Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-10-16
IN LUCK At LAST.
BY WALTER BEsANT.

tual sloth, but loved physical activity; who
Wil presently drop easily, and comfortably
and without IN effort or q doubt, into thC
bosom OF the church, and will develop later
on into an admirable country parson. IN
less they dissstablish the Establishment; in
which case, l do not know what he will do.
But this other man, this man who vas
coming forSan explanation, this NJ. Arnold
Arhuthnot was, II you please, . very diff
ferent kim Of pupil In the first place he
wa a gentleman. a fact which be displayed,
but not ostentatiously. in every line Of his
letters next, he had come to her for instruc-
tion-the only pupil she had In that science,
In heraldry, which she loved. 1t is far more
pleasant to be describing e shield and setting
questions in the queer old language Of this
queer old science than in solving and pro.
posing problems in tr~igonometry and comic
sections. And ~then-how If your pupil be-
gins totalk round the subject and to wander
into other thingsl You cannot very well
talk round a branch Of mathematics, but
heraldry is a subject surrounded by fields.
meadows and lawns, so to speak, all covered
with beautiful flowers, Into these the pupil
wandered, and Iris not unwillingly followed.
- - sNoANhAlH VI ANAdAuI1 W
pondencs became the most delightful inter-
change Of letters imaginable, set of and en-
riched with a curious and strange piquancy,
derived from the fact that one of them, sup
posed to be an elderly man, was a young
girl, ignorant of the world except from
books, and the advice given her by two old
men, who formed all her society. Then, as
was natural, what was at first a kind of
play became before long a serious and earn
est confidence on the one side and a hesitat-
ing reception on the other.
Latterly he more than once amused him
self BY drawing an imaginary portrait of
her:i 1t was a pleasing portrait, but it made
her feel uneasy.
Il know YOU, " he said, "from your letters,
but yet wan to know you in person. /
think you are a man advanced in years"
Poor lrisl n she not yet twenty-one.
You sit in your study and read; you wear
glasses, and your hair is gray; you have a
kind heart and a cheerful voice; YOU ara
not rich-you have never tried to make
yourself rich; you are therefore little
versed in the ways of mankind: you take
yodr ideas chiefly from books; the few
friends you have chosen are true and loval.
you are full Of sympathy, and quick to
read the thoughts of those in whom you
take an interest A very fine character.
but it made lris's cheek to burn and her
eyes TO drop. To be sure she was not rich,
nor did she know the world; so far her pupil
was right, but yet she wa not gray nor old.
And, again, she was not, as be thought, a
man.
Letter writing is not extinct, as it is a
commonplace to affirm, and as people would
have us believe. Letters are written still
the mostdelightful letters-letters as c~opious.
as charming as any of the last century; but
men and women no longer write their letters
as carefully as they used to do in the old
days, because they were then shown about
and very likely read aloud. Our letters,
therefore, though their sentences are not SO
balanced nor their periods so rounded, are
more real, mora truthful, more spontaneous,
and more delightful than the laborious pro.
ductions of our ancestors, who had to weigh
every phrase, and to think out their mots,
epigrams and smart things for weeks be-
forehand, so that the letter might appear
full of impromptu wit. should like, for in
stance, just for once, to rob the outward or
the homeward mail, in order to read all the
delightful letters which go every week back
wards and forwards between the folk in
India and the folk at home.
II shall lose my letters" Iris reflected,
and her heart sank. Not only did her CORE
spondent begin to draw these imaginary
portraits Of her, but he proceeded to urge
upon her to come out Of her concealment
and to grant him an interview. This she
might have refused in her desire to continue
a correspondence which frightened her
monotonous life. But there came another
thing, and this decided her. BE began to
give, and to ask, opinions concerning love,
marriage and such topics-and then she per-
ceived it could not possibly be discussed
with him, sven in domino and male dis
guise. "As for love-" her pupil wrote, 81
suppose it is a real and not a fancied neces-
sity Of life. A man, l mean, may go on a
long time without it, but there will come a
time-do not you think so?-when he is
bound TO feel the incompleteness Of life
without a woman to love. We ought to
train our boys and girls from the very be-
ginning to regard love and marriage as the
only things really worth having, because
without them there is no happiness. Give
me your V experience. l am sure you
must have been in love at some time or
other in your life"
AnybodyIwill understand that Iris could
not possibly give her own experience in love
matters, nor could she plunge into specu-
lative philosophy Of this kind with her pu.
pill. Obviously the thing must CONT to an
end. Therefore she wrote a letter to him,
telling him that ~. A." would meet him, il
he pleased, that very evening at the hour of
eight.
II is by this time sufficiently understood
that Iris Agler. professed to teach-it is an
unusual combination mathematics and
heraldry; shs might also have taught
equally well, had she chosen, sweetness of
disposition, goodness Of heart, the benefits
conferred by pure and lofty thoughts on the
expression of a girls face, and the way to
acquire all the other gracious, maidenly
virtues; bas either there is too limited a
market fot these branches of culture or
which is perhaps the truer reason-thsre are
So many English girls, not to speak of
Americans, who are competent to teach
them, aud do teach them to their brothers
and their lovers, and to each other, and to
their younger sisters all day long.
As for her heraldry, it was natural that
she should acquiee that science, because her
grandfather knew as much as any pursui.
want or king-at-arms, and thought that by
teaching the child a science which is iowa
days cultivated by 50 few he was going to
make her fortune. Besides, ever mindful Of
The Scored packet, ne thought that an heiress
ought to understand heraldry. It was, in
deed, as you shall see, in this way that her