San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-06-11

~ IN Auce got INTO trouble was by
espousng my quarrels-the only way, heaven
help her sweet soul!-from first to lastm
He paused for moment, his voice husky
with emotion, and Mary laid her hand gently
on his arm.
"Another time, Mr.. Van Deckermann, tell
us another time" she said in her soft voice.
Il should like you to know" he replied, up-
steadily, land l should never bring myself to
speak of it again. By the time was IS had
come to the end of my patience. My father
was fast becoming as miserly as ne was cruel,
and | could see plainly if l were to wait for
him to give me start in life l might wait
for ever. | knew that our name was we'll
known at the Cape, and trusted to its be-
ing passport there of which, in conjunction
with the business faculty was conscious of
in myself, might make use to my advant-
age. l resolved to work my way out, and as
soon as had made enough to keep a wife, to
come back for my cousin. It was at the gate
at which you fcdnd me standing just now l
said good-by to her.
Il had been away nine years before saw
my way to making home for her. For the
greater part of the time it had been such
hard work that but for the few pounds she
managed somehow often feared by going
in rags or something approaching to it her
self-to send me now and then must have
starved outright. But at the end of the nine
years | was able to write to her and say
would come for her. She wrote me in reply
that my father was very feeble, that she had
owed him home all her life, and that we
should wait until l could come home for
good. 1t was great blow to a man who
had already served for her SO long, and was
thirSting for the sight of her, but it was as if
l had no will of my own where she was con-
cerned. | stayed on where | was and set my
shoulder to the wheel harder than ever for
another three years. The Cape owed me
nothing; then at last | turned my back on
her. l had gone out beggar, came home
with handsome independence. And what
was it, think you, came home to9 had
toiled and shaved and denied myself all these
years for what? Merciful heavens! for
what"
He stopped suddenly in the road, and
wrung his hands, with an expression upon
his face which hauntS me to this day when
am troubled and out of spirits The same
thought occurred at the same moment to my
wife and myself. For some reason-poSsibly
with little, if any, blame attaching to her
self-hiS old love had been false to him. So
completely, as we found when we came to
compare notes afterward, had this idea taken
possession of both our minds, that his next
words took us quite by surprise.
"You don't ask me how l found herr he
said in harsh voice. "You don't ask me
whether she was waiting to meet me where
had left her-where you found me just now.
You don't picture her as had pictured her
to myself hundreds and hundreds of times,
with the sea rolling between u.s. with her
arms round my neck, and her lips pressed to
mine, and the welcome had been waiting
for SO long looking out of every feature of
her sweet face. But you can fancy what it
was to me to look for her like that, and think
of her like that, and then to find her, as
found her-dead and buried!"
His voice sank to a whisper in the utter
ance of those last words, and except for a
murmur of surprise and sympathy, which
seemed all to which we found ourselves
equal, we went our way for the next
few minutes in silence. Whether he
would have told us more had we
questioned him, cannot pretend to say,
but l have often since regretted what was
possibly lost opportunity. He may never
uaNe uedIt US W DC any wiser, DuG, on Une
other hand, if he did mean that, and was
checked By a reticence, which sprang rather
from too much feeling than too little, how
much might have been spared both him and
us! The inclination, supposing it ever to
have existed, had ceased to animate him be-
fore he spoke again.
"You can understand now" he said, with
a resumption of his ordinary manner, which
was so rapid as to be remarkable, why the
very walls of that old house are at once
sacred and abhorrent, dear and hateful to
me. can neither make up my mind to let
other people live in it nor to let it go to rack
and ruin, and l would not live in it myself if
there were not another roof in the wide
world for me to shelter under. But there, it
is all over and done with, and we will find
something pleasanter to talk about"
1t was about midsummer, to the best of my
recollection, this little conversation took
place, and not long afterward our house, of
which we had only the half yearly tenancy,
was sold over our heads-a circumstance
which would have concerned us very little,
had not the new owner required it for his
own occupation. Conceive my astonish-
ment when, under these circumstances, Mr..
Van Decksrmann offered me the long unln-
habited Cedarsl 1 say advisedly offered me,
for the proposition was only submitted to my
wife after it had been talked over at consid-
cradle length between us.
Tha fact was. Mr.. Van Denksrrnann f-anLs~