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

"They tell more or less in the house;
they aren't of much use upon the plat
form. Well, you shall have an oppor-
tunity of hearing us both, and then you
will be able to judge to some extent
which style Of ora.tofy is iihpyy to be the
most serviceable under a system of party
government. suppose Mrs. Leslie will
accompany your !
Eyes, please; though I'm afraid she
won't enjoy it. | asked Lady Belvoir to
take me, but she said she would as soon
listen to two hours sermon" j
"Your mother" observed Percy, "has
been asking me whether consider Lady
Belvoir desirable sort of friend for
you"
"And what did you say?"
81 didn't say much; perhaps am not
very good judge. should be sorry if
you were to adopt Lady Belvoir's stand
ard of conduct: only am quite sure that
you won't"
"Are you quite sure that you know
what her standard of conduct is?'
"Oh, dear, no; don't even know that
she has one. However, | know how she
conducts herself"
So, for the matter of that, did Dorothy
Leslie; but she was loyal friend, and
she would doubtless have found some-
thing plausible to urge on Lady Belvoir's
behalf had she not been interrupted by
the entrance of fresh visitors. These
were all of them young men, and, after
the manner of their kind, they made
short work of the mistress of the house.
with whom they shook hands and whom
they promptly deserted in favor Of her
daughter.
Thus Percy Thorold found himself
relegated to the Background position
which has its theoretical advantages and
its practical drawbacks. He left the
house almost Immediately, and as he
walked away he was conscious of GER
tain feeling of irritation against those
well dressed and self satisfied youths for
which he was at loss to account. What
in the world did the cut of their clothes
or their satisfaction Herewith signify to
him? Surely he could not be so ridicu-
lous as to be jealous of them! Never
theless that is precisely what he was,
and probably it was some inkling of the
truth that caused him to say to himself
In a very determined manner: mo,
thank you I've burnt my fingers
once"
But of course it does not follow that
because you have quite made up your
mind not to be so silly as to fall in love
with girl much younger than yourself
(who in any case would be most unlike
ly to look twice at you) you are there
fore to be rude to her and ignore her in
nocent requests. Consequently it was
but few days after this that Mrs. and
Miss Leslie were enabled to look down
upon the heads Of those who are sup
posed to represent the concentrated wis
dom Of the nation, and heard q harangue
from the leader Of the opposition which
one of them thought magnificent
Mrs. Leslie, whose political opinions
were of the true blue order, remained
unmoved by it. No amount of eloquence
can make black white, and Demosthenes
himself could not have persuaded her
that it would be right to concede home
rule to Ireland 1t must be admitted
that she knew nothing whatsoever Of the
arguments for or against that measure,
but in this she only resembled the over
whelming majority Of her fellow coun-
trymen, and really if one had to be per-
petually giving reasons for the beliefs
which one holds there would be no time
left to devote to the daily duties of life.
Dorothy, on the other hand, was open
to conviction. and it was Mr.. Thorold's
privilege to convince her. He did not
at once follow the great man. That task
was undertaken by more important per-
ssnage: and, truth to tell, the important
parsonage made rather a mess of it.
Other speakers on both sides Of the
house said what they had to say, with
out producing much impression one way
or the other upon the critic ia the la
dies gallery; but very soon after Percy
Thorold rose she became aware that she
was listening to man whose words
were worthy of attention. His descrip-
ton of himself as an orator had certain
ly been too modest. Brilliant he was
not; but he was fluent, he was refreshing
ly lucid, he could prove his facts, and
such points as he made were indisputa-
BILE. He was frequently interrupted,
and this did not disturb him at all. He
had way of waiting until the noise
subsidized and then calmly finishing his
sentence, which seemed to have pecul-
iarly exasperating effect upon his oppo-
nents.
His speech, which was not a very long