Daily globe., 1879-02-09
MY AUNT'S WILL.

goodness, )" said Caroline, my eldest sis
ter, with an agggravating laugh. II do
not claim to be paragon, by any means,
and it would take qualities little short of
saints to poke down in the country and
hobble through life atthe beck of frac-
tlous old woman. l shall not 60, Tor
one!"
"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 Rushtons, every
inch, and poor little nanny had learned
all about the Rushtnn blood years before
I was born. They were a stern, proud,
arrogant set, and, in her meek eyes, were
more like queens and ogres, than her
husbands relatives. How Gerald Rush
ton came to marry a poor country curate's
daughter remained a mistery of his fami-
~ to the day of death, and with wom-
ans instinct freshened by the memory Of
my mothers sad face and fearful eyes, /
think she had puzzled over the enigma
through many lonely hours, only the
question might have been put to her con-
sclousness a little differently. As, how
was it that she had been brought to hold
in idolatry a man of my fathers temper.
ament.
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
mother rarely every spoke Of her later
years as q wife, but often with even en-
thuslasm Of their first meeting. And the
childish toldness with which she regard
ed him.
It had bcen made matter of reproach
to her always by his relatives, and my
father, / think, never entirely forgave
her for her share in MS alienation from
his family. He died with that antago-
nisn il his heart, and my mother had
suffered silently, rearing her three girls
as well as she could On the slender pat.
rimony left her, with just enough of
the old curate's dignity of character to
restrain her from appealing to the great
people down in Kent.
Caroline, now in her twenty third year,
had been waiting some years, rather i'm
patiently, for duke or viscount to come
down into the country and marry her for
her peachy cheeks and sloe- black eyes,
But nowadays dukes prefer bad COM
plexlon and 100000 year to captivat-
ing young person whose sole dover is in
mere personal attraction.
Edith was already twenty-one, and felt
aggrieved at her sister for not having
made a match, leaving the field to her.
Not strong like Caro-, Edith was, how
ever, a pretty girl, with fine, ladylike
hands, and a carriage princess might
have envied.
any one until it was discovered I was
too much grown to utilize the cast-off
frocks of the other girls, and was now a
tall, awkward girl of eighteen, with
large elbows aud a sandy complexion,
like the Aubreys. 1t was also discovered
about this time that I had made much
of my musical chance, and, what with a
few lessons from the village organist and
the drumming through long winter eve
niDgs on the old harpsichord in the Sit
ting-room, I had suddenly became pro-
6cient in a small way; enough so, at
least, to admit of my taking few of
Miss Harmon's schoolers in the after
moons. The money earned in this way
seemed, 10 doubt, prodigious sum to
poor nanny, whose common condition
was state Of perfect pccuniosity.
Mother had often declared that both
Caro- and Elith possessed the hands OF
musicians, so slender, supple and white,
while nine were overgrown from the
wringing Of dish clothes, and red from
boiling water.
Providence had given me my bony
hands with music in them, and 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, horri-
Die pain, when she dealt me this depre-
catory praise.
The girls aud nanny were in the lit
tie duncoiored morning-reom which
had once been my fathers study, with
closed blinds, ripping up an ancient chail
upholstered in a grand Arab pattern O.
scarlet and gold, to construct an over
dress for Caroline's cherry silk, the
sleeves and bodice of which were quite
beyond repair. The chair had bee,
sh1ouded in gray holland for the las
dozen years, and the silk really was un
worn.
Who ever thought letter would fine
it's way from tie outside world to ou
sober little house behind these pollard
willows, ike so many transmigatet
Rushtons, tall and angular, still keepin.
guard over nanny and her brood.
"Do oDen it, mamma" said Edith, i'm
patiently. Every likely it is from som
forgotten creditor of poor papa's."
"Poor little mammy's ribbons tremble,
and futtered while she read the few
words, written, it might be, by an article,
clerk in Lincoln Inn Fields, the letter
were SO aggressive.
"WelI, girls''-with faint attempt a
cheerfulness chance for one O
you, at last. This letter is from YOU
aunt Ruth Rushton, your fathers eldes
sister, who never married, and who neve
spoke to him after he married me-
though do not remember it against he
now. I have always thought of Ruth a
being superior woman-a very superic
woman. l have heard your father sa
she spoke four languages in her youn
days, and that she was a great belle then.
. This brought out contemptuou
/ "Humph!" from the girls. This was th
! letter which proved the turning point i
my life:
III "sIsTER-1N-LAw: / hear you are bles!
\ ed with three daughters. I am a chile