Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-03-12
A SELF MADE MAN.
(C0htinued .fro u Second page

Continued Jtro n Second page
been paying you an 5orts u ccalprom1s
ing attentions. and hat ne is going to
address you, if he hasn't already done
so. know nothing, of course. | am
nobody. But that is what everybody
says"
Feeling very sure that 2 storm of I'M
usual violence was impending, Mary
quietly directed the servant to take the
little boys and their breakfast ont to the
kitchen. Miss Cornelia's tongue was
unbridled when her temper was up, and
she did not care what she said or who
heard her.
AS soon as the door had closed behind
the children Mary turned 10 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 perfe lily 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 on Y 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 kind of shock. That people
should gossip about us is revolving. even
,,-I,n, ~,
about others; when we are not, it be-
comes insulting III 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 bv
forbidding Ned Anthony the house
made no more impress nm the fall
ing of cinder. Even ii uIspgFed to
perpetrate such injustice, what pretext
had she: He always behaved i'll her
house and in her presence in the most
Sentlemanly 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 poy: II Of kings or kaisers
to do more. She new very well that
he loved her, al that he would ask
her 10 be his wiz. 1t is of no conse-
quence how she Ii, W; such knowledge
Is arrived at by women by a process as
inscrutable and a difficult Of explana-
| ton as some Sheu ogical dogmas. All
the women in Il neighborhood, APP
| parently, We're as Y i,e as she was on the
| subject.
One thing, however. they did not
know, and that was that Anthony had
not spoken yet, and, with Marys 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 a
| 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 a cartridge
which was to blow Mary's obstinacy
and impenetrabilitv into hundred NOR
| tifying fragments.
That man ought never 10 have been
| allowed to set hi loot across this thresh-
DID," she averrel. at 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 a thing that is too awful to
contemplate. | 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 pl nasant for him. But
| you are so pervcrac. and think yourself
so much cleverer ana 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 a 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"
Marys eyes We're 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 ulwarrantable 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 ii
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
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