St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1895-06-08

What Joy! What Wild. FREQ rap
ture Of plans, with occasional bursts
of fancy which even / dismissed
as quite untenable. For instance.
I had no longer any faintest hope
Of marrying my Cousin Mary, She
was quite taken MP with another
cousin. Fred by name. and would have
married him long since, no doubt. had
he been able to support family. But
he was proud, and would not marry
until he could offer something to. his
wife. knew that, for he had told me
30.
However, it was now my delicious
fate to be able to arrange matters for
these two so that they should be able
to marry; neither knowing how it had
come about, nor in the least corner Of
their hearts suspecting me. Then
with what swelling pride should look
upon their happiness and know that I
had given it'll, wifo SO far had given
only trouble and modification TO my
fanilyl
Itwas an easy matter to make my
mothers last years comfortable; and
ahi the pleasure, the selfish pride I
took in remembering small personal
wishes and gratifying them bit by bit,
while never suspectedf
It was an easy matter, too, through
my agent, to bny the very paper on
which / wrote; to slowly dismiss the
men who were a disgrace to 1t, to pro-
mote and engage men whose work
made 1t a great voice soon, and through
it, slowly to win the public con nfidence
and work my will, little by little,
among the affairs of the city. Such a
splendid game 1t was to arouse public
enthusiasm over some free baths, or
ehildren's play ground scheme or
other, to start subscription lists, and
covertly head them myself; TO machin-
ate safely and Quietly through my
great pages, and all the while having
my copy refused half the time, and the
other fellows wondering how / kept
my place.
All this and much more, was easy
and exciting; more OF a triumph and
joy even than I had ever imagined it
would be; but my pet scheme OF
schemes hung fire little. Fred got
his new position, In q perfectly natural
manner; he was a good fellow and de-
served 1t. Still there was no sign Of
an engagement between him and my
Cousin Mary. Then I thought, being
an independent girl, she might be
waiting to have something Of her own;
and after as pretty q bit OF Anesse as l
ever saw in my life, Il 1t was my own
inventionand small wonder, for had
i not sehemed at such pleasant mir
acles since / was eight years old?-I
managed to provide her with neat
little fortune Of her own. Still no re-
suit. So one day when was at home
II did not go often, Tor mother would
always lecture me on my habits, and
somehow never could entirely get
over the hurt of it. big as / was--I
chanced to be alone with my Cousin
Mary for as much Of an evening as she
would be willing to bear my company.
I feltvery happy TO see how beauti-
fully she was dressed in these days,
how her hands were white already,
and grown smooth again where the
delicate fingers used to be rough with
countless needle pricks The house
was q comforta BILE one now, my mother
was far easier In her mind and there
fore sweeter companion.
Every thing looked pleasant around
Mary, and told her how glad I was. to
see It.
/ did not tell her how glad was to
see ber, how In all the rich and varied
joy Of my present position. rs In all the
unutterable WEAKNESS and dnllness of
my former state, to see her was the
keenest delight I ever felt, OF ever
hoped to feel Calm, strong, beautiful
woman thai she was; perfect in Joveli-
ness of face and form and character
mine would be poor triumph, after
all, If could not contrive TO make her
happy.
] sat watching her, and she watched
the leaping flames of the fire; and /
wondered c1umsi1y Ia what possible
way could force her into the happi-
ness which should be hers, when all at
once she rose and come to my side.
Cousin Tom, she said, in that de-
licious voice fof hers, why don't you
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sl,a ssse ao,,s;nsIi i, erava hsr eo,,,.a q and
she went on. Us it for lack OF money
to make a start with2 Because, you
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!, - e,, -. s,n,ssaf 4 Tam, . whole ,,;la
"a Il !,
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