St. Landry democrat., 1879-04-12
MY AUNT'S WILL.

MY AUNT'S WILL.
eve are none of US perfect, thank
goodness" said Caroline, my eldest
sister, with An aggravating laugh. II
do not claim to be a paragon, by any
means, and it would take qualities
little short of a saints to poke down in
the country and hobble through life at
the beck of q fractions old woman. I
shall not 60, for onel"
"Caroline " said mother, in a mild
tone of rebuke.
Poor little soul! She rarely ever as
serted her authority before the elder
girls. They were all lRushtons, every
inch, and poor little mamma had learned
all about the Rushton bio d years be-
fore I was born. They were a stern,
Eroud, arrogant set, and, in her meek
eyes, were more like queens and ogres
than her husbands relatives. How
Gerald Rushton came to marry a poor
country curate's daughter remained q
myrtery to his family till the day of bis
death, and with q woman's instinct
freahened by the memory Of my mothers
sad face and fearful eyes, l think she has
puzzled over the enigma through many
lonely hours, only the question might
have been put to her consciousness q
little%diHerently. As, how was it that
she had been brought;to hold in idolatry
man of my fathers temperament.
He was very unlike her imagined hero,
quite unlike the lover she had expected
would come up the rose-walk at Aubrey
rectory to ask her to marry him. My moth.
er rarely eve spoke of her. Later years as q
wife, but often with sven enthusiasm of
their first meeting, and the childish
fendness with which she regarded him.
It had been made matter of reproach
to her always by his relatives, and my
mother, I think, never entirely forgave
herself for her share in his alienation from
his family. He died with that antago.
nism in his heart, and my mother had
stuff red silently, rearing her three girls
as we'll as she could on the slender patri-
mony left her, with just enough of the
old curale's dignity of character to re-
strain her from appealing to the great
people down in Kent.
Caroline, now in her t~wenty.third
year, had been waiting some years,
rather im~patiently, for a dukeor viscount
to come down into the country and
marry her for her peachy cheeks and
sloe.black eyes. But nowadays dukes
prefer a bad complexion and a1o,eOo q
year TOT captivating young person whose
sole dover liz i'm mere personal attraction.
Edith was already .twenty-one, and
felt aggrieved at her sister for not hav-
ing made a match, leaving the field to
her.
Not strong like Caro-, Edith was, how
ever, a pretty girl, with fine, ladylike
hands, and q carriage a princess might
have envied.
I believe I was seldom thought of by
any one until it was discovered I was toe
much grown to utilize the cast-of frocks
of the other girls, and was now a tall,
awkward girl of eighteen, with large
elbows and sandy complexion, like the
Aubreys. It vas also discovered about
this time that ! had made much of my
musical chance, and, what with q few
lessons from the village organist and the
drumming through long winter evenings
on the old harpsichord in the sitting
room, / had suddenly become proficient
in a small way; enough 10, at least, to
admit OF my taking q few of Miss Har-
mons scholars in the afternoons. The
money | earned in this way seemed, no
doubt, a prodigious sum to poor nanny,
whose common condition was a state of
perfect impecuniosity. Mother had often
declared that both Caro- and Edith Dos
sessed the hands of musicians, 80 slender,
supple and white, while mine were over
grown from the wringing Of dish>eloths,
and red from boiling water.
Providence had given me my bony
hands with music in them, and O won>
derful voice, which Miss Harmon had
declared made me almost seem pretty.
She never knew, Kind soul, how she
made my heart ache with dull, horrible
pain, when she dealt me this d~eprecatory
praise.
The girls and NANNY were in the
little d~un>oolored naorning.room, which
had once been my fathers study, with
closed blinds, ripping up an ancient
chair, upholstered in q grand Arab pat
tern of scarlet and gold, to construct an
overdreas for Caroline's cherry silk, the
sleeves and bodice Of which were quite
beyond repair. The chair had been
shrouded in gray holland for the last
dozen wears. and the silk really unworn.
Who ever thought Q letter would nan
its way from the outside world to our
sober little house behind these pollard
willows like 20 many transmigTatsd
Rushtons, tall and angular, still keeping
guard over nanny and her brood.