San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-07-02
Ten Minutes to TW6IV6.
By NJ. G. MOLELLAND.

4
being lnwarily gwen. "Of all the inter
meddling, dunderheaded fools in this
world" so ran his thoughts, you are
entitled to the lead, Hart Royal. And
a beautiful mess you've gotten yourself
into this time, with your damned Off
ciousness"
me preoccupation of his manner and
the careworn expression of his face
caused the people to surmise that he
must be in acute physical pain. For the
few moments allowed to friends at coun-
| try weddings-even church weddings
they crowded round him, STRIVING to re-
call themselves to his memory, and
| speaking pitifully of the accident and
enthusiastically of his pluck in not al
| lowing it to interfere with his marriage.
They were so kind and cordial that
| Royal could have CRASHED his teeth and
shouted at them that he was no better
than an impostor. Instead OF which he
| nailed his false colors TO the mast, as it
were. and smiled and bowed ard shook
hands with everybody.
His brain worked with feverlsh rapid
| ity, and by the time they had shut MIN
into Squire Brandon's carriage for the
short drive to the house, where the
young lady would change her dress for
the wedding journey, a sense of the
grotesqueness of his own position touch
| ed him, bringing with it sudden strong
| desire to laugh, and creating reaction
which restored equilibrium. He had
made mess of it, he was willing to ,ad-
NIT, but circumstances had seemed to
wall him into narrow track, along
which he had cantered like the most
obliGing of donkeys. At this stage of
the proceedings "hindsight' did little
good and was provocative of exaspera-
| ton, and of reliable foresight he was
fain, in all humility of soul, to confess
himself destitute. There was nothing
for it but to face the situation in the
present and endeavor to adjust it with
the minimum of pain and discomfort all
| around. The only solution which sug
gested itself was to carry out the plan as
originally proposed, striving to blunder
| less in the end than he had done in the
beginning. He would take the young
lady straight to John Royal, making
such explanation to her as would insure
her recognition of the love and anxiety
for her future which had been the main
| spring of a scheme which he now de-
nounced as idiotic.
| In the presence of the dying man all
| personal pique, all womanly sensitive
ness, would shrivel and vanish before the
majesty of love and the awful mystery
of that which was to come. A strange
journey it would be, with strange end
| ing. For the first time came realization
| of the matter from the woman's stand
point, and with it great pity for her
| and strong desire to shield her from the
comment, curiosity and multiplicity of
detail to which his story must give rise,
at least until this travesty of marriage
could be made real by the true mans &C
| acknowledgement of it. He would keep his
own counsel until he should have given
| the wife into the keeping of her husband,
| and then it would be time enough TO ad-
NIT the outside world, to enter upon ex-
plantations and self justification.
| Arrived at a definite conclusion, he
squared his shoulders and put aside that
strange sense of irrevOcability and per-
sonal implication which had oppressed
him during the ceremony. In truth,
| there was little time for thought, less
| for analysis: the need for action was
| still omnipresent. He turned to look,
for the first time definitely, at John
Royals bride
| AS he did so low laugh startled him,
and hand was thrust out to touch his
arm and then withdrawn. 1t was glove
less, and on the third finger CLEANED the
marriage ring. She was enveloped in a
heavy wrap which concealed her white
dress, and her head and face were hid
| den under folds of soft dark tissue, from
which, at throat and crown, the lace of
her bridal veil peeped forth, like white
clouds under gray ones. Her face was
completely concealed, from perverseness
of girlish coquetry. he thought, and he
could only guess that she was fair be-
cause that would increase the pathos of
| the situation.
Her amusement nettled him, and then
a swift sense of their relative position as
it must appear to her thrilled through
MIN, producing tumble of emotions
| which made chaos of his mind. He
longed to put aside the soft gray folds
that hid her face, to possess himself of
| her hand, to speak words which should
testify appreciation of the situatiOn-to
commit some sort of folly or madness,
in short, to prove that he was man and
sentient. What a brute she must think
him, he chafed; what a soulless, sense
less block of wood he must appear! How
could she understand or do him justice,