The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-06-30
RooK sEX-(coNcLUDED.,
CHAPTER VII


! good-far too good-to offer to wait for me.
! am no going to be success in life, am
| afraid
20, | am going TO earn my bread myself, y
| Sophia cried. clapping her hands You keep
yourself; III keep myself.
Earn Your breadin exclaimed Percival
/ aHow do you mean to do it
Give dancing lessons, dear, she answered.
| 'Lool here!n
And with a "tra, la, la" ON her lips, she
| began to turn and whirl about the room,
down and up, the picture of honest delight.
| And Percival locked on in wonder, which
at every motion of her figure kept turning
| into love
Dancing lessons" he exclaimed "Where
win you get pupils:7
Here is my first she retorts, taking him
| up as she goes by. Now, sir"
| Really, Sophia, what is all this for!7
~For twelve thousand pounds, you clumsy
| boy There, you are ON my toel"
Twelve thousand pounds, SOphia!'
Twelve thousand pounds, Mr.. Percival
| Brent / am worth twelve thousand pounds :"
! Now she stops and looks him full in the face.
| ''By the way, can you tell me how Mrs.
| Ianigan ISL
! Percival turned very red at this amazing
| question; but there was no outlines in his
| face as he replied:
| How do you know Mrs Laniganr'
How do gou know herln Sophia asked
snartly Il know her through the newspa-
| per. She was out driving with friend of
mine and got split. Somebody said it was the
| horses having had too much champagne-the
newspaper said that.
| Percival muttered something under his
breath which sounded very like some brief
and emphatic remark about the newspaper,
and caused Sophia to lift her finger.
please, not before me-" she said "No
colonial language before me. | am not Bes-
sic Warren"
Il thought there was something up by what
| l heard in the hotel last night, Percival said
with gravity and reflection. Tell me, Sophia,
have there been any stories going about
here not to my credit.'
Rather she answered, now serious her
self. Don't mind them"
'Let me tell you the whole truth about
that affair" he said. Il was driving with
Mrs. Lanigan The fact was was one of a
large party in the country that day, and the
| carriage which was to take Mrs. Lanigan
back to the theatre had an accident, and the
friend at whose house she was asked me to
drive her in his gig, and l did, and we came
to grief. / believe, Sophia, had too much
champagne, and that is the truth of it. We
had rather too merry an afternoon meal |
drank too much wine, confess"
Naughty boy But tell me-did you sit
next to Mrs. Lanigan at lunch:'
NO; at the far end of the table"
There, Sophia said twice over, putting a
kiss between the two words-"there, | forgive
you the champagnew
She forgave him. but the hot fellow would
not SO easily forgive the slanderous folk who
had made free with his name. And if were
to tell how he searched the slander out, and
faced Mrs. Hands, and faced John Done, to
whom she referred him, and how John Done
turned very pale. and declared that Mrs.
Hands had taken up in earnest what he had
said in jest, and how to exculpate himself
John Done made all his family quarrel for
ever with Mrs. Hands, and how Mrs. Hands
by the transaction lost fifty dinners and about
one hundred lunches annually for the re-
mainder of her lfe-all this, if l were to tell,
would fill more pages than / can compute in
a moment, and time and space press, and
must and shall soon make an end. So we go
back to Sophia and her Percival
He win not consent TO marry her as poor
man. He will go back TO Australia and
make his fortune. Note, reader, how she
manages him
"Oh. very WELL" cries she, tossing her head
marry naer three times running, You must
do as you please
She walks from him to the window, and
looks out, quite in pet.
.'You know what | mean, explains he. He
has followed her. You know quite well
what l mean"
"Well, if do. then you need say no more
about it"
And she turns her back on him.
Il only say | can't marry you as a poor
man"
"Very WELL. don't marry me, them
"But | don't want you to speak in that
way
"And l don't want you TO speak at all
Sophia, you need not be SO ill-natured
She turns ON him, making ready to tell fib
the second, which this time was stable one,
without any mistake.
20, ] know what it is; you have some other
woman out in Australia whom you want to
marry, and this is all pretensel"
WANT to marry some other woman out in
Australia Percival cried aghast at the
thought. "Another womanl Why, Sophia,
look herei"
He sinks at her feet, and then he presses her
handkerchief to his hps-not her hand-huna-
bly, signifying that anything about her is
dear to HIM And she, though not ill-pleased
to see how artistically she has brought him
to her feet, bites her lip, tosses her head,
looks angry still. Then releasing her hand
kerchief from his grasp, and putting it to her
eyes
Il know this she says. "If you really To-
followed me, you would not let this miserable
mo-mo-money stand in our wayi'
And quite overcome with grief, she plIpges
into her pocket handkerchief, and is lost to
his view
He will have her out: she will not come.
He will dry her eyes: she does not want to
have them dried He win make her stop
crying; she cries all the more. At last he
sinks at her feet
listen, Sophy; | win do anything you
please. will make no trouble about any
thing. viii marry or not, just you like,
if you only viii stop crying. | can't bear TO
see you cry; can't, indeed"
20, you dear old stupid.r she cries, unveil-
ing herself at the moment; and there she is,
rosy, blushing, laughing, triumphant She
has carried her point and made fool of him,
and she tosses her handkerchief in his face,
and flies from the room, killing him with a
retreating eye as be tries to catch her IN vain
Ny wish is that every reader of this tale
should, at all convenient places, fave the
moral lessons of the passage pointed out.
Here will Just remark, that if any read er
is very much in love with woman, and she
wants him to do anything which he does not
want to do, he may as well do it at once and
save time.
One other fragment OF their courtship. of
later date let give, just to show how
Sophia wove her web around him She Is
at the piano, and has been singing In Questa
| Tombar TO him They are alone in the little
drawing room, and Percival says:
Il am so fond of that melancholy music p
Melancholy music. VIII you have some
mores-
please
Ripple and dash, her hands fly across the
| keys Ripple and dash, the notes glance of
| her finger tips in kind of audible spray.
| Then. with one look behind her at him. and 8
| face full of fun. she starts off.
laugh if your heart beat light, dear boy;
| Alone and merry are we,
| For Love is the game, and am the toy;
So laugh, if You like, at-naes
Sing, if your heart beat light, dear boy
| Like a lark DER a sunlit lea,
Let the first trill be Passion, the next be Coy
And the end of the music-mef
| Dance. il your heart beat light, dear boy:
| There's nobody here 70 see
| You can be saucy and can be coy.
Dance, with your arms about -mef
| Just for one hour Of needless 10y
This shall our pastime be-
| Laughter and singing and dancing, dear boy
And only yourself and-mel
She ceased. and turned up Z thorough firt
ing face. sparkling like brook when th<