The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-18
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PART I.

hfe he being many miles distant at the time. l do
ton when she replied il low voice. drawing in her
breath But il is true thing. 1t really happened.
Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte
Each day in tho Darbury social calendar is a
new tub which must stand on its own bottom
All yesterdays are STAYED in and sunk in the
depths of the sea, 50 far good deeds go. The
evil ones float, here, as they do everywhere; but
Darbury, being Of an economical turn st mind,
makes much account OF such 1otsam and Jetsam
With respect to residents who are, in any degree
and for any cause conspicuous above their fell
lows, public sentiment is tribunal the doors of
which have rusted open on their hinges.
Upon Miss Mari, the beauty and heiress. it
sat without easing, and sat hard. The mansion
willed 10 her upon somewhat singular terms,
the carriages of divers patterns in which she
drove through the elm shaded streets: the
grounds she threw open with unconditional
right of way to her neighbors, gentle and simple
were but different elevations and adjustments
Of pillory, the better to conduct judicial in
vesiigation. Everybody accepted her invitations,
which were lavish and frequent, and everybody
wore his best clothes and strolled through
apartments such as no other Darbury dwelling
could show; ate suppers ordered from New YORK
or Boston, danced on the superb floor of the ball
room gazed at capital amateur theatricals in
the same noble hail. and listened to music so ex-
ceptionaly fine that not one in threescore of the
guests could appreciate it. Then, everybody
thanked dear Miss MARI for a charming even
ing, but when do we have anything that is less
than charming in this houseg and, withdrawn to
q polite distance, pelted her with zeal that
could not be said to be without knowledge
Her best friends admitted that Miss Marr's
history was peculiar; that her ways were not
Darbury ways She belonged to one of the old
families, to-wit, one that had made money in a
former generation of wool and cotton spnners.
There was fine waterpower at Reelville four
miles down the river from our city on hill
Selah Mari had begun life there as penniless
lad, and finished it as the richest manufacturer
resident in the picturesque settlement that drew
her wealth from the factories, the tall chmneys
of which were hidden from view by hill-shoul-
der and river bend.
Thrifty Darbury couples average one child to
home. Two were born to Seiah MARI in a
Reeivie fiat and removed with him and his
wife to the stately stone-p pile browning the CEN
trail eminence of the more aristocratic town.
One, a son, died in early manhood. His sister
married, at eighteen, with her fathers surly
consent handsome, dissolute man of
family and breeding; these ad-
vantages furnishing the quid pro
quo of the Mari money He maltreated lis
wife as heartily as if he had risen, like her SIRE
from the mire and clay of the common people
She had her legitimate endowment of pith and
asbestos. After living in the seven times seven
heated furnace of marital misery for five years,
she returned to her fathers house, with her in
FAINT daughter; brought suit for divorce from her
husband the ground of cruel usage and inf
deity; paid for the successful process with her
fathers money; resumed her maiden name; had
her child formally christened as ''Sela Marr." and
never moulted one of her naughty feathers until
her death at the heels of q runaway horse she
had insisted upon driving in defiance of coach
man and groom.
Sela Mari was twenty three when her grand
father left her undisputed mistress of all that
he could not take with him out of the world
The peculiar" provisos of his will were,
First, her worthless father was never to spend a
night under her roof. nor was she to give him
more than hundred dollars per annum what
ever might be his need Second, she was not to
marry until she reached her thirtieth birth day.
If either of these conditions were violated Sela
Mari was to receive but $50, 600 from her grand
fathers estate, and the bulk of the property was
to be divided among three nieces, the children of
the testator's only sister.
The girl accepted her fortune with cool com
posure which warranted the shuddering whisper
that trlckled there, raced through tho community
to the effect that she was privy to the old mans
intention to bar her doors in the face of her pau
per parent and guard against the repetition, IN
the daughters person Of the mother early error.
IF this were true it proved her to be heartless
and ambitious-a libel upon her sex. She gave
further evidence of her unlikeness to the rank
and file of her sisters by inviting one of the three
cousins, an elderly spinster, to live with her as
companion and chaperon, thus putting about her
person a spy whose interests were totally opposed
to her patrons.
Hannah Hurst, the SPY kinswoman, was i'm
passive, shrewd and discreet; wooden in belief
and action and justified her young cousins
choice by taking excellent care Of the house and
letting the mistress have her own way in every
particular Darbury busy bodies had their fling
at the poor relation who was either the craftiest
of conspirators or destitute of spark of honest
pride. But she had lived next door to them all
her life, and knew how 70 handle a duster She
ficked off innuendoes and queries as imper-
turbatly as she shook fluff from the handsome
mourning with which Miss Mari endued the
companions lank person the day she entered
her service.
She earned her home and salary, and was on
terms of friendly equality with her employer
While she would not crafty curiosity by pub
fishing through single crony that ''Sea be-
haved real clever to her in every respect, she
acknowledged ii fully to herself-a frankness that
spoke volumes for her own integrity and candor
She had one cross that did not get lighter
with time and the bearing Of it. Miss Mari in
sisted that she should appear in dining
and drawing room whenever there were in
vited guests. At these purgatoral periods, the
chaperon was on nominal duty in heavy black
silk and fine laces, was presented pnnctiously
TO strangers as my cousin, Miss Hurst" and
addressed by the hostess as Hannah In pri-
yate she was usually "Hursty"
II Hannah had spoken her mind, which she
seldom did, she would have said that she was
mot partial to parties, least of all to musical
parties, having no ear for and no knowledge of