San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-11

S~ Ws-rW
She ,coalld hns fallen hearayr Hcctor's
shoulder had not been IN the right place.
Miss Cornelia Beverley had reached
the age of sixty-three without having at
iained a modicum of the patience, self
control or gentieness inseparable from
Ill idea of a gracious, kindly autumn.
Hers was the autumn OF equinoctial dis
turbances, rather than the loneliness of
Indian summer.
Without being clever woman, or
deep thinker or student of philosophy,
Miss Beverley had arrived by sheer in
stinct at a scheme Of life that, for pure
materialism and unconscious exaltation
of the eternal selfhood. beggared all phi
losophy. The earth was hers, and the
inhabitants thereof--created for her
benefit, to minister to her whims and
wants in the ways she deemed BETTING.
Having been born into a world incom-
plete until her coming, she had accom-
plished all that could reasonably be ex-
pected of her. She had given creation q
center-herself: that was her merit, for
which she must be rewarded: if creation
failed to avail itself of the privilege Of
going around her, that was its sin, for
which it must be punished.
In short. Miss Cornelia Beverley was a
silly and selfish woman, who, without
having ever read line of Emerson in
her life, made one Of his maxims her
daily rule of conduct-the one which re-
fers to tho soft side of existence being
the special perquisite of the cantanker-
GUS and foolish,
It must not be understood that Miss
Cornelia was an anomaly, unlike other
human beings and utterly intolerable
and destitute Of redeeming qualities, for
such was far from being the case. She
was extremely good natured when her
wants were properly attended to and she
was given the best of everything. and
she was liberal in way-that Is, she
wonld lavishly bestow such favors as
were in her gift on the person who
happened to please her, and she never
said i'll natured things of people behind
their backs unless she were unusually
angry. She possessed the negative vir-
tue Of being spiteful to their faces. II
was common saying among her kindred
that 1.-The worst thing Cornelia ever says
about you she says to your face"
Perhaps those whose daily life and
conversation were tinctured with her
presence ut times deplored this excel
1ence, and would have cheerfully sub
mitted to any amount of backbiting
could they have thereby escaped the
many trials in which they were both
criminal and counsel for the defense.
Still. so elastic is human nature, and SO
noble in the main. even the people who
lived with Miss Cornelia found many
excuses for her. She had had great
deal of trouble in her youth, and some
very stern affection, and in compassion
for her sorrow her family had gradually
learned to throw a mantle of charity
even when self caused, carries with it
an atmosphere that touches sympathy
SO keenly as not unfrequently to disarm
Judgment.
In her youth Miss Cornelia had been
handsome, high spirited girl, wayward
and passionate, but attractive enough to
have many admirers. At eighteen she
became. with the consent and blessing
of both families, engaged to young
man of the neighborhood. Mr.. Spots
wood Darlington. The courtship was
stormy one, the engagement stormier
and the end total wreck. The lady in
sisted upon carrying on a foolish. willful
Irritation with another man for whom
she cared nothing, simply to demonstrate
to her lover that she would submit to no
interference or dictation. The gentle
man was violent in temper and Jealous
in disposition, and the termination of the
miserable affair was fierce quarrel be-
tween the two men and duel, which re-
suited in the death of one and the MAIN
ing for life of the other.
After the death of her lover Miss Bev-
erley fell into deep melancholy, alter
mated with wild gusts of remOrseful
passion, which unsettled her brain to
such an extent that for wears she rs-