The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-12-18
THE LAST ILLUSION.
James Pink and His Beautiful I'M
mOrata.

1llSl S9Ofbs
SIT is, suppose, as likely to come to
any thing as your previous-fasclna-
lions. You are certainly an odd person.
James"
"Oh, no, Maria, this is quite different
assure you i have learned caution with
experience; and if the world has taught
me no other lesson, it has taught me
that the eyes of a man are really the
least trustworthy of the faculties with
which he has been endowed"
''What nonsense! AS if y0u are ever
likely to come to such pitch of wis
dom. Why, it was but last year, at
Oban, you remember, that you fell in
love with woman who was a grand
mother over and over again. She trick
ed you as easily as if you had been a
babe, that with her paint and powder,
false hair and false teeth. And | can't
say you did yourself credit when you
vowed to me that you were about to
offer your hand and what may remain OF
your heart to a person who proved to be
two-thirds bereft of her wits. I don't
know which county asylum she now re-
sides in, but dare say you know; and,
indeed, knowing you as / do, it really
would not surprise me to be told that
you were still in correspondence with
her. There's one thing: the letters on
either side would have about an equal
cbar Of copco n tbar,
''You are too monstrous, Maria, to go
on in that way" protested James.
"And now, continued his sister, "you
come with fresh story about siren
sitting somewhere at the receipt of GUS
tom, with the loveliest complexion you
ever beheId, and demeanor the perfec
ton of modesty, simplicity and grace.
A deal you know about compilations;
though l warrant if it is given to men to
know the qualities they most excel in,
you ought to be remarkable judge of
the creatures simplicity"
1t was in this way. James Pink, who
was country lawyer under no obliga-
ton to work for u livelihood, passed
three or four months of each year of his
life in travelling about the world. Dur
ing his travels he periodically fell in
love. He was accompanied by his sister,
Maria, lady of forty-fve to fifty, who
sympathized with none of her brothers
tastes. Least of all was she by nature
disposed to view charitably his love
fancies. In fact, they caused her in
tense irritation. Why this should have
been so we can not tell. But the truth
was that no sooner did her brother be-
gin, timidly enough one or other of his
stories about new impression made
toss her head and otherwise manifest a
little temper, blamable in girl of
twelve or thirteen, but very singular in
a woman of mature age.
Upon this occasion they were at Ma
pies. 1t was spring, and Easter. They
had viewed with complacence the pet
lambs which the Neapolitan children
are wont to lead about the streets dur
ing the latter days of Lent, fattening
them upon grass, cabbage-leaves, or
what not, in readiness for the butchers
knife on Easter eve. Neither the one
or the other of them had grown at all
cosmopolitan in the course of their ten
or twelve years travel upon the CONT
nent. Each regarded with horror those
customs of country which differed
from the customs of their own small vii
lage in the north of England.
''They do not do that sort of a thing
in Carsforth, was with James or Maria
Pink a common sort of condemnation,
indicative of the extreme of dispraise.
If either of them was disposed to be at
all liberal in his or her estimate of a
world which differed from Carsforth, it
was James Pink. But ne was cautious
to keep his opinions to himself.
Thus they had driven to and fro to
Naples, with their eyes fixed upon the
smoke of Vesuvius when Vesuvius was
in sight, and at other times with ex-
pressions of pain upon their honest
faces as they remarked the CRIME and
filth which accompany the color and
vivacity of Neapolitan life. Maria
Pink on these occasions journeyed with
small golden smelling-bottle in her
hand; and however picturesque was this
or that grouping of lads or lasses, rag
ged men and ragged women, upon the
hot pavement of Santa Lucia, which
she was requested by the car-driver to
look upon, she never so far forgot her
self as to omit to use her salts while
she inspected through her glasses the
details of the curious scene.
'For any sake, don't let us stay here, y
she would remark to her brother.
"There's typhus in the air upon this
spot, if typhus exists anywhere.
Imagine, then, this poor lady's dis
quietude when one morning her brother
announced to her, with sufficient timid-
ity and humility, indeed, that he was
enamored afresh-this time of a woman
resident in the city which appalled, her
so much from a social aspect.
The declaration was made while they
were at breakfast in the Hotel Vesuve.
1t did not come out point blank. James
had trifed with his egg in a nervous
manner, and his sister had asked him
what allied him. She was so positive
that the drains of the hotel were out OF
order, and that her brothers trouble was
due to blood-poisoning or fever in its
embryonic stage, that he allayed her
suspicious by telling her what he would
much have preferred to Keep 70 himself