Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-08-22

ing of a cinder Even If disposed to
perpetrate such injustice, what pretext
had she? He always behaved in her
house and in her presence in the most
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. It is of no conse-
quence how she knew; such knowledge
/ is arrived at by women by a process as
inscrutable and as difficult of explana-
| ton as some theological dogmas. All
4 the women in the neighborhood, ap-
4 parently, were as wise as she was on the
1 subject.
One thing, however. they did not
know, and that was that Anthony had
| not spoken yet, and, with Mary's good
I will, would never speak.
4 Miss Cornelia meanwhile, enhanced
\ with the possession of so sturdy griev-
\ ance, and that most fascinating of all
l forms of grievance, new shoot on a
i familiar stock, abandoned herself to its
| full enjoyment. She had thing con
/ cealed about her which gave her superb
/ GRITTY and sense of mastery of her sub
/ jecG In her pocket was a cartridge
which was to blow Mary's obstinacy
| and impenetrability into hundred NOR
/ tifying fragments.
| THAT man ought never to have been
4 allowed to set his foot across this thresh-
i DID," she averred. ''It is absolutely dis
graceful his having presumed to visit
1 in my fathers house, and that he has
Il OF 10 ocAJ ir,4i
i mate here is thing that is too awful to
i contemplate. l have opposed it all
Il along, but when has my advice ever
been taken in this house?" An intense
II pause, probably for contradiction or
some other form of reply; none came.
Miss Cornelia proceeded: HE is a
\ horrid, presuming, pushing creature,
and l know he comes of odious, COM
\ mon, uneducated people; his whole bear
4 ing, as well as his offensive manners,
4 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. l
Il never encouraged him to come here, or
4 made the place pleasant for him. But
Il you are so perverse, and think yourself
so much cleverer and more capable of
/
and experience, that there's no doing
anything with you. 1 wonder what
4 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
1 him the house, except that, as likely as
i not, you'd turn on me and say that the
4 house was yours, not mine"
Marv'S aUaS Xyara hauiDniOo 70 cIno1-
der and her face to pale. The lines
about her mouth hardened, and in her
| low voice there was culver of intense
/ anger.
| Aunt Cornelia," she said, ''you are
| taking a most unwarrantable and I'M
| justifable liberty not only in repeating
to mo all the idle, impertinent gossip of
4 the neighborhood concerning me and
my affairs, but also in taking part in it
yourself. AS you say, this house is
mine, and shall receive in it whom 1
| please and when l please, and treat
| them always with such courtesy as in
me lies, so long as they do nothing to
1 forfeit my esteem. You had better not
| intermeddle in my affairs, now or at
any time in the future, for 1 tell you
frankly that 1 neither can nor will en-
dure it. AS to my husband, you have
no right to bring up his name in connec
ton with the wicked gossip of set of
scandalmongers. 1 can answer to my
I own conscience for my actions, and
am accountable to no other tribunal"
Miss Cornelia quailed little, but she
had been too long the family tyrant to
surrender at the first charge.
THE man is of low BIRTH" she snap
ped Indignantly. He isn't a fit associ-
ate for you. It's disgraceful, his being
allowed to visit here.
Mary's eyes blazed. eff the man We're
the son of a scavanger, born in work
house and reared in the streets and had
no faint of crime upon him, should
! treat him like gentleman if he came to
1 my house, so long as he conducted him
self like gentleman while in it. That
is all l have to say on the subject, now
or at any other time; and as this discus
sion is bootless and exceedingly disagree
| able, I must beg you to drop it."
Mrs. Beverley spoke firmly, emphat-
ically; but she reckoned without her
host, or rather without her Cornelia, if
she counted on a request to drop the
subject ending the discussion. The old
lady was for a moment stunned by the
comprehensive democracy of her niece's
statement, but only for moment; rally
ing all her forces, she took the field pre-
pared to do battle for her own way until
= she should rout her adversary or wear
her out. Mary, knowing by experience
what was coming, settled herself to en-
dure with what patience she might.
For twenty minutes the battle raved
and ragged and howled, until poor Mary
was driven to wish herself deaf and
: dumb and senseless. She stood to her
guns and defended her position gal
lantly; but such contests always ex-
hausted her, mentally and bodily, and
| the victories she achieved were as de-
pressing to her as defeat could have
been. In one of the pauses of the
engagement Miss Cornelia suddenly
brought her heaviest gun, held in re-
} serve till now, to the front. "What dc
you say to thisY' she demanded, produc-
a 1oI l.