San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-09-13

A few hours later l was rolling swiftly
toward Stoke Moreton in a comfortable
smoking carriage, only occu Jied by my
self and Mr.. Charles Danv us, hand
some young fellow with a p,le face, and
that peculiar tired maj ner which
Though, as soon found, natural to him)
is SO often affected by the young men Of
the day.
And so Ralph has come in for a
legacy in diamonds" he said, listlessly,
when we had exchanged the usual civil
ties and had become to a certain degree
worthier representative of an ancient
race than fear he really was.
$50 they have put the stage at that
end, In front of the pillars" he remarked,
nodding at wooden erection. "Quite
right. could not have placed it better
myself. What, Brown? Sir George is
in the drawing room, is he? and tea, as
perceive, is going on at this moment.
Come, Col. Middleton" And we fol-
lowed the butler to the drawing room.
/ am not a person who easily becomes
confused, but / must own l did get con-
fused with the large party into the
midst of which we were now ushered.
l soon made out Sir George Danvers, a
delicate but irascible looking old gentle
man, who received me with dignifed
cordiality, but returned Charles greet
ing with a certain formality and cold
ness which l was panied to see, family
affection being in my opinion the chief
blessing of a truly happy home. Charles
l already knew, and with the second
son, Ralph, a ruddy, smiling young
man, with any amount of white teeth,
had no difficulty; but after that l be-
came hopelessly involved.
l was introduced to an elderly lady
whom l addressed for the rest of the
evening as Lady Danvers, until Charles
casually mentioned that his mother was
dead, and that until the deceased wife's
sister bill was passed he did not antfci-
pate that his Aunt Mary would take
upon herself the position of stepmother
to her orphaned nephews. The severe
elderly lady, then, who beamed SO
sweetly upon Ralph and regarded Charles
with such manifest GOODNESS was their
aunt, Lady Mary Cunningham. She
had known Sir John slightly in her
youth, she said, as she graciously made
room for me ON her sofa and she ex-
pressed very proper degree of regret at
his sudden death, considering that he
had not been a personal friend in any
way.
1--WE all have our faults, Col. Middle
ton," said Lady Mary, with gentle
sigh, which dislodged little colony of
crumbs from the front of her dress. "Sir
John, like the rest of us, was not ex-
empt, though have no doubt the soft
ening influence of age would have done
much, since | knew him, to smooth acer-
bites of character which were unfortu-
nately strongly marked in his early life."
She had evidently not known Sir John
in his later years.
AS she continued to talk in this strain
l endeavOred to make out which of the
young ladies present was the one to whom
Ralph was engaged. | was undecided
as to which it was of the two to whom l
had already been introduced. Girls al
ways seem to me so very much alike, es-
pecially pretty girls, and these were
both of them pretty. l do not mean
that they resembled each other in the
least, for one was dark and one was fair;
but which was Miss Aurelia Grant,
Ralph's fiancee, and which was Miss Ev-
elyn Derrick, a cousin of the family, l
could not make out until later in the
evening, when l distinctly saw Ralph
kiss the fair one in the picture gallery,
and instantly came to the conclusion
that she was the one to whom he was
engaged.
l asked Charles if | were not right, as
we stood in front OF the hall fire before
the rest of the party had assembled for
dinner, and he told Inc that | had indeed
hit the nail on the head in this instance,
though for his own part he never laid
much stress himself on such an occur
renee, having found it prove misleading
in the extreme to draw any conclusion
from it, He further informed me that
Miss Derrick was the young lady with
dark hair who had poured out tea, and
whom he had favored with some of his
conversation afterward.
Iadmired Ralphs taste, as did Charles,
who had never seen his future sister-in
law before. Aurelia Grant was a charm
ing little creature, with a curly head
and dimple and pink and white COM
plexion, and a suspicion of an Irish &C
Il,
Charles said he admired her complex
ion most because it was 50 thoroughly
we'll done and the coloring was so true