San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-03-03
CONQUERING A QUAKER.

81 would offer to help you, Edith, only
don't know what you mean to take"
said Helena Marvin, looking into the
room where her sister was pacing
''Taker said Edith, hardly pausing to
answer as she moved about the open
trunks from closet and bureau, why,
I'm going to take everything
Don't you mean to make any conces-
sionsr' EFE 81 70
mot concession"
you think it will be better to defy
themT'
Defy them! no, indeed! What ahor-
rifle idear' .aag 10 Gt'st
Then what do you mean to do2"
Il mean to please them"
"But how can you possibly please
them if you wear silk dresses and curl
your hair?'
Il don't know; perhaps l sha'n't; but
I'm going to try. And know 1 never
should please anybody if left my hair
straight and the pretty Cambridge
belle thought to herself that it would be
pity, indeed, if she, who had always
pleased everybody without trying, could
not please Roberts relatives if she did
try.
But this visit to Robert relatives was
naturally contemplated with even more
than the usual trembling excitement of
the young fiance. For Roberts father
and mother and sisters We're all Quakers,
with traditions and beliefs and customs
according to which they ought to con-
template with horror and distress this
union of their only son and brother with
wording. And such wcrldlingi
Such a fascinating combination of laugh
ing eyes and merry lips and curling hair
and tinkling bangles and rustling long
silk skirts and coquettish bonnets and
bewildering laces and ribbons and little
slippers oh, deari oh, dear how they
would hate her. And Edith did not
want them to hate her She had not the
slightest desire to defy or to horrify them.
She was very anxious, indeed, to please
them. But combined with this anxious
desire to please was quite unconscious,
though equally firm, determination not
to win their affection by concessions.
Not 50 much as the bow of a slipper
would she offer up on the shrine Of de-
votion TO Roberts relations Worldly
she was; worldly she would be sure
to remain; and it was best that they
should understand from the first that
she was thoroughly addicted to silk,
satin and lace whenever she could get it.
But she had faint hope that, once
brought in contact with her worldliness,
they would find it pleasanter than they
thought. Why not2s She had conquered
Robert; why should she not conquer
them2 Robert had not fallen in love
with her in spite Of her airs and graces;
he had fallen in love with the airs and
graces themselves, He had often told
her so. He had repeatedly pointed out
the particular little curl over her adora-
BILE forehead that had first won his at
tention, and had assured her that it was
certain bit of lovely lace about her
throat that had completed his subjuga-
ton. And that dear little curl was not
only curl, but was boughten curl,
held in its place by hairpins, and as fic-
titiously worldly as a curl could possibly
be. True, Robert was not exactly a
Quaker; he was only descendant of
Quakers. He had not definitely re-
nounced the world, although there chung
10 him, from the force Of heredity and
training and circumstances, GER
tain grave demeanor and atmos-
phere of earnestness. He did not
dance; he did not even want to dance;
but he did not exactly disapprove of other
people dancing if anybody did choose to
indulge in so foolish caprice; and on
the evening when he had been lured by a
friend TO one of the Cambridge ''as-
semblies, - and had met there his imme-
date. unuuestionable. irresistible. worldly