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

'"!ih.
II haze so many things that rant to
sag to yOu"
To be convinced pessimist it is be-
fore all things necessary TO have reached
middle age and to suffer from dis
ordered liver. Deprived of these two
essentials. man will be very apt to find
nature too strong for him, and to form a
more f1attering opinion of this world and
its inhabitants than perhaps he ought to
form. An unfortunate love affair is all
very well so long as the soreness lasts;
but this invariably wears off sooner or
later, and then reaction takes place in
the minds of the young and healthy
which cannot but prove fatal to their
wisdom and philosophy.
Thus, in the course of the summer
with which this narrative is concerned,
it came to pass that Percy Thorold, who
was still young, who did not so much as
know that he possessed liver, and
whose love for his cousin had become a
mere memory, began to think that there
were good and even adorable women in
London, notwithstanding the excellent
reasons that he had for believing the
contrary. At all events he thought that
there was one such woman, and it Is OBJ
.vious that when you have gone the
length of making that admission there
is an end of your pessimism.
Paramount as were the claims of pub
lie affairs upon his attention, he had
nevertheless found time during those
summer months to see a great deal of
Dorothy Leslie, and the more he had
seen of her the more he had learned to
appreciate her immeasurable superiority
to the rest of her sex. After all, there
must be few exceptions even to the
most stringent of rules; and here, surely,
was one of them. He was still willing
to maintain that women in general are
false, tickle and foolish. Now, as re-
garded this bright and rare example of
what all women ought to be, but I'M
fortunately are not, there was one thing
specially noticeable about her; namely,
that although she might, if she had
chosen to give them any encouragement,
have had a very respectable number Of
admirers, she did not seem to care in the
least for admiration.
What made her so delightful was that
you could talk to her as to reasonable
being. When she spoke of art or
music or politics or any other
subject in which you and she
were jointly interested, you might feel
sure that she had no arriere pensee-
that she was not merely leading you on
with view to putting you in good
1umor, and so acquiring fra basis for
the opening of those siege operations
which rich men soon learn to recognize
and dread. 1t was, in short, perfectly
clear that she neither expected nor
wished you to make love to her.
Not that these sage and just refiec-
ticns prevented Percy from making love
to her-quite the contrary There are
thousand different ways of making love,
and his, if quiet and undemonstrative
one, was no whit less effectual and effect
i've than the others. At what period of
their acquaintanceship it first dawned
upon him that the feelings which he en-
tertained for Miss Leslie were not pre-
cisely those of father he could not af-
terward remember, nor indeed was this
a question of any Importance. 1t was
sufficient for him to know that life
would no longer be endurable for him
without her, and it was very pleasant
to him to suspect that when he should
tell her as much-which he fully intend
ed to do before the end of the season and
.he session-she would not be altogether
jispleased. But there is no rose without
horn, and very annoying little thorn
if indeed it could be called little sue)
was provided for Percy Thorold in the
memory of that fell compact to which
Lord Guise had persuaded him to be-
,ome party some months back. He
vas very angry with Lord Guise when
ne thought Of it and still more angry
with himself.
OF course there was no getting out OF
he absurd agreement; he had pledged
his word Of honor, and he must do what
he had undertaken to do Still the idea