Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1892-04-03

y
MARY Beverley, If yot; do you tot1 ,tue
to repent it,"
ooh, yes you dol" asserted Miss Cor.
nelia. "You understand perfectly. You
know as well as do that the man has
been paying you all sorts OF compromis-
Ing attentions, and that he is going to
address you, if he hasn't already done
so. know nothing, of course. I am
nobody. But that is what everybody
says"
Feeling very sure that a storm OF I'M
usual violence was impending, Mary
quietly directed the servant to take the
little boys and their breakfast out 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 to 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 perfectly disgracefu. 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
believe me. They are not going to he
lieYe me, either, as long as you allow
him to come here. The only 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
when we ourselves are given to gossip
about others; when we are not, it be-
comes insulting in addition. Mary
talked so little of her neighbors' affairs
that to discover that they talked agreat
deal OF hers made her exceedingly angry.
Miss Cornelia's proposition to garrote
gossip and rob It Of subject matter by
forbidding Ned Anthony the house made
no more impression than the falling 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 we'll
with her, and to that end exerted him
self 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. 1t is of no consequence
how she knew; such knowledge is ar
rived at by women by process as in
scrutable and as difficult OF explanation
as some theological dogmas. All the
women in the neighborhood, apparent
", were as wise as she was on the sub
ject."
One thing, however, they did not
know, and that was that Anthony had
not spoken yet, and, with Mary's good
will, would never speak.
Miss Cornelia meanwhile, enhanced
with the possession of so sturdy 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 sense of mastery of her SUBJ
iect. In her pocket was cartridge
which was to blow Msry's obstinacy
and impenetrability into hundred NOR
tifying fragments. -
THAT man ought never TO have been
allowed to set his foot across this thresh-
old" she averred. cit 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 thing that is too awful to
contemplate. l 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 we'll as his offensive manners,
show il; and he has no business mixing
with genteel people. l 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 pleasant for him. But
YOU are so peryerse, and think yourself
so much cleverer and more capable OF
Judging than people OF twice your age
and experience, that there is no doing
anything with you. wonder what
Hector would say, if he were alive, of
the way you manage your ofairs and
the scrapes you get yourself into. I'd
write this man 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.
Mary's eyes were beginning TO smol-
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 most unwarrantable and IN
Unsuitable liberty not only in repeating
TO me all the idle, impairment gossip Of
the neighborhood concerning me and
my affairs, but also in taking part in il
yourself. As you say, this house is
mine, and l shall receive in 1t whom |
please and when / please, and treat
them always with such courtesy as in
me lies, so long as they do nothing to
forfeit my esteem. You had better not
intermeddle in my affairs, now or at
any time in the future, for l tell you
frankly that / neither can nor will en-
dure il. As to my husband, you have
no right to bring up his name in connec-