The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-05-01
TOLD RY THE TWILIGHT.

fairly outdid myself"
"What did you do9'' This in chorus
from the group seated around the blazing
woodfire.
81 stole horse" she replied, with
perfect gravity.
''Stole horser' echoed the chorus;
"tell us about it, Kate" |
'sVery well" she said. "Bring me my
knitting, Jack, will you please2 l hate
to have my tongue my only busy mem
Der. Can't find it? Well, never mind;
come sit down and I'll find it myself"
While Kate is searching for her knit
ting will you not allow the chorus to be
presented to you? We, the chorus, are
Kate's guests at her charming. old home
stead in Sussex. We are not all sopranos
and altos by any means; there are an
equal number of extremely agreeable
tenors and baritones. For Kate, the
doer of queer things" never demon
strated her queerness by inviting lot of
women to spend October with her in a
country house only to leave them to Ian
guish before each others eyes.
Nor did she trust to such men as the
town might offer; she imported her own
specimens, and whOsoever received an
invitation to ''Morningside" could rely
upon the choiceness of the specimens.
This had been so in the days when Kate
was entirely fancy free" and lived at
"Morningsiden with a chdperOne as
charming as she was useless, and now
that the grand old place had master as
well as well as mistress, the same rule
of agreeable pairing off was still adhered
to, which proves, does it not, that Kate
was glorious exception to the rule of
average young married women, who, be-
ing quite content with their own life cav
alier, dream not that other maidens may
sigh for other cOmpanionship than his?
This was our first October at Morning
side since Kate's marriage, and, on the
particular evening whereof l write, we
were seated in semi-circle around the
blazing logs, Kate in the middle, and
Jack, her husband, very near her. When
she announced her last escapade smile
might have been seen lowering about his
lips, amused at first, then melting grad
ually into one of extreme tenderness,
which said quite as plainly as words that
Kate's story was one of interest to him.
''Do you believe in the depravity of in
animate objects?" Kate inquired when
she joined us again.
81 do. am willing to swear that /
left this knitting on yonder table.
found it in the library under chair,
where it had deliberately hidden itself
away from me-"
ut must be feminine" said Berry,
casting a reproachful glance at Laura,
and therefore bound to be as aggravating
as possible"
Kate" said Laura, calmly.
Imagine its disappointment if you
ho1,,ft Enf 10 - cold Innly et,,ilinn canniluy
at Laura.
"My DEAR said Kate, "don't you
know they never run away except they
are morally certain of being chased?"
'Is knitting They?" asked Jack,
gravely.
'No, but women are. You know what
/ mean
But the story" said Laura, who did
not fancy the turn the conversation had
taken.
"Of course, the story!" we exclaimed
together.
"Well," said Kate, settling herself
comfortably in her chair you know
spent winter before last in Boston, and
being thoroughly tired of hotel life, and
not caring to take a house of my own,
went to a large boarding house. / need
not describe it; you know that by some
mysterious ruling of the unseen fates
boarding house is nothing more nor less
than rallying ground for widows, and
mine was no exception to this rule.
There were widows in every stage of
mourning; from the indisputable hue of
real grief to the delicate tint of question
able sorrow. Some were natural widows
who had really lost real husbands, others
of the variety called 'grass'-because
they spring up everywhere, just as grass
does, l suppose. But all called them
selves widows. OF one only shall speak,
Mrs. Otis.i From my arrival to my de-
parture Mrs. Otis was constantly on the
watch for me to do queer things" And
did my best to crafty her desire; /
never disappointed her, if / could help
it! When failed to furnish her with a
weekly morsel to roll under her tongue
she was positively offended, and looked
upon it as personal affrOnt. Yet in spite
of my genuine efforts to be useful to her
as mortal wherewith to adorn her many
tales of idiOsyncracies, she never APP
peared specially grateful to me. In fact,
we were so mutually antagonistic that,
although no open warfare existed be-
tween us, it was evident enough that we
were not friends. One of the bright
young girls in the house spoke of Mrs.
Otis always as my particular enemy
But enough of that She has since mar
ried, and had l longed for revenge II
couldn't have had sweeter." And Kate
laughed unsteady.
''Why?" we clammored.
Because she married the man she did |
MT want. But no more of her now. You
know no one can live in Boston without |
hannn,infr fainfnI ,,tifh 1Nnyn,,, -.
tellectual ambitions, and | was no heroic |
exception to that rule. That winter |
Browning was the idol worshipped. He |
has ever been my idol, as you know, and |
from my enthusiastic study of his vigor- |
GUS poetic philosophy of life l was
deemed fit to conduct Browning class. |
We met at the house of charming wom-
an who was such sufferer that her
couch was literally her home. She lived |
in one of the loveliest houses | have ever
seen, one of the loveliest lives have ever
been brought in contact with. But there
was the disadvantage so far as was con-
cerned, her home was some eight miles
from the city, and most ideally remote
from the vulgar convenience of a rail
road. Consequently / was obliged to
drive over. One very cold January after
noon. was waiting impatiently for the
conveyance that was to take me to W.
was ready, warmly wrapped in furs and
prepared to defy the cold, and did not |
relish being kept waiting by the livery
man. l was just getting in a little tenn
per when my pilgrimage to the window
was rewarded by the sight of a sleigh
drawn up before the door. didn't rec
ognize the driver; it was not the one |
was accustomed to have, but, of course,
1T was my conveyance, so | ran down
stairs and out to the sleigh and got in.
Drive me to W." | said, and you
may give the horse his head, for | am
late now"
'The driver touched his hat, bent
down and tucked me in snugly, and off |
we went. / needn't have said anything
about giving that horse his head; he
took it; he spun along over the crust like
a Russian steed. noticed his superior
ity to the slow animal that had dragged
me over the same route week previous,
and so pleased was l with the change |,
that | remarked it.
This is better horse than the other
one, said.
81 don't know" he said doubtingly. |,
''Some likes the other the best.
"lmpossibleH' | exclaimed, remem-
bering the other
II like this one best, though they 90
well together, so they can't be SO very
different" he said, somewhat as if he
resented my noticing the difference.
Go well together!" / echoed How
could that be?'
IAN the doctors horses are fine ami
mails" he continued.
'Ah!'' l said. didn't care TO enter
into discussion with the driver, but
something compelled me to say: Your
master knows how to select horse of
course, being in the business
mo one better, miss. The doctor