San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-16

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the children Mary turned to her aunt.
"Who says the things you alluded to
Just now?" she demanded.
Everybody. And they say that you're
going to marry him, too, and ask me
about it. It's perfectly disgraceful., 1t
makes me furious to think of it; and I've
denied it until my tongue cleaves to the
roof of my mouth, and nobody will be-
lieve me. They are not going to believe
me, either, as long as you allow him to
come here. The only way to put stop
to the outrageous gossip is to forbid him
the house at once"
The knowledge that we are the sub
ject of comment and impertinent con-
| lecture, that our affairs are being dis
cussed and canvassed, always comes
with a kind of shock. That people
should gossip about us is revolving, even
when we ourselves are given to gossip
about others; when we are not, it be-
comes insulting in addition. Mary
talked so little of her neighbors' affairs
that to discover that they talked great
deal of hers made her exceedingly angry.
Miss Cornelia's proposition to garrote
gossip and rob it of subject matter by
forbidding Ned Anthony the house
| made no more impression than the fall
ing of cinder. Even if disposed to
perpetrate such injustice, what pretext
had she? He always behaved in her
gentlemanly manner of which he was
capable; he wished to please her and to
stand well with her, and to that end ex-
exerted himself according to his lights.
1t is not in the power of kings or kaisers
! to do more. She knew very well that
| he loved her, and that he would ask
her TO be his wife. 1t is of no conse-
quence how she knew; such knowledge
| is arrived at by women by process as
| inscrutable and as difficult of explana-
ton as some theological dogmas. All
the women in the neighborhood, APP
! parently, were as wise as she was on the
| subject.
One thing, however, they did not
know, and that was that Anthony had
not spoken yet, and, with Mary's good
will, would never speak.
Miss Cornelia meanwhile, enhanced
with the possession of so sturdya griev-
ance, and that most fascinating of all
| forms of grievance, new shoot on
| familiar stock, abandoned herself to its
| full enjoyment. She had thing con
cealed about her which gave her superb
ority and a sense of mastery of her sub
| ject. In her pocket was cartridge
which was to blow Mary's obstinacy
and impenetrability into a hundred NOR
tifying fragments.
THAT man ought never to have been
allowed to set his foot across this thresh-
DID," she averred. "It is absolutely dis
graceful his having presumed to visit
in my fathers house, and that he has
been allowed to become actually init
mate here is thing that is too awful to
contemplate. l have opposed it all
along, but when has my advice ever
been taken in this house" An intense
pause, probably for contradiction or
some other form of reply; none came.
Miss Cornelia proceeded: "He is a
horrid, presuming, pushing creature,
and | know he comes of odious, COM
mon, uneducated people; his whole bear
| ing, as well as his offensive manners,
shows it; and he has no business mixing
with genteel people. don't care for
his money. Anybody can make money
even negroes. That's no criterion.
never encouraged him to come here, or
made the place pleasant for him. But
you are so perverse, and think yourself
so much cleverer and more capable of
judging than people of twice your age
and experience, that there's no doing
anything with you. wonder what
Hector would say, if he were alive, OF
the way you manage your affairs and
the scrapes you get yourself into. I'd
write this man note myself and forbid
him the house, except that, as likely as
not, you'd turn on me and say that the
house was yours, not mine"
Mary's eyes were beginning to smol-
der and her face to pale. The lines
about her mouth hardened, and in her
low voice there was a culver of intense
anger.
Aunt Cornelia," she said, you are
taking most unwarrantable and I'M
justifable liberty not only in repeating
to me all the idle, impertinent gossip OF
the neighborhood concerning me and
my affairs, but also in taking part In 1t
yourself AS you say, this house is
mine, and shall receive in it whom
please and when / please, and treat
them always with such courtesy as in
me lies, so long as they do nothing to
forfeit nv esteem. You had better not
intermeddle in my affairs, now or at
any time in the future, for tell you
frankly that l neither can nor will en-