The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-10-26
THE POSTSCRIPT.
A Partisan Comedy in a San Fran
cisco Setting.

From the Argonaut.
Handsome Clara Hastings saunters along the
street with the tranquil and unconstrained step
that comes of good health, good family, and
good figure. She left Monterey only this morn
ing, and by tomorrow evening she Will nave mn
ished her shopping and returned thither. And
not until September will she again take posses
sion of her house on Pacific avenue, where her
maid, Justine, is now preparing onenght
camp for her mistress and also on the corner OF
the table a something which resembles dinner.
Clara strolls along without hurrying herself,
as If she were alone on the street, with her two
hands thrust into the pockets OF her dark-olue
dolman and her furled parasol thrust under her
arm. 1t will be the fault of the passer-by If he
does not notice the superb figure of the fair
promenader and see her parasol in time to AVOID
an unpleasant collision.
AS she passes some of the loungers indulge in
audible comments, such as they are accustomed
to shower upon the women who promenade the
streets on Saturday afternoons between and
O'Clock. 1t is seldom that they have an oppor-
tunity to critcise a widow of twenty-six, pretty,
clever, distinguished, rich, and cast in a mold.
AS for her, she does not even hear them; she
at every shop window as she would have put
it-a pleasure she would not be able to give her
self two months later, as the days then would be
all too short for the round of receptions, din
ners and visits.
Presently man comes from the opposite d.
rection a good-looking fellow, who puffs occa-
sionally at his cigar as he stares all the women
he meets out of countenance, the monster. No,
not ALL only the pretty ones-just as il he were
not in love with a certain widow who at that
moment-so he believes-is sitting on the piazza
at Monterey, a hundred miles away; as If he had
not repeated hundred times to that widow
the more inconsolable that she has consoled her
self-that for him there are no other women IN
the world; as if his old aunt, one OF the head
dragons Of San Francisco society," had not busted
herself for three months in arranging a match
between him and the widow in question, who
does not dislike him-quite the contrary, in
fact-but who prizes her independence above all
things and is determined to be very sure before
she surrenders it again to any mans keeping.
Behold, then, Mr.. Henry Wauburton, coming
along majestically, his light coat buttoned up
severely. He glances to the right and to the
left but correctly, without turning his head, as
a acountryman in town for the first time might do.
"Gad, what pretty little butter-ball These
girls manage to acquire an astonishing amount
Of style. Now, there's that brunette, with her
willowy figure and her slightly JldsS air-she is
certainly very delectable. And here comes
Pansy, in her Gansborough hat-hum, the IA
miliarty of some Of these persons is rather COM
promising. The fact is, don't lifelong to myself
alone now, and nowadays"
He has run right into the parasol Of Mrs,
Hastings, who had been watching him for full
minute with much quiet amusement.
"Why, is it you, my dear Mrs. Hastings? What
luck And how strange-I was just thinking of
you"
''And staring at the Others? Do you know,
Mr.. Wauburton, you would have pretty colec-
tion Of plates if your eyes were Photographic
cameras? Do you especially admire Gainsbor-
ough hats?n
''Not at all. have abominated them since l
learned Of your dislike for them Your dislikes
are my dslilles, your preferences are my prefer
ences, and my eyes, as we'll as my heart, contain
only one portrait But each time you appear to
me again | must take it again, for | always find
you grown more beautiful"
Wauburton got off his compliment WELL for
he meant it. He loved Clara sincerely and
seriously, but as a man of the world loves in the
year Of grace 1890. The man who was made
In so far as the eyes are concerned. Fidelity
has progressed like Lent in accommodating
itself to the frailties of human nature. One is
no longer damned even II one does not forego
cake, especially il 1t be "thin," nor if he stares
at woman who passes by, even if she be com
fortably plump
Clara was 100 we'll abreast OF the times to be
unaware Of this moreover, Wauburton pleased
her, and women overlook many things In the
man who knows how to please them. This
woman Of high breeding, very good and proper
as she was, was equally practical. She knew
that Widowhood is like travelling for pleasure;
it is a charming way of passing ones youth;
but, one day or another, one must return to
ones home and set up ones tent, or, rather,
change 1t for more permanent residence.
For some time the fair traveller had been
thinking Of bringing to in the harbor of a sec
ond marriage. But, like prudent woman, she
was tacking about, examining the land and
sounding the coast before laying up at its last
moOnngs the vessel Of her independence She
studied Henry Wauburton with minute care,