Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-09-16

| Tetir!ng lUmeOlateiy into the Dack SrOunu.
If this was bashfulness, it was a curious
form of it, thought, and certainly new
in my knowledge of A THIS little in.
cident over, had leisure to look round
the room. There appeared to be about a
dozen people in all. Mr. M intro.
duced me to relation of his, a Bsronet,
whose name forget to parson, who as.
sured me in Hibernian accents, that
troops had been down here "repeatudly,' >
and to niece, whom | was to take TO din.
ner. | csught momentary glimpse Of
| A, and saw to my surprise thar he was
! furtively watching the lady of the house
from an obscure corner. l was quietly
slipping up TO him to ask what it al mean,
! when dinner was announced.
! At the dinner table I found myself on
| the left hand side of our hostess, the Bar.
| onet opposite me. A. was placed
| some distance down on the other side, &c
| that l could keep an eye On him, which ]
| soon began TO think 1 must do. ! had
now an opportunity Of noting more partic
ularly Mira. Ms personal appearance.
Her age / should judge to have been some.
where about eight and twenty or thirty,
! considerably under her husbands. Her
| figure was fsultless; neck and arms of that
nameless tint one has so often seer imper-
| feccly described in novels as CREAMY
| white ;" corona of hair of that deep
auburn red which so sets off fair woman :
and face of singular beauty, of which
| you forgot everything but the eyes the
moment you looked into them. Such ewes
they were! Their particular size, shape.
this or that color, would never occur 20
one; 1t was their strange, almost weird,
effect when turned on you that ore felt.
| 1t was as though they OWNED what YOU
were thinking of, and could answer your
| thoughts. Yet it was not q satisfactory
or q restiul face. l can recall certain half.
disagreeable sensations l experienced as
her eyes occasionally rested on mine while
we talked, and oDce or twice fash as Of
something almost malevolent seemed to
pass out OF them.
One Incident remember. We were dis.
GUESSING pic5ures, and Mrs. N, pointing
to some fine family portraits hung round
the dlnlng.room, said, " My husband and |
are distant cousins, Major P, 10 that
you see we are mutually represented here ;
and yonder is lady of by.gone days, sup.
posed to nave been very wicked, and to be
like me, " | locked up, and sure enough
there gazed Gown on me from the canvas a
woman's face strikingiy Ike the speakers
SO ike that, except for the quaint cos.
tune, the portrait might have been taken
for her own. IL was finer specimen than
usual Of the formal yet fascinating style in
which our great-great. grandmothers have
been depicted for us-a stately attitude.
regular but immobile features, and exu.
berant charms sumptuously if somewhat
scantiiy draped. The lady's figure, as il
CHANGED, was turned toward cur end of the
table; she held fan in her hand the lips
had disdainful, almost derisive, smile
and the eyes, which in such pictures usu.
ally appear to be contemplating the spec
ta:or and to follow him about, seemed Gi.
rected full on our hostess. "This Is GER
tainiy likeness" l said, "but the LADY
on the wall is entitled, l feel cure, to an
entire monopoly OF the wickedness" Mrs.
M laughed, and winged glance at me,
aud the smile and the eyes were those OF
the portrait.
Another circumstance | remember dis
covering on looking round the table, which,
had l been superstltious. might not have
added to my comfort. We were sitting
thirteen. Mrs. NJ, | rather think,
must have noticed me counting the mum
bers, for she made some remark as if in re-
ply TO my thought" So sorry We were
disappointed Of enc OF our party at the
last moment"
Meanwhile A was again attracting
my attention by his extraordinary behavior,
HIS partner, a pretty-looking lively girl,
was evidently dong her best to make her.
self agreeable, and ne was answering her
in an intermittent fashion hut could see
he was eating very little, and crumbIing his
bread IN nervous, preoccupied manner,
while every now and then his eye wander.
ed to Mrs. M, with a curious fixed
stare that was positively ill-manuered and
altogether unaccountsble. Iastinetively
turned to the same quarter 10 see what
could be the object OF this persistent scru.
tiny, but In vain. There, indeed, was a
beautiful woman, dressed to perfection, and
with those wonderful eyes but what right
had be to cape at her like that! / began
TO wonder If she or any other Of The cues $
would observe As rudeness. | tried
to catch his eye, but without success. In a
little while | lspsed into comparative ST.
lence, and set myself to watch As
movements more narrowly, as well az
could, across the table. After time it
seemed TO me that the direction of As
gszs must be at Mrs. Ms head, or a
little above it; but there was nothing
could see to account for this. To be sure,
she wore, fastened into the thick top coil
OF her hair, jsweied ornament of some
kind that seemed to sparkle az times with
intense brillianey; but still, why this re-
peated and offensive contemplation at her
own table OF married woman, on whom,
so far as l knew, neither A nor | had
ever ses eyes before? Could these two
have been known to each other in some by
gone love affair, or was the man gone out
OF his wits, or had he taken too much
drink?
How this memorable dinner struggled on
to conclusion l hardly remember. The
mere fidgety l got, the more irresistibly
was drawn to watch A. His face
wore pale, scared aspect quite foreigu TO
hln, for he was ordinarily CHEEKY, com,
nonsense fellow, not easily disturbed. At
length It seemed that our hostess became
aware OF the steady observation she was
being subj to, and before the ladies
rose from the dinner-table, her handsome
features had grown very white, there was
visIbla trembling movement in her hands.
and heT eyes took an uneasy expression not
previously there.
AS soon as we men wers left alone, and
almost before we could reseat ourselves.
e turned to our host, and in An odd
nutilsi voice announced that he felt un-
well, and begged permission to take his
departure. MIR. NJ glanced at me with
puzzled air. He was 30 very sorry.
CoutG he do anything? Aud of course,
TIE carriage was entirely at MIR. As
service" By this time it was evident some
thing was really amiss with A.; SO |
made some sort OF excuse thai | feared he
had had hard day. march and got soaked,
sent our sincere apologies TO Mrs. Nj,
and r j-cting the kind offer of the carriage.
we found ourselves out again in the moon
light. The moon was well up and as we
passed the old ruinous chapel you could
see, through little pointed window in the
gable, the wall beyond half lit up. and
dapy.lP1 over with lonu rbs I ~, fron, ~ .