San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-10-31

civil things for Nelly"
II know you do"
"And Nelly likes them, so she shall
have them. AS for you, L have got
something else for you. You shall I'M
pack it presently, when we have all
taken breath little. But 1 must en-
JOY myself first for half an hour. Sit
down here now, Susan, and talk to me.n
And then they sat down and talked;
they did little else for all the rest of
that day-talking, indeed, only the fast
er as hour after hour passed on, and the
old familiar feeling of being together
again came back more, obliterating the
first shock and strangeness of the re-
turn.
A road-shouldered, robust, pleasant
looking man, sturdy in build, kindly in
nature, with face that was sensible,
honest, strong, and bright. He had
brown thick hair, with crisp curl i'll
it. and brown, close-curling beard-a
fine specimen of beard, as thick as a
door-mat, and an ornament that he re-
garded with some pride apparently, for
he had got into an unconscious trick of
caressing it-with, Gabrielle always de-
clared, peculiar tenderness in his
touch, such as he bestowed upon no
other object.
"And why should | not? What else
have that is half so near to mep" he
coolly answered once when Gabrielle
accused him of this special devotion.
You are pretty near, but you are not my
own property, as my beard is. Tender
over it? Yes-why shouldn't be ten
der? 1t has gone through many peril
with melt has stuck closer to me
through good and evil than you would
stick. It's good beard" And with
that he fell to stroking it again in Ga
brielle's face defiantly.
Mr.Dunstan was very good friends with
Gabrielle, as / have said before; he let
her buzz about him always to her hearts
content, and he liked her and was full
of kind feeling toward her; but still in
his eyes she was buta pretty plaything.
Perhaps, indeed. he thought Of most
pretty women as playthings, and of
most plain ones as he did of his sister
Susan. For him the feminine world
was roughly divided into queen bees
and humble bees-the queen bees who
were never to do anything useful, but
| to be petted and leased and humOred;
| the humble bees who were to keep the
house in order, and sew on shirt-but-
tons. A reasonable division, he thought,
especially when man could furnish his
own peculiar hive. as he had done, with
specimens of either species.
He was in his heart very well con-
tented with his womenkind at WreX-
| ham,-indeed was even little proud of
| them. Gabrielle, it is true, he suspect
ed would be getting married some of
| these days, and that would change the
establishment little for the worse;
but Susan and Helen might naturally
be looked upon as fixtures. AT nine
| and-forty his sister was not likely to
| take husband, and poor Nelly could
not, so he might count on keeping these
two; and the thought of this was COM
| Portable to him.
1--WE shall make nice little trio in
| the old place when we've got rid of
YOU" he would say coolly to Gabrielle.
Il think l shall give up wandering, and
settle down at home then. don't do
| it now, because | should get no peace"
ION account of me?" Gabrielle would
| ask.
"On account of you-precisely. I'm
| not strong enough to bear you. A year
of you would wear me to skin and
bone"
"You have never tried year yet.
have upon YOU" she would say.
IL can guess the effect. Don't / al
ways stay with you till l can bear it no
longer?"
And then the frank eyes would look
straight into hers with a kindly laughter
in them that neutralized whatever sting
there might be in words.
They had a hundred things to tell
him, and more than hundred things
| to hear. The last letters that he had
| from them were more than four months
old; they had been written in February,
and it was the end of June now. "How
shall we ever be able to remember every
| thing that has happened since Feb
ruary!" Aunt Susan exclaimed. They
could not remember everything, of
course: but there were a great many
| things that they were in no danger of
forgetting, and all thu Sc they told him
| before the first evening came to an end:
how this person had died, and that
been born, and the other been married;
how Mr.. Warrington had put open seats
in the church, to the scandal of half the
congregation; how Wilson the coach
man had broken his arm one day in
March, and Hollis the gardener was ill
with asthma; how Gilbert the black
smiths son was coming from India next
week to recruit his health; and how
Mrs. CoulsOn had fallen in with a
mysterious ledger. They kept this last
piece of news little i'll arrear of all the
rest,-not bringing it out eagerly, as
they did the other items, but each one
consciously reserving it for little
while, with an inward speculation as to
whether one of the others would not
tell it first,-all three of them vaguely
feeling, now that the moment of con-
fession had come. that somehow, good