The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-03-27
CHAPTER II.
=. General Homage.

Canon Aldred was a man of mark
in Cambridge, and the more so since
his ways were not Cambridge ways.
AS a university man, he had not
much distinguished himself; his
friends said he could easily have done
90 had he not wasted his mental en-
ergies in SO many directions; but
others had their doubts of this.
1t is the instinct of most persons
when they stand in fear of a fellow
creature to avoid his society as much
as is consistent with the concealment
Of their dislike, but though Sophy
Gilbert was stricken with a great
fear of John Adair, she adopted the
contrary course. Without any sud-
den withdrawal of her attentions to
Mr.. MAYORS she ~dexterously trans
ferred it to her other neighbor, and
laid herself out to please him. In
a mans Ease this would have been
impossible; to most women it would
have been difficult; but to Sophy it
was comparatively easy. Youth and
beauty were on her side; bat, pow
erful auXiliaries though they were.
they would hardly have served her
turn with him she had to deal had
she possessed them only. Fortunate
ly for her-or, as it seemed to her
for the present, for who can tell
whether that which looks like luck
to-day may not turn out to be dis
aster to-morrow?-she had. as we
have said (not the art, for it was
nature with herr, the gift of pleas
ing.
To please John Adair, however,
was not the light task she had found
it to be with other young men.
There were certain initial difficulties
to surmount.
AS a rule, the young man was retl-
cent; not from any cautiousness of
disposition-far from it, he was au-
dacious even to recklessness, though,
indeed, he had not much to lose
but from the circumstances of his
position. He had come up to the
University a sizar, a proof of his
not having a superabundance of this
worlds goods, and what re had had
been given to him las he himself
bitterly expressed it) out of charity.
He had been adopted by a wealthy
baronet, Sir Charles Adair, and, but
for certain proceedings of his own,
would have been better provided for;
nor had he quarreled with his patron,
or found much fault with his W
position, till he had forfeited his
favor. Having lost 1t, however, he
was in no mood to. caress the hand
that had fed him, or in truth, any
hand. Instead Of blaming himself
for what had happened, he blamed
the world at large, which to his eyes
had regarded him with scorn as a de-
pendent, and still so regarded him as
a poor man. What above all things
moved him was the contempt of
women, to which, as worshipers of
rank and position, he deemed him
self subject. Under these circum-
stances it is not surprising that in
society he was retiring, and at heart
morose.
Sophy, though far from a hypo-
critic, possessed in a high degree that
gift of her sex which enables them
to affect an interest. In matters that
they do not are n halfpenny about,
and which no man could listen to
under the same circumstances with
out exhibiting some sign of boredom.
He spoke Of his prospects in the COM
ing tripos, and her pretty face seemed
to glow with excitement; he dis
coursed of his college experiences,
and, from the rapt attention with
which she listened to him, one would
have thought he was speaking Of her
last partner or her first ball. She
was, in truth, far from being
charmed, and thought him a very
egotistic young man; but his talk was
not altogether disagreeable to her,
since she saw through it the admira-
ton she had excited in him, a thing
always agreeable to her, and to
which, in the present case, there was
added a sense Of triumph; she had
manufactured a friend out of an en-"
envy. ""
He was in Paradise, and Sophy,
who Guessed the fact, did not choose
to let him know that it was a fools
Paradise.
You need never fear, dear Miss
Gilbert" he whispered, significantly
that I will ever reveal what l acct
dentally witnessed yonder."
To be Continued.