Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-12

again, and then again retracted.
Such flying up and down stairs !!
everybody so breathless! Everybody
so happy! Every face wearing a
smile! Every tongue ripping with
laughter! The big gray mansion
which used to seem so chill and cold
felt for the first time like a house of
joy.
b In the midst of these busy prepar-
atoms l had no time to think. My
senses were excited. l was dazed
stunned, wrapped round by kind OF
warm air of dollhouse happiness, and
this condition of moral intoxication
increased as the passing of time
brought fresh developments.
Our neighbors began to visit us. My
father had been right about the great
people of the island. Though they
had stood off so long, they found
their account in my good fortune, and
as soon as my marriage was an
nounced they came in troops to offer
their congratulations.
Never, according to Tommy the
Mate, had the gravel of our carriage
drive been so rucked up by the paw
ing feet of high bred horses. But
their owners were no less restless. 1t
facedness as they entered our house
for the first time, and to watch the
shifts they wore put to In order to
account for the fact that they had
never been there before.
Aunt Bridget's vanity was too much
uplifted by their presence to be par
ticular about their excuses, but my
fathers contempt of their subter-
ft1oaS nal.nd ond tpdtGpttiGa6
and | hardly know whether to feel
amused or ashamed when I think of
how he scored off them, how he lash
ed them to the bone with what irony
and sarcasm he scorched their time
serving little souls.
When they were very great folks,
tended not to know who they were,
and asked their names, their fathers
Names and what parishes they came
from.
Some of the Christians of Balla-
Christian, are you? Think of that
now. And me a born Ellanman, and
not knowing you from Adam!"
When they were very near neigh
bors, with lands that made boundary
with our own, he pretended to think
they had been twenty years abroad,
or perhaps sick, or even dead and
buried.
TOO bad, ma am, too bad" he would
say. And me thinking you were I'M
der the sod through all the lonely
years my poor wife was Ill and dy-
ing"
Snubs for Callers.
But when they were insular Off
cials, who walked on the stars" and
sometimes snubbed him in public,
the napier of ridicule was too light for
his heavy hand, and h. took up the
sledge hammer, telling them he was
the same man to-day as yesterday
and only his circumstances were diff
ferent-his daughter being about tc
become the LAZY of the first house in
the island, and none of them being
big enough to be left out of it.
After such scenes Aunt Bridget, for
all her despotism within her own
doors. used TO tremble with dread of
our neighbors taking lastinng offense,
but my father would say:
"Chut. woman, they'll come again,
and make no more faces about it,"
They did, and If they were shy
of my father they were gracious
enough to me, saying it was such a
good thing for society in the island
that Castle Raa was to have lady,
a real lady, at the head of it at last.
Then came their wedding presents
pictures, books, silver ornaments,
gold ornaments, clocks, watches,
chains, jewelry, until my bedroom
was blocked up with them. AS each
fresh parcel arrived there would be
rush of all the female members OF
our household to open it, after which
Betsy Beauty would say:
What a lucky girl you are"
began to think l was. | found it
impossible to remain unaffected by
the whirlwind of joyous turmoil in
which | lived. The refulgence of the
present hour wiped out the past,
which seemed to fade away alto
gether. After the first few days |
was flying about from place to place,
and wherever | went | was a subject
for congratulation and envy.
If there were moments of miSgiV-
ing, when, like the cold wind out of
a tunnel, there came the memory of
the Reverend Mother and the story
she had told me at Nemi, there were
other moments when l felt quite
sure that, in marrying Lord Raa,
should be doing self sacrificing
thing and kind Of solemn duty.
One such moment was when Mr.
Curphy, my fathers advocate, who
with his clammy hands always made
me think of an over-fatted fish, came
to tell him that, after serious legal
difficulties, the civil documents had
been agreed to, for, after he had fin
ished with my father, he drew me
aside and said, as he smoothed his
long brown beard:
you ought to be a happy girl,
Mary. l suppose you know what you
are doing for your father? You are
wiping out the greatest disappoint-
ment of his life, and rectifying the
inevitable cruelty - of
the law, when you were born a daugh-
ter after he had expected SON."
Settlement Signed.
Another such moment was when
the Bishop came, in his grand car
riage, to say that after much dis
cussion he had persuaded his lord
ship to sign the necessary declara-
ton that all the children Of our union,
irrespective of sex, should be brought
up as Catholics, for taking me aside,
as the advocate had done the day
before, he said, in his suave voice,
lingering his jewelled cross:
81 congratulate YOU my child Yours