The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-15

/ Il udll SiILch OIL lJIDdCuIuI wonder. ana
then she added, quickly, But think IA
Their, think! You will remember some
body if you will only try"
Dora he said, you don't often try
my patience, and you had better not be
gin now. ! should like to throw all that
trumpery out of the window. but | don't,
| for 1 feel ! have no right TO deprive YOU
of Your mothers friends-were not
mine. l don't feel inclined TO think as
| you bid me. The less one thinks, the bet
ter-on some subjects. 1 must ask you to
question me no more"
But father
Il have said that will be questioned
no more"
1T wasn't a question" said the girl,
almost sullenly; and then she clasped her
hands about his arm with a sudden elan.
Father, if you don't like il, I'll put them
all away. I'll never think Of them nor
touch them again
The wooden look melted away, his fea-
lures quivered for moment. He stopped
and kissed her on the forehead. No"
he said, making an effort 10 keep his lips
| firmly set as before. NO; l have no
right to do that. No; I don't wish it,
| Keep them, and wear them, and take
pleasure in them; but don't speak to me
on the subject again"
This conversation took place on the oc-
| caslOn of very special novelty in the
! mysterious periodical present which she
! had Just received, about which it was
| impossible to keep silence The box
! my box as Dora had got to call it
! contained, in addition to everything else,
a dress, which was thing that had never
! been sent before.
1t was a white dress, made with great
simplicity, as became Doras age, but
| also in a costly way, with transparent
| white material of which the dress was
| made-the sort of stuff which could be
| drawn through a ring, as happens in
| fairy tales, and was certainly not to be
| bought in ordinary English shops To
received anything so unexpected, so ex-
citing, and so beautiful, and not to speak
OF 1t, to exhibit 1t to someone was impos-
sible. Dora had not been able to restrain
herself. She had carried il in her arms
out of her room, and opened it out upon
sofa IN the slttingroOm for her fathers
inspection.
There are some things which we know
beforehand will not please, and yet which
we are compelled to do, and this was the
consciousness in Dora's mind who. be-
sides her delight in the gift and her
desire to be able to find out something
about the donor, had also, it must be
allowed, burning desire TO make discov-
cries as to that past of which she knew so
little, which had seized upon her mind
from the moment when she had found the
portrait turned upon its face in the secret
drawer of her fathers cabinet. As she
withdrew now, again carrying in her
arms the beautiful dress, there was in
her mind, underneath a certain compunc-
ton for having disturbed her father. and
sympathy with him so strong that she
would actually have been capable of sac
rlhclng her newly-acquired possessions,
a satisfaction NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., half
atfectiOnate, in the discoveries which she
had made. They were certainly discov-
cries; sorry as she was to upset father"
there was yet a consciousness in her mind
that this time it had been worth the
while.
The reader may not think any better of
Dora for this confession, but there is
something of the elf in most constitutions
at 10, and she was not of course at all
sensible at that age of the pain that might
lie IN the souvenirs so ruthlesSly stirred
up. And she had indeed made something
by them. Never, never again, she prom
lsed herself, would she worry father with
questions; but so far as the present occa-
sion went, she Id scarcely be sorry,
for had not she med much-enough to
give her Imagination much employment
She carried away her discoveries with
her, as she carried her dress, to realize
them in the shelter of her own room.
They seemed to throw a vivid light upon
that past in which her own life was so
much involved. She threw the dress
upon her bed carelessly, these other new
thoughts having mOmentarily taken the
interest out of even so exciting novelty
as that; land arranged in shape and Sc
quence what she had found out Well. it
was not so much after all. What seemed
most clear In it was that father had not
been quite friends with mother, or at
least with mothers friends. Perhaps
these ifiends had made mischief between
them-perhaps she had, cared for them
more than for her husband butsurely that
was not possible. And how strange, how
strange it was that he should keep up
such feeling so long!
As Dora did not remember her mother.
II was evident that she must have been
dead many many years. And yet father
still kept up his dislike to her friends! 1t
threw new light even upon him whom
she knew better than anyone Dora felt
that she knew her father thoroughly.
every thought that was in
his mind; and vet here
1t would seem that she did not know him
at all. So good a man, who was never
hard with anybody, who forgave her,
Dora, however naughty she might have
been, as soon as she asked pardon: who
| fOrgave old Mr. Warrender for contra
dieting him about that orchid, the orchid
that was called Manneringii and which
father had discovered, and therefore
must know best; who forgave Mis- Sim
| COX When she swept the dust from the
| corners upon the herbarium and spoilt
| some of the specimens; and yet who in
| all these years had never forgiven the
| BnknOwn persons who were mothers
| friends, some one of whom must be nice
| indeed, or she never would go On remem-
| bering Dora and sending her such pres
| ents.
What could he have against this I'M
| known lady, this nice, nice woman? And
how was it possible that he should have
| kept it up in his mind, and never for
] given it or forgotten all these years? 1t
| made Dora wonder, and feel though she
| crushed the feeling firmly, that perhaps
! father was not so perfect as She had
! thought.
And then there was this lady to think
| Other mothers friend, who had kept on
all this time thinking of Dora. She
could not have been more than a baby
when this benefactress saw her last. since
Dora did not remember either mother or
mothers friend Yet she must recoUect
| just how old Dora was, must have guessed
| just about how tall she was. and kept
count how she had grown from one time
! 10 another
The beautiful dress was lust almost
/ long enough. almost fitted her in every
way II gave the girl keen touch of
/ pleasure TO think that she was INST "A
u