Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-04-27

I OI I06Se uIFdluS VI H6IS 10 uldkl
her bows home If he was to have
a wife, she was to have a daughter
and the daughter was to be her ac
QUESTION or her burden all day long
and Lawrence's delight but an houl
or two-Lawrence's burden, too, in
stead of his blessing, by and by, il
it should be the Furlong And she
had as good right to assert her will
as he had to assert his; she knew
the best; and were not she and
Lawrence one, after all? So ran hel
reverie.
Foolish Mrs. Hounslow! The wind
bloweth where it listeth; and you
might as well try to turn that wind
back whittier it came by blowing
against it, as to turn the young mans
fancy by any breath of yours.
1t was Flora by whose side Law
renee was ever to be seen. 1t pleas
ed his sense of beauty to look at her;
it pleased his sense of pride to be
seen with her; it fed his budding
passion to feel the magnificent crea-
lure by his side. He squandered his
money in flowers and books and mu-
sic and the like. She wore the flow
ers; but when with her it never oe-
Cured to him that the leaves of the
books were uncut; and as for the
music, he was in that state when a
frog, if it had been as beautiful as
Flora, whould have croaked d.
vinelY.
But Mrs. Hounslow was not a wo-
man to endure without "a struggle
She called some wisdom to council ;
she did not express personally the
slightest dissatisfaction with Flora,
but she allowed other people to
speak disrespectfully of her when
Lawrence was within hearing, know
ing the force of public opinion; she
took care to admit her beauty, al
though in the same breath telling
some incidental tradition to the dis
credit of her family, and she was
very hospitable to two fat, old,
toothless aunts of Flora's, dwelling
with sympathy afterward on the
loss of the beauty of their youth,
and the exact likeness between their
youth and Flora's. 81 suppose" said
Mrs. Hounslow, ''tnat Flora will
lCok Just like them twenty years
away. Well, it is something to have
had beauty, if one does become lit
tie less than a whale. What fate!
to see ones self turning to blubber!
Perhaps it would be worse, though,
to see another, if you cared. By the
way, Flora called here this after
noon. She had the loveliest enamel
belt buckle-she can wear one the
size of spread eagle" Then his
mother looked up at him with
twinkle that was contagious. "Ah!
ahT'' she said, "what a thing it is to
be Lawrence Hounslow's mother! /
have all the pretty girls declaring
me the most delightful old woman
but suppose must leave choice"
"When marry, mother" Law
renee Indignantly began.
"You will suit yourself-and me,
too. Dear me-" she went on, 81 had
almost forgotten; your cousin Fan
ny is coming, poor thing, and am
inviting all these girls to come and
make it cheerful for her. She loves
young people, for all her Grabbed
ness" And as Lawrence acquiesced,
no one but his mother knew how his
heart was beating all the time.
Poor Mrs. Hounslow ! Lightly as
she spoke then, it was not without a
tragic scene in her room, with her
husbands portrait for sole spectator,
that she had come to the conclusion
to try her experiment; not because
of the experiment, but because of its
reason. All there was the bitter
ness that her idol was broken, that
Lawrence, whose father was an an
gel in heaven, was himself, after all,
nothing but clay! She wiped her
eyes only for another burst of tears,
another blaze of indignation, to
think that her marvel of a man was
so small as to be tricked out of his
will by such subterfuge as her con-
temptible experiment.
As they lived few miles from
town, Mrs. Hounslow had some ex-
cuse for her company. She had Of
ten heard that you never knew per-
sons till you live with them; Law
renee was to have a chance to know
Flora Furlong. What if it should
end by his pursuing a better ac-
quaintance with Louise Mandell!-
She began her operations by confd-
ing in cousin Fanny-a maiden lady
of uncertain age and temper.
"Quite right" responded cousin
Fanny. 81 suppose men are necessa-
ry in the scheme; but if 1 had been
making the world / could have dis
pensed with the element"
"Fanny!" cried Mrs. Hounslow,
regarding this as derogatory to her
defenseless husband and outrageous
to her living son."
"Oh, indeedp said cousin Fanny,
'sthe best of them is onlya stomach.
They are all simple elevations of the
| jelly-fsh, their great prototype, and
he is nothing else. You can reach
their feelings, their affections, their
passions, their intellect through the
stomach. How many a man has
married his cookl The whole secret
of domestic quiet is just to keep that
stomach we'll filed" Mrs. Houns-
low could not say a word. 1t was
on exactly that theory that she was
proceeding.
Three days of the visit had not
passed before an easterly storm gave
her her opportunity. Mrs. Hounslow
had been scarcely able to conceal
her disgust over Lawrence's devo-
ton to Miss Furlong. "There's
something animal about that girl,
she exclaimed once, as Flora left the
room.
"Very," echoed cousin Fanny
"When she eats-I declare, when
she eats, l expect to see her put
down her face like dog and lap the
gravy"
I