San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-08
NOT PROVEN;
-OR R
ESTHER HILLS SECRET.
BY GEoRGIANA NJ. CRAIK.

suaded, and went DacK. lie returned
up the avenue, walking by Gabrielle's
side, little silently, as was often his
habit, but on the whole not ill satisfied
to find himself recalled. She, on her
part, thought him-aS she frequently
thought mindful enough company,
for to tell the truth, he was thinking
more of Esther Hill than of her; but yet
by this time she had got to have sort
offaint feeling of liking for him, and
more respect for his gravity than she
had entertained for it once; for on one
or two occasions lately Mr.. Gilbert had
happened for little while to talk to her
as he might have done to man, or a
cultivated woman who could under
stand him, and Gabrielle, foolish as she
was, and given as she much was to en-
courage little but badinage or compli-
ment or the smallest of small talk from
most of the men who came near her,
had felt the unconscious flattery of this
different treatment of her tOlerably
keenly. The grave talk had been a good
deal too grave for her perhaps,-a good
deal too much above her, but just by
reason of its being so much above her
did the vain little soul care about it.
Her uncle did not think her worth
wasting rational talk upon: he treated
her as if she was child; but this man
could talk as well as her uncle, and he
did not despiSe her. This was what Ga
brielle had begun to think herself, and
in the bottom of her heart, in cOnSe-
quence, blacksmith's son though he was,
Gabrielle was little grateful to George
Gilbert.
Yet, though it was pleasant to be
thought capable of understanding the
grave talk of grave men, Gabrielle was
still very keenly alive to the fact that
grave talk was good deal of an infiic-
ton; and she was little afraid of Mr.
Gilbert still. and-if she did not any
longer dislike him-anything but en-
tirely at ease when she was thrown in
to his company for any few chance mo-
ments. She never knew what to say to
him at such times; and yet when she
met other men she always knew what
to say to them. She had dim, uncom-
Portable notion that Mr.. Gilbert'S mind
was always either running upon wheels
and machinery, or upon some lofty and
abstract subjects, and this notion was a
serious impediment to her. How could
she utter the common little nothings
that would have risen naturally to her
lips in anybody else's company to a
man who at the moment she addressed
him might be solving mathematical
problem? He was trying at this mo-
ment to solve something that had little
enough to do with mathematics; but Ga
brielle knew nothing of that as she
walked in silence by his side up the
short avenue.
They had got more than half way
to the house when he bethought him
n 20 f,,,- %
80 you have got Mrs. Hill here?"
He put the question to her-for it had
the tone of a question-so abruptly that
he rather startled her.
"Yes-she came to us yesterday. The
COulson children have got scarlatina,
you know" she replied.
docs she give up her rooms there?"
He asked this suddenly again, after a
moment or two's fresh silence.
''At Mrs. COulSon'S?" Gabrielle look
ed up surprised. mo, think not. At
least don't know: never asked"
''Of course she will be here for some
weeks, at any rate?"
"Oh yes-till the children are WELL"
He relapsed into silence again after
this, and asked no further question.
She said something presently about its
being so mild; after their fortnight of
winter had it not turned mild again?
she said; and then, when he had assent
ed to this, neither of them spoke again
till they had got to the house door.
How soon it gets dark now! sup
pose it is hardly five o'clock YETI" she
said then, as they were waiting to be
let in.
"a few minutes to five, Think. How
does your watch go on?" he suddenly
asked her.
1T is little slow. 1t is generally
just little slow"
1T ought not to be slow. Give it to
me, and will touch the regulator" he
said.
They had entered the hall by this
time, where the lamp had been lighted.
She gave him the watch without taking
the chain from her neck, and stood be-
side him while he opened it.
You are nearly ten minutes slow.
Why do you let yourself get ten min
utes slow?" he said to her.
How can | help it? | am always
afraid to touch watches; they have such
a dreadful way of going wrong | don't
think it would be safe for me to do any
thing to it,"
Not to regulate it?' he said this with
laugh.
Mol think you had better regulate
it,
well, that may do as long as 1 am
here,-but l shall not be here very much
longer"
Where are you going?" And at this
she opened her eyes.
Back to India"
"Oh-I thought you meant something
before that" A little silence-"You
are not going back to India soOn?n
II shall be going in three or four