The morning call., 1894-06-09

by books. pictures, music-all the Injuries
that refined tastes desire and lavish ex-
pendituTe provide-but whose time is
given over to woman's peculiar prerOga-
tive-to weep.
Those who see her frequently know this,
but very few know more than this
For. within sight and sound of the rush
of wheels, the clang of the cars and the
cries and movement of the street, she has
made herself so entirely a recluse. and for
so long time she has had so little inter
course with men and women, that she has
gotten out of touch; her tongue lisps and
hestates when upon occasion anything
carriage or her dinner.
The woman's name is Blanche Daring
ton, or rather she is known by that name
at the Grosvenor. She came TO San Fran
cisco by steamer from South America a
little over a year ago and took the rooms
where she has since lived her strange life.
Little by little her story has come to be
known to a very few, despite reserve
that has been painful TO those who were
disposed to be friendly.
She is the daughter of well-to-do parents
who live in a small town in New York
State, and who for two years, since she
left them, have been securing the world in
search of her, advertisements having re-
Gently been printed in the San Francisco
dailies asking for Information concerning
her. Her mother has watched for and
sought her out in every locality, but the
daughter, preferriDg to live the life of
self-sentenced prisoner, has always
avoided her. This is the reason why she
never goes out except in a closed carriage,
and makes no acquaintance other than
necessity compels.
She married against her mothers wish
and ran away with her husband to South
America. She was entirely happy until.
before the honeymoon had scarcely passed,
she learned that her husband had another
wife. He loved Blanche dearly and would
have divorced himself and married her
legally, but under the impulse of the shock
she left him and came to San Francisco.
She loved the man, however, in desper-
ate woman fashion. and while she was here
alone she could not forget that he was
down there also alone. And when after a
time be wrote to her she answered him.
She realizes why he carried her away so
far under the simple plea of escaping her
fathers wrath. There was no divorce from
the other wife and has been none. Yet
after a years correspondence it has come
to be understood within the small circle of
her condolences that she Is weighing the
advisability of taking ship for the South
again.
His letters carry money to her regularly
and advces concerning his prosperity in
business and prayers to her to Tejoin him.
And the unhappy woman lives entirely
for these letters. She knows the dates of
the sailing and arriving Of every vessel
carving mail to South America and they
figure in her calendar as red-letter days.
And that is why she has become the mys-
terious recluse that she is. Too proud to
make known to her parents her condition
and to acknowledge that the wedding they
opposed was a mistake, she accepts money
from the hus band who can be nothing more
tn n lover and yearns and yet hesitates
to rejoin him.
So, with nobody to talk to but a parrot,
she weeps and dreams and watches for the
infrequent South American mail and goes
through the daily routine as she might
were she with him. Her meals are served
to her in her rooms and partaken alone,
and the evenings, carefully dressed in fash
ionable attire, she spends In reading or
singing her love songs to the parrot or
weeping over her unhappy lot or wonder
ing, perhaps, when she shall gather coUr-
age sufficient 10 join him, or, if not that,
what awaits her.