San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-02-12
ClIAPTER u.

Two or three days afterwards humiul, in
looking over hls engagement book, in which
the entries were mothoG,C; ilv kept, noticed:
Afternoon tea, Mrs. Sluayt'S, Friduy,' and
at once sent OH note to Edward Wallace,
suggesting that they should 60 to the theatre
together on Thursday evening - see Miss
Gretherton, "fOr, as you will see lie wrote,
1T will DO impossible for me to meet her
with a good conscience unless have done
my duty beforehand by going to see her per
form" To this the American replied by a
counter proposal Miss BvetLerton,n he
wrote, offers my sister and myself a box
for Friday night; it will hold four or five;
you must certainly bc of the party, and |
shall ask Forbes"
Kendall felt himself little entcapped, and
would have preferred to see the actress I'M
der conditions moro favorable to an indie
pendent Judgment, but no was conscious that
u refusal would he ungracious, so he accepted
and prepared himself to meet the beauty
III as sympathetic frame of mind as pos
SIbe.
On Friday afternoon, after Il long and
fruitful days work, he found himself driving
Eastward towards tho old fashioned Ken
oInGton Eous, Of which Mrs Stuart, with her
bright, bird like American ways, had sue
ceadad in making considerable social cen
or His niad was still full Of his work,
phrases Of Joubert or Of Stendhal seemed to
Oe still floating about him, and certain sub
.letits of artistic and critical speculation
were Sill vaguely arguing themselves out
within him as ne sped westward, drawing in
~ pleasant Influences IF the spring sunshine,
and dellghting his eyes in the May green,
winch was triumphing more and more
every day over the GrayneSs of London, and
would soon have reached that lovely short
lived pause of victory which is all that sum
mer can hope to win amid the dust and
crowd of great city.
Kendall was in that condition which is
proper to mon possessed of the true literary
temperam mt, when the first fervor of youth
Tor mere living is gone when the first crude
difficulties Of accumulation are over, and
when the mind admitted to regions Of an
ampler ether and diviner air than any she
has inhabited before. feels the full charm and
spell of man $ vast birthright of knowledge
and is seized with subtler curiosities and
further reaching DESIRE than anything she
mas yet been conscious Of The world of fact
ana Of idea is open, and the explorers instru
ihCuLS dIS us lCTIcCL as CDey Cttn De ulaue.
The intOxcatiou of entrance is full upon
him, and the laSsitude which is the inevita-
Die Nemesis of an unending task, and the
chill which sooner or later descendS upon
every human hope, are as yet mere names
and shadows, counting for nothing in the
tranquil vista OF his life, which seems to lie
spread out before him. 1t is a rare state, for
not many men are capable of the appreu
tceship which leads to it, and a breath of
hostile circumstance may put an end to it;
but i'll its own manner and degree, and willis
it lasts, it is one Of the golden states of con
seriousness, and man enjoying it feels this
mysterious gift of existence to have been
kindly boon from some beneflcent power
Arrived at Mrs. Stuarts, Kendall found a
large gathering already filling the pleasant
low rooms, looking out upon trees at either
end, upon which Mrs Stuart had impressed
throughout the stamp of her own keen little
She was competent in all things
competent in her criticism of a book, and
more thal competent in all that pertained 20
the niceties Of house management Fer din.