The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-04-08

and twice in each year had formally en-
| tertained each other-once at dinner, once
at tea. Outsiders hidden to these feasts
said Miss Warfield gave you good. ordin-
airy victuals on the finest sort of china;
Miss Ewing, things that were simply
ravishing in good, plain, everyday ware.
| She had china or course, but she never
| made a parade of it, and, least of all, be-
| fore Miss LucindyTom.
| Miss Lucindy- Tom had been forbidding
| from her youth upward--so much so that
! in spite of being also handsome, and WELL
| lowered, no man had ever summoned
up the courage requisite to court her. 1t
was Just the other way with Miss Marticia
She was single solely because she had
not been able to make up her mind and
heart among 20 beaux, the best the coun-
try afforded. Somehow none of them had
quite measured up to her father, the
standard in her mind of all things mascu-
line. But she had dealt with them so
kindly they were all still her friends-her
| lovers even in a friendly open fashion
although they had wives and children of
| their own.
| So far she regretted sending none of
| them about his business. She had the
| farm, she had her sweet supremacy, most
of all she had Marcia, Marcia had come
| to her child in arms, orphaned by the
| fever plague which had desolated the city
! in which Robert Ewing had made home,
and had hoped to make name. He had
| always hated farmng-so his father had
| given him money in hand leaving to Mar
| ticia the land. The money was somehow
| pretty well swallowed up, but Marcia had
never known the feeling of dependence.
She was so entirely first in Miss Mart
icias heart, it was perfectly natural she
should be first in everything else.
1t was that, perhaps, which first in
clined her heart to John Warfield. Miss
Lucindy- Tom reminded him about once
a day, that needs must he save to
thrive, since he had nothing of his own,
and could look for nothing beyond what
she could give him-and that was prec-
ious little. In the face of that she gave
him everything heart could wish, save
and except liberty to enjoy the gifts
He had, for example, the finest watch in
the county. but it stayed safely locked in
bureau drawer and he carried about
wheezy, open-faced silver affair, he was
ashamed to look at in company.
1t was the same with his gun, his
clothes, his saddle and bridle--even his
books Miss Lucindy-Tom had provided
a fine case for them. If by chance he
laid one down for minute outside it.
she darted at the offending volume, and
Whisked it in place, signing that ne
could be so careless. 1t was evn worse
if he thrust the books in hastily, upside
down or the least bit askew. What
Miss Lucindy Tom hated the very worst
of all was to see things which had cost
money abused. Patching and darning
were rites with her, joyous if austere
There was color of truth in Miss Mar
ticia's saying: 'Lucindy Warfield
thinks it is a sin to wear out anything
until it is at least six years behind the
fashion,
Notwithstanding she loved her nephew
With force and concentered passion pos
sibly only to natures such as hers, she had
not loved her brother over much; it had
been distinct relief to her when he
chose to live away from the old home.
His wife had been pretty and extrava-
giant, an offense outright to Miss Lucindy-
Toms economic instincts. Then when
her baby came she needs must call it
John, when, every Warfield for 100 years
had had Thomas somewhere in his name!
Miss Lucindy- Tom said things when the
hoy aged two, was sent into her keeping.
Business was taking his father abroad,
and his mother would not let slip so fine
an opportunity for travel.
John was a pretty fellow, bold with
| the holiness bred of knowing only love.
In the teeth of her rebellion against him,
he crept close into the heart of '"Tanty
| Tom She gave him up with mighty
wrenching of her tenderest affections, and
| when he came back to her five years Ia
/ ter, orphaned, felt that even an erratic
| Providence is sometimes just. She loved
/ him indeed better than herself. He came
next to her accumulations. They were
! to her the central fact of life.
She bore him one grudge, but was just
enough to feel that it was based OH
| something wholly apart from his control.
He could not have been born girl, even
| if he had chosen But if only he had
been so born, then Miss LucindyTom
! would have had the supreme satisfaction
/ of showing that foolish Marticia Ewing
1 how a girl ought to be raised. John was
| five years older than Marcia-hence they
became fixtures in their respective home
! steads at nearly the same time. The
! difference in age made them companion
able. John was big enough to be shy of
| girls as big but this tiny thing in the
white frocks, with hair like spun sunshine
who chung confidingly to his finger, and
could barely lisp his name, was nearly
| as good fun as the puppy he sighed for
| but was forbidden to keep and even bet
| ter than the big dolls he saw in the
! shop windows and coveted, in spite of be-
| ing a boy.
! Marcia had remained a sort OF glorlfled
| doll to him, until she became suddenly
| and mysteriously a woman-the one wo-
! man in all the world. 1t took him six
| months to muster courage to tel her So.
| Throughout them he had been outwardly
| quite the same. Even at the last there
| was no approach to sentiment. He had
| said: Marcia shall have to marry you
| to keep yon out of mischief" Marcia had
| laughed back at him: Well say moth
| ing about 1t yet--if you do, 'Tanty Tom
| will lock you up for a lunatic She knows
/ have not penny to my name
| They had come TO an agreement, not
| yithstanding. They meant to wait year
| before speaking out until Marcia SHOULD
| ,e 10 and quite old enough TO marry. But
| when man proposes to the wrong woman
| wrong in the eyes of his pastors ant
Il tn hpi,,