tempy's heart. Her sympathy and her pre-,
serves did for him what her logic would
never have accomplished and he went to
college a confirmed woman hater. He avoid
ed boarding in any house where there We're
daughters, and had serious thoughts OF
taking room, and providing for himself,
when he was placed opposite to his land
lady s niece; but the niece proving only ten
porary, as Susan Nipper would say, he staid.
He passed by the windows of two boarding
schools, many times day, as if he were
walking an invisible tight rope; and his
phillippics were terrible against those who
suffered their souls to be moved by curtain
signals, or the shaking of a handkerchief
He is willing to make oath to this day, that
he passed through his four years in college
without speaking to any woman under
fifty.
He invited only Miss Temperance to
his last commencement, and introduced IeI
to his friend Lenox, with an atfectionatt
solicitude that he should know at least ont
woman capable OF a syllogism."
You would take more interest In me.
doubt" said Miss Strong" ''if he had sale
capable or bigamy.'
ITO be sure" said Lenox, 'and so would
Shirley, if he only knew it - and then thai
wicked boy went about asking other spirits
worse than himself if they had seen thu
Vale of Tempe, in which Bombay Shirle,
had been brought up.
There's your little girl in gray" sait
Lenox to Shirley, at the Presidents recep
ton on the same day.
Where 2" said Shirley, deigning actual.
to look about him. IL don't see her
shes speaking to Miss Strong TN
| minute. Her gown looks as II 1t wer
| woven of white smoke, and fits as if hat
| grown on her"
II am no Judge of musIins," said Shirley
| The next instant Miss Strong seized Ii
| arm.
! 1--WE seen a ghost, or something worse,
she said. Don't say anything, but just z
home with Inc now. I've stayed Ion
enough
1T rains" said Shirley. .You must wal
| till eleven, and the carriage will come 10
you
I'm neither sugar nor salt, to be mclte
by rain and l would 60 out on the thirty
ninth day of the deluge, before | would Sc
that face again."
She marched resolutely back to her hote
| through the sloppy street; and at interval
through the night he heard her heavy steI
pacing up and down her room. But III til
morning she presented him the same sturd
old fgurehead to kiss, and gave 10 word o
explanation.
Il believe the sight of so many fight
| girls has made me dizzy. | am actual
light headed" said Miss Temperance whe
| they reached her own room. Il haven
| felt like this since had my fever
Il did not know you ever had such
thing" said Shirley.
at was long before your time, when
was young" said Miss Temperance, maxim
| dive at her tea kettle and missing 1t. lie
motions were as erratic as those of the ID
lapidated consin,' in "Bleak House," an
Afterward she fell into heavy sleel
and Shirley covered her with his travelin
shawl when he went up stairs for the Oh
When he came down to breakfast she sti
lay on the sofa, scOwling fearfully in he
efforts to suppress the means which he
pain wrung from her.
"Tell me what to do and III do it, for
havn't the least idea" said Shirley. hangin
over her with the true manly helplessnes
| I 1,oi
only rheumatism"
81 had better 60 for the doctor, anyhow
"No, indeed; hain't so tired of life +;
that, nor l won't have any neighbors col
ing in to spy out the land. There's plent
of cold meat and bread. You can cam
out on that, and shall be well enough t
morrow"
It was one more proof to Shirley Of Il
substratum of manliness in Miss Stron g
character that so soon as she was i'll she b
came peevish and eXacting. Most wome
can be i'll gracefully-it is their normal co
dtion-but Miss Temperance knew t
thing only by name.
Shirley half lifted and half dragged h
| to her bed-as she would not be carried, al
could not walk. He did not venture
leave the house, and at noon his patiel
thought she could take some tea and toas
Shirley had made tea before, and haviI
made it and placed the teapot on Il
hearth out of harms way, lie address
himself to the toast, which. after repeatt
failures, was at last a success.
"Do you caH that a cup of tea p sa
Miss Temperance scornfully. Its cold
a stepmother's breath"
Hot water made 1t too weak, ana a
other brewing had to be made with intini
care. =
You were gone long enough to bul
John Rogers instead Of this toast she sa
when ne presented it. And these We're Il
last conscious words that Shirley heal
her speak for many days and nights
She began to talk OF things that Shirlt
had never heard of-called On Arthur, ar
made lover-like entreaties to him not 70 fl