The suburban citizen., 1901-01-19
QUEER MISS MARIA.
BY j. L. Harbour.

/ kktEFEkNSEJCJCrC CrCENptTSENGNESEE
N 70 one ever knew the exact
| cause of the estrangement
between Maria Devlin and
her distinguished brotAer the
/ Hon. Horace Devlin. The Devlins had
always been wisely reticent regarding
their family affairs. Ii was understood
that there had been a violent quarrel
over the large estate left by the father
Of the brother and sister, and that
they had never spoken to each other
/ since the division Of the property. The
| estrangement must have been embar.
| RAISING to both of them, since they
lived in a small town and could not
help meeting frequently
The Hon. Horace was much more
| popular than his sister Maria. She
had always been somewhat eccentric
and this eccentricity had become more
marked after her quarrel with her
| brother.
Her father had been a man Of very
simple tastes, and had lived all his life
in the plain old red house that had
been his fathers and his grandfather's.
1t was great and bitter trial to Maria
when her brother, not long after their
fathers death, tore down the old
house and built on it's site a very large
and pretentious modern mansion.
| Miss Maria had her fathers simple
tastes, and her associations of the old
house were very dear to her, even
when 1t was no longer her home. The
big, snowy mansion was an offence to
her eyes every time she passed it. In.
marked and striking contrast to her
, brothers house was her own. 1t was
as much an eyesore to her brother as
his house was to Miss Maria.
When the Deylin estate had finally
been divided, Miss Maria moved into a
tiny old house once occupied by her
fathers gardener. 1t was hardly ten
antable, and Miss Maria made few re-
pairs before moving into It. II stood
directly aLcoss the road from her
Drot r-er's fine home, and was decided
piemlsh on the landscape seen from
his spacious front piazza. He had,
, through his attorney, made his sister
| an offer to buy it at price far more
than its value but the offer had been
so promptly and so decidedly rejected
that it had never been repeated.
1t was thought that Miss Maria al
lowed the old house to remain in a
scate Of neglect and the premises to
be in a state Of continual disorder, for
the sole purpose Of adding to her broth
er's annoyance and modification. She
also added many irritating traits to
her many eccentricties of character,
and was nearly always spoken of by
the people Of the town as queer Miss
Maria"
Her sister-in-law was an extremely
fashionable lady, while Maria went
about in the shabbiest and most anti
quated Of garments. She was far
from being scrupulously tidy, and
seemed to take delight in setting aside
the ordinary conventionalites Of life
1t was known, however, that she was
very good and kind to the poor, while
her brother was by no means noted
for his generosity toward them.
The Hon. Horace Devlin entertained
lavishly, while his sister never enter
talned at all, and did not go into So
Citey. 1t was regarded as scandalous
that Miss Maria should have chosen
to spend the afternoon in her front
yard with a mans hat on her head and
her skirts pinned up about her waist
on the day Of her brothers. grand lawn
party, when he had a carload Of guests
oui from the city.
So the breach between the brother
aud sister widened until there was no
probability that it would ever be
would ever be brdged over. When
they met they stared at each other in
stony silence.
Wenheld, the town in which the
= Devlins lived, was a small manufac
@ turing place. Most Of its inhabitants
q worked in the mills. Many of then
~ were thrifty men and women, who
. saved as much as they could Of theii
s. earnings, and deposited them in the
It 1ne savings bank in Wenfeld.
Z The Hon. Horace Devlin was cash
r fer Of the Wenfeld savings bank, an(
never had there been such wild excite
% ment tn Jughout the town as on tho
l. morning when placard appeared OF
r the bank door bearing the two onin
q Gus words:
BANK CLOSED.