Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-04-22


 Lorimcr shrugged his broad shoul- ders and looked powerless. Dick grunt- ed daubioasly. Rafe laughed ncrvously. Inc harassei look camc. back into Johns face; evidently none of them was prepared to help him over that ,iiiiiculty Lorimer offered some ad- vice:
 Tt is well to leave some things to chance and to Providence. Tho boys and will gratefully accept any crumbs of information you choose to fling us, but where mother is concerned would ad- wise you to confide in her ns far as possi- blc." His mellow voice rose irritably: ''Yon were ridiculously young to think about marrying at all, Johnnie. Only twenty-five last month."
 ''I have been in love with Nora for two years. She boarded at the same house with me. She supported herself as stenographer and typewriter. Good old family, but everything gone. Old story. Ruined by the war. She refused me three separate times. Then all of Il sudden she asked me one day if l was of the same mind. When I told her was, she said she would marry me hut day two weeks. And she did. That is all there is to tell you, boys. And if she fails to win mothers heart, it will be tho first failure for her to re- cord in that line. Everybody grows fond of Nora. Oh, say, haven't you anything to tell me about Dennis? Been seen? Been heard from?"
 "Nelthcr seen nor heard from"
 And Ida Fairbanks?"
 aGTTl,irrrS oI. oe kl, I suppose" Lorimer was spokesman, ''she wearing her life away uncom- plainingly for a selfish old sybarite earnings"
 ''EarninGs!''
 Brown bread aRd flower peddler."
 Ida FairbanEM'
 Ida Fairbanks
 Great heavens! She is fool"
 II fancy that the majority of women are when it comes to a question of put ting their own comfort before that of some man brute who has a natural ol an acquired claim upon them"
 Lorric's sage conclusion seemed to set them all a-thinlling. Silence fell on the little group. John sighed heavily. His pipe lay along the arm of his chair quite dead. As he leaned over to knock the gray ashes out against the tall brass tiredHgs. he was wondering how ''poor li;tlr Nora was making it" with his tu,tcre mother He was painfully alive to the possibility of his bridal chamber being turned into 8 chamber of the iuquisition that evening.
 But there was no inquisition in prog ress upstairs The mistress of White Cliffs was somewhat frigidly, but with entire corrte~y, making her daughter in-law at home among her strange sur roundings.
 There were peculiarities about the lock on the big bureau drawers to be explained; the location of the linen closet, where an ineXhaustible supply of fresh towels was always to be found. to be indicated; the meaning of the various bells which would ring in the morning was to be made clear Then she must examine with her own hands, to see if enough covering had been put on the bed. Nothing was ever left to chance by the mistress of White Cliffs.
 But all the while she was moving about in that slow and stately fashion of hers. giving her domestic Informa- tiou in n soft, even voice, she was in wardly pondering some strange words that had fallen from the French bonne's lips just as she, Mrs. Lorimrr, followed by Johns wife, had entered the room.
 From the small adjoining bedroom which had hastily been prepared for the unexpected Ninette came the, wom- ans angry voice. The door was open. They could see the child lying asleep, one dimpled hand supporting her round pink cheek, and they could see the Frenchwoman putting things to order:
 Little fiend! She has quite worn me out. Anyone could tell that she was the offspring of devil and light woman. And now she sleeps like an infant saintr'
 Evidently the bonue had had her diff cult evening too.
 "How angry her voice sounds!' Mrs John peered anxiously into the room where Ninette was sleeping. 'I hope she is not vicious, had so little time for selection"
 t'You do not speak or understand French?'
 Not a syllable. wish I did, for Ninette's sake"
 Mrs. Lorimer had been accounted "a fair Frent d scholar in her school-days. She was glad now that the rusty ac- quirement had stood her in such good stead.
 "Mr. Lorimer did not write you about Ninette, I imagine" Nora said, some what nervously. the tour of the room being made and her mother-in-law com ing to stand-still on the hcarth-rug.
 "No. My son was singularly uncom- municative."
 "Yes; of course. There was no time, you know. Everything was so sudden. And-about Ninette he knew nothing at all until after the ceremony" "Did not know what?"
 "Did not know that she was to be with us. did not know it myself"
 Strange. Exceedingly strange. To whom does the child belong?" Johns wife looked away from the stern face so close to hers, before an swering, slowly:
 GHTo aun aI aha hna fT1