The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-06-09
HER PHILOSOPHY.
How Priscilla paid the Penalty of
Being Too Happy"

In" AlASSlhes oAu tAo oAoACy VI
Being Too Happy"
Priscilla's beauty was Of that shadowy
and spiritual kind that it took q good
while to find out that she was a beauv at
all. Certainly Priscilla's sisters, the Misses
Mildmay, had sublime faith in Priscilla's
charms; but the poor girl herself had spent
so much 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 all imposing fourstory brick man
sion in a street of the sternest respectable
ity: there was not suspicion of the shop
in the stately front door and the heavily
draped windows bore no advertising sign.
The tall man-servant who opened the door
was loftily Obvious to the pupils who
sneaked in by the garden way. The Misses
Mildmay had made money in their school
and it was all for Priscilla. Had this
youngest birding 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 Mildmay than she
It is true 0ntrsa thas she conformed OF 0oSs. ons
wardly to the Mildmay model, but
natures original Priscilla was q merry.
fiery young creature with peachy cheeks
and perpetual smile and q good appetite.
abeyance-particularly her color and her
appetite. Had that diSnifed 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
skimped on all those vanites that had
never had any charms for them, but which
Mother Nature, who is obstinate as we'll as
perverse, had meant for the younger sister.
The Mildmay religion was necessarily of
a.well-bred and repressive type; but Pris.-
walking long distances to early services,
and coming back pale and breatl less, as IL
she had passed through some exciting ex-
perience. And instead of reading the books
had way of devouring Thomas Kempis
as if it contained all there was of truth
When the elder Miss Mildmay hinted to
old DR.. Sunbury that Priscilla's piety was
not exactly of quiet well-governed kind,
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.n
One afternoon DR.. Sunbury. walking
down the quiet streets Of West Harrowby-
it was half town. half village-met Priscilla
hurrying along. She stopped suddenly
OVER her I face and n' neck, eek % wSiis ser % pSetsy s
eyes sought the ground. Come, come"
said the old DOCTOR spontaneously
you've been going to hear that military
she had not walked and talked with DIR.
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 il a man has
Surbury stopped.
But do feel,' said Priscilla, in q dis
tressed voice, las il it were a kind of-in-
neutrality-suspicious., to leave st.
Johns"
"Whyl" asked DIR. Sunbury, walking
soberly along, with his hands behind his
back.
You know" answered Priscilla, re-
proachfully.
mo, l don't" said DR.. Sunbury. 81
always thought myself liberal man. /
see no reason whv YOU should think me
otherwise. Mr.. Thorburn is an eloquent
preacher. ] am told that he has reformed
that colony of brick 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
Priscilla sighed. Priscilla took DR.. 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 cherries 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 soldier many moro years than he had
been clergyman; and ~ Q trim military
mustachs and quick military walk, and
something suggestive of . sword In the
way he carried his clerical cane still clung
to him, 20 did certain authoritative man
ner of speaking-a plain, soldier-like blunt
moss Of speech far removed from conven-
tionsl pulpit eloqusEcs. "N0w, brsthren," {"
Z: xouid say very much In the tone Of
The tea tables of West Harrowby did not
see Mr.. ThoIburn often. Once month hs
dined with DIR. 6unbury, and occasionally
Dr. sunbury walked over to his brother
clergyman's modest lodgings in East Har-
rowby and smoked a pipe Of peace with
him. Everybody knew Mr.. fhorbarn's
history. He had met with the most awful
Of domestic calsmities-the wife whom he
loved had lost her mind. Clearly socisty
cculd give Mr. Thorbun no pleasure.
Priscills's face had not escaped Mr.. Thor
burn. He had keen eyes, and he saw every
thing He saw Priccills with wonder.
Women, e . rule. did not dock 70 his
church. They said they found his sermons
cold. Men, and some Of than none Of the
not hard anywhere TO observe Priscilla's
snow-drop face in her little black bonnet,
With WITH her M esgsr, bs.sssching sy:r s ..!;i Aitsr
msric in6uencS, q pr. eunbury hsd done
ever since she wes Afsesp He fegpR e
watch for her, TO preach g t6, 70 t1SI thal
Re undsrstood him-s very comforta
sls thing for public spssksr; OF couIs1
be knew Who Nlss Priscilla xildmsy VA
-"vsry pics but not he equal Of ~
sldss. Mics ntidnsy," b. usually
hsard--anA ssnstinss 10y hsd ns'