Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-11-04
KITTY DELANE.

of which at once the best and the worst
that can be said is, that they arc with
in comparatively convenient reach of
London. The advantages Of such
position arc too obvious to need point
ing out; the disadvantages arise main
ly from the absence of any sense of
sclf-sutficiency, of corporate unity and
integrity. The inhabitants depend for
the most part on London for their bust
ness and amusement, and there Is
nothing to counterfeit the shifting in
stability which constitutes one of the
leading difficulties of life in the suburbs,
where society is cut up into sets,
cliques and factions, the edges of which
overlap uncomfortably and where the
range of ones acquaintance is deter
mined neither by the well-defined social
qualification of an old country town,
nor by the wide freedom of choice in
the matter of friends which a Londoner
prefers even to fresh air, green fields
and low horizon. Yet everywhere
there are pleasant people to be found,
and in Haverston the rule was we'll il
Illustrated by the set of which the Hal
lams and Delanes were the most popu-
lar members. The Delanes were
large family, all more or less charming,
from Mr.. Delane, who had given up
the bar for the quiet pursuits of liter
ature and botany, and Mrs. Delane, of
whose sweet face and sympathetic ma
ture no one could ever speak warmly
enough, to the sturdy little boys Of
four and five, whose inseparable figures,
golden haired and blue-bloused, were
familiar to every one in the place.
But the third girl, Kitty, just turned
twenty, was perhaps the greatest favor
ite of all. She was her mother over
again, people said, meaning that she
had not only the same delicately refined
face and winning manners, but that she
was uniformly kind, unselfish and gen.
tie. Her chief friend was Grace Hal
lam, whose quick sightedness and most
rare sagacity made her the best possible
companion for a girl of Kitty's ditfident,
self contained nature. The two had
grown up together, and without much
interchange of sentiment had reached
that stage of mutual confidence which
transcends all uttered condolences as
surely as the quality of resolution trans
cends all defined resolutions.
The Italians and Delanes lived with
opposite sides of hilly lane. Their
nearest neighbors were some people of
the name of Field, who sounded a some
what lower note on the gamut of Gull
tivation, but with whom they were, al
most of necessity, on terms of intimacy.
The children from all three houses
played together and it was impossible
to drop old habits merely because the
divergence of breeding showed more
distinctly as they grew up.
George Field, the eldest. had been a
pleasant, handsome boy, and in the old
days Kitty had taken to him kindly
enough; but q change for the worse
came over him rs he reached manhood
and now the girl shrank from his
clumsy familiarities Spoiled by his
wealthy parents he had conceived an
intense belief in himself, and strong
confidence in his own good looks, abil-
tiles and powers of fascination, which
completely ovcrlaid his one good vir-
tue of good nature with crust of blind
egot;sm and stupidity. The tall, big
young man, with his fat, impassive
face and heavy manner, possessed no
quality likely to gain favor in Kitty's
fastidious eyes, yet for some time he
had chosen to assume condesceRdingly
loverlike attitude towards her, and to
annoy her with awkward civilities.
Her efforts to convince him of the
fruitlessness of his attentions remained
quite without effect; conscious of his
wealth and infinite superiority to any
other man III Haverstop, he persisted
in considering himself a favored sutton.
That he should ever have rival SEEM
cd to him hardly possible. Yet the
day came when the truth flashed upon
him with unpleasant distinctness that
other people at any rate, saw the mat
ter from a different point of view, and
that his pretensions were being en-
dangered by man whom he himself
had been rash enough to introduce to
Kitty. Aschoolelow had written to
him one day asking if there were any
houses in Haverston, to be let for the
season, and George had replied in the
affirmative, with the result that pretty
house on the hill was taken for three
months by the sehool-fellow's father,
Gen. James. The Fields made the
most of the very slight acquaintance
between the two young men, spoke
Familiarity of 1.-THE generals" and trotted