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

CHAPTER ".
THAT is a very strange business of
| these Mannerings, Gilchrist," said Miss
! BethuDe to her maid. when Dora, excited
! by praise and admiration, and forgetting
| all her troubles, had retired to her own
| habitation upstairs, escorted, she and
! her dress, by Gilchrist, who could not
| find it in her heart, as she said, to let a
| young thing like that spoil her bonny
! new frOck by not putting 1t properly
! away. Gilchrist laid the pretty dress
lovingly in a roomy drawer, smoothing
out all its creases by soft pats of her ac
| custOmed hands, and then returned to
! her mistress to talk over the little Incl
| dent of the evening.
| Miss Bethune's spirits were improved
| also by that little exhibition. What a
! thing it is to be able to draw a woman
! softly out of her troubles by the sight Of
! pretty child in a pretty new dress
! Contemplate the love of clothes, the love
| of tinery, and so forth let the philoso-
| piers say. To me there is something
! touching in that natural instinct which
| relieves for moment now and then the
! heaviest pressure. Dora's new frOck had
nothing to do with any qualification of
! Miss Bethunes vanity, but il brought a
! little dawning ray of mOmentary light
into her room, and a little distraction
! from the train of thoughts that were not
| over bright.
| No man could feel the same for the
most beautiful youth ever introduced in
raiment like the day Let us be thankful
among all our disabilities for little sim
| pie pleasure, now and then, that is COM
mon to women only. Boy or girl, it
scarcely matters which, when they come
in dressed in their best all fresh and
new, the sight pleases the oldest, the
saddest of us-a little, unCOnsidered angel
gift, amid the dimness and the darkness
| of the everyday world. Miss Bethune,
| to outward aspect, was a little grim, an
old maid, as people said, apart from the
sympathies of life. But the dull even
ing and the pressure of many thoughts
had been made bright to her by DOra's
new frock.
What business, menu" asked Gill
christ
IF ever there was living creature
slow at the uptake, and that could not
| see a pikestaff when it is set before your
| eyes!" cried Miss Bethune. whats the
meaning Of it. all Xou stupid. woman
| Who's that away in the unknown that
sends all these bonnie things to that
motherless BARN and remembers the
age she is, and when she's grown too big
for dolls, and when she wants a frock
that will set off, that she could dance in
and sing in, and make her little courtesy
| that; but still the times comes, and fancy
goes always a little before"
Eth, men, said GilchriSt, chat is
just what | have askit mysel'-that's just
what | was saying. It's some woman,
that's the wan thing but what woman
could be so thoughtful as that, aye mind
ing just what was wanted2" She made a
| gesture with her hands as if in utter ina
bility to divine, but her eyes were fixed
| all the time very wistfully on her mis-
tress' face.
You need not look at me like that"
the lady said"
Il was looking at you, mem, not in any
particular way
"If you think you can make a fool of
me at the present period of our history,
you're far mistaken" said Miss Bethune
Il know what you were meaning. You
were comparing her with me, not know
ing either the one or the other of US,
though you have been my woman, and
more near me than anybody on earth
these twenty long years"
And more, men, and more!" cried
Gilchrist, with a flow of tears, which
were as natural to her as her spirit Eth,
| was but young, young lass, and you
bonnie
"Hold your peace?" said Miss Bethune,
with an angry raising of her hand; and
then her voice wavered and she shook a
little, and tremulous laugh came forth.
Il was never a bonnie-anything, We
aud fool and that you know as well as
me-"
"B o, mem
Hold your peace, Gilchrist We were
never anything to brag of, either you or
me. Look i'll your glass, woman, if you
don't believe me. A couple of plain
women, very plain women, mistress and
maid"
rTbis. ,,.oe e,;5 ,r.;+l, - aoeb &c IA ,ol o,,or
which gave half-humorous contradiction
at the same moment to the assertion.
Gilchrist began to fold hens upon the
apron with which she had just dried her
tears.
a never said, d" she murmured, with a
downcast head, "a word about myself
that's not woman's part. If there's no
body that speaks up for her she has just
to keep silence, if she was the bonnlest
woman In the world.
The aud toad because there was
once silly lad that had nobody else to
come counting to. No, Gilchrist, my
woman, you were never bonnie. A white
skin, allow, to go with your red hair,
and kind of innocent look in your eyes,
nothing nothing more We were both
plain women, you and me, not adapted to
please the eyes of men.
They might have waited long afOre we
would have tired, either the wan or the
other of us" cried Gilchrist, with flash
of self-assertion mo that l would even
myself to you, mem, she added in an after
breath.
AS for that. it's metaphysical ques-
tion," said Miss Bethune. Il will not at
tempt to enter into it. But try or no, it
is clear we did not succeed. And what it
is that succeeds is just more than can
tell It's not beauty, it's kind of natural
attraction" She paused moment in this
deep philosophical inquiry, and then said
quickly. An this does not help us 10 find
out what is this story about the Manner
iugs. Who is the womani Is it somebody
that loves the man, or somebody that loves
the girl"
IF you would take my opinion, mem,
/ would say tnat the man-if We call Mr..
Manncring honest gentleman, the man,
that has just every air Of being a we'll
born person. and well bred, and not a
common person at all
"Nuu haveral! The king himself If
there was a king, could De no more than
% man 90
Of would say. mem, that it was not for
him oh. mo- for him. except maybe in