The San Francisco call., 1904-02-14

live with him on their present terms?
She had no intention to make another
effort to alter them; but to remain as
they were would be intolerable, and
Mrs. Tanberry could not stay forever,
to act as buffer between her and her
father Peering out into the dismal
night, she found her own future as
black, and it seemed no wonder that the
sisters loved the convent life; that the
pale nuns forsook the world wherein
there was so much useless unkindneSs;
where women were petty and Jealous,
like that cowardly Fanchon, and men
who looked great were tricksters, like
Fanchon's betrothed. Miss Betty
clenched her delicate fingers. She
would not remember that white.
startled face againi
Another face helped her to shut cut
the recollection: that OF the man who
had come to mass to meet her yester-
day morning, and with whom she had
taken a long walk afterward. He had
shown her a quaint old English gar
dener who lived on the bank Of tho
river, had bought her a bouquet, and
she had helped him to select another to
send to a sick friend. How beautiful
the flowers were, and how happy he
had made the morning for her, with his
gayety, his lightness, and his odd wis
domi Was it only yesterday? Her
fathers coming had made yesterday q
fortnight old.
But the continuously pattering rain
and the soft drip-drop from the roof.
though as mournful as she chose to
find them, began, afterwhile, to weave
their somnolent spells, and she slowly
drifted from reveries Of unhappy sorts.
into half-dreams, In which she was still
aware she was awake: yet Blumber,
heavy-eyed, stirring from the curtains
beside her with the small night breeze,
breathed strange distortions upon IA
miliar things. and drowsy impossible
tiles moved upon the surface OF her
thoughts Her chin, resting upon her
hand. sank gently. until her head al
most lay upon her relaxed arms
THAT Is mine, Crailey Gray,"
She sprang to her feet. immeasurably
startled, one hand clutching the back
Of her chair, the other tremulously
pressed to her cheek, convinced that
her father had stopped over her and
shouted the sentence in her ear. For
1t was his voice, and the house rang
with the words: all the rooms, halls,
and even the walls, seemed still muir
murous with the sudden sound, like the
tingling of bell after it has been
struck And yet-everything was quiet
She pressed her fingers to her fore
head, trying to untangle the maze Of
dreams which had evolved this shock
for her, the sudden cIamor in her
fathers voice of a name she hated and
hoped never to hear again, a name she
was trying to forget. But as she was
unable to trace anything which had led
to it, there remained only the conclu-
sion that her nerves were not what
they should be. The vapors having be-
come obsolete for young ladies as an ex-
PLANTATION for all unpleasant sensations,
they were instructed to have nerves"
This was Miss Betty's first conscious
ness of her own, and, desiring no great
er acquaintance with them, she told
herself it was unwholesome to fall
asleep in a chair by an open window
when the night was as sad as she
Turning to a chair in front Of the
small oval mirror OF her bureau, she
unclasped the brooch which held her
lace collar, and. seating herself, began
to unfasten her hair. Suddenly she
paused, her uplifted arms falling me-
chanically to her sides.
Some one was coming through the long
hall with Q soft, almost insudible step,