San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-04-06

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had Just made all safe when Leta Uappes
at the door and came in to wish me
good night. She looked flushed and
harassed and ready to cry. "Uncle
Paul" she began, II want you to 90
up to town at once and stay away till l
send for you"
"My dear!"- l was too amazed to
expostulate.
| "We've got IA pestilence among
! u.s." she declared, her foot tapping the
ground angrily, land the least we can
do is to go into quarantine. Oh, I'm Sc
sorry and ashamed The poor bishop,
| I'll take good care that no one else shall
meet that woman here. You did your
best for me, Uncle Paul, and managed
admirably, but it was all no use.
hoped against hope that what between
the dusk of the drawing room before din
ner and being put at opposite ends of the
table, we might get through without a
netting
"But, my dear, explain. Why
shouldn't the bishop and Lady Car
witchet meet? Why is it worse for him
than any one else?"
"Why? / thought everybody had
heard of that dreadful wife of his who
nearly broke his heart If he married
her for her money it served him right,
but Lady Lander says she was very
handsome and really in love with him at
first. The Lady Carwitchet got hold of
her and led her into all sorts of mischief.
She left her husband, he was only a REG
tor with country living in those days,
and went to live in town, got into hor-
rid fast set, and made herself notorious.
You must have heard of her."
81 heard of her sapphires, my dear.
But was in Brazil at the time"
! 81 wish you had been at home. You
might have found her out. She was fu-
rious because her husband refused to let
her wear the great Valdez sapphire. 1t
had been in the Montanaro family for
some generations, and her father settled
it first on her and then on her little girl
the bishop being trustee. He felt
| obliged to take away the little girl and
send her off to be brought up by some
old aunts in the country, and he locked
up the sapphire. Lady Carwitchet tells
as splendid joke how they got the copy
made in Paris, and it did just as well for
people to stare at. No wonder the bishop
hates the very name of the stone"
| "How long will she stay here3' asked
dismally.
"Till Lord Carwitchet can come and
escort her to Paris to visit some Ameri-
can friends. Goodness knows when that
will be? Do go up to town, Uncle Paul"
refused Indignantly. The very least
| could do was to stand by my poor
young relatives in their troubles and
help them through. did so. wore
that inferior catseye for six weeks!
1t is time cannot think of even now
without shudder. The more l saw of
that terrible old woman the more de-
tested her, and we saw a very great deal
of her. Leta kept her word and neither
accepted nor gave invitations all that
time. We were cut off from all society
but that of old General Fairford, who
would go anywhere and meet any one to
| to get rubber after dinner; the doctor,
a sporting widower, and the Duberlys,
a giddy, rather rackety young couple
who had taken the Dover House for a
year. Lady Carwitchet seemed perfectly
content. She reveled in the soft living
and good fare of the Manor House, the
drives in Leta's big barouche and Do
menico's dinners, as one to whom short
commons were not unknown. She had
a hungry way of grabbing and grasping
at everything she could-the shillings
she won at whist, the best fruit at des-
sert, the postage stamps in the library
inkstand-that was infinitely suggestive.
Sometimes could have pitied her, she
was so greedy, so spiteful, so friendless.
She always made me think of some wick
ed old pirate putting into peaceful port
to provision and repair his battered old
hulk, obliged to live on friendly terms
with the natives, but his piratical .old
nostrils a-sniff for plumber, and his
piratical old soul longing to be off ma
rauding once more. When would that
be? Not till the arrival in Paris of her
distinguished American friends, of whom
we heard great deal. Charming
people, the Bokums, of Chicago, the
! American branch of the English Beau
champs, you know!" They seemed to be
taking an unconscionable time to get
there She would have insisted on being
driven over to Northchurch to call at
the palace, but that the bishop was un-
derstood to be holding combinations at
| the other end of the diocese.
was alone in the house one afternoon,
sitting by the window toying with the
key of my safe and wondering whether l
dare treat myself to peep at my treas