The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-12-21


and his cousin opposite and the White
Mouse at my side. Bette, from wild
exuberance of spirits, suddenly relapsed
into deep quiet that was almost sadness.
Tom, seeming frantically hungry and
eating doggedly, said no word Anna
Bolton never talked before her aunt, SO
the burden Of conversation devolyed on
me. AS have said, the ancient I'M
welded was very deaf, and, like many
deaf people, she had the special gift Of
yelling especially loud when she desired
to be most confidential. Less for her
convenience than to feed my new born
grudge, enunciated most emphatically
all said to her, but at the guilty couple
opposite.
spoke most feelingly on the sin of
deceiving doting parents -philesophic-
ally of the folly Of impecunious mar
riages. This was a stirrup, and using it
at once, the old lady mounted her hobby
with agility surprising for her years,
and logged along till dessert. In common
with every very Grabbed spinster ever
met, she believed herself especially au
fait in the delicate intricacies of the
married state. Had her three score
years and ten been passed with success
sion of inhuman but rapidly removed
husbands she could not have reposed
more implicit confidence in her perfect
knowledge of double infelicity. And
however she might wander from it, she
invariably came back to money as the
sole pivot around which all happiness in
married life revolved.
.Frightfn1 indeed would it be- was
the peroration of her long lecture, IF
young girls were permitted to choose for
themselves without consulting the wis
dom Of their elders What is the use of
our experience, our sufferings, our mar
tyrdom, If we may not point out to our
children tSe true path to happiness?"
What, indeed" assented in strident
voice, and then added as a spur, eAh,
how many poor girl caryes ont for her
self q miserable future by an inconsider-
ate choice and a hasty plunge into the
dark gulf of married life!''
1 looked full at Miss Blythe, who never
colored at my words, nor even raised her
eyes from the pudding on her plate. AS
for Tom he ate his in great, absent
spoonfuls. and seemed to have joined
Mrs. Jellyby in one of her rambles to
Africa. But my shot was not wasted.
1t scattered, and one slug hit the spin
ster. Dark gulf was good, and she
bridled up in minated pride as she an
swered:
How many, indeed But l rejoice to
believe that some husbands are SO well
regulated as to have the viii of their
head both for their law and their de-
light" Here the old party raised her
voice to the confidential pitch, some
where at A above the line. My own
experience is a proof of my belief. for
next month my niece Wilt
Miss Bolton turned scarlet, only to
grow more white and limp than ever. I
understood then that her engagement
must have been arranged and affairs
hastened since her return; but the al
lusion seemed peculiarly painful to her.
''Aunty! auntyr' she cried, rising,
"shall we not order coffee in the parlor?r
AS we rose from the table the old lady
tOj&h DAJ LII cAAka It'll LILO 40 LIE NDSb Oh
honor, the corner of her special sofa be-
side the great fireplace. The others
grouped about the room, with the defiant
purpose to be agreeable, but it was not
written that the talk that night was to
be pleasant to them. The aunt would
give me, at her highest confidence pitch,
The details of her strategy to surround
Goodwin, the enemy, and of her cam
paign to crush incipient mutiny in the
White Mouse contingent. That casti-
gated branch woeld vince at each fresh
sentence, while the conscious couple
from Piketon quietly stole chances at
each other and weakly strove to turn
the right of our position. But l had
taken lesson from the team had driven
into the snow bank that day. When the
Did lady's slackening pace gave syrnp-
toMs of tagging, not the gray himself
could have pulled more furiously for
ward than /; when she gave faint evi-
uence OF bolt from the road, not sorrel
Jalap could hare pulled more sullenly
backward. / felt vicious in that atlnos-
phere of deception, as the beasts had in
the cold air, and reveling in a rhapsody
OF spite felt it delicious to launch out
stinging little sarcasms as they had their
heels.
Coffee over, became what would
have been uncomfortable, only Tom and
his lady love seemed strangely uncon-
scious of the force of what said. When
was rather more spiteful than usual,
my tone rather than the words made
them look wonderingly at me with what
/ could not but feel most criminal as
sumption of innocence. Finally the
hypocritical couple strolled to port
folio of rare engravings; the White
Mouse retreated behind the piano top
and played--very well, too-some of
Memberships dreamy, moonlight-on-
the-snow music. Still the grandaunt
droned her monotone about marriages,
gave me minute narratives of all her
faInily's in the past, and, when my ieal-
ous spite was rapidly yielding to sleepi-
ness, came back to her pet theme Of the
White Mouse. | had gone through all
the variations of the fact that she, yield
ing to the ancient's will, had become
contracted in formal engagement to
the man of twenty thousand a year,
but now / heard for the first time
that the marriage was to take place the
week after Christmas!
ssAnd there is serious reason, nv
Ioo, ps% - or,+rrvas,xl III -. - -. -