The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-03-30


flesh and blood don't believe she has
a ssul, or anything that answers for
one 70 cried Mrs. Hounslow to herself.
GA Furlong never did.
Flora Furlong to fill the measure of
these dreams of hers to make her boys
home III he was to have wife, she
was to have daughter; and the daugh-
ter was to be her acquisition or her bur
den all day long, and Lawrence's delight
but an hour or two-Lawrence's burden,
too, instead of his blessing, by and by,
if 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
alll So ran her reverie.
Foolish Mrs. Hounslow The wind
bloweth where it hsteth 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 Lawrence
was ever to be seen. 1t pleased his
sense of beauty to look at her; it
pleased his sense of pride to be seen
with her 4; it fed his budding passion to
feel the magnificent creature by his side.
He squandered 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,
he was in that state when a frog, If it
had been as beautiful as Flora, would
have croaked divinely.
But Mrs. Hounslow was not woman
to endure without struggle. She called
some wisdom to council. She did not
express personally the slightest dissatis-
faction 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, al
though in the same breath telling some
incidental tradition to the discredit of
her family and she was very hospitable
to two fat old toothless aunts of Flora's,
dwelling with, sympathy afterward on
their loss of the beauty of their youth,
and the exact likeness between their
youth and Flora's. 8" 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 a
whale. What a 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 a spread eagle" Then his
mother looked up at him with a twinkle
that could hardly help being contagious.
" All all 70 she said, "what thing it
is to be Lawrence Hounslow's mother
I have all the pretty girls declaring me
the most delightful old woman But L
suppose L must leave choice"
"When L marry, mother" Lawrence
Indignantly began.
"You will suit yourself-and me too.
Dear me !" she went on, Il had almost
forgotten your cousin Fanny is coming,
poor thing, and 1 am inviting all these
girls to come and make it cheerful for
her. She loves young people, for all her
crabbedness. And as Lawrence acqui-
esced, 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 tragic
scene in her room, with her husbands
|
come to the conclusion to try her expert
ment not because OF the experiment,
but because of it's reason. All, there was
the bitterness-that her idol was broken,
that Lawrence, whose father was an angel
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
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 excuse for her
company. She had often heard that You
never know persons till you live with
them; Lawrence 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 confding in
Cousin Fanny maiden lady OF an I'M
certain age and temper.
"Quite right, responded Cousin Fan
ly. " L suppose men are necessary in
the scheme but if / had been making a
world, could have dispensed with the
element.
Fanny |" cried Mrs. Hounslow. re-
garding this as derogatory to her de-
fenseless husband, and outrageous to her
living son.
"Oh, indeed" said Cousin Fanny,
"the best of them is only a 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 man has married his cook
The whole secret of domestic quiet is
just to keep that stomach well filed"
Mrs. Hounslow could not say word.
1t was on exactly that theory that she
WIS 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 devotion to Miss Furlong.
"There is something animal about that
girl |" she exclaimed once, as Flora left
the room.
every" echoed Cousin Fanny
"When she eats-I declare, when she
eats, 1 expect to see her put down her
face like dog and lap the gravy"