San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-07-06

accident, indeed, John Royal had been
more than ever insistent that the ar
rangements should stand. They had
yielded to him and had kept Phyllis
bright and interested about her plans,
and SO prevented her from thinking too
much or growing anxious.
She had wonderful self control, Door
child, and knew the paramount impor-
lance of absence of pronounced emotion;
but what woman's self control would be
equal to the strain which knowledge of
her lovers death must put on hers?
Then, too, she had been sustained in her
efforts by consciousness that happiness
for John, as we'll as for herself, was in
volved in her preservation of equanimity.
And what will not a woman do and en-
dure to make herself worthy in the eyes
of the man who loves her? If this in
centive and restraint should be removed,
who could tell what disastrous conse-
quences might ensue?
Mrs. Hart well nigh wrung her hands
in her sympathetic appreciation of the
di. 6culty of the situation. To be so heal
the goal and then have hope baked of
frTition! And now when the loss of the
money would make the recovery Of
sight more than ever a priceless boon!
What could a blind woman without
money be save a dependant all her days?
And what q fate was that to contem-
plate from the standpoint of two-and-
twenty! If only John Royal could have
accomplished his purpose? If only the
broken frame could have obeyed the he
roic will! Mrs. Harris tears fell fast
from very pity and a swift realization
of human impotence.
Royals words surprised her:
WAS she much attached to her cous
in?' He put the question in allow voice.
For attachment in the sense Of lovers
Mrs. Hart could not answer, but thought
it improbable that that sort of ardor
could now be a factor in the engage
ment. The pair had been separated for
six years, and during that time it was
reasonable to suppose that the youthful
emotion which had drawn them together
should nave evaporated. That there ex-
listed, however, strong love between the
cousins their conduct toward each other
had proved. John Royal had been a
quiet man, she had always heard, alb
sorbed in hsS profession and ambitious of
distinction therein; not a mar of much
worldly wisdom, nor much addicted to
society. Phyllis had doubtless nursed
her romance as much through force of
circumstances as aught else; she had
been brought up in the knowledge and
belief that her cousin would be her
matrimonial destiny, and during her
most impressible years she had been held
apart from forming any other attach
ment by the blight which had slowly and
insidiously crept V her.
1T was that which prevented Miss
Royal from summoning John home be-
FORE" Mrs. Hart explained. ''She was
so anxious that Phyllis sight should be
restored before he should see her, and
the disease was obliged to run its course.
Anne liked to arrange the procession for
her people down to the most minute de-
tails. She kept full knowledge of the
child's condition from him, and | be-
lieve it wa only just before her last i'll
ness, when the possibility of r was at
hand, that she took him into true o
idence. And, as i'll luck would have it,
that letter did not reach John for months
after it was written"
why did she make that iniguitous
will?" demanded Royal, who felt that
here he also had cause of complaint.
God knows! | think, however, that
it was made just before John sailed for
Europe, and while the engagement was
fresh with them all, and the young peo-
pie very much in love. Perhaps her idea
was to keep John true by making his
cousins future dependent on his con-
stancy. When a copy of the will was
sent him, after his aunt's death, and
some Indignation was expressed, John
wrote US that he had been aware of its
contents for years. None of the other
friends was. They might have coaxed
some reason and justice into Anne Royal
If they had been. Like a great many
women she never talked about wills;
she seemed to have a feeling that to
make or I'VE mention such a thing
would be to prop the door open for
death"
No one more than Hart Royal could
appreciate the importance of satisfactory
adjustments between physical and men,
tai relations in cases like the present.
He talked the matter over with Mrs.
Hart, and, out of pity for the girl and
an unconscious adaptation of their
thought to the lines indicated by John
Royals conduct in regard to her, they
decided that they would continue to
shield her from knowledge of her be-
reavement until the operation should