The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-10-26
BY Miss ANNIE EDWARDs.i

events, are not q nlLnS pefSon " ue
cry marriage"
II think we came to a decision some
time ago that there was n subjec'
Of which you and I would never speab
until it was forced upon us. My mar
riage"-the clear voice falters a bit
"can have no connection, in the whole
wide world, with you"
"None. Possibly that IS the fact
that has made me think Of opening
domestic happiness account on my OWL
behalf"
There is a little pause after this
then:
ct would be asking too much!" ex'
claims the girls voice, petulantly; Il,
would be trenching on ground too deli
cate for an outside observer, to inquire
the name of your intended?
II put much the same question tt
myself to-day"
"To yourself-what absurdity"
cat breakfast; limiting my specula'
tons, for forms sake, to the company
present. Naturally, but for forming
ham I would have fixed on Lady
Lydia"
"That goes without saying. You for
get, perhaps, that Lady Lydia's great
est charm is-Mr. birmingham"
"Afterward, coming down, with 9
crash, from the ideal to the actual and
earnest, I thought-You need not looE
so scornful, my poor child, I am per
fectly in earnest"
."Scornful? I? How wonderful ones
face must belle one at times"
THAT I could not do better thar
think Of Agatha de Mauley."
"a widow" .%.ti'
IT adore widows"
(Under the shelter Of the rock be-
meath, Mrs. Chester colors. Sir John
Severne is looking s%ingularly, unac
countably i'll at his ease.)
"a woman who has been already
married" proceeds the voice masculine
with slow emphasize woman who
has been once trained, however badly
in the way wherein she should go, must
have gained some rudimentary knowl
edge Of the art Of dining. If the frs
husband has a temper, she has prob
ably been drilled to putting on her bon
net with dispatch. Two cardinal vir
tues. This brings US to q question OF
the late Mr.. de Mauley's temper"
"Do you know what I am thinking?
cries the girl, impatiently. II an
thinking that every month, every hour
you live, you grow more and more
foolish"
81 know it. At two-and-thirty years
Of age I am fool enough still to carry
heart about with me, somewhere"
"a heart!" she repeats mockingly
"a heart that beats for Agatha de
Mauley!"
"Of course, If you choose to say So
"a designing creature, old enough tt
be your grandmother, and fast, extrav'
agant en%ough-no! I should be sorry
to finish the comparison. Married te
Agatha de Mauley, you would be II
Jail, both Of you, in a fortnight Now
if you were to turn your thoughts tc
Matte Rivers"
aged Twenty-Five, em%ancipated to
the extent Of living alone in chambers
suspected by her enemies of the mos'
advanced theology. and by her friends
Of the very heaviest hirtations. and al
the present moment collecting mate
rails for a three-volumn novel! 1t is q
curious fact" the speaker remarks, de-
l%iberately, like a man carefully ran
sacking the storehouse Of his thoughts,
ia deuced curious fact-that all the
new-looking people who go about the
world in yachts should be accompanied
by a writing woman in search Of ma
terials for a novel. I met with pre-.
cisely the same thing last autumn
somewhere on the Levant, vas it,"
"Cousin Felix, you may not be very
deep in some subjects, not quite as
deep as Fraulein %Schnapper, for in
stance. But for generalizations, at
once rapid and profound, I don't know
your equal"
eyes. If I had Clementina and a
dictionary constantly at hand I believe
I might pass muster in time"
Sir John Severne springs to his feet
with an abruptness that sends his
color-box, pencils and Daphne's por'
trait spinning!