Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-02-16
GRANDMOTHER GRESnAM'S WILL.

GRANDMOTHER GRESHAM'S WILL.
II I said that Grandmamma Gresham
was vain old woman, | suppose it
would not be very reverential. But
still, she certainly did take an immense
interest in her personal appearance
and that with some reason. A tall and
commanding figure and portly pres
ence, her black eyes glittering in her
pale face with nearly the glow of their
youth, and not silver thread yet
pointing any contrast with the black
ness of her hair, there was something
startling about her as if she was the APP
partition Of death youth. She was
never visible till a late hour in the day,
and any one who had the temerity to
break the rule and enter her apart
ments would be very apt to find her
sitting before the old swinging mirror,
"in which her grandmother had dress
ed to be married." as she used to say
and occupied, with the help of old
Rose, in twisting in a tress of false hair
here, curl there, in darkening an eye
brow, or making cheek more bloom
ing with her little hare's foct--a curl
Gus weird face reelected on her from
that glass meanwhile before which she
80 constantly practiced these rites, a
handsome face when all the work was
done. 1t was not easy for us in the
flush and glory of our youth, to realize
that she could not hear to acknowl-
edge even to herself the departure
of her own, and was but keeping up
the sad fiction AS she might. There
was full-length portrait in It's old
frame in the great dark hall, the like
ness of 81 graceful, stately girl in
her peach-blesson silk, and hood AID
scarf of black lace, with the great loose
ringlets of shadow over her round
shoulder, and blowing back from her
dazzling brow, with the glow of expect
alton in the dark and shining eyes and
in the joyous smile. Sometimes Grand
mamma Gresham paused as she passed,
and resting upon her cane, and looked
at this lovely picture that frightened
all the gloomy place; and we none Of
us ever dreamed that she was thinking
what a travesty and caricature of it she
was now, with her patches and powders
and nts, and in the velvets and
Indian cashmeres that every night
when she took them off were laid away,
lest she might not rise to wear them
again, in the big chest, for Amelia Ores
ham.
But none OF us had any of Grand
mamma Gresham's beauty. The fact
was, she was not our grandmother. We
were the descendants of her first hus-
band by his previous marriage, and she
married twice since, and if life were
long enough might have had as many
husbands as Gudrun the Beautiful, for
all we knew. She had married our
grandfather when she was very young,
and on his early death had married
soon again, and had let his children
drift none knew whittier, he having left
them each only a souvenir and re-
commentator to the young step
mother, to whom in his infatuation and
passion ne had bequeathed everything
else. she bad sailed on in her career
of sunshine and shadow, losing her hus-
bands and children, but, with her hand
son,e bank account, never knowing
trouble that might have touched her
more nearly; and now, in her old age,
she had been forced by public opinion
to take into his house the children of
her first husband, left orphans and
nearly penniless. She treated us
with a gracious hauteur. "Manners
like ice cream" Annie used to
say: "such cold sweetness" But al
though so distantly kind tn us, all her
love was for Amelia Gresham, her last
husbands daughter, a pretty mink,
who, in return, cared nothing at all for
her, and would not live with her in the
dingy rat-trap, as she called the dear
old mansion house, but made her home
with relatives in gay city, where
grandmamma punctully paid her board
and only returned for fresh outfit of
the favors and fueries with which
grandmamma loaded her.
1t was understood, long before we
came to the house to live, that grand
mamma had made her will and given
all she had TO Amelia Gresham, and we
never thought of making any effort to
have that disposition of things altered !;
for although ii seemed great outrage,
if one reflected on it, the property hav-
ing originally been our grandfather s,
nevertheless it was her own now, and
she had right to do AS she chose with
her own. Moreover, | can't say, after
all we had heard about her, but that
we were a little pleased to see that she
had heart, and could really love
somebody. We came to the house only
while we were preparing ourselves to
make our own way in life; for we each
had some little aptitude, | with music,