San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-05-09

his face heightened despondently.
Mrs Maguinnis fell into a reverie, which
lasted so long that Tom began to think she
had forgotten the subject, and several would
be customers left the stand in despair of be-
ing waited on.
"Yez have no work the morrow after
noon," she said, finally; why but yez como
up TO the house and tell me all about the ma
chine"
So Tom promised. The next afternoon
found the two in the widows cabin, bending
over table on which were various diagrams
and pieces of mechanism: Tom eagerly point
ing out the merits of tho apparatus, descrb-
ing how this wheel here moved that wheel
there, and how a screw in this place con-
trolled something somewhere else. doubt
if Mrs. Maguinnis was any the wiser for the
explanation; but she listened intently and
kept nodding her old head sagely, and when
he had finished declared emphatically that
the man who couldn't see that the invention
was worth its weight in gold had no since
at all, bad luck to him!"
"Mebbe know somebody wild money to
invest" she continued, while Tom stared Won
deringly. Anyhow come again a Tuesday"
And leaving him still in a state of wonder
ment she babe him good evening, with the
parting injunction recorded at the beginning
Of the story.
For the next few days the apple woman ex-
Libited a seriousness quite at variance with
her usual lghtsome mood, and when at length
her broker friend made his appearance at the
booth an earnest colloquy took place.
Inventions are risky things, Mrs. Maguin-
mis-, remarked the gentleman.
Some of thin is and some Of thin isn't"
well, it is your money and you must do
with it as you think best" said the broker
" hat she decided to do must be inferred
from what followed. Certain it is that when
Tom raped at her door Tuesday evening she
drew him inside and thrust a pile of bank
notes into his hand.
Take thin, me lad, =" she said, "but don't
tell a Twin soul about it, Taste of all Mary
Ann"
God bless you, Mrs. Maguinnisi" cried
Tom, his lips trembling and his face alter
nately flushing and paling, And it's Mother
Maguinnis hope I'll be calm you in few
months and givin' you hearty kiss at the
weddn'n
Go long wild yez. We spalpeenl" was the
good womans reply, as she pushed him to
the door. But she gave one or two suspicious
it over the fire.
Mrs. Maguinnis was not the woman to act
from hasty impulse. She thought slowly and
acted with caution. But her decisions once
made were not to be shaken, and in this case
she was serenely satisfied with what she had
done.
Everything went on the same as before
She saw Tom as he went to his work with
brisk step and happy light in hiseyes Very
busy he was, and had only time to exchange
a CHEEKY Good day" with his benefactreSs.
And then one morning he failed to appear
The next morning Mrs. Maguinnis scanned
the long stretch of street with anxious eyes
hoping that every blue shirted figure in the
distance would prove to be Tom; but he came
not The third morning she ventured to ash
one of the workmen at the shop concerning
her young friends whereabouts. All he knew
was that Kelly had given up his job. -Four
days, five days, week, two weeks, passed,
and still no Tom.
What do you Think" said Mary Ann on
one of her calls at the cabin; Jimmy Dolan
says that Tom Kelly has run away"
The girl did not know what her mother
knew, but she was pqued at her lovers unac-
countable desertion.
Jimmy Dolan have a right to hold his
tongue about his betters," retorted the
mother, sharply.
She was sad at heart, but she bore the
trouble in grim silence.
Winter was an early and oppressive visitor
to the city that year. Uptown pedestrians
battled feebly with the gusts as they crept
around the corners of the wind swept thor
fhof
q winter was never known before. Mrs. Ma
guinnis complained a great deal in these days
of the ache in her bones" Her customers
noticed that she had quite lost her old time
spirit, and did not attempt to cross swords
with them when they INDUCED in little pleas
antries at her expense. 1t was remarked that
she was absent from her stand much oftener
than formerly. In the opinion of the neigh
bors the old lady was fast going to pieces, "
as they forcibly put it, and they hazarded
guess that the profits from her business were
very small.
Meanwhile it Jared i'll with Mary Ann.
Her lovers strange absence had wrought a
woful change in the once careless girl At
first she affected pert indifference. If Mr..
Kelly did not care for her there were others
who did, she declared with a toss of her pref
ty head. But as the weeks went by and
brought no news of Tom, the memory of his
many virtues began to tug painfully at her
heart strings. She recalled his tenderness
and his patience with her hayward moods
and bitterly reproached herself for her ca
M6ricious treatment of him. Her coquettish
Mrs were all gone; she no longer took delight
Tin smart gowns and ribbons, and her eyes
were red with much weeping. She had dis
missed Mr.. Dolan; she couldn't bear the sight
eel cba