Evening journal., 1892-11-02

Back again In her oiOn dGrhcncd home.
Two-thirds of the warm summer day
Anita had spent in the hot kitchen, edo
ing up wild plums, and now, her weari-
ness sustained by a comforting sense Of
duty done, she was prepared to enjoy
well earned rest in the large hammock
that was swung across the shaded sitting
room.
The innovation Of this hammock in
the house, with its suggestion of tropical
Incidence, would be a thing to stir mp
Aunt Martha's most outspoken disap-
proval, the niece reflected as she slowly
swayed herself back and forth with the
toe Of one slippered foot. All, well, she
was now Mrs. Bartels, and this was her
own home, thank heavenl with a thrill
of exultation at the thought. 1t was for
her to say how her house should be ar
ranged-luxury unspeakable after the
repression Of her girlhood.
Notwithstanding her brave face to
Donald, Anita was by no means well
pleased at the prospect of entertaining
this lyinswoman, whose goodness, not at
all uncommon in its type, carried a lash
for all whose ideas or methods differed
from her own. She would have her nose
in every crack, seeking an outlet for her
restless business, and a finger in every
pie, with frankest and most pungent
criticism upon the composition of the
pasty
The Van Zandt family, of whom Miss
Martha complacently counted herself
chief, had never quite outgrown the
habit of regarding Anita as a brand
snatched from the burning, Her father
had been the blacksheep of the flock, who
had thecapped the climax Of his erratic
career by marrying and settling in Mex
leo. There he had lived happily enough
on the great hacienda of his father-in-law
until Anita was ten years old, when he
had been thrown from his horse and
died in an hour, while his adoring wife
who since her beautiful eyes had frs
rested upon him had never been conten
with him out of her sight soon found in
fever q path to follow him. 1t wal
at this point that her New York rela
tives came forward and rescued the un
willing little Anita from the ignorant
bliss Of supposing that life was simply
given to live and love and be happy.
Each Van Zandt woman-and Their
were FIVE sisters. married and single
heroically resolved to be a mother Il
the unhappy child who narrowly es
capped the proverbial fate of the brotl
concocted by too many cooks 1t wa
tacitly accepted that all the sins of tn
father had descended upon the child, to
gether with awful possibilities of Others
more to he dreaded because but half i'm
agined, from that dark mixture Of Span
ish blood that glowed in her tawny face
and FIVE moral straitjackets of differ
ent cut We're determinedly devised to Fl
the case. The sweet, dreamy religion @
hermother, half superstition, but who'll
devout, was q field over which all th
Van Zandt missionary zeal felt bound t
ride roughshod; and the bewildere
child was converted to orthodoxy as T,
lentlessly as one race Of her forefathel
had been driven to accept the religion {
the cross and yield up their golden idoI
at the Jealous swordpoint Of the other.
Five busy brains were continually q
work contnving schemes TO combat tn
old Adam Of Incidence which was a
suned to have special dominion over tn
Mexican temperament; and the old sa'
as to the provision Of Satan for id
hands was tirelessly dinned in her eal
as reason for the wearying treadmill {
duties in which she was always driver
And, altogether, they labored for hi
GOOD so increasingly, and TO such pa
pose, that when Anita was eighteen yea
old. when she graduated from scho
with many honors, and her educatiC
was assumed TO be finished, even q
Van Zandt ladies began to regard the
work with gratulatory complaccnc
Anita was o most accomplished youl
woman. and conceded 10 be credit
her fathers tribe despite her dsspis'
foreign blood. She had grown fsire
100. her warm. creamy skin Just tonchi
with pink, lil.o the lush Oh half opeai