New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-09-11

Virginia meant much to be the last of the
1dInily meant Miss Abby fully conscious
of her position. Miss Philppa cared little about it.
Miss Abby's ambition live up to what she
fondly believed were the traditions of her forbears
Miss Philppa'S desire 20 get the most she could
out of the present Sae was laughter, galety itself
Two beings could be dissimilar, vet
they intimately bound together sunshine
and shadow Unconsciously Miss Philippa summed
up her ancestry better than Miss Abby, despite
her efforts, for the Herondnes had been chief
among the foX-hunting, pleasure-loving easy going
squires of the Old Dominion, To be appropriate
the family arms should have sported the mask of
comedy, and the family should have been a Jest
The first American Herondine had been a cavalier
After the restoration of King Charles he had to
Virginia, having previously taken to wife daughter
of of the sternest and most rigorous of the follow
of the great Protector The lover. like love, will
go where he is sent: and dashing George Herondne
the great astonishment of all who knew him, had
been sent, in mysterious way straight into the
of Mistress Abigail Pyrnford-a rolckng blade
in a Puritan heart
The first lady Of Heronshaw Hall had a difficult
time preserve her dignity and adhere her prin-
cipes in the society of the bluff registering gallant
Herondine she had married. That she had done so
aesed the strength of her character and her devotion
her creed She controlled herself; but there she
stopped perforce. Nature Is freakish. The little
Herondines that in regular succession to the
strangely mated couple at HeTOnShaW partOOk of
the character of the weaker vessel rather than of the
stronger. They all Herondines from the bone
Two hundred years incumbency by such
Herondine the seventh died in the fifties, the last
male Of his race his parimony gone He left to his
daughters little except the family home the ground
on which It stood a few black servants and the recol
lection of the past gOrles of his house to live
In all the long line of descendants of the first George
and his Puritan wife there only who in any
way partook of the characteristics of the progcntrcsS
OF the family. No who knew the two young
women thus left TO themselves untney. could under
stand Miss Abigail Herondne The memory Of the
Puritan naturally had been lost except anquarans
who delighted deve in family histories, and Miss
Abigail therefore remained a family mystery, a social
enigma, atavistc anachronism, IN her present.
She even had connected herself with the Prcsbyterans
the first Herondine out of The Church" III two
hundred years.
Not only there disparity in temperament be
tween the two women but there a great differ
ence in age as well. Miss Abby fifteen when
Miss Philippa born. At the time of this story
Miss Phippa twenty and Miss Abby thirty-ive
Miss Abby tall largely built and had there been
any gentleman ungallant enough in the Old Dominion
to characterize lady, she might have been des-
cribed truthfully enough gaunt, not to say raw
boned For the rest, few could mistake her char
acter. none her breeding
Miss Phippa-wel Miss Phlippa delicious
Miss Abbys dark hair straight an Indians
Miss Philippa's golden locks curled naturally
a tendril does. Miss Abby grim, severe, unap-
proachabe as well as uneXceptOnable The few
servants left at Heronshaw stood in deadly of her
Miss Philippa they adOred Her old nanny fairly
worshiped her. 1t was not known whether Miss