Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-04-22

to-day"
"Sh-Sh-, she might year you"
Nonsense! She is down in the reception
room. I don't suppose, if she is from the
backwoods, she has got ears that can hear
through DOORS"
"Girls, I am ashamed of you. How can
we have her at the dinner table tonight?
I shall die of modification to have to in
troduce her to Mr.. Morris as our cousin"
"Perhaps she will be too tired to come
down to dinner after such a long ride. 1t
is a little awkward to add another to a
set dinner party"
"Oh ! mamma, bless you for the thought.
You IAN tell her that she is too tired. You
can arrange it, 1 know"
swell, I'll try"
These were the sentences which fell on
the ears of Priscilla Bent, as she sat alone,
waiting to see the aunt and cousins whom
she had come all the way from Kansas to
New York to visit, of whose welcome she
felt as sure as if she had known them all
her life. It was by a blunder of the SER
want that she had been shown directly up
stairs into the drawing room, which COM
municated by folding doors with the room
where were sitting mother and daughters.
"Pinkie! What name" continued the
speaker. "Who ever heard of such a name
except for a dog?"
"Her name is Pricilla," replied the moth
err; but 'Pinkie' wa given to her by her
father, when she was a little girl, on account
of her pink cheeks"
swell, I shall call her Priscilla"
"And I, too"
"Your father will not like it," said Mrs.
Bent. "But we must 60 down."
A swift rush of three women down the
staircase, three loud EXPLANATIONS of dis
may at the sight of the empty reception
rooms, looks of wonder and smothered
whispers of vexation.
How stupid of Ben! Do you suppose
she heard?
These were the next scenes in the swift
little drama which here began so inauspi-
ciously under Mr.. Silas Bent's roof this
morning. And next to these followed one
which seemed almost a justification of
all that the Misses Bent had said in regard
to their cousin. Slowly rising to her feet,
grasping her umbrella firmly in her left
hand, rose q tall, exceedingly tall young
woman, who exclaimed in a nasal voice
"Well, I was jest a-comin' to look We up.
I didn't know as that fine, black gentle
man O. yourn had condescended to let
you know I was here. I'm most tired
to death, I tell you four days and four
nights in the cars is enough to kill an OK,
but I'll be all right soon's I get my coffee.
I reckon breakfasts all cleared away by this
time, but I don't want much, only a cup of
coffee, if the cook haint thrown it out.
Pm real glad to see you. I s'pose uncle got
my letter, didn't hep" And pausing in
her breathless speech, pretty Priscilla Bent
looked sheepishly into the faces of her
shame-faced relatives. If they had not
been too guiltily disturbed in their own
minds of fears of having been overheard
in their inhospitable comments, they might
have detected a strange look on their Kan
sas Cousins face, a strange mixture OF
twinkle and terror. But they saw, heard
nothing except what corroborated their
worst fears. Even Mrs. Bent herself, who
had resolved beforehand to be thoroughly
kind to the child of her husbands brother,
was thrown off her balance, and, in spite of
herself, the welcome she gave was curt and
cool.
But nothing appeared to daunt the terri
BILE Pinkie. Radiant good humor shone in
her face her tongue ran like a clapper, and
when the dinner party was mentioned Pink
lie cried:
"Not much! amt too tired. I'll just
bunk down, and by six o'clock I'll be fresh
as a rooster! We don't often get a chance
to a regular dinner party out in Emporia,
and l don't mean to miss one this winter.
Say-shall I wear my very best? I've read
about the kind of clothes you New Workers
wear to dinners. But I've got some A No.
l gowns, + tell you. Now, you just show me
my room, and I'll 60 straight to bed and
stay there till dinner time. You let your
black man bring me up a tumbler of milk,
will We, along about l O'Clock, and a dough-
nut or bareback. Pm used to eatin' hearth
ly in the middle O. the day."
When the door was finally shut upon
Pinkie, her aunt and cousins exchanged
looks.
"Horrible !" cried the youngest daughter,
Carrie. ats worse than I ever conceived.
How could papa send for her
"He has not seen her since she was ten
years DID," said Mrs. Bent, dismally. "Of
course he could not dream that she would
be like this. He has always said her moth
er was a charming woman, and they lived
in Europe for several years when she was
little. 1t is horrible, girls"
''Bunk down." calculated the eldest
daughter, Sophia.
"Fresh as a rooster!" echoed Carrie.
"Mamma, 1 shall 60 to bed myself, and be
too ill to appear tonight. I never can live
through %it-never! I don't believe Mr..
Morris will ever cross our threshold again."
"Then he is welcome to stay away" sc.id
Mrs. Bent holly. .
While this distressed conversation was
going on between Mrs. Bent and her daugh-
ter, Pinkie, safe locked in her room, was
holding one with herself. Tears sparkled
in her eyes, but her face was full Of mirth.
81 will" she muttered. II will do it. 1t
will be good enough for them. 1 know l
can. It will teach them a good lesson.
But I shall have to work like a Trojan to
get the dress done. Let me see what I
have got that will do. Ha! 1 have it!
That old tableau dress will be just the
thing"
elbow lucky 1 brought it" she chuckled
as she shook out the folds of a white muslin
of the most a%ntiquated country fashion.
Snow I can go to sleep and rest easy for an