Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1878-02-14
gu 0rigiual Stprg.
Written for the Yorkville Enquirer.
MARIPOSA:
OR,
THE HEART OF A BALLET GIRL.
CHAPTER XII.

AS Myra had told Helen, the intercourse
between them was not likely to become very
frequent, for the time of the former was con-
tinually occupied. When not engaged IN
household duties, she was obliged to devote
herself to studying, and prscticing upon the
barp. in order to fit herself to instruct others.
For Mrs. Dashwood, though averse to her
husbands spending money upon the glri' Tor
whom she felt deeply rooted dislike was
aware that it was good investment to have
her educated for teacher, as she would then
be able to support herself and rid them of her
presence.
Mrs. Dashwood's dislike had deeper grounds
than Mvra was aware Of The time had
been when Grosvenor Dashwood, Myra's
father, then handsome young lieutenant in
the Navy, had paid particular attention to
her, and won her regard, or something more,
in return. She wss. at that time, gay, hand
some girl, devoted to wealth and fashion.
Though possessing but little of the former, she
managed to make show in the gay world,
aud had the reputation of being beauty and
a belle. Grosvenor Dashwood's fancy was at
tracted by her, but not his heart. He amused
himself, while on shore, with carrying on an
energetic Irritation with her, knowing all the
time. that with no other means at his disposal
but his pay, he was not in condition to mar
~ a girl who had dread of poverty, even
were he so inclined. Worldly-minded as Au-
gusta Bryan was, even at that age, her afec-
ton in this instance conquered her worldliness,
and had Grosvenor Eastwood placed himself
and his lieutenants pay at her disposal, she
would undoubtedly have taken advantage of
the offer. But he did not, and she discover
ed, when too late, that she had suffered her
heart to become involved, only to reap dis.
appointment and discontinue as the result
of her imprudence. Her fancied lover took
leave of her, with professions Of regret that
were half real, half assumed, and very in
definite allusion to the hope of meeting her
again. But it was many years before this
meeting did take place, and circumstances in
the meantime had greatly changed for them
both She was married, (having bestowed
her hand, in moment of pique, upon Mr..
Lambert, rather elderly and very uninter-
esting individual, and was the mother of one
child, little boy. Her former admirer was
also married to a very lovely and am'able
girl, quite as poor as hiEnsslf' but OF whom ne
was devotedly fond. His health was broken
BY severe illness from which he had suffered
-aaaaaad- -narfectlz- -happY- and content
ed Mrs. Lambert, who had, through all
these years and change of events, never over
come her keen modification at his treatment
of her, conceived bitter hatred of his unot-
Tending wife, whom she regarded, unjustly
enough, as the cause of her own disappoint-
ment. She could not pursuade herself but
that Grosvenor would have married her had
this new object of attraction not come IN his
way. Years passed and the intercourse be-
tween them was slight. Other changes came
Mr.. Lambert died, and after decent period
of mourning, his widow again married, her
second husband being Helen's uncle, as the
reader already knows. In the mean time her
hated rival had also become widow, and
lived in great poverty with her little girl,
earning scanty support by dress.making,
for Grosvenor had left her nothing. Shortly
after Augustas second marriage, the hard
working widow was stricken with yellow
fever, which brought her earthly labors to a
close, and little Myra, a penniless orphan,
fell into the hands of strangers, from which
she was afterwards rescued by Mr.. Edmond
Dashwood, her fathers near relative, and
taken to live beneath his roof. His wife
ruled him in most things, but in this he stout
" maintained his own way. Grosvenor and
he had been like brothers in boyhood, he said,
and his orphan daughter should not want
home while he had one to offer her. Having
carried bis point in this particular, he yielded
the more easil, to Mrs. Dashwood's opposition,
when another orphan child appealed to him
for protection, and his wife vowed that no
more relatives in distress should force them
selves upon him, or, if they did, that she
would have nothing to do with them. Myra,
though sheltered from want, soon found that
her lot in her new abode was not destined to
be happy one. Her aunt, as sshe vas taught
to call her, abhorred the sight of her, and
this adherence seemed to strengthen, rather
than diminish, as years went on. Or the real
cause of her antipathy no one was aware, and
her husband, as we'll as the child herself, al
WAYS believed that it sprung from the fact OF
Mrs. Grosvenor Dashwood having been less
well-born than the other family connections,
and, still worse, having disgraced them by
the lowly occupation of dressmaker. But
although sufficiently naughty and contempt
uous of those whom she considered her in
feriors, to have deemed these very strong OBJ
iections, they might have been overcome,
had there not been still greater one under
living them. She never forgave Myra's
mother, even after the resentment should
have been covered by the grave, and this re-
sentiment was wreaked upon her innocent de-
scendaut and namesake.
1t was, perhaps, no great disadvantage to
Helen that she was debarred, in measure,
from the society of her cousin, whose compan-
iopship would not have proved very congen-
ial or improving to her. Poor Myra, besides
being embittered by a long course of harsh
ness and neglect, did not possess naturally
sweet or loveable disposition, though. with
kinder treatment, her better traits would,
doubtless, have developed themselves more
fully than they had been permitted to do