The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-05-01

1
And yet Miss Martha Marrable was last
year the heroine of terrible scandal;
| and many OF her misanthropic female
| friends have never since been able
TO completely believe her professions OF
hatred of man. The affair gave rise to many
! whispers, and was even. | understand,
| guardedly alluded to, with Just AMI yirtu-
| Ous depreciation. in the columns of the
| IFOmdn's SHftdge Journal, as a terrible
but happily rare instance of womanly
| weakness and fri7olity; and since the true
| story has never been told / feel that it is
only fair to tell it. and by telling It, To
| defend Miss Marrable from the dastardly
| charges that have been made against her
established reputation for good sense and
unfliEching contempt of the rougher sex.
Towards the end of August Miss Maria
bic and her two nieces left London for
| North Wales, and, after a long and tire
| some journey, reached Abermaw, in Mer-
| ionethshire, and took rooms at the Cors-y-
| Gedol Hotel. They were accompanied, as
usual, by the two maids and the green par
| rot; but the courier and the man-servant
| being males and their services not being
| inperatively required, they were left be-
! hind in London. Lucy had just celebrated
| her twenty-third birthday, and Amy was
| just about to celebrate her twenty-first; and
although am sorry to have to record it
| am by no means astonished that they were
DOGn IN love. Lucy. during DQo WuOio VI
| the previous season, had been determinedly
| flirting with a designing young artist
named Robert Rhodes; and Amy, younger
| and less experienced than her cousin, had
been carrying on, even more sentimentally,
with Mr.. Vivian Jellicoe, who, being heir to
a barOnetcy, found that position SO arduous
| and fatiguing that he was quite untitled
GUS character. OF course Miss Mar
rable knew nothing of these affairs.
Had she suspected them she would per-
haps have not taken her nieces with her to
Abermaw; for it happened that at that very
watering place, Sir Thomas Jellicoe and
his son Vivian were staying when the
| three ladies, the two maids and the green
parrot arrived. But no foresight on Miss
Marrable's part could have prevented Mr..
Robert Rhodes from following Lucy to
North Wales. That adventurous artist had
made up his mind to spend the autumn in
Miss Larkspur's neighborhood; and even
if Miss Marrable had carried off her elder
niece to Timbuctoo or the Society Islands.
MIR. Rhodes would have gone after the pair
by the next train, steamboat, diligence or
caravan available.
Upon the morning, therefore, after Miss
Marrable's arrival at Abermaw, she and
her nieceS were comfortably installed at
the Cors-y-Gedol Hotel; while at the Red
Goat, close by, Sir Thomas Jellicoe and
Vivian occupied rooms on the first floor,
and Mr.. Rhodes had bedroom on the
third.
In the course of that afternoon Miss
Martha Marrable, accompanied by her
nieces, and followed at respectful distance
by the two maids, walked in the sunshine
upon the hard sands that stretch, for do
not know how many hundred yards at low
water, between the rocky hills behind the
little town and the margin of Cardigan
he fhar nrya= hot NJ r-yr
and the unrippled sea looked like molten
lead in the glare. Much exercise was
therefore out of the question; and ere long
the three ladies sat down on the seward
side of a rush-grOwn sandhill to read,
leaving the two maids to stroll farther if
they chose to do so, and TO explore at their
leisure the unaccustOmed wonders OF the
seashore.
Miss Martha having arranged her sun
shade to her satisfaction, opened little
volume on "The Rights of the Slaves of
England" while Lucy devoted herself to
one of Ouida's novels, and Amy plunged
deep into Keats. In five minutes "The
Rights of the Slaves of England" fell
heavily to the sand; and in three minutes
more Miss Marrable was emitting sounds
which, but that l know her to be woman
who has no w akness, should call snOres.
From that moment Lucy and Amy, as if
by common consent, read no more.
Lucy" said Amy, mysteriously, to her
cousin, 81 have seen him."
$50 have :" said Lucy.
"What curious coincidence!"
''Not at all. He told me that he intended
to follow u.s."
"What! Vivian told you?"
go, no. Bother Vivian! You are always
thinking of Vivian. Imean Robert"
"He here, too" exclaimed Amy. 81
meant Vivian. l saw him half an hour ago,
with his father"
"Well, 1 advise you n OF to let Aunt
Martha know too much" said Lucy. eff
she suspects anything she will take us back
to London this afternoon"
Miss Marrable murmured sneasily in her
sleep. A fly had settled on her chin.
"Hushw exclaimed the girls in unison,
and then they were silent.
Not long afterwards they caught sight of
two young men who were walking arm in
arm along the sand, a couple of hundred
yards away.
"Look! There they are!" whispered
Lucy. "Aunt must not see them. We
must go and warn them" And, stealthily
accompanied by her cousin, she crept away
from Miss Marrabie, and ran towards the
approaching figures.
need not describe the greetings that en-
sued. Such things are the cOmmonplaceS
of seaside encOu uterS between Young men
and young women who have likings for
each other, and they have been described
a thousand times. Suffice it to say that,
a few minutes later Lucy and Robert were
sitting together under the shadow of a
bathing-machine, while Amy and Vivian
were confdentially talking nonsense a
dozen yards off. Mort than half an hour
elapsed ere the girls returned to Miss Mar
rable; but fortunately the excellent
spinSter was still murmuring sleepily at
the fly on her chin; and when she awoke
she had no suspicion that she had been de-
serted by her charges. AS she walked
back with them TO the hotel, nevertheless,
as il with stranSS intuItive comprehen-
sion of danger in the air, she held forth to
them upon her favorite topic-the unfath-
omable baseness of man; and gravely
warned them against ever allowing them
selves even for single moment to enter
tain any feeling, save one of polite aver.
sion to the hated sex.
Thus matters went on for week or
more, Lucy and Amy meeting their lovers
every day in secret, and Miss Marrable
suspecting nothing. Although she knew
treated them, whenever she encountersu
them, with such freezing courtesy, that
they did not seek her society. As fer
Robert Rhodes, she did not know him; AMI
he therefore escaped her lofty Sights.
But in due time a crisis arrived: and
order that the full bearings of the
situation may be properly under
tiers of Miss Martha Marrable's undutiful
nieceS.
Lucy Larkspur has but little romance in
her composition; she has strong feelings,
but not much sentiment; and she j. one OF
those girls who are perfectly open with
their hearts. She loved Robert Rhodes,
and, as she knew quite well that he also
L. H. H.
affection for him. Amy Allerton, on the
other hand, is, and always has been, senti-
mentally inclined. She believed, rightly
or wrongly, that it is very charming
thing to
Let concealment, like a worm i the bud,