San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-10-15

One can imagine fanatical opponent
of matrimony urging his friend to look
for six months before leaping; but one
really cannot imagine his friend taking
such advice. Lady Belvoir. therefore,
was perplexed, though convinced that
she was upon the scent; and as perpleX-
ity was a condition of mind to which she
was neither accustomed nor disposed to
submit, she could not divert her thoughts
from the unsolved problem when she
passed slowly into her boudoir, where Mr.
Schneider had been requested to await
her.
Had she been less preoccupied she
might have taken more notice than she
did Of poor Schneider's nervous agony
and the incoherence of his speech. As
it was, she attributed these symptoms of
distress to not unnatural cause, and
did not trouble herself to allay them.
Let him founder and stumble for a
while: it was only right that he should
be to some extent conscious of his i'm
pudence. For, however much one may
belong to ones epoch and have eman-
cipated ones self from worn out aristo-
cratic traditions, one is still aware of
the existence of such thing as breed
ing, and one cannot regard ones self as
belonging to quite the same species as a
little mongrel millionaire.
One may, however, marry mongrel
for the sake of his millions, and Lady
Belvoir had seriously thought of doing
so. She was rather deeply in debt, she
was living far beyond her income, she
hated the notion of retrenchment, and
there are worse things than husband
who is at once rich and submissive She
lay back in her luxurious arm chair,
tanning herself and contemplating with
a certain languid amusement the STAN
mering wretch before her, who looked
uncomfortably hot and to whose words
she scarcely listened.
"Shan |, or shall | not?" she was
thinking. Really don't believe can.
At any rate, not yet; he is too ridicu-
lous. If the worst comes to the worst
he can always be sent for"
But while she was thus mentally dis
posing of him her attention was sudden
ly arrested by some phrase Of which he
made use and which had an odd sort of
sound. What in the world was the man
saying? Business matters which have
been too long neglected nee
essary for me to look into my affairs and
find out how l stand-doubtful whether
shall be able to see anything of my
friends for some months to come"
These were confused and equivocal state
ments, nor was the manner of their
enunciation such as to inspire confidence
in the sincerity of the speaker. "As
live" thought Lady Belvoir, in utter
stupefaction, "the fellow is trying to
back out of itr'
Never in all her experience had such Il
thing as this occurred to her before, and
she could hardly believe her ears. In
stantly she forgot all about Percy
Thorold and Lord Guise, all about her
pecuniary embarrassment and the re-
suits to which they might lead, and de-
voted her whole intelligence to the study
OF this new and most extraordinary phe-
nomenon. \ m33Trcl millionaire show
ing anxiety u kick himself clear of
Sybil, Lady Eelyu.r! This required
looking into a great deal more than Mr.
Schneider's affairs could possibly do
The position of the luckless Schneider
was, as every one must see, awkward
and difficult in degree far surprising
that of Percy Thorold. Percy, in decid-
ing to absent himself for six months,
had in fact adopted the only admissible
course: when one is forbidden to speak
to the woman whom one loves there is
absolutely nothing for it but to fly the
country. But from, this course Schneider
was debarred by various considerations,
not the least important of which was his
ambition to enter parliament
The Scotch election he would no doubt
lose; but were he to follow up his defeat
by fight he would forego any subse-
quent chance that might offer of repair
ing it, and would likewise be considered
to have resigned all claim upon the in
diligence of the wire pullers. The COM
mercial instincts which were his by right
of heredity would not suffer him to
make such a sacrifice as that. Yet, if he
remained in England, how could he avoid
meeting Lady Belvoir2 And when he
met her how could he avoid addressing
her? 1t was not as though she were one
of those people who disappear at the end
of one London season and are seen no
more until the opening of the next. She
was no less certain to be at Doncaster
and Newmarket-not to mention other
places-than if she had been one of the
stewards of the Jockey club. and pre-