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Show BENDING HER WILL. "My dear," said Hero Field, "don't give up. If you yield to him it's all up with you for the rest of your married life. And the idea of a bride on her honeymoon being weighted down with an old grandfather and grandmother-in-law. My! whoever heard of such a thing?" Nannie Eastlake was a bright-eyed girl of nineteen - a girl who had been brought up in a fashionable boarding school. She had never known the peaceful influences of a home, for she had lived with Mrs. Sykes Ponsonby, an aunt who floated on the very top wave of fashion, and spent her nights in society and her days in bed. And the first real heart experience that had ever happened to her was Donald Aubrey's love. "It's such an elegant house," said Nannie. "Finished in real wood, you know, and furnished so beautifully. Turkey carpets and furniture of ebony and gold, and the tiniest gem of a conservatory [unreadable line] and the sweetest carnations, and my boudoir all in pink and silver." "Of course it's all very fine," said Hero Field, "But you'll never enjoy it with those horrid, mischief making old antediluvians sniffing and prowling around. Why not open an asylum for indigent poor at once?" "But they are Donald's grandparents," pleaded Nannie. "Well, what then? Let him provide for them as other people do. His wife has the first and the only right in his house, and so I'd tell him if I were you. A mother-in-law would be bad enough, but this is ten times worse." "I don't think he ought to expect it of me," said Nannie. "Of course he oughtn't," replied Hero. So when Mr. Aubrey came to make his usual evening call that night, and Aunt Ponsonby had discreetly made some excuse for leaving the drawing-room, Nannie broached the subject at once. "Donald," said she, "I've been thinking " "Well, dearest?" "And I've come to the conclusion" rather abruptly that you ought not to ask me to make a home for old Mr. and Mrs. Vivian." "Is it not right and natural, Nannie, that their home should be with me?" He asked, his face clouding over a little. "I dare say it will be very nice for them," said Nannie, with a toss of her golden head; "but how about me?" "Do you object to it?" "Very decidedly, indeed," answered the pretty young bride elect, fondly imagining that she had but to lift her slender finger to win any boon that she asked of Donald Aubrey. "I am very sorry," said the young man calmly. "As I have decided to ask them to remain with me, I cannot, of course, permit my wife" Nannie crimsoned angrily. "But I am not your wife yet, Mr. Aubrey; and I will not be your wife if " "Nannie! For Heaven's sake stop! Think what you are saying!" "I mean it!" said Nannie hotly. "I do not choose to marry into a nest of relations-in-law; and so you may choose between your grandparents and me!" "Nannie!" She laughed a haughty, constrained laugh. "I am quite in earnest," said she. "If you really care for me you will give up this unreasonable caprice of yours." "Is it unreasonable to honor one's aged parents?" he asked, slowly, while his dark, searching eyes seemed to read the very secret of her heart. "Is it a caprice to retain some natural affection for those who loved and cared for me when I was a helpless child? If you think it is, Nannie, I have been sorely mistaken in your character!" "Very well," said Nannie, feeling her cheeks burn and her lips quiver, "I am then to understand that your selection is made?" "It certainly is." "And you prefer Mr. and Mrs. Vivian to me." "I prefer my duty to anything in the world, Nannie." "I have the honor to wish a very good evening, then," said she, regally. |