The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1877-04-05
Mrs. HOUnSIOW'S EXperi-
ment.

Mrs. HOUnSIOW'S Expert.
ment.
a daughter had been the nope O.
Mrs. HounsloW's life. Thinking
when Lawrence was small, of the
beauty q little girl, toe, with bel
curls running out in rings under thS
lace and ribbons OF her cap she had
been obliged TO change the thought
to that of the maiden who should be.
come Lawrence's tride, snd give her
all the comfort and none Of the care
OF daughter.
She had always been 8 lonesome
body ; an orphan at first, and then so
few years q wife before she wss 8
widow, with her Unruly boy at
school and she had looked at moth
era with their little girls, and envied
them the cOmpaniOnship, the oppor-
tUnity Of making charming dresses
FOR the pretty dsrlings, the power to
live their lives over again in their
girls.
When Lawrence came home to
stay she had OF course, much comfort
in him and if the young man SEN
ljoyed bis fling" she knew nothing
about It. Yet Lawrence's "fiing"
was not bad one, as filings go (; he
drove fast horse, and he loved 8
game dinner. When the exu5erance
Of youth passed he would settle into a
respectable citizen with a bank &C.
count To eyes, to-day, he was q
paragon.
Settle. But not alone. It followed
as the night the day that Lawrence
would msrTy-a very pretty girl or a
very rich one. Neither would be to
Mrs. HounslOw's taste; the pretty girl
hardly the companion she sought for
herself, the filgbty head turned by
vanity, the appetite Unsuitable for
/ fiatte-y and the rich one mastering
| Lawrence, and consequently herself.
I She had chosen herself q charming
! young girl with as sweet q nature as
ever shOne out of blue eye; she fire.
quently had her there, although to no
effect except In her own dreams. In
what dreams Mrs. Hounsiow in-
dulged by the evening fire apropOs of
| Louise Mandell Somehow the
young orphan girl always seemed sit
/ ting on the other side of the fire, Its
] uAELN hdhElLE IL DCl E1EEg Ou uGE
! dimpling smile ; and sometimes Mrs.
| HOunslow saw that light glance on
little golden wedding-ring, and
/ sometimes on little golden nesting
| head and Lawrence was always
standing on the rug between the two,
| looking, with equal tenderness in his
/ dark eyes, at one side and at the
other. That was her evening dream.
/ In the morning Louise moved about
/ the house with her, cutting flowers,
| filling vases, connecting choice dish
es-what a mOther-In-laW she would
make How happy she was going to
/ be ia this dear daughter She had
even gone 50 far as to buy an open
I phaetOn in this dream for Louise to
| drive her out in on sunny evenings,
and was just settling on the color OF
the fringed silken canopy, when she
awoke to see that Louise was a cipher
! beside that great luxurious, hazel.
eyeS sud hateful blonde, Flora Fur
long.
Mrs. HouDslow's son and a Fur
| long There was no worse blood in
/ the land +; moEey enough family
enough ; and yet nothing too un-
scTupulous of which to suspect the
men; too selfish, silly, slovenIy,
stupid, spiteful, of which to accuse
/ the women
Young men do not pause TO think
( of such things. What Flora Furlong
could work out as to his salvation did
not occasion Lawrence a thought
J but her luminous black-lashed eyes,
with their long white lids, and the
way she had of lifting them, her
melting mouth and velvet skin, her
hair like fine-spun gold, her luxurious
( fiesh-all that was u fascination and
: if he was not passiOnately in earnest
/ he was ia fair way to be so. "Why,
she's nothing but clay, rOse-leaf clay,
( flesh and blood I don't believe she
has 8 soul, or anything that answers
for one J" cried Mrs. Hounslow to her
self. ga Furlong never did"
Flora Furlong to fill the measure of
/ these dreams of hers to make her
/ bOy's home! If be was to have a
I wife, she was 10 have q daughter
and the daughter was to be her ac-
/ QUESTION or her burden all day long,
and Lawrence's delight but an hour
or twO-Lawrence's burden, TOO, in
stead of his blessing, by and by, il it
should be the FuTlong! 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 her Teverie.
Foolish Mrs. Hounslow! The wind
bloweth where it listeth and you
might rs well try to turn that wind
back whittier it came by blowing
against it as to turn the young mans
brya anu nj
It was Flora by whose side Law
renee was ever to be seen. 1t pleased
his sense of beauty to look at her 1t
pleased his sense OF pride to be seen
with her it fed his budding passion
to feel the magnificent creature by his
side. He squRndered his money in
flowers and books and music and the
like. She wore the flowers but
when with her it never occurred to
him that the leaves Of the books were
uncut and as for the music, be was
in that state when a frog, if it had
been as beautiful as Flora, would have
croaked divinely.
But Mrs: HOunsloW was net a wO-
man to endure without q 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, knowing the
| force of public opinion; she took care
to admit her beauty, although in the
same breath telling some incidental
| tradition to the dIscredit of her
family and she was very hospitsble
to two fat old. toothless aunts Of
Flora's, dwelling with sympathy
afterwsTd on the loss Of the beauty of
their youth, and the exact likeness
between their youth and FlOra's. al
suppose" said Mrs. Hounslow, "that
Flora will look just like them twenty
years away. Well, it Is something to
have had beauty, if one does become
| little less than q 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 afternoon.
| She had the loveliest enamel belt
| buckle she can wear one the size Of
q spread eagle" Then his mother
| looked up at him with twinkle that
could hardly help being contagious.
"Ah ah ~ she said "What q thing
| it is to be Lawrence HounsloW's
mother have all the pretty girls
declaring me the most delightful old
woman But I suppose I must leave
] choice
"When l marry, mother" Law
renee Indignantly began.
"You will suit yourself-and me,
too. Dear me J" she went on, ''I had
almost forgotten your Cousin Fanny
is coming, poor thing, and 1 am in
vitIng 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. HounslOv Lightly as
she spoke then, it was not without