San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-08

oh, am not uolng anything 20 10
looked att" she said to him, and laugh
ed and shook her head. But of course
she let him see the drawing after few
moments, and then-though she pro-
tested, and even to some extent honest
ly meant, that she was ashamed to show
her foolish drawing to anybody who
could really draw, as he could-Still in
two or three minutes she had him sit
ting at her side, and after he had once
sunk into that seat he did not move
again from it for good while.
Yet he did not talk much to her as he
sat there. To Aunt Susan, sitting close
by with her knitting-needles. he talked
great deal more than to Gabrielle; but
Gabrielle the while went on with her
work, and while he talked to Miss Dun
stan he watched her, and now and then
he made some remark to her, or offered
some criticism on what she was about;
and once he took the pencil out of her
hand. and set something right for her
that she did not know how to do.
1t was not an especially lively way of
passing the evening, but yet Gabrielle
had sort of notion that she rather
liked it,-even though his presence kept
her great deal more silent land she
was not lover of silence) than she
would have been if he had not been
there; and even, too, though his close
neighbOrhOod made her uneasily shy
and nervous at first, and-at any rate
for awhile-took the readiness out of
her fingers not little.
AS for Mr.. Gilbert,-he had, you
know, his own reasons for choosing to
spend his evening here, so it did not
matter very much whether he spent it
duly or not. While he talked to Aunt
Susan, and appeared to be watching Ga
brielle, he was in reality watching some
one else more closely than her, and
thinking of that other person good
deal more than he was thinking of Ga
brielle, or Gabrielle'S drawings.
She sat so silently i'll her place by
rr---s:3s::::'3 side that it was very easy to
good deal of outward attention to Miss
Dunstan. Sometimes Helen spoke to
her; once, but no more, Mr.. Dunstan,
rising to show Helen picture in book,
stood for a few minutes by the widows
side. But she hardly once either ad-
dressed him OF Helen, except in answer
to questions or remark from them. She
made no advances toward them; Mr..
Gilbert could detect in her no faintest
attempt to ingratiate herself with them.
She was sewing, indeed, for Helen,-do-
ing some delicate bit of needlework that
Helen could not do for herself; but that
he did not know. She had made her
self of some use to Mr.. Dunstan in the
morning too; but he could not know
that either: as she appeared to him, she
was simply passive, Indifferent, unde-
mOnstrative. He talked to her for a lit
tie while himself before he went away,
and she responded to him exactly as she
had done at other times, with neither
more nor less of cordiality.
''She is either entirely honest, and
acting truly and simply, or she is most
thoroughly on her guard" was the con-
clusion he had come to about her when
the evening ended. And then he said
to himself-"I beljeye she is honest; but
still, if she is not, one of her first OBJ
jects will be to throw dust in my eyes,
so cannot trust heryet And he went
home thinking this.
He had stayed till later hour than
he had intended to stay, he and Mr..
Dunstan having got into talk together
that lasted for considerable time after
his attendance on Gabrielle and Aunt
Susan had come to an end. The even
ing on the whole had been a silent one
until their talk began. but some chance
words had started it, and then, for
nearly an hour before they parted, the
two men had stood up on the hearth
rug, talking together with the warmth
and eagerness that, upon any subject
that interested them, was natural to
them both: after which the clock had
struck eleven, and George Gilbert,
breaking into an abrupt apology, had
rapidly shaken hands with them, and
taken his leave.