San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-10-13

Moreton and Schneider was horribly
| iistateful to him, and his inclination
was to put off the bad quarter of an hour
as long as possible. OF the disapproval
Of these gentlemen he did not feel much
afraid. In the first place they would
| hardly, he presumed, have the imper-
| thence to object to Miss Leslie; in the
second place they were but slightly ac-
quainted with her; thirdly and lastly, he
was prepared, by way of bride, to &C
cord to them his full and free permission
to marry any three ladies upon the face
of the earth whom it might please them
70 select. What he did not like at all
was the prospect of hearing his own Sc
| lection discussed, however cursorily,
and this deferred him from summoning
meeting which, in good faith, he ought
to have summoned as soon as his inten-
tons became clear to him.
1t was not until the month of July
that he was somewhat rudely awakened
to sense of his duty. By that time his
devotion to Miss Leslie had been very
| generally remarked upon, and Miss Les
lies mother for one, was beginning to
think that if he meant anything he had
better say so. Mrs. Leslie was not a
worldly woman, and was in no great
hurry to see her only daughter married;
but she thought that Dorothy ought to
have the chances to which all girls are en-
titled, and it stands to reason that those
chances must be diminished by the con-
spicuous and apparently welcome atten-
lions of one man. She therefore took
an opportunity of saying to Mr.. Thorold:
| 81 hope you won't be too busy to come
and say good-by before we leave. We
shall be going home in less than week
now"
1t was at one of the last big official
receptions of the year that this COM
munication was made to Percy, who
was good deal disconnected by it. AL
| though he had of late been so constantly
in Dorothy's society, their meetings had
for the most part taken place under the
benevolent auspices of Lady Belvoir,
and his interviews with Mrs. Leslie had
been few and far between. A certain
anxious look in the good lady's eyes
made her meaning tolerably plain to
him, and indeed he felt that her anxiety
was justifable. Well, it should soon be
set at rest; but of course he must now
lose no time about taking Guise and the
other men into his confidence. He told
Mrs. Leslie how very sorry he was to
hear of her imminent departure, and
promised that he would call in Ebury
street in day or two, after which he
moved away in search Of Lord Guise, Of
whose red beard he had caught glimpse
earlier in the evening.
| But Lord Guise, when discovered, was
standing with his back against the wall,
propounding original solutions of the
Irish difficulty to a knot of amused poll
ticians, and it was evident that there
was for the present no chance Of obtain
ing his undivided attention. Percy,
therefore, passed on in quest of some
body else, whose undivided attention he
was fortunate enough to secure ere long.
Miss Leslie, when he Joined her, was one
of a group of three or four persons: but
these slipped away one by one imme-
diately after his approach, and he could
not help remarking that similar phe-
nomenon had occurred under similar cir
cumstances more than once Of late. He
had no objection to its occurrence, only
it certainly seemed to show that his
courtship had lasted long enough.
! 81 have just been Mortified to hear
from Mrs. Leslie that you are going
away" he began.
"Ishouldn't have thought that that was
such very horrifying piece of news"
said Dorothy laughing. Most people
do leave London in July, don't they?"
"Yes, unless they have the bad luck to
be members of parliament. But didn't
realize somehow that the end was so
near. Shall you be sorry to goT"
Il shall be sorry for some things" an
swered the girl. 1T has been very pleas
ant, and people have been very kind to
us. Oh, yes, shall be sorry"
81 wonder whether you will be half
as sorry as | shall beg'
To this it was obviously impossible
that Dorothy should make any reply,
for how could she gauge the depth of
Mr.. Thorolds probable sorrow? Conse-
quently she held her peace, and he went
on to tell her how dreadfully he would
miss her, how empty London would
seem after her departure, how he would
hate the remainder of the long, weary
session, and good deal more to the like
effect Perhaps her silence led him on
to say rather more than he ought to
have said without going farther still,
but as it seems likely that the majority
4 4lx,e.a l,n.-.,