Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-02-26

short
HAPTF "
'You ARE 0oINa ro spalI nY Irrr

YOU APE GOING TO SPOIL NY LIFE"
Two days had passed since Miss Hastings
arrival. On beautiful morning. when the
sun was shining and the birds were singing
In the trees, she sat In the study with an ex.
preston Of deepest anxiety, OF deepnsi
thought on ner face. Pauline, with a smile
on her lips, sat opposite to her. and theirs
was profound silence. Miss Darrell was tbs
first 10 break il.
Well she asked, laughingly, what Is
your verdict, Miss Hastings?7
The elder lady looked up with a long.
desp-drawu sigh.
II have never been 30 completely puzzled
in all my life, she Piled. MY dear Pau
line, you are the stTanEest mixture Of igno-
rance and knowledge trEt / have ever met.
J on know , great des., but it is all OF the
wrong kind you ought 10 unlearR all that
you have learned
You admit then that ! know something"
Yes; but IL would be almost better. per-
haps, If You did not / Will tell you how |
feel, Pauline. | know nothing VI building,
but feel Is though ! had been placed before
a heap Of marble, porphyTy. and granite OF
wood, glass. md iron, and then told from
those materials 10 shape a magnificent palace.
/ am al q loss what to DO
Miss Daniel laughed with the giee Of a
child. Her g~oyerness, depressing her sur
prise, continued:
y on know more IN some respects than
most educated women in other and equally
e&sentia! matters YOU know less than a c;ild.
You speak French fuently, perfectly, you
have read a large number OF books Ia tie
French langu2ge-goOd. bad. and Indifferent,
IL appears 10 me; vet you have no more idea
Of French grammar or Of the idlom or con-
strnction Of the language than a child"
That indeed, l have not: / consider
grammar tie most stupid of al human in
yeBtion>.'
Miss Hastings offered no comment
Again, - She continued, you speak good
English, bUt y0Ur spelling Is bad. and your
writing worse. You are better acquainted
with English literature than 1 am-thst f.,
you have read more. IDu have read indis-
criminsts'y; even the titles Of some OF the
books you have read are uot admissible."
The dark eyes flashed. and the pale, grand
face was stirred a. though by some sudden
emotion.
There was a large library in the house
where we lived she explained, hurriedly,
a | read every book In il. ! read from
early morning until ATE at night, and some,
times from night until morning there was
no one TO tel Ire what was right and what
was wrong. Miss Hastings
Then continued the goyerness, you
have written a spirited poem on Anne Bo-
leyn, but YOU know nothing or English his.
t~ory-neither the dates nor tho incidents Of
a single reign. You have written the half
Of a story the scene OF which j., laid In the
tropics. yet OF geography you have no; the
fsintest notion. or matters such as every
girl has some idea of-of biography, Of bota-
ny, Of astronomy-you have not even a glin-
mer. The chances are that If You engaged
in conversation with any sensible person,
you would equally aStoniSh. hrs, by the cley-
er things you would utter, and then by the
utter ignorance you would display"
Il csnnot be fattered. Miss Hastings"
Pauline put in, because you humiliate me;
nor can 1 be Inundated, because you fatter
ne"
But Miss Hastings pursued her criticisms
steadily
Continued Next Week.