San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-10-08
A MANS MISTAKE.

"Oh, dearl am SO tiredr'
$50 tired, my darling' Well, never mind
It's all over now, and you will never have t.
60 through it again, you know!"
The speakers were the sole occupants of q
first class carriage, in which they were rap
idly whirling along towards London from the
north. One was decidedly pretty girl of
some 10 or 90 years Not even the fatigue of
which she complained could deprive her face
OF its piquant vivaciey, and the very protest
Of WEAKNESS wasuttered with vigor, telling
OF considerable force still in reserve in the
slender frame.
Her companion was a man on the borders
OF middle age. There was certain out Of
door expression on his bronzed and bearded
countenance and general suggestion of field
sports in his largely built figure which
stamped him at once as country gentleman.
Perhaps kindness and honesty were more
legibiy written on his countenance than any
great amount of intellectual power One
could not picture him bordering very deeply,
for instance, over the "mystery of life or
becoming the shining light of a Browning so
cietv. Yet his was face which few women
could have been trusted to criticise impair
TALLY. AT all times 1t was q good and pleas
ant countenance, and now that it was radi
ant with the light of love, the brown eyes
fairly trimming over with tenderness as
they followed every movement Of the dam
lily arrayed figure by his side. no woman, 40
any rate, would have hesitated to pronounce
Mr.. Collingwood handsome man.
A mischievous smile broke over his COM
20 f1,,o L..
final nature of the ceremony that day accom-
pished.
"1ndeed, Jackl So you have quite made
up your mind that in the event of your quit
ting this mortal scene before me am to play
the part of Hindoo widow for the rest of
my days9 What pity you did not insert
clause in those tremendously long, dry settle
ments, arranging suffice in all due forln!"
The shadow of a shade passed over her hus-
bands face at her light rejoinder. She saw
it at once, and placed her hand on his in
haste to heal the little wound
"You didn't think meant it, Jack, dear!
You know that If you were to be taken from
me"-
The eager protest got no further; it was
cut short in sudden but not alarming man.
ner.
The two had been married that morning in
the village church, where whole generations
of Mr.. Collingwood's forefathers lay sleep
ing In one respect it had been a singular
wedding; the bride had neither parent nor
relation to give her into her husbands care,
nor even the poorest apology for a home
from which to make her debut in her new
life She was just solitary waif cast upon
the worlds wide shore and gathered up by
Jack Collingwood into his big, simple heart,
there to be guarded thenceforth with the
tender reverence many a princess of the
blood longs for in vain
Kathleen Raymond had been the bosom
friend of Mr. Collingwoods young step sis
ter in Hanoverian "peus!ouuat de deInoi-
selles" The motherless daughter of au i'm
pecunious Irish officer, her fathers sudden
death had left the young girl sin. ular,y
alone in the world, and when she Quilted
the 'pensionnat," where she had known
Mabel Collingwood, no other prospect Law
before her but to join the great crowd Of
lonely women who are fighting for their
own living.
But before beginning the much dreaded
search for employment she had been ycr-
suaded by her more fortunate fricrd to take
long holiday among the hills c"I dales of
Westshire The orphan gir!ro"clycd warm
welcome to the hospitable OIL bower house,
where Mabel lived with her widowed mother,
and there the bright weeks of that summer
slipped gently by in happy idleness.
And then a most wonderful, and yet ex-
ceedingly natural and simple thing, hap
pened Mabel's half brother, the squire of
Annersley, the eligible bachelor of the coun-
tryside, the cynosure Of every match maker
in the neighborhood, fell swiftly, irretriev-
ably, head over ears i'll love with the little
penniless waif whom the fates had cast up at
his threshold.
There was no one living who had the right
to say him nay in the matter when once
hathleen's shy consent had been won, and
TIE preparations for the marriage were hast
ened on as rapidly as possible.
To lr. CollingwQod. himself it was a never