The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-06-10
HER PHILOSOPHY.
Eow Priscilla paid the Penalty of
Being Too Happy"

gov 6TISClIId IaIu the Sen2IUy O
Being Too Happy"
Priscilla's beauty was Of that shadowN
and spiritual kind that it took a gooC
while to find out that she was beauty a
all. Certainly Priscilla's sisters. the Misse.
Mildmay, had sublime faith in Priscilla.
charms; but the poor girl herself had spent
so m''ch of her twenty-one years of life
trying to conform to the standard of be
havior inculcated in the Misses Mildmay's
boarding and day school for young ladies
and little girls, that it had robbed her of
that delicious and ingenious vanity which
Is the glorious Inheritance of pretty young
things of her gender. The Misses Mildmay
lived in an imposing four-stOry brick man.
sion, in a street of the sternest respectable
Ity; there was not a suspicion of the SEoD
in the stately front door and the heavily
draped windows bore no advertising sign.
The tall man servant who opened the door
was lOftIly ObliViOuS To the pupils who
Sneaked in by the garden way The Misses
Mlldmay had made money in their school
and it was all for Priscilla. Had this
youngest Dirdling in the dove-cOt been like
her elder sisters, nothing could have been
better cOntrived than the scheme of happi-
ness proposed TO her. But unfortunately
Priscilla was no more a Mildmay than she
was a MOntmorency or Conde
1t IS true that she conformed out
wardly to the Mildmay model but
natures original Priscilla was a merry.
fiery young creature with peachy cheeks
and perpetual smile and a good appetite.
All these things, however, were kept in
abeyance-particularl her color and her
appetite. Had that digniiied footman been
cut up into juicy chops for Priscilla's break
fast, and that mahogany door been made
into rich soups for Priscilla's dinner she
would no doubt have lost some of that
pretty pallor, that pathetic look out of her
dark eyes; but the income of the Misses
Mildmay did not admit of the fOOtman and
the mahogany door and the juicy chops
and rich soups too, so they skimped on the
dinners, skimped on the amusements
skimped on all those vanities that had
never had any charms for them, but which
Mother Nature, who is obstinate as well as
perverse, had meant for the Younger sister.
The Mildmay religion was necessarily of
well-bred and repTesSive type; but Pris-
ella was given to getting up early and
walking long distances TO early services
and coming back pale and breathlesS. as if
she had passed through some exciting ex-
perlence. And instead of reading the books
of devotion proposed by her sisters, she
had a way of devouring Thomas a henlpis
"a.
When the elder Miss Mildmay limited to
old Dr. Sunbury that Priscillas piety was
not exactly of quiet, well-governed kind,
he smiled family.
Don't trouble about the child. On rainy
Sundays find myself watching her face
while they are singing the first hymn. 1t
makes me forget the dampness, coldness
I'm susceptible to weather influences. and
on those occasions Priscilla's face helps
me-"
One afternoon DR.. Sunbury, walking
down the quiet streets of West Harrowbv-
it was half town. half village-met Priscilla
hurrying along. She stopped suddenly
when she saw him, and blushed guiltily ali
over her face and neck, while her pretty
eyes sought the ground. ''Come, comen
said the old doctor, good-humoredly;
you've been going to hear that military
parson again"
Although Priscilla seemed embarrassed,
she had not walked and talked with Dr.
Sunbury all these years without knowing
him, so she was not very much frightened
after all. "Yes, have, DR.. Sunbury," she
said, simply.
Its the old story. Even if a man has
once been soldier, he's exalted" DR..
But / do feel" said Priscilla, in a dis
tressed voice, las il it were a kind of-in-
neutrality-suspicious. to leave st.
Johns"
"whyl'' asked Dr. Sunbury, walking
soberly along, with his hands behind his
back.
You know" answered Priscilla, re-
proschfully.
mo, | don't" said DR. Sunbury. II
always thought myself liberal man. l
see no reason whv Won should think me
otherwise. Mr.. Thorburn is an eloquent
preacher. l am told that he has reformed
that colony Of bricE-makers on the edge of
the town so that they have ceased to be the
terror of their neighborS, and come to
church in such crowds that the more re-
spectacle part Of the congregation complain
they are crowded out by them Why should
not the young and enthusiastic go to hear
himln
Priscilla sighed Priscilla took DIR. Sun
bury's advice, and on weekdays and Sun
day afternoons forsook the comfortable
cushioned pewS of st. Johns for st. Philips
bare and somewhat cheeriesS interior. Mr.
Thorburn, and his hearers too, would prob
ably have been surprised to know that Dr.
Sunbury had called him eloquent. He had
been a soldier many more years than he had
been clergyman; and trim military
mustache and a quick military walk, and
something suggestive of a sword in the
way be carried his clerical cane still clung
TO him, so did a certain authoritative man
ner of speaking-a plain, soldier-like blunt
ness of speech, far removed from conven-
uonal pulpit eloquence. Now, brethren
he would say, very much in the tone of
Attention.
The tea tables of West Harrowby did not
see Mr.. Thorburn often. Once month he
dined with DR.. Sunbury, and occasionally
DIR. Sunbury walked over to his brother
clergyman's modest lodgings in East Har-
rowhy and smoked a pipe of peace with
him. Everybody knew MIR. Thorbnrn'S
history. he had met with the most awful
of domestic calamities-the wife whom he
loved had lost her mind. Clearly society
could give Mr.. Tborburn no pleasure.
Priscilla's face had not escaped Mr.. Thor
burn. He had keen eyes, and he saw every
thing BE saw Priscilla with wonder.
Women, as rule. did not flock to his
church They said they found his sermons
cold. Men, and some of them none of the
best chiefly made up his audiences. Il was
not hard anywhere TO observe Priscilla's
snow-drop face in her little black bonnet,
with her eager, beseeching eyes. After
while Mr. Thorbarn began to feel their mes
meric influence, as DR.. Sunbury had done
ever since she was fifteen. He began TO
watch for her, to preach at her, to feel that
she understood him-a very comforta-
BILE thing for a public speaker. Of course
he knew who Miss Priscilla Mildmay was
-s'very nice but not the equal OF the
elder Misses Mildmay,n he usually
keard-and sometimes they had met