The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-09-25

O'Shea smiling to herself, looked over the
road TO see If she could catch glimpse of
her parents, then trailed her long skirts of
lale blue brocade along the passage TO the
stairhead
AS she reached this a Quick step on the
veranda outside announced the approach
OF man. Miss O'Shea dreamily speculated
that he must have seen her as she walked
down the gallery. With her fingers ex-
tended for the balustrade she turned and
saw him enter, then pause and look at her.
de was tall, handsome man in the dark
blue coat, white duck trousers and blue
peaked cap of yaehtsman. He wore eye
glasses. and looked somewhere in the vicin-
ltY OF 80, His face. as he stood there look
ing at her, left upon her memory lasting
impression.
Then, as she extended her foot for the
first STEP he took off his bat and said,
smiling:
How do you do? Isn't lovely even
ing ?"
She was startled and made vaguely un-
comfortable by this unexpected address.
Looking at him in frank astonishment, she
murmured hesitsting, Yes, lovely" and
was about 20 continue her descent when he
drew step closer and said:
Don't go back Yet. Let's go into the
| tower and have an absinthe frappe."
Miss OShea stopped on the step and
made no further attempt TO descend. The
words themselves MADE little impression on
very evening sitting in the tower drinking
abslnthe frappe, creme de menthe and
| cobblers. Ia the manner of the man lay the
! sting Even Miss G. Shea, with her limited
/ range of experience and her beautiful belief
| In mankind's invariably chiyalrous inten-
| tion, felt it.
! And then she forgot the little, the very
| little, training she had ever received. forgot
! what DR.. Watts tells us of our hands not
being made for the purpose of tearing cut
each others eyes, forgot That the only
! weapon society allows a lady is her tongue,
/ forgot, indeed, what society says q lady is
and what it maintains she should al
/ ways be, and great wave of fury
/ swept over her. The fiery blood of
| Indian and Spaniard rushed back into her
! face, the fierce spirit of her Castilan fore
| fathers who had conquered a world with
| Cortez, burst once more into life With the
| colored fan in her hand she struck the Smil-
/ ing face a singing blow. The fan sticks
snapped, the bronZed skin beneath them
/ cTimsoned. Smothering n furious ejacuIa-
ton the man threw a hand up over his
| cheek and eye, and Miss OShea, painting
/ and darkly flushed, swept down the stairs.
Then as she hurriedly descended he,
smartng with pain, his anger surging.
/ hurled himself on the balustrade and looked
over at her. All he saw was the toss OF her
red-goid head. the wavering pulse of dia-
| monds that trembled through her hair, the
| long sweep OF her pale blue trailing dress,
! the ivory nape OF her neck where the pearl
necklace fastened with sapphire clasp.
! The next moment she had passed out of
sight, and he heard her rapid, decisive step
on the balcony below.
He turned back, intending to watch her
| from the upper veranda, but in the doorway
| met friend who accosted him with jocu-
/ lar:
"Hullo, Beverwyk, what have you been
running nto?
"Oh, | turned suddenly TO look at that
woman Just go down the stairs and ran into
! that door; thought both doors were open
hurts like the devil" returned the other
| glibly.
Aud arm-in.arm they passed down the
veranda, murmuring together aud laughing.
When Miss O'Shea got back to her hotel
her breath had regained its usual evenness,
her color had gone down, buG her eyes were
| brilliant under their lowered lids. Her
father sat in the darkened sitting-roo in
| his shirt-sleeves with his high hat on-his
! habitual costume when at ease in the house.
| When she came in, tossed her cloak on a
| chair. aud stood silently pulling off her
| gloves, he regarded her for moment or
/ two, then said, as if the idea had Just struck
| him:
"Where've you been all this timeP''
'Oh, just went back to return that lady's
| cape. | gave il 10 a waiter. 1t was all right"
She tore OF her gloves and stretched and
| bent her plump fingers, turning round her
Look here, pop" she said, twisting the
| ''maTQuiSe' on her little finger back into
| place. Il guess we'd better leave this place"
We'll, l guess so, too" said the old man,
| mildly. Guess you don't like it much,
Il don't belong here" she said. with a
sort of rough sbyness. Pm indifferent"
The old man extended his hand and drew
| her up 10 him.
"You'il do" he said, fondly pattlng the
1 va1vafv hand
MAY be / will for you." she answered
with the same air Of logged embarrassment,
"but Pm too different. It's not comfort
| able
Whether Mr.. O'Shea understood or not. he
| queried no further. He patted the smooth
| hand in silence then he said:
"Weil-what do you want 10 dO?
81 want TO 20 to Europe for a long time
year. l want TO know things. l dOn't
want to be so different"
well, now, Espy," said the old man dep
| reeatingly. then, as two soft arms went
| round his neck, he added but you can go
If you WANT:
Two weeks later the O'Shea family sailed
| from New York on the Umbria.
Once arrived in the effete monarehies
| Miss Esperanto O'Shea went seriously, il a
! little blindly, to work 10 reconstruct her.
| self. She went TO school in Paris aud
stayed there all winter studying hard. Her
| companions showed no surprise at her pres
American from California, which in the
| effete monarchies explains many things. In
their refining society Miss 0'Shea was grad
| ually restored to her original self Her red
| gold locks went through as many changes
| of hue as the dying dolphin, but at length
| arrived safely on the hOmeward path at the
| deep dark brown of nature. She put away
| all the little pots OF red and white that had
| made her dTeSsing-table look like that of an
| old belle who dies hard A very demure
karr. pfe In 6 Z
| once gorgeous Esperanto 0Sbea.
| With the native shrewdness of the women
| Of the West, v ho make their own positions
| and fight their own fortunes, she was quick
| to see and to adopt the style and manners
| Of the young girls about her. BY the spring
| the elaborate beauty who had created A
sensation at the Narraganset Casino had
! passed from phase to phase OF subduiDg
! process. and compared TO her old self was
| as a wren 10 a peacock. Instead of looking
like woman of 30 years, she now looked
like what she waS-a girl OF Ca tall,
| iVory-pale, velyet-eyed girl with a thick
! coil of smooth, uneurled dark hair. and a
stately carriage, such as romance writers
! are fond Of aseribng 10 princesses. The
! Parisians thought her very foreign and
| picturesque. She looked like DOna Sol or
| Elvira-all she wanted was the dusky droop
| of the mantilla sbadowng the warm pallOr
of her cheeks, black curl on her temple, a
red rose In her hair.
| Inc Celebrating process Ola not INNS at
| Paris. Mrs. OShea took her family and a
governess travelling. They did" Europe
with couriers and libraries of books of
| travel, and the goYerness, who, in some en-
barrassment, called herself "a companion"
| They studied art in Italy and music in Ger
| many. The governess was almost worked
to death, but the pupil. Unsuitable in her
| desire to be as ornate as the young person
of any place or any country. would permit
| no respite. They met good many people
too. Miss O'Shea began to be spoken of as
the great beauty and heiress Of the Ameri-
can colonies of different capitals French
oblemeD, that she had never seen, wrote
| to her offering TO her their hearts. hands