San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-06-29

foTding sufficient reason for the will be-
ing made so unequivOcally in their sis
ter's favor, since anxiety and care and
household pains and troubles fell natG-
rally within woman's province. Per-
haps they recognized the family foible,
NO, and the fact that to those who love
donhnion the possession of wealth is apt
TO secure it. They iorbore from suit to
break the will, first because the family
lawyer assured them that they had not a
leg to stand on, and furthermore because
their very souls abhorfad a public scan
dal. They made evident their sense of
wrong in forcible and incorporate Ian
guage, giving their sister to understand
that they were distinctly disappointed in
her, and then leaving her to her con-
science.
For many years family relations were
somewhat strained, and then the war
broke out and all smaller fires were ex-
tinguished in the national conhagration.
Miss Royal, by that time woman past
her first youth, and saddened by dead
romance, retired to lonely plantation
in the mountains of Virginia, where she
led an isolated life, filed only with old
books, old influences and old imaginings.
Such neighbors of her own caste as were
accessible were people with views as
primitive and experience but little larger
than her own. Her life and environ
ment interplayed to foster conceptions
of duty and of moral obligation such as
to the world at large would be untena-
bic, and, as time went on, her views
became more and more impractical,
conservative and romantic. She was u
woman of sturdy will and domineering
spirit, and, while kind of heart by ma
ture, prone 10 let that kindness flow
only along channels of her own making.
Her northern property, safely invested
and well cared for, suffered no change
by the chances of war, and gave her, in
her own eyes and those of other people,
fictitious but readily admittna value.
Whether her conscience smote her
about the money or not, the family feel
ing, so strong in the south, throve in
spite Of wrong and insult, and when the
war brought troubles and financial straits
to the brothers the sister rallied to them,
helping them through many tight
place, and only STIMULATING that she
should have her own way in regard to
time and method. Her influence in her
family increased in ratio proportionate
to her ability to play Providence to them,
and playing Proyidence-ordering the
procession for other people in accord
ance with her own ideas of that which
would be best-was, as has been stated,
the role for which the self willed lady
considered herself peculiarly adapted.
1aen one brother died, leaving be-
hind him "a motherless and only daugh-
ter of tender years, Miss Royal adopted
his child and brought her up as her own.
She also displayed vivid interest in the
son of her other brother, not only be-
cause he was lad of parts and promise,
but also because he had been called
John Hart after beloved first cousin
whose untimely death had caused her to
pass mateless through life. She had the
boy with her continually, and charged
herself with his education and establish
ment in profession. That the idea of
marriage between the cousins should
develop in her mind was only to be ex-
pected. Consequently was not consid-
cred an objection to marriage in the Vir-
ginia of her day, and she had contem-
plated such a union for herself. This
nephew and niece formed her strongest
emotional outleI, and she was not will
ing to let their lives diverge from hers
or from each others. She wanted to
blend her past with their future so that,
in some occult way, they might live out
the life she had pictured for herself ere
John Hart had passed into the infinite.
Her motive was the highest of which
she was capable, She yearned for hap
piness for them, and it never occurred
to her that it could be secured in better
ways than those of her own devising
Her idiosyncrasy is not remarkable
Human love in its manifestations is apt
to be compelling and Coercive
Matters went smoothly, for the boys
choice of a profession fell in with her
wishes for him. There had always been
physicians in the Royal family-some
distinguished ones. The love Of healing
might be said to run in the blood.
At one-and-twenty John Royal re-
turned from Philadelphia with his dip
Iona in his pocket, and further fulfilled
his destiny by falling in love with his
cousin Phyllis, then Il girl of IS A boy
and-girl marriage was no part of Miss
Royals plan for the young people She
wanted John to become a distinguished
surgeon. and as his whole heart. or
rather mind, was set on his profession,
she yielded readily to his wish for few
years in the Vienna and Paris hospitals.