The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-08-15

family to Europe IL resteu sotS!9 uPVu
+be singular fact that Mr.. Maynard
did not go there in the expectation OF
marrying his daughter to Il noDlelhah'
Charleston merchant, whose mouse
represented two honorable generators
had, thirty years ago, a certain sell-
respect which did not require eXtraheous
aid and foreign support, ana IL Is eA.
ceedingly probable that his intention Oh
spending a few years abroad had no
interior motive other than pleasure seek
ING and the observation of many things
nrincipaIlv of the past-which his own
ao,,ntrv did not possess. His future and
that of his family lay in his own land,
vet with practical common sense, he
adjusted himself temporarily to his new
surroundings. In doing so he had much
TO learn of others and others had some
thing to learn of him. He found that
the best PEOPLE had a high simplicity
eouel to his own He corrected their
impressions that a Southerner had more
or less negro blood in his veins, and that,
although a slave owner, he did not neces-
sarily represent an arlstocracy with
n distinguished dialect of which he was
not ashamed, a frank familiarity of APP
proach, Joined to an invincible courtesy
of manner which made even his repubH-
can "Sir" equal to the ordinary adj
dess to royalty, he was always respected
and seldom misunderstood. When he
was. it was unfortunate for those who
misunderstood him. His type was as
distinctive and original as his Cousins,
the EngliShman, whom it was not the
fashion then to initiate. So that,
whether in the hotel of a capital, the
kursaal of a spa, or the humber pen
sion of a Swiss village, he was always
characteristic. Less so was his wife,
who, with the chameleon quality of her
transplanted countrywomen, was already
Parishian in dress. Still less so his
daughter, who had by this time absorbed
the pecularities of her French, German,
and Italian governesses. Yet neither had
yet learned to evade their nationality
or apologize for it.
Mr.. Maynard and his family remained
for three years in Europe, his stay having
been prolonged by political excitement
in his own State of South Carolina.
Commerce is apt to knock the insularity
out of people; distance from ones own
distinctive locality gives wider range
to the vision, and the retired merchant
foresaw ruin in his States politics, and
from the viewpoint OF all Europe be-
held, instead of the usual collection of
individual States, his whole country.
But, the excitment increasing, he was
finally impelled to return in the faint
hope of doing something to allay it, TAX
ing his wife with him, but leaving his
daughter at school in Paris. At about
this time, however, single cannon shot
fired the whole country, reverberated
even in Europe, sending some earnest
hearts back to do battle for State or
country, sending others less earnest into
inglorious exile, but, saddest of all.
knocking over the school bench of the
girl at the Paris Pensionnat. For that
shot had sunk Maynard's ships at the
Charleston wharves, scattered his piled
cotton bales awaiting shipment at the
quays. and drove him ruined man into
the "Home Guard" against his better
Judgment. Helen Maynard, like a good
girl, had implored her father to let her
return and share his risks. But the an
swer was " to watt until this nine days
madness of an uprising was over That
madness lasted six years, outlived May
nard, whose gray misdoubting head bit
the dust at Balls Bluff; outlived his
colorless widow, and left Nelly penni-
less orphan.
Yet enough of her country was left
dependent of her past. They saw that
when she got the news she cried a little
and then laid the letter and what was
left of her last monthly allowance in
Madame Ablas's lap. Madame was do.
yastated. But you-impoyerished and
desolated angel-what of youY' 81
shall get some Of it back" said the
desoiated angel with ingenious candor.
Tor speak better French and English
tnan the other girls, and I shall teach
them until / get into the Conservative.
Tor have voice. You yourself have
told papa So" From such angelic
directness there was no appeal. Madame
ADias had a heart-more, she had a |
French manageress's discriminating in i
sdfnct. The American schoolgirl was 4
installed in a teachers desk-her bosom |
friends and fellow students became her
pupils. To some Of the richest, and they !
were mainly Of her own country. she |
sold her smartest, latest dresses, Jewels. |
and trinklets at very good figure-and
put the money away against the Con- |
servatoire in the future. She worked |
nard, she endured patiently everything |
but commiseration. "Pd have Won
know, Miss" she said to Miss De Lame. |
daughter OF the famous house of Muss-
lin, De Lame & Co., of New York, ''that
whatever my position here may be it is
not one to be patronized by tape sellers
daughter. My case is not such a very
sad one thank you! and l prefer not
to be spoken Of as having seen better
days by people who haven't. Therei
Don't rap your desk with your pencil
when you speak to me, or l shall call
out Cash! before the whole clasp SO
regrettable an exhibition of temper ma
turally alienated certain of her COM
patriots who were unduly sensitive of
their origin, and as they formed a con-
siderable colony who were then revealing
in the dregs of the empire and the last
orgies of tottering court eventually
cost her her place
a republican so aristocratic was not
to be tolerated by the true-born Ameri-
cans who paid court to De Morny for the