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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Clemence, by Retta Babcock
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Clemence
+       The Schoolmistress of Waveland
+
+Author: Retta Babcock
+
+Release Date: March 4, 2006 [EBook #17913]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLEMENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Curtis Weyant, Sigal Alon and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images produced by the Wright
+American Fiction Project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CLEMENCE,
+
+THE
+
+Schoolmistress of Waveland,
+
+BY RETTA B. BABCOCK,
+
+AUTHOR OF "GRAHAM LODGE; OR, LAURA CLIFFORD'S LIFE ROMANCE."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Not many friends my life has made;
+      Few have I loved, and few are they
+    Who in my hand their hearts have laid;
+      And these are women. I am gray,
+    But never have I been betrayed.
+
+                                    J. G. HOLLAND.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CLEVELAND, OHIO:
+
+PRINTED BY THE LEADER PRINTING COMPANY, NO. 142 SUPERIOR STREET.
+
+1870.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The favor with which a generous public received a former volume of the
+writer's, induced her, after a lapse of nearly two years, to essay
+another effort of a similar nature.
+
+In the present work, _facts_ were chosen for a basis, as calculated to
+interest, where the wildest dream of the novelist would pall upon the
+satiated mind. It has been remarked, in a homely phrase by another, that
+"what comes from the heart, reaches the heart," and if the present
+fruits of long and unremitting mental labor, sustained often amid such
+trial and discouragements, as seldom fall to the lot of mortal to bear,
+should find sympathy and appreciation with the mass of readers, the aim
+of the writer will have been fully accomplished.
+
+
+
+
+CLEMENCE,
+
+THE
+
+SCHOOLMISTRESS OF WAVELAND.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"Dearest mother, do not grieve for me, it breaks my heart."
+
+The sweet, sad voice of the speaker quivered with unshed tears, as she
+knelt before the grief-bowed figure on the sofa, and took one of the
+little, shrunken, tear-wet hands in both her own, with the devotion of a
+lover.
+
+"Have you not often told me of the sin of distrusting the All-wise
+Being, who has cared for us all our lives thus far? Let us put our trust
+in Him, and He will 'never leave nor forsake us.' Can you not trust Him,
+precious mother?"
+
+"My child, I could bear it for myself; but you, my all of earth, my
+heart's dearest treasure, to be exposed to poverty and toil for your
+daily bread--who have been so delicately reared that the winds of heaven
+have not been permitted to blow too roughly upon you! My poor,
+fatherless darling, how can you bear it?"
+
+"'God is our father.' We are not friendless, nor alone. 'He who
+tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb,' will guide and guard me. Let us
+commit ourselves to His care."
+
+She knelt down, and the sunshine, stealing in at the window that May
+afternoon, circled her young head like a glory. Faint and tremulous rose
+the sweet voice in prayer, and little widow Graystone's sobs ceased, and
+a kind of awe stole over her as she listened. And a sweet peace filled
+her soul, for "angels came and ministered unto her." Up from the
+mother's heart went a pleading cry. "God keep my darling from harm!" and
+as she gazed fondly upon the beautiful face before her, with its exalted
+look of wrapt devotion, a fierce pain struggled at her heart, for she
+thought of the time in the not distant future, when her only one would
+be motherless.
+
+One little year ago she had been the imperious woman of fashion, and
+Clemence had seemed little more than a child, in spite of the seventeen
+summers that had smiled upon her young head. Indeed, she had often
+experienced a feeling akin to contempt at the unworldliness of her
+daughter, and sighed in secret to see Clemence just as agreeable to Carl
+Alwyn, the poor but talented artist, as she was to young Reginald
+Germaine, the heir to half a million.
+
+"Just like your father, my dear," she would say, scornfully, "and nobody
+knows what I have suffered from his low notions. Just to think of his
+always insisting upon my inviting those frightful Dinsmore's to my
+exclusive entertainments, because, years before you were born, Mr.
+Dinsmore's father did him some service. Why can't he pay them for it,
+and have an end of it? It is perfectly shocking! The idea of bringing
+_me_, a Leveridge of Leveridge, into contact with such vulgar people."
+
+"Mamma!" and Clemence's fine eyes glow with generous indignation, "how
+_can_ you speak thus of one of the noblest traits of my father's
+character? I love and honor him for it, and I ask God daily to make me
+worthy to be the child of such a parent."
+
+"Well, my dear," cooly replies mamma, "if it will afford you any
+satisfaction to hear it, you resemble him in every respect. In fact, I
+see more plainly every day, there is not a trait of the Leveridge's
+about you, deeply as I deplore it. I had hoped to have a daughter after
+my own heart. I sometimes think you do not wish to please me in
+anything."
+
+"Oh!" cried Clemence, "how greatly you misunderstand me. You do not know
+how much I love you. I have often wished that we were poor, so I could
+have you all to myself, to show, by a lifetime of devotion, what is in
+my heart."
+
+The delicate lady, splendid in misty lace and jewels, gave a little
+nervous shudder at the bare thought of poverty.
+
+"What strange fancies you have, child, and how little you know of the
+realities of life." But gazing into the pure face, with a vague dread
+for that future, and knowing that One alone knew whether it might
+contain happiness or misery for her darling, she said, with visible
+emotion, "You are a good girl, Clemence, and whatever may be in the
+future, remember that I always sought your welfare as the one great
+object of my existence. Always remember that, Clemence."
+
+"I will, my own dearest mother," the girl answered brokenly; and neither
+could see the other through a mist of tears.
+
+Was it a presentiment of their coming fate?
+
+Clemence thought often, amid the gloom that followed, that it was; and
+many times in her dream-haunted slumbers, murmured, "Always remember
+that, Clemence; always remember that."
+
+If the stylish Mrs. Graystone, who could boast of the most aristocratic
+descent, and whose haughty family had considered it quite a
+condescension when she married the self-made merchant--if the little
+lady had sinned very deeply in wishing to secure for her only child a
+husband in every way suitable, in her opinion, to a descendant of the
+Leveridges of Leveridge, she was destined to a full expiation of her
+wrong, and her towering pride to a fall so great that those who had
+envied her her life-long prosperity, would say with ill-concealed
+delight--"served them right! what will become of their lofty ambition
+and refined sensibilities now, I wonder?"--"I knew it would not last
+forever."--"It's a long lane that never turns;" with many more remarks
+to the same effect.
+
+"Between you and me and the four walls of this room," said one Mrs.
+Crane to her neighbor, "I don't pity them Graystones as much as I
+should, if they hadn't always carried their heads so high above
+everybody else, who was just as good as themselves, if they couldn't
+trace back their descent to the landin' of the Pilgrims."
+
+"This is a free and glorious republic, where every man can follow the
+bent of his own inclinations, provided he don't intrude upon his
+neighbor's rights. Who gave their blood and sinew to the putting down of
+them are southern secessionists that threatened the dissolution of our
+Union? Who, indeed, but P. Crandall Crane! and I'm proud to say that I'm
+the wife of that patriotic man. True, he could not go to war himself, on
+account of me and the children; but, I dare say, if he could have
+prevailed upon me to give him up to the cause of liberty, he'd have
+clomb rapidly to the highest pinnacle of earthly glory, and to-day I'd
+have been Mrs. General Crane, a leader of the brilliant society at
+Washington, with _my_ name in the papers as 'the wife of our
+distinguished General Crane,' or the 'stately and dignified lady of the
+brave General;'" &c., &c.
+
+"But, no, P. Crandall was a husband and father; so when he was drafted,
+I fell upon his neck and wept. 'How can I give you up?' was all I could
+utter through my tears. Touched by my grief, my husband refused to be
+torn from me, and magnanimously renounced all the honors that crowded
+thick and fast upon his unwilling brow. 'Enough,' he answered,
+'Isabella, I will stay by your side. Duty never points two ways, and
+_my_ duty is to stay with my family. I will give up all for your sake,
+and though I may never realize the happiness my fond fancy painted;
+though I may never enter the crowded ball-room, with my proud and happy
+wife leaning confidingly upon my arm, while a band, concealed amid
+flowers, plays in a spirited manner, 'See, the conquering hero
+comes,'--though I see the flattering ovations, the substantial dinners,
+the moonlight serenades, the waiting crowd shouting my name impatiently:
+'Crane! Crane! let us have a speech from the gallant General P.
+Crandall!'--yes, even though the aristocratic brown-stone mansion, which
+was to have been a testimonial of esteem from admiring friends; though
+all these fade before me like the beautiful mirage that proves only an
+illusion of the senses, yet I am equal to this act of self-denial, and
+submit to pass my life in obscurity, unknown and unappreciated.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Overcome by such magnanimity, I fainted upon his bosom. After that my
+dreams were haunted by gory battle-fields, in which P. Crandall figured
+in every imaginable scene of suffering and danger. My delicate nerves
+had received a severe shock, and yet I did not mean to be weak, in the
+hour of trial, for it is the duty of a faithful wife, such as I sought
+to be, to sustain her partner in the hour of adversity."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"My companion, meanwhile, was not inactive. He sought out the obscure
+retreat of a distant branch of our family, a poor widow, who lived with
+her only son, an active and industrious mechanic. He renewed the
+acquaintance which we had allowed to drop some years before, and set
+before her in glowing colors the chance that opened for the young man to
+achieve a high and glorious destiny. Fired with patriotic zeal, he even
+went so far as to promise to take the support of the mother upon
+himself, while her son was absent working for the cause of liberty, and
+making for himself an honorable name, and succeeded so well, that he was
+thus enabled to send a substitute in his place to represent the family,
+so to speak. Nor did he stop here. Not contented with these efforts, he
+set about finding some other way in which he could show his zeal for the
+cause. At length a bright thought struck him. He became an Army
+Contractor."
+
+"Of the service he has done the Government from that auspicious moment,"
+concluded the lady, craning her long neck with an air of pardonable
+pride, and fingering the massive chain that depended from it with a
+caressing fondness, "I need not speak. Indeed, it speaks for itself. But
+I may say that the country which he served has not proved ungrateful,
+but has shown its ability to reward true merit in a substantial manner.
+I will, however, add that when the intelligence arrived that the man he
+had sent forth to represent his honor had perished in the first battle,
+he generously took the surviving relative into his own house, provided
+her with every comfort, and pays her weekly the sum of one dollar fifty,
+for what little errands she does for me and the children. What I wished
+to elucidate," added the speaker, energetically, "is this--that no one
+can't put _me_ down, knowin' as I do my own rights. In fact, I may say,
+knowin' that I'm a sharer in the success that P. Crandall has achieved
+in a modest way, and that I heartily _dispise_ aristocrats, who want to
+walk over everybody that is what they call self-made, and that make such
+a fuss about _herredittery_ rights, and all that."
+
+It was a noticeable fact with the lady, that when she got excited, as
+she was at present, her natural deficiency in grammar and kindred
+sciences showed more plainly than in her cooler moments. Indeed, more
+than one censorious person, who no doubt envied their success,
+attributed this to the innate vulgarity that showed itself when the
+contractor's lady was off her guard.
+
+"People will talk," you know.
+
+"Them's my sentiments exactly, Mis' Crane," spoke up a little, dark,
+nervous woman, from the depths of a velvet easy chair, whose stiff
+brocades and diamonds flashing on nearly every finger of the coarse,
+rough hands, showed unmistakable signs of a sudden and unexpected
+promotion from the kitchen to the drawing-room.
+
+"Just my sentiments, exactly," she reiterated, emphatically. "If there
+were more ladies of your opinion, the reform, that has been so long
+talked about and desired, would not be so slow in coming. We must
+revolutionize society as it exists at the present day, before we can
+expect to exert the due amount of influence that our wealth entitles us
+to. And I tell you," (and the mean, little sallow face spoke in every
+lineament of the petty spirit of jealous hate which animated it, and
+looked out from the small eyes of reddish hazel,) "I tell you," (this
+lady had a habit of repeating over the same sentences two or three times
+when greatly wrought upon by her sensibilities,) "money _is_ the lever
+that moves the world now-a-days. And as long as _we_ have got it, who's
+a better right to put themselves in the front ranks? If I've got a house
+in the most aristocratic portion of the city, plenty of well-trained
+servants, a stylish turnout, costly jewels, laces and brocades, I wonder
+if I ain't as good as my neighbor, especially if my husband can boast of
+millions where her's can thousands--dollars where her's can shillins'?"
+
+"Why, Mrs. Brown," drawled a voice which had before been silent, "your
+husband made his money in a vulgar grocery; your father was a poor man,
+while your fair neighbor inherited _her_ vast wealth. That splendid
+mansion was a gift from papa, those well-trained servants have been in
+the service of her family since my lady was a mere child, and have been
+accustomed to wait upon and obey the slightest wish of their imperious
+mistress, until they have grown to regard her as of a higher order of
+being from themselves--a sort of delicate porcelain, while they are only
+common crockery for kitchen service. All perfectly proper, you know!"
+
+The last speaker was a languid blonde, with a profusion of airy ringlets
+fluttering around her thin face, which, judging by appearances, must
+have been fanned by the zephyrs of innumerable May-days, equally as
+bright and beautiful as the one that on the present occasion had aroused
+her to the unwonted exertion of dressing and appearing in the parlor of
+her dearest friend, to display a new, tasteful spring suit, of a
+delicate blue, suitable to the complexion of the lady it adorned.
+
+A self-complacent smile curled her thin lips, as she quietly noted the
+effects of her somewhat lengthy speech. Like all efforts of an
+unexpected and startling nature it produced a decided sensation. The
+little lady in brocade and diamonds glared at her like a fury--her
+stately hostess bridled, tossed her head, and gave one or two short,
+sharp, hysterical giggles.
+
+"Why, Cynthia," she exclaimed, "you are in charming spirits! Mr.
+Underwitte must have proposed at last."
+
+Miss Cynthia playfully held up her parasol to conceal her blushes.
+
+"As if I were going to tell if he did! Now, really, Mrs. Brown, what
+would you say to having me for a neighbor at some not distant day in the
+place of those insufferable Graystones? Do you think I could do the
+honors of the mansion gracefully, or should I suffer from the comparison
+with the fair descendant of the Leveridges? By the way, do you think she
+will continue to pride herself upon her lofty descent in the future, as
+she has done in the past? She must have enough of the subject by this
+time, I think! he! he! he!"
+
+There was a shrill chorus of laughter, which a deep, tragic voice
+interrupted with the question--
+
+"What are you all so merry about?" and a figure, in bombazine and rusty
+crape, stood before them, which was hailed successively by three voices,
+a cracked soprano, Mrs. Crane--a high-keyed treble, Miss Cynthia, and a
+little gasp or gurgle from Mrs. Brown, the lady in brocade, as, "Mrs.
+Linden!" "My dear creature!" and "That angel Alicia!" and any amount of
+kissing and shaking of hands, then a general resuming of seats, and the
+question again asked, "What were you all so merry about, that you did
+not hear me ring?"
+
+"One of Cynthia's witty speeches," replied the lady of the house, and
+after they had had another laugh, and Miss Cynthia had simpered and
+shook her curls affectedly, the new-comer proceeded to give the latest
+version of the Graystone's downfall and subsequent misfortunes.
+
+"All gone by the board, a regular crash, and nothing left to tell the
+tale."
+
+"A clear, out and out failure."
+
+"And all come from signing for that rascally Sanderson."
+
+"I knew he was a slippery rogue."
+
+"Good enough for Graystone."
+
+"Served him right for being such a fool."
+
+These, and similar uncomplimentary epithets, indiscriminately applied by
+the assembled ladies, proved what a choice morsel this was considered
+that had so unexpectedly fallen to their share.
+
+"What will become of the family, I wonder?" queried Mrs. Crane. "It was
+bad enough to lose the money, but now that Graystone's gone, I do not
+see what them two helpless women are going to do?"
+
+"Live on their connections, most likely," snapped little Mrs. Brown, "of
+course they won't _work_."
+
+"No, I do not believe that," was the reply. "They are too independent.
+At present, I believe, they have taken rooms in an obscure part of the
+city. I guess they do not know what to do themselves."
+
+"It must have been hard to part with everything that was dear to them by
+association, for I hear that they gave up everything, even Clemence's
+piano, to pay debts."
+
+There was a pitying tone in the speaker's voice. Alicia Linden, for all
+her tragic accents, her deep-set eyes, with their beetling brows, and
+her generally almost repulsive exterior, had more real heart than any of
+the women present. Perhaps she remembered that time in the vanished
+past, when she had stood by the coffin that contained the loved of her
+youth, he who had made her girlhood one dream of happiness, but over
+whose calm face the grass had greened and faded for many a weary year;
+perhaps this remembrance touched a chord of her better nature. Life,
+with its cares, and sorrows, and disappointments, had hardened her, till
+she had almost lost faith in humanity. Moreover, she was a woman,
+homely, and old and common, and with feminine malice and spite she could
+not readily forgive another of her own sex for being beautiful, refined
+and attractive. She said emphatically, that "it was well that, in this
+world, pride could sometimes be humbled;" but for all that, the memory
+of that day so long ago, passed alone in her desolation and sorrowful
+widowhood, lent a pitying sadness to her voice that placed her
+infinitely above these other soulless ones of her sex, with their cold
+eyes and unsympathetic tones.
+
+Vixenish Mrs. Brown detected the weakness at once, and pounced upon it
+with avidity. She was blessed with a good memory, and one or two well
+remembered slights from the unconscious objects of her animadversions,
+rankled bitterly, and she hungered for revenge. She exulted now without
+stint, and took no pains to conceal it. The lady had a blooming
+daughter, Melinda. If the mother's early life had been one of privation
+and toil, the young lady in question had had, thus far, a totally
+different experience. Mrs. Brown's educational advantages had been
+limited to a knowledge of reading, writing and ciphering, with a
+something of grammar. Miss Brown's childhood had passed under the
+tutilage of accomplished masters. She could dance, execute a few showy
+pieces upon the piano without a blunder, utter glibly French and Italian
+phrases, and had, with the help of her teacher, finished, creditably, a
+landscape, a gorgeous sunset, of amber and crimson, and purple-tinted
+clouds, which hung in the most conspicuous position in her mother's
+drawing-room. Melinda read novels, frequented theatres, and talked
+slang, like the "girl of the period," and was the idol of her weak
+mother, whom she ruled like a queen. Unfortunately, "my lady Graystone,"
+as she was called in the clique over which Mrs. Crane presided, had an
+innate love for the pure and beautiful, and a thorough contempt for
+vulgarity in every form. The gorgeous Melinda, therefore, was not a
+person calculated to inspire a lady of her high-toned mind with any deep
+feeling of regard or esteem. The elder woman, who, from her long
+probation at service, before she was fortunate enough to secure William
+Brown, the grocer's apprentice, had caught that cringing obsequiousness
+that we so often see in those accustomed to serve, and could have borne
+patiently, any slights or rebuffs that opposed her entrance into the
+charmed circle which she had determined to invade at all hazards. Meek
+and fawning, where she desired to gain favor, as she was insolent and
+overbearing to her inferiors, she was willing to commence at the lowest
+round of the social ladder, and creep up slowly to a position that
+suited her ambition, in the same manner in which she had won her way to
+wealth out of the depth of poverty. But, when the blooming daughter of
+the retired grocer returned from boarding school, all things were
+changed. "Melinda was a lady," "entitled to a proud position in society,
+by virtue of her lady-like acquirements," and she demanded an instant
+recognition of her claims by said society. The exclusive circle of which
+the beautiful wife of Grosvenor Graystone had long been an acknowledged
+leader, politely, but firmly repulsed the overtures of the ladies of the
+Brown family, in such a way that they were not again repeated, and the
+result, as we have seen, was their cordial dislike, and even more, a
+vindictive hatred.
+
+"Hard to part with everything," hissed Mrs. Brown, "and you pity them, I
+suppose, Alicia! You, who have been snubbed by them so repeatedly, that
+you have come to expect nothing better at their hands! You, a daughter
+of the people, so to speak;" (Mrs. Brown, since her signal defeat by the
+Graystone clique, had been at no little pains to air her democratic
+principles, much in the way we have seen some of our politicians do in
+the present day.) However, she was not so good a sensational speaker as
+Mrs. Crane, and like every one who attempts to imitate anything out of
+their "line," or perform impossibilities, and probably owing, in part,
+to her defective education, she became easily confused and bewildered in
+an argument. She should have known, poor lady, that flights of
+imagination ought not to be attempted by a practical little body like
+herself, as the aforementioned retired grocer had more than once
+informed her during some of their little conjugal scenes in which Mrs.
+Brown's bony fingers and long nails generally played an active part. But
+if the lady aimed at dramatic effect, she succeeded only too well, for
+the little angular form, bristling with indignation, from the depths of
+the great crimson velvet easy chair, the lurid eyes emitting greenish
+lights, and the gaunt arm waved in the air, created a momentary
+diversion. Mrs. Crane compressed her thin lips closely; Miss Cynthia
+raised a filmy lace handkerchief and coughed slightly, and Alicia Linden
+burst into a loud, masculine laugh. Mrs. Brown instantly subsided and
+the conversation was skilfully turned into another channel. The
+strong-minded widow was the only woman the diminutive lady really
+feared.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Presently there was a little flutter, a rustling of silken robes, more
+kissing and hand-shaking, and "good bye, loves," and the little party
+dispersed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Widowed and fatherless; God pity them," came in a low voice from a
+sad-faced woman, clad in the sable robes of mourning. It was that
+"distant branch of the family," none other than Mrs. Crane's own widowed
+sister, for whom the patriotic contractor had so generously provided
+with a home, and one dollar fifty per week. Tears were falling upon the
+work before her, but she brushed them away quietly as a shrill voice
+beside her cried,
+
+"Blubbering again, Jane Phelps, and Lucinda's new pearl-colored silk,
+that I paid five dollars a yard for, in your lap. You miserable,
+ill-tempered, sulky thing; if you have soiled it, I'll make you starve
+it out, and take it out of your wages, beside!"
+
+"You could not make me suffer more, whatever you might do, for I am the
+most wretched, pitiable creature in existence," sobbed the woman.
+
+"Good enough for you," was the response; "'as you make your bed, so you
+must lie.' I always knew, for all your pretty, pink and white face, and
+meek ways, you'd come to grief. You could always fool everybody but me,
+though mother's pet, must have the best of everything to show off her
+good looks, and no matter what fell to my share. I was so homely and
+unattractive it did not make any difference what I wore. But the tables
+are turned now, eh, Jane! The old folks didn't know, when they thought
+they'd made you for this world and the next, by putting you ahead of me,
+and sounding your praises in the ear of that white-faced artist, that
+he'd die and leave their darling with nothing but a lot of unsalable,
+miserable pictures and a child to support! They didn't live to see it,
+to be sure, but _I_ did, and, Jane, (coming closer and lowering her
+voice to a tone of deep, intense passion,) I glory in my revenge. I'm
+the rich Mrs. Crane, to-day, and you are old and poor, and faded, and I
+don't mind telling you, now that this is an hour that I've longed to
+see. You have always been preferred before me, and as I've had to take
+up with the refuse, it was no more than natural, I suppose, (with a
+sneering laugh,) that I should wait, and long, and hunger, for the love
+that you took only as your right. So I waited, and to-day I triumph in
+the thought that Deane Phelps' petted wife is a dependent upon _my_
+bounty, a menial in the house where _I_ reign supreme, and which knows
+no law but _my_ will. I have forgotten how to love, but each day (and I
+have conned the lesson well) I learn better how to _hate_."
+
+There was a rustling of stiff silk, a door slammed angrily, and the
+slender figure left alone with her trouble, bowed itself like a reed
+before the storm, and that wail of heart-broken humanity that has
+resounded through long ages, and is yet only a faint echo of that night
+so long ago, rose to the pallid lips, "my punishment is greater than I
+can bear," nevertheless, "not as I will, but as Thou wilt."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Alicia Linden walked slowly homeward, musing thoughtfully: "This is a
+strange world," she soliloquized. "Let philosophers air their utopian
+theories about its containing the elements of universal happiness. I
+know that human nature, as it is now constituted, is too selfish and
+mean to arrive at a state of absolute perfection. Truly, 'men are a
+little breed.' 'But, in the future, when that which is whispered in
+secret shall be proclaimed upon the housetops,' all our griefs and
+wrongs shall be recompensed. Oh, weary women, syllabling brokenly His
+precious promises, patient, untiring watcher, whose tired feet have
+grown weary of the 'burden and heat of the day,' wait 'God's time!'
+Listen to the words that have come down through the dim and forgotten
+centuries--a message of 'peace and glad tidings.' 'In my Father's house
+there are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.' Teach us the
+lesson of patience, oh Father above! 'Tis a wearisome struggle. This is
+a sin-fallen world, and want and misery abound upon every hand. Is it
+true, as another has declared--'Every sin is an edict of Divinity; every
+pain is a precept of destiny; wisdom is as full in what man calls good
+and evil, as God is full in infinitude?'"
+
+Well, God sees, and over all is the loving care of "our Father who art
+in Heaven."
+
+And sometimes, when human sympathy is denied us--when the eyes, that
+should only beam with pity and affection, turn coldly away, Nature,
+bountiful mother, stretches out her arms lovingly, and wooes us to her
+with an irresistible, but nameless charm. She cradles the tired head
+upon her bosom, presses cool kisses upon weary, drooping eyelids, and
+broods over the slumberer with loving vigils. Under her tender
+ministrations our dreams are blessed visions of the "green pastures and
+the still waters," and the "shining ones" waiting "beyond the river."
+
+The smiling Spring day faded slowly. Evening came on apace. Under the
+moonlit sky a fair-browed girl kept loving vigil. It was sweet Clemence
+Graystone. There was a troubled look in the calm eyes. Life's battle had
+but just began. They were all alone now. Death had entered their little
+circle and robbed them of their dear one. The loving husband and kind
+father, who had toiled for them, working day after day, and often far
+into the night, to surround his cherished darlings with the elegancies
+to which they had been accustomed, had been suddenly taken away, and
+"their house was left unto them desolate." They had not even time to
+mourn, for, after they had buried their dead out of their sight, the man
+of business came and told them in brief, unsympathetic tones that they
+must leave the home that had so long sheltered them, for the wealth that
+had purchased and made it beautiful, was their's no longer. They were
+penniless. It was a cruel blow. Mrs. Graystone sank helplessly under
+it, and the delicately reared daughter had all the burden thrown upon
+her young shoulders. And nobly did she bear it. Clemence Graystone, with
+her bright, radiant face, had seemed to her fond father like a sunbeam
+gilding that stately home, and warming into living beauty what else
+would have been only cold magnificence. To her mother, deprived of every
+other earthly comfort, she became a ministering angel. She forgot her
+own trials: she did not mourn that she had lost the privileges of
+society to which their former wealth entitled them: and her beautiful
+lips curled in contempt, as one by one, those who had once professed the
+warmest friendship, passed her with a cool nod or haughty stare.
+Clemence had learned now how to value these summer friends, who
+scattered at the first breath of adversity, and she tried bravely to
+keep back the tears that _would_ come at the sight of her loved home in
+the possession of strangers. She had something else to do now, must be
+something else beside a "dreamer of vain dreams," and must work to
+procure food for them both.
+
+Yes, it had come to that. In America, where fortunes are made or lost in
+a day, the millionaire may have his wealth suddenly swept from him, and
+one of humble position as suddenly attain to affluence. An unlooked for
+turn in the tide of affairs, a seeming caprice of the fickle goddess
+Fortune, who saw fit to frown where she had always smiled, and Grosvenor
+Graystone was a ruined man. The shock was too much for him, and he died
+of grief and despair. It was nothing new, there are hundreds of such
+cases every day. People commented, some pityingly, and others
+exultingly, as we have seen. "Poor things!" was echoed dolefully, and
+then each went his or her way, and the gentle lady and fair-browed girl
+were left to their fate. It was this--to work if they could get it, if
+not, beg or starve. Nobody was interested in their fate. Henceforth they
+must be all in all to each other. Their slender stock of money soon
+dwindled away. Clemence turned to the one alternative, work. She must
+get employment, but where, or how? She had no one to turn to for advice.
+Pride forbade her asking help of those who had known them in the days of
+their prosperity, and who should have come forward at once with offers
+of assistance. There was no one in the great, wide city to give her even
+a word of encouragement. She must rely solely upon her own judgment.
+What _could_ she do? She might go out as a governess. She ran over in
+her mind her list of accomplishments. She had a good knowledge of music,
+could draw and paint creditably, was able to converse fluently in
+French, Spanish and Italian, besides possessing a thorough English
+education. The girl thought, naturally enough, for one of her
+inexperience, that she might earn enough for their support by teaching.
+At least, she resolved to make the effort, for something must be done
+immediately. Her beloved mother was in need of comforts that she could
+not supply from their scanty purse. Clemence could not bear to see her
+suffer thus, and, after pondering long and deeply upon the subject, she
+resolved upon, what was for her, a very bold venture.
+
+Dressing herself modestly and tastefully, she started out in the warm
+sunshine of a bright spring day, with the design of applying for the
+position of governess at some of the elegant private residences which
+graced the fine avenues of the great city where so many like herself
+toiled and suffered. She walked slowly along, with a throbbing heart,
+and tears that she could not repress filling her eyes; but she
+remembered her mother waiting at home, and the thought nerved her.
+Hastily opening the gate nearest at hand, she ran up the steps and rang
+the bell without giving herself time for thought. A stolid looking
+servant came to the door, who eyed her suspiciously, and did not seem
+disposed to admit her. However, on her decided request to see the lady
+of the house, she was shown a seat in the hall, and left to her
+reflections. A moment after, there was the rustle of silken robes, the
+sparkle of brilliant jewels, and a cold voice said ominously--
+
+"You wished to speak with me, I believe."
+
+Clemence modestly stated her errand.
+
+"A governess? No, I do not wish to employ any such person," replied the
+lady, standing and looking as if no more was to be said; and Clemence
+could only give a little deprecating bow, and turn away.
+
+She determined, though, not to give up with one effort, for she had
+expected rebuffs, and mustering her courage for another trial, and
+hoping better success, she rang at the next bell.
+
+This time she was admitted at once, and announced "a lady to see you,
+mum," to an elderly lady in black satin and gold spectacles, who was
+surrounded by several blooming daughters and a young gentleman
+stretched lazily upon the sofa. Clemence again made known her errand.
+
+"N-no," said the lady, hesitatingly, "I guess we don't want a
+governess."
+
+"Yes we do, ma, for Julia," spoke up one of the young ladies, "the
+Burleighs have got one, and I'm bound they shan't go ahead of us. If
+they can afford one, we can. Besides, it sounds more aristocratic."
+
+"But your father will never allow it," replied mamma, anxiously, "he
+said only this morning that we must retrench."
+
+"Retrench," responded the amiable daughter, scornfully, "don't preach
+economy to me. You know you can wheedle him out of anything, if you want
+to. Its only your stinginess. Besides, I want some assistance in my
+music. You play, of course?" (turning abruptly to Clemence, who had been
+an astonished listener to this dialogue,) "will you give me a specimen
+of your style?"
+
+Clemence obeyed this request that, savored more of a command, at once,
+and sat down tremblingly to the piano. Music with her was almost a
+passion. Indeed, in the old happy days, she had been often told that her
+voice and execution would win her both fame and wealth if she were to
+make her appearance before the public. But the fond father had said "God
+forbid! I could not lie quietly in my grave with my little home nestling
+the property of strangers." Clemence had not touched the keys of a piano
+since her own, a highly valued gift from the lost one, had been taken
+from her. She felt nearly overcome by the memories that came crowding
+upon her, but the cold eyes of strangers were upon her, and pride came
+to her aid. She began the prelude to a song that required great artistic
+skill and expression. Her listeners sat in silence, while her very soul
+floated away on the waves of melody. When she had finished, there was
+astonishment depicted on every face.
+
+"Good enough for the stage; might make a fortune with that pretty face,"
+came from the sofa where the representative of masculine humanity
+reclined.
+
+"Harry, my son!" mildly remonstrated the mother.
+
+"Where were you last employed, Miss--what may I call your name?"
+
+Clemence supplied the missing cognomen, and replied truthfully, that
+this was her first attempt to obtain such a position.
+
+"You have references, of course?"
+
+She looked aghast. Inexperienced Clemence! The thought had not, until
+this moment, occurred to her. She hesitated. There were many who knew
+her well as the only daughter of Grosvenor Graystone, who could not
+remember the widow's daughter. There was no one whom she could think of
+in her bewilderment to refer to as a friend, none of her former haughty
+friends who would not think it an unpardonable liberty.
+
+A stranger, with no references. That settled the question at once. The
+mother of young daughters could not be too careful in regard to the
+character of the persons she employed around them. A knowledge of their
+pedigree was an absolute necessity. The idea of an adventuress stealing
+into the household, and perhaps laying snares to entrap the son and
+heir, could not be thought of for a moment.
+
+Clemence found herself again upon the side-walk, with cheeks burning
+with indignation, and eyes that glittered with excitement. She walked on
+rapidly for the space of one or two blocks, and as her feelings became
+calmer, resolved to make one final effort. She felt strong in the
+conscious power of innocence and rectitude, feeling sure that, being in
+the pathway of duty, she would ultimately succeed.
+
+Acting upon this resolution, she soon found herself seated in an
+elegantly furnished apartment, where she had been shown by an obsequious
+waiter. Having some time to wait, she fell into a reverie from which the
+voice of a gentlemen aroused her by inquiring in a dignified manner in
+what way he could serve her.
+
+Clemence again went through with her explanations, blushing and
+stammering awkwardly enough, as the penetrating eyes fastened themselves
+curiously and inquisitively upon her face.
+
+"Ah!" he speculated, when she had finished, "this is really interesting.
+It is not often that I am blessed with a fair visitor in my bachelor
+apartments. I do not need a governess, having, thank heaven, no such
+useless appendage as a troop of noisy children, but I do stand in need
+of some beautiful lady, like yourself, for a companion to cheer my
+loneliness. I can promise you a permanent position, with 'all the
+comforts of a home,' a salary of your own choosing, and 'no questions
+asked,' as the newspapers say."
+
+"How dare you, sir?" said Clemence, in lofty scorn, as she moved towards
+the door, which was opened for her amid profuse apologies, none of which
+she deigned to notice.
+
+"And _this_ is trying to earn an honest living," murmured the girl, as
+she found herself for the third time alone upon the pavement. "It sounds
+very pretty and praiseworthy to read and talk about, but I have learned
+to-day that it means insult and contempt from the coarse and vulgar, and
+cold suspicion from those who, from their professions, should stretch
+out a helping hand in the spirit of Christian love and charity."
+
+Oh! my poor, lost sisters, who have gone before, and whose feet have
+stumbled and faltered in the thorny way! He who pitied the fallen woman
+of old, will remember all your prayers and tears and remorseful agony.
+And in that "last great day," they who have led your inexperienced
+footsteps into the path that leads to the gulf of vice and misery, will
+suffer the vengeance of an outraged God.
+
+This life is but a fleeting dream, of happiness to some, misery to
+others, but there is a home beyond, and for the faithful, a "crown of
+glory which fadeth not away." For we know that there is an inheritance
+for those who persevere.
+
+Thoughts like these filled Clemence's mind as she walked towards home
+disheartened. She had cause for trouble. She knew that their scanty
+means must soon fail entirely, if employment was not obtained, and this
+was the result of her first trial. She was tired, too, being
+unaccustomed to exercise, and her feet ached from contact with the
+rough pavement. An empty car passed her, but she had given her last cent
+to a beggar a few hours before. She thought of the hundreds she had
+lavished without a thought upon the different objects of charity, and
+sighed at the contrast. Now she must deny herself for the privilege of
+bestowing the smallest gift. But she remembered too, that story of the
+widow's mite, which was accounted more than the rich man's profusion.
+She took comfort in the thought that the same loving care was over her,
+and whispered softly one of her favorite texts, "I will put my trust in
+Him, and He will never leave nor forsake me." The pure, sweet face was
+like that of a glorified saint. An old woman hobbling by, bent and gray
+with age, crossed herself devoutly, and muttered a blessing on the fair
+young head; and a man, old and hardened in crime, caught her words, and
+remembering the love-lit eyes that had bent over him in childhood,
+breathed out the remorseful prayer, "God pity me, a ruined soul!"
+
+"You are late, darling," said a low voice anxiously, as Clemence ran up
+to the room in a fourth-rate lodging house, which was now their only
+home.
+
+"Yes, mamma," said the girl, fondly, assuming a cheerfulness which she
+did not feel, "the day was such a pleasant one, I walked on farther than
+I had at first intended. You must try and get strong enough to enjoy
+this beautiful spring weather with me. But you are tired, and must not
+be kept longer waiting for tea, and to accomplish that weighty object,
+we must first consult our good friend Mrs. Mann, her services being
+absolutely indispensable."
+
+"And here she is for once, when she is wanted," said that good lady in
+hearty tones. "I am glad you are home again, for your mother was getting
+anxious about you, and making herself sick with fretting. Dear! dear!
+Miss Clemence, this is a world of changes! It makes my heart ache to see
+you now, having to bother your pretty head with ways and means, when you
+are fit to live like a princess in a fairy tale."
+
+"Well, perhaps I may some day. Who knows, Mrs. Mann, what may happen?
+The prince that is always appearing to disconsolate damsels, just at the
+right moment, to rescue them from a cruel fate, may chance along in this
+direction, and then we will all be happy together. Willie shall have
+that bran new suit that he has been talking about so long, to wear to
+Sunday School, and Fanny a wonderful picture book, and the baby lots of
+goodies, and we will live together, and you shall be housekeeper, and
+allow no one but yourself to make mamma's tea."
+
+"Hear the dear, generous creature," said Mrs. Mann, standing in
+breathless admiration. "If she had her way, everybody would be happy as
+the day is long. That girl has a work to do, Mrs. Graystone, or the Lord
+would never have implanted such a strong, brave, noble spirit in such a
+frail, delicate body."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Mann," said the widow, "what should I do without her? My only
+one, my brave, beautiful Clemence! She is my all of earth, the one being
+who makes me cling to life and desire it. God has been good to me in my
+affliction, and sent me a blessed comforter."
+
+"I never met but one girl who could at all compare with our Clemence,"
+said Mrs. Mann. "I will tell you about her, so that you may see that
+others, too, have been through the 'deep waters.' Lilias May was a
+genuine heroine. Her father was a clergyman of limited means, with a
+large family of children to support. Lilias was the oldest, and had been
+educated liberally, the more useful branches not being overlooked, while
+the accomplishments received their due share of attention. She was
+possessed of rare personal beauty, and was the cherished idol of her
+parents. When she reached the age of nineteen, her father was suddenly
+taken away, leaving a helpless family. Overwhelmed by grief and despair,
+Mrs. May was utterly incapable of exertion. It was then that the noble
+qualities of Lilias came to be known and appreciated. She took upon
+herself the management of the entire household, and investigated the
+affairs of her deceased parent. Finding that there was absolutely
+nothing left for their maintenance she looked around for some means of
+obtaining a livelihood. Mr. May had been the only son of a wealthy but
+irascible old gentleman, who never forgave him for marrying the poor
+girl whom he loved, in preference to the heiress chosen for him by his
+family. He took revenge by leaving his immense wealth to his daughter.
+Leonora May, an imperious beauty, was totally unlike her brother, and
+inherited the strong will and haughty pride of her father. She could
+never overlook the fault of her handsome, talented brother, of whom she
+had been extremely proud, burying himself in a country village. After
+her own brilliant marriage, all communication ceased between them. Upon
+his death, however, she came forward with offensive condescension,
+offering to adopt Lilias into her family, and, as she was childless,
+make her the heiress of her vast wealth. To many this would have been a
+temptation too great to be resisted; and, to say the least, it was a
+pleasant picture which was held up alluringly before the young girl. But
+she scorned the proposal. She refused to be raised to a position to
+which those she loved could not attain, for her aunt had expressly
+stipulated that, having once accepted her protection, her family should
+be nothing more to her. Having thus declined the tempting offer, Lilias
+began her search for work, in which she was successful beyond her hopes.
+A former friend of her father's, wishing a teacher for his daughters,
+engaged her services at once. He also assisted her brother, a youth of
+seventeen, to secure a place in the counting-room of a friend; and took
+another, still younger, into his own office. So that Lilias had the
+satisfaction of knowing they were all provided for; the church, over
+which her father had presided, having, meanwhile, presented the widow of
+their esteemed pastor with the house in which they lived, and a generous
+sum of money."
+
+"And is that all, Mrs. Mann?" asked Clemence, in disappointed tones, as
+the good woman paused in her narration; "have you nothing further to
+tell us about this wonderful Lilias May?"
+
+"Oh," she laughed, patting the girl's cheek caressingly, "I see what you
+are after, and I will tell you the rest. The best part of the story is
+yet to come. Lilias May's beauty of person and character made such an
+impression upon the family who employed her, that they prevailed upon
+her to remain with them always, for she married the gentleman's oldest
+son. It seemed too, that her Aunt Leonora only admired her the more for
+her courageous spirit, and when she died soon after, left Lilias all of
+her money, to do just as she pleased with."
+
+"But here is the tea steeped until it is nearly spoiled, and I am afraid
+Mrs. Graystone is tired of waiting," said Mrs. Mann, hurrying out of the
+room, "on hospitable thought intent."
+
+Soon the little, plain, unpretending room took on that air of home
+comfort that is seldom seen in statelier dwellings.
+
+After all, happiness is comparative, and the poor man in his cottage,
+with good health and a clear conscience, has as good a chance for
+arriving at the goal which restless mortals ever strive to attain, as
+the rich man who cannot be one moment free from the cares that wealth is
+always sure to bring with it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Clemence Graystone's first attempt at obtaining employment had not been
+sufficiently encouraging to cause her to entertain any very sanguine
+hopes in regard to a renewal of her exertions. But that stern necessity
+"which knows no law," compelled her to make another trial after she had
+somewhat recovered from the effects of her first disappointment.
+
+Clemence had already began to learn some of the bitter lessons of
+poverty. She no longer viewed life through the rose-colored medium that
+she had been wont to do in her former, care-free days. There were
+thought lines gathering on the broad, white brow, and the dark eyes,
+that had once the joyous look of a happy child, told of one who had
+already tasted the bitterness of life, from which a favored few in this
+world only are exempt.
+
+How true it is, as another has written, "none of our lives are dated by
+years; the wear and tear of heart and brain, to say nothing of the body,
+constitute age."
+
+Clemence felt as if years instead of months had passed over her head
+since their bereavement. The blow had fallen unexpectedly, and the
+result was Clemence was no longer a happy child, but a sorrowing woman.
+She tried to be patient, for there was another who, like Rachael of
+old, mourned, and would not be comforted. Clemence felt that her own
+grief was light compared to the sorrowing one, whose weary feet were
+even then nearing the end of life's journey, nearing the brink of that
+river, whose solemn music came to her eager ear like a benediction. The
+dim eyes had a strained, wistful gaze, as if longing to behold the
+radiant glories of that "land of pure delight."
+
+The girl felt, sometimes, as she looked at the drooping, attenuated
+figure, each day growing more ethereal, that her burden was greater than
+she could bear. An awful fear haunted her, that she would not give a
+name, and often, when she had thought of the future till she grew sick
+with fear, she had felt that work would be a positive relief to her
+troubled mind.
+
+It was during one of these despondent moods, that she determined, in
+spite of a former resolution to the contrary, to make another effort to
+obtain employment as governess.
+
+Looking carefully over the column of wants in a daily paper, she found
+several advertisements, such as she was in search of. She copied the
+address of each one of them, and this accomplished, took from its
+receptacle the diploma awarded her at the celebrated Institute from
+which she had graduated with high honors, and which was sufficient proof
+of her education and accomplishments. Notwithstanding her previous
+disappointments, she felt hopeful of success.
+
+The first place on her list took her to a stylish residence on a
+fashionable avenue. It reminded her of the luxurious home of which she
+was once the petted darling, and the contrast with her present humble
+position was humiliating in the extreme. She stood for some moments upon
+the steps, waiting to gather courage to enter.
+
+It was in a maze of bewilderment that she found herself a few moments
+after, seated in a splendid drawing-room, awaiting the appearance of the
+mistress of the mansion.
+
+Presently there was the sound of voices, low and musical, and a lady
+entered, followed by a gentleman. She was grandly beautiful, and
+Clemence thought one of the haughtiest women she had ever met. She rose,
+and introduced herself, stating her errand, as Miss Graystone, the
+person desiring the position of governess, referring to the
+advertisement.
+
+The beautiful eyes fastened themselves inquiringly upon her face.
+
+"There had already been a number of applicants, none of whom had given
+satisfaction."
+
+There was a moment's silence, during which Clemence felt that two pairs
+of eyes were studying her countenance closely, then a series of
+questions:
+
+"What were her accomplishments?"
+
+"Where had she received her education?"
+
+Clemence felt like replying that she had received a good many lessons
+since she had been pronounced finished by Madame Latour--lessons in
+human nature, that all who have the misfortune to be poor and ambitious,
+must learn, sooner or later.
+
+"Could she dance, draw, paint, give instruction in vocal and
+instrumental music?"
+
+To all of these, Clemence replied in the affirmative, and, as before, in
+obedience to a request in the imperative mode, to favor them with a
+specimen of her musical ability, went forward and took a seat at the
+piano.
+
+She could not help looking her surprise, when the gentleman rose
+politely to turn her music. She had not been accustomed to such little
+attentions of late, though, in the past, she would have expected them,
+and treated them as a matter of course. She noticed the gentleman was
+handsome and distinguished-looking, with kind, grave eyes, and a smile
+that illumined his intellectual face like a gleam of sunshine. His age
+might have been thirty, possibly thirty-five.
+
+Clemence's performance seemed to give satisfaction, although she did not
+play as well as usual. After a few more questions, the lady asked the
+gentleman if she had not better engage the services of this young person
+at once.
+
+"By all means," he said with emphasis; "I have no doubt that the young
+lady will give perfect satisfaction."
+
+Clemence again felt grateful for his kindness. She had learned to
+appreciate and value a word of sympathy or encouragement. Poor child!
+she received few enough of them now.
+
+"Very well, you can come to-morrow. The children have been for some time
+without a teacher, and I wish them to commence upon a course as soon as
+possible."
+
+Then, after a few remarks, and the mention of a salary, which seemed
+princely to Clemence, she was shown to the door by a liveried servant,
+and found herself walking homeward anxious to communicate this joyful
+intelligence to her mother.
+
+"I declare, it's a burning shame," said the motherly landlady, on being
+told of her success--"a real lady like you; it's dreadful to think of."
+
+"Why, Mrs. Mann," said Clemence, in dismay, "I thought you would be
+pleased. Only six hours of work each day, and I can have so much time to
+spend with mamma. I consider myself a wonderfully fortunate girl. The
+salary, too, is so liberal, that I can afford now to get the comforts
+that our dear invalid is pining for."
+
+"Well, I don't want to discourage you, dear," said Mrs. Mann. "You are a
+good girl, Clemence Graystone. The Lord's on your side, and He'll take
+care of you, if you trust Him, as He has watched over all the ups and
+downs of my life, till I'm an old woman. It's the poor, and friendless,
+and desolate that He pities and loves, and He will protect you, my
+darling, wherever you may be, if you only trust to His guidance."
+
+"I believe that, Mrs. Mann," said Clemence, "and it's the one thought
+that keeps me from repining at my hard lot. I believe, too, that 'the
+Lord helps those who help themselves,' and I don't mean to sit down in
+idleness."
+
+"Heaven grant you prosperity," said the good woman. "Now go and comfort
+the mother, for she needs it sadly."
+
+Work proved, as Clemence had anticipated, a real blessing. Some of the
+happiest hours she had known, since her deep affliction, were passed in
+the school-room with her young charges. She felt now as if she was of
+some use in the world, and when, after the lessons were finished, she
+went home to the fond mother, who awaited her coming, she realized, with
+thankfulness, that, through her exertions, want had been kept from the
+door, and the uncomplaining invalid supplied with the comforts, and even
+luxuries, to which she had been accustomed.
+
+Sometimes a pleasant face looked in upon them, and "Uncle Will" was
+hailed with delight by Alice and Gracie Vaughn. At first, Clemence was
+cool and distant, but the cordial kindness of his manner won upon her,
+and she soon grew to value the friendship thus strangely formed. The
+kind word and beaming smile were very grateful to the weary girl. Ah,
+how little do the favored ones of this world know of the influence of
+one little act of kindness, or one pleasant word, ever so carelessly
+spoken. Many a poor, weak mortal has been kept from wrong-doing by a
+word fitly spoken, and others have gone down and been lost forever, from
+yielding to the thought that none cared for them, either for their weal
+or woe. There is not a day, nor an hour, but that somewhere throughout
+the length and breadth of the land, large sums of money are expended for
+charitable objects, and yet there are those who, for the want of a
+friendly hand to aid them to follow the right way, have crept away, and
+rid themselves of a life that had become insupportable. Persons of
+sensitive feelings, wounded by the indifference of those, who, from
+their professions, they should, expect only sympathy and forbearance,
+have suffered and died, and "gave no sign." This is a world of misery,
+and the few who know nothing of its trials, should thank God that they
+have been kept from an experimental knowledge of what life really is to
+thousands of their fellow-creatures, who, like themselves, are
+accountable beings, and with the same capacity for enjoyment or
+suffering. Indeed, none of us are always happy. We all have our hours of
+trial, when even the strongest-hearted will falter, and the dreamless
+slumber of the grave seem so sweet to our world-weary spirits. When it
+seems so hard to say, "Thy will be done," perhaps Death enters and robs
+us of some earthly idol. We see the dear one droop and die. It may be
+some dear, innocent babe God has transplanted. We watch its tiny life go
+out; see the sweet mouth quiver with the dying struggle, the strained,
+eager gaze mutely asking relief that we cannot give. We try to think it
+is well, but in place of submission, there are rebellious thoughts. Yes,
+we have all striven and suffered, groping, mayhap, in the darkness of
+unbelief. God, give us strength to resist and conquer! But,
+
+    "Never so closely does pain fold its wings,
+      But the white robe of sympathy's near it,
+    And each tear that the dark hand of misery wrings,
+      Brings the touch of a blessing to cheer it."
+
+"Courage! weary-hearted one;" God knows what is the best for us in this
+life, and has promised a glorious reward for those who are faithful, in
+that life which is to come.
+
+Mrs. Vaughn, the lady who had engaged Clemence's services, was a widow
+in affluent circumstances. She spent but little time with her children,
+leaving them to the care of the nurse and governess. She rarely entered
+the school-room, and even when she did honor Clemence with her presence,
+paused long enough to give her more than a glance of her proud,
+beautiful face. She expressed supreme satisfaction with Clemence's mode
+of instruction, and the children worshipped their young teacher.
+
+With all her care and responsibility, had it not been for her anxiety in
+her mother's behalf, this long, golden summer would have been one long
+to be remembered for its simple pleasures and calm enjoyments. The days
+passed quickly.
+
+"Can it be possible," said Clemence to herself one day, as she took her
+hat and shawl, and put them on absently, "that I have been in Mrs.
+Vaughn's employment three months?" She looked at the crisp bank notes
+that lay in her hand, in payment of her first quarter's salary. "I
+consider myself a young lady of some importance, or, perhaps, I should
+say 'young woman,' now that I am a working member of society." She
+laughed aloud at her own thoughts. "Well, I am proud of the privilege,"
+she mused, "and can take pleasure in the thought that I am an
+'independent unity,' I never felt so strong-minded in my life."
+
+A tawdry, ill-kempt female figure was shuffling slowly by the stately
+Vaughn mansion, as Clemence tripped down the steps, and two envious
+black eyes noted the happy smile upon her face.
+
+"How d'ye do, Miss Graystone," said a harsh voice. "Ain't too big to
+speak to a body, are you, cause you happen to be among 'ristocrats?"
+
+Clemence turned and immediately recognized Mrs. Bailey, an elderly
+woman, who lodged beneath the same humble roof to which her own
+straitened circumstances had consigned her with her parent.
+
+"Good afternoon, Mrs. Bailey," she said politely, "I did not observe you
+before."
+
+"He! he!" giggled the old lady spitefully, "my eyes are sharp, if I am
+old. May be, now, if I was a fine gentleman, like the one with yonder
+lady, I would not be so easily overlooked?"
+
+She stretched out her long arm, and looking in the direction in which
+she pointed, Clemence beheld, to her horror and dismay, Mrs. Vaughn, and
+beside her the gentleman who had been so kind to her, and had seemed to
+take such a friendly interest in her success with her little pupils.
+They had not yet been observed, and there was still time for the
+mortified girl to make her escape unseen. The first impulse of her mind
+was to excuse herself to her eccentric companion, and turn quickly a
+convenient corner.
+
+"But," she thought, "I should hurt this good woman's feelings, and lose
+my own self-respect by such a course. Clemence Graystone, what are these
+people to you, that you should do a cowardly act for fear of them."
+
+She raised her head proudly, and gave, perhaps, a more than usually
+distant bend of the head to the gentleman's respectful bow. The lady
+gave her only a stare of astonishment, and they had scarcely passed,
+when she heard these words distinctly:
+
+"How shocking! _Did_ you see that horrid creature with Miss Graystone?
+It must be her mother. I declare, if I had have known she had such low
+relations, I never would have engaged her."
+
+"Gracia, hush! I entreat you, Miss Graystone will overhear you."
+
+If Clemence's face crimsoned at the words, the one beside her became
+absolutely livid with rage. Mrs. Bailey had once been a beauty, and the
+black eyes that now glowed with baleful fire, had, in years gone by,
+glanced languishingly upon scores of admiring swains. But there was now
+nothing left of fortune, fair looks, or friends, but a bitter memory
+that rankled in the woman's heart. Realizing that her own youth had
+flown, she hated all that was young, and lovely, and pure, as a reproach
+to her mis-spent life. She was a keen observer of people, too, in her
+strange way, and had read upon the ingenuous face before her, the
+momentary temptation to shun her unwelcome society.
+
+The delicacy of Clemence's manner, instead of arousing her gratitude,
+had the effect which it sometimes has upon people who realize their own
+inferiority, and she resolved to wound her where she guessed a young
+girl's feelings were peculiarly sensitive.
+
+Ignoring the remarks which she had heard Mrs. Vaughn making upon her own
+appearance, she turned and gazed over her shoulder, as the pair ascended
+the steps and entered the door, through which Clemence had but just
+passed.
+
+"Why, they're goin' into the same house you came out of, Miss Graystone!
+Who be they, now?"
+
+Clemence informed her that the lady was Mrs. Vaughn, to whose children
+she gave instruction, and the gentleman was Mr. Wilfred Vaughn, the
+step-brother of her late husband.
+
+"No, is it?" said Mrs. Bailey; "ain't he a handsome man?" studying the
+girl's face closely.
+
+Clemence agreed with her in thinking Mr. Vaughn a handsome and
+distinguished looking gentleman.
+
+"Is he married?" was the next question.
+
+Clemence replied in the negative.
+
+"Be you much acquainted with him?" queried her tormentor.
+
+"But very little," was the laconic reply.
+
+"Well, let me give you a little advice, young lady," said Mrs. Bailey,
+after a disagreeable silence of some minutes. "I have seen more of the
+world than you have, and think it is my duty to warn you of your danger.
+Don't have too much to say to this fine gentleman. Nothing is so
+becoming to a young woman as modesty." (It was truly wonderful how Mrs.
+Bailey had come to learn in her old age, that of which she had seemed
+deplorably ignorant in her youth, and valued modesty the more as she had
+less occasion to call it into requisition.) "Men of his wealth and
+social position never want any good of poor girls like you; that is why
+I wish to warn you, for I think you are a good, deserving sort of a
+person, that means well, and if you profit by my instructions, you will
+avoid a lifetime of misery. Don't let any foolish idea of securing a
+rich husband, enter your head. Submit patiently to the poverty that must
+always be your portion. Be industrious, sober and discreet, and I dare
+say, you may find some honest young man, bye-and-bye, who will want such
+a wife to help him turn an honest penny, and lay up something for a
+rainy day. Not that I think there is the least danger, unless you are
+forward enough to put yourself in this gentleman's way, because men
+think so much of beauty, that plain girls like you are most always apt
+to be overlooked, but my conscience would reprove me if I did not warn
+you. Remember my advice! Listen to no flatteries; permit no nonsense to
+be poured into your ears, and shun, as you would contagion, the
+deceitful wiles of man."
+
+She waved her hand majestically to Clemence, and disappeared up the dark
+staircase, for they had, by this time, reached home.
+
+Hardly knowing whether to laugh or cry, the young girl went in search of
+her mother and kind Mrs. Mann, to confide her troubles, feeling sure of
+their cordial sympathy.
+
+It is just possible that there was the least perceptible haughtiness in
+the calm "good morning," with which Clemence next met Mr. Vaughn. In
+spite of the remembrance of his many cordial kindnesses, the malicious
+insinuations of Mrs. Bailey had produced an impression on her mind,
+which she could not disregard.
+
+"It is too true, she thought, bitterly. Alas! for the unprotected and
+helpless of my sex, men of wealth and position rarely offer an honorable
+suit to women of a lower standing in society. I will have as little as
+possible to say to this fine gentleman."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But that was more easily said than done. It seemed almost impossible to
+avoid him. And it happened on one occasion that the languid lady of the
+mansion, (who should have been the one most interested in the progress
+of Clemence's little pupils, but who really seemed, at times, to have
+even forgotten their existence,) entered the school-room somewhat
+unexpectedly, and saw what aroused a new train of thought in her mind,
+and made her resolve quietly to keep a close watch upon Miss Graystone's
+movements in future, if not dispense with her services altogether. The
+lessons were ended, the books put away for the day, and the two girls
+were looking with bright, eager eyes into the kind face of Mr. Wilfred
+Vaughn, who was relating a marvellous story of such absorbing interest,
+that the elder of the children, a dark-eyed girl, who inherited somewhat
+of her mother's beauty and wilfulness, had insisted that her pet teacher
+should stay and hear. There was a moment of embarrassed silence, as Mrs.
+Vaughn appeared in the doorway, but the gentleman rose to offer her a
+chair, without appearing to notice the astonishment depicted in her
+countenance, or the half repressed sneer in the careless--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What! _you_ here, Will? Rather a new occupation, is it not? You were
+not so fond of visiting the school-room when poor Miss Smith was its
+presiding genius. I am glad to find that Miss Graystone meets with your
+approval."
+
+"The children certainly are doing well," he responded, "Alice
+especially; but, I am afraid Miss Graystone is applying herself too
+closely to the work of improvement. You must see to it, Gracia, for you
+could illy afford to lose so valuable a prize."
+
+Clemence's face crimsoned at this personality, and an angry gleam shot
+from his sister-in-law's eyes, that amused the gentleman not a little.
+He understood her thoroughly, or thought he did, and knew the look boded
+no good for Clemence. But he was hardly prepared for the shock, when a
+day or two after, little Alice came to him with her face bathed in
+tears, and throwing herself into his arms, exclaimed, amid her sobs--
+
+"Oh, uncle, Miss Graystone has gone away, and is not coming back any
+more, for mamma says so! She called her an artful piece, and said she
+was trying to captivate you with her pretty face. What is captivate,
+uncle? Is it anything so very dreadful? I know it ain't to be cross and
+push me away, as mamma does, for Miss Graystone never did that, but only
+loved me, and told me nice stories. I don't believe she tries to
+captivate half so much as mamma does herself."
+
+There were more tears and lamentations, and from amidst the disjointed
+medley, Wilfred Vaughn learned that a great wrong had been done a
+beautiful and innocent girl, and he had been the unconscious cause. He
+sat buried in thought long after the twilight shadows had gathered and
+deepened around him. The artless questions of Alice had startled him
+into a knowledge of his own true position, and he knew now that he loved
+this sweet-faced young girl who was yet almost a stranger to him. He
+knew but little of her former life or antecedents, yet he would have
+staked worlds on her truth and honor. He had not before dreamed of the
+possibility, but now the conviction fastened upon him that this was his
+fate. He knew in that hour of self-communion that the love of Clemence
+Graystone was necessary to his happiness, and he made one firm resolve
+to win her for his own.
+
+"Alice tells me that you have dismissed Miss Graystone?" he said
+inquiringly to his sister-in-law, a few days after. "I was surprised to
+hear it. I thought you well pleased with her."
+
+"You will be still more surprised," replied the lady, "when I tell you
+the cause of her dismissal. I have been imposed upon by the girl too
+long already, but nobody would have dreamed, from her meek ways, that
+she was anything but perfection. I did not intend to trouble you with
+the affair, which is the reason of my not asking your advice before
+acting so much against my own inclination. I would not have believed
+anything of Miss Graystone from a third party, for I know she is an
+orphan and friendless, and I do try and be charitable towards all poor
+and worthy persons. And then too, Will, you know how I have been
+bothered about a teacher, and she suited the place so well, I think it
+was positively ungrateful in her to act as she did."
+
+This last remark was uttered with a pretty affectation of impatience,
+and a pout of the rich, red lips, and Wilfred Vaughn, listening, forgot
+for the moment his interest in the young teacher, so lost was he in
+admiration of the beautiful face before him.
+
+"But, what did you =find= out?" he said, again returning to the subject.
+
+"Read this, and you will see that she has condemned herself," she
+answered, handing him a letter, "and thank me for preserving you from
+the snare that was laid from your unwary footsteps."
+
+It was written in a delicate lady's hand, and ran as follows:
+
+     "DEAR KARL:--I have only a moment in which to reply to your letter
+     of the 3d, but will write you more at length at some further date.
+     I am teaching in the family of a wealthy lady, until fate throws
+     something more agreeable in my way. This is all that keeps me from
+     despair.
+
+     "My _own_! what would I not give to see you? Oh, this fearful curse
+     of poverty! I must find some means of escape from my difficulties,
+     or go _mad_. I cannot live without you. I have planned a thousand
+     impossible schemes, which I have been obliged to abandon as
+     unavailing.
+
+     "Meanwhile, I am not idle. There is a rich bachelor, who resides in
+     the house where I am employed. I have made some progress towards an
+     acquaintance, and am beginning to entertain the hope that I have
+     made an impression. Money is all that stands in the way of our
+     happiness. I would dare anything to possess it. If I could once
+     establish a claim to a portion of his vast wealth, do you not see
+     that there are other lands where we might enjoy it together, and
+     our life be one long dream of happiness?
+
+     "Write to me, for I am unhappy.
+
+                                                "Your loving CLEMENCE."
+
+"Where did you get this?" he asked, briefly, after having completed its
+perusal.
+
+"I found it where it had been carelessly dropped on the floor of the
+school-room," was the response.
+
+"Was she aware of the occasion of her abrupt dismissal?" was the next
+question.
+
+"No," sighed the lady. "I could not bring myself to hurt her feelings,
+deeply as I felt I had been wronged, so I left word for her that I
+intended to make some change in the girls' studies, and thought of
+placing them under the care of masters. It is extremely fortunate that I
+discovered her real character in time, is it not, Will?"
+
+"Yes, extremely fortunate," he echoed absently, with a look of pain in
+his face that did not escape the eager eyes that scanned it searchingly.
+
+"That was a clever little plot of mine," she soliloquized, an hour
+later. "I did not dream the foolish fellow was so interested. How came I
+to be so careless? That is the last governess who will ever enter these
+doors. I will send the children away, for I hate to be bothered with
+them, and it would be a great relief to have them out of my sight. I
+will make speedy arrangements to that effect. Of course nothing further
+will be heard of this girl. Men are proverbially inconstant, and Wilfred
+will soon forget all about this Miss Graystone. It was but a passing
+fancy, and I have taken the wisest course to get rid of her. I dare say
+she will get along well enough, and marry somebody in her own sphere in
+life. She _was_ pretty and dignified with that reserved manner, and the
+clear eyes under the broad, full brow. But she had horridly low
+relations, and as I know, from sad experience, self-preservation is the
+first instinct of humanity. Gracia Vaughn, you must not forget the old
+days of poverty, and toil, and vexation over the piano in Madame Fay's
+back parlor, where you were an under-paid music teacher! Be careful
+that an unwary step does not precipitate you again into the depths from
+which Cecil Vaughn rescued you! That would be misery, indeed, after
+these long years of luxurious idleness. It shall never be."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+It was the twilight of a dismal November day. The wind shrieked and
+moaned drearily, and what had been a cold, penetrating rain, had, as the
+darkness set in, frozen as it fell, and added to the general
+cheerlessness. The streets were nearly deserted, and the few
+pedestrians, whom business compelled to be abroad, hurried on swiftly to
+their respective places of destination.
+
+At the window of a dingy looking brick building, which bore on its
+time-worn exterior its true character of that resort for friendless
+poverty, "a cheap lodging house," sat Clemence Graystone, gazing
+abstractedly into the gathering gloom of the night. The fair, patient
+face was clouded with care, and somewhat of the darkness of the world
+without, seemed to have settled upon her spirits.
+
+    "I hear the howl of the wind that brings
+     The long, drear storm on its heavy wings,"
+
+she said, at length, rising and gliding to the side of the couch upon
+which a slight figure reclined, asked fondly,
+
+"Mamma, what shall I read to you this evening? I feel strangely
+depressed."
+
+The gentle lady drew the sweet face down to her pillow, and smoothed the
+bright hair with loving tenderness.
+
+"My precious daughter," she whispered, "I know all the care and anxiety
+that weighs down your young life. I can read it in your clear, truthful
+eyes, that never yet showed the shadow of falsehood. God only knows, for
+there is none other to hear or comfort me, my days and nights of anxious
+solicitude for your welfare. What will become of you, when I am gone, my
+darling? 'My soul faints within me.' I am truly 'of little faith.' Read
+to me, dear, from the book beside me, and it will surely comfort me in
+my desolation."
+
+It was the sacred volume, that has so often solaced the grief and
+despair of the weary and heavy-laden, and the tremulous voice repeated
+the inspired words, with that pathos that can only come from those who
+have suffered. A heavenly calm settled over the pale face of the
+invalid.
+
+"My child, be not weary of well-doing," she murmured, softly indeed.
+"'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.' I was
+thinking, as I lay here alone to-day, beset by doubts and fears, of a
+passage in Baxter's 'Saints' Everlasting Rest.' The eloquent pastor of
+Kidderminster, living in the midst of bodily pain and persecution, had
+the true faith which is hardly attained in the midst of worldly
+prosperity. It strengthens me to listen to his pious instructions. Can
+you give me the words, dear?"
+
+Clemence sought the book, and read this passage which her mother had
+indicated:
+
+"Why dost thou look so sadly on those withered limbs, or on that pining
+body? Do not so far mistake thyself as to think its joys and thine are
+all one; or that its prosperity and thine are all one; or that they must
+needs stand or fall together. When it is rotting and consuming in the
+grave, then shalt thou be a companion of the perfected spirits of the
+just; and when those bones are scattered about the churchyard, then
+shalt thou be praising God in rest. And, in the mean time, hast not thou
+food of consolation which the flesh knoweth not of, and a joy which this
+stranger meddleth not with? And do not think that, when thou art turned
+out of this body, thou shalt have no habitation. Art thou afraid thou
+shalt wander destitute of a resting place? Is it better resting in flesh
+than in God? Dost thou think that those souls which are now with Christ,
+do so much pity their rotten or dusty corpse, or lament that their
+ancient habitation is ruined, and their once comely bodies turned into
+earth? Oh, what a thing is strangeness and dis-acquaintance. It maketh
+us afraid of our dearest friends, and to draw back from the place of our
+only happiness!"
+
+"Oh, there is comfort in words like that," said the widow, clasping her
+thin hands. "When I think of the great souls who have lived and
+suffered, it seems selfish and wicked to murmur at my afflictions. I
+will try to be patient unto the end. Go to your rest, my love, and may
+God's holy angels guard your slumbers!"
+
+They were all in all to each other, this gentle invalid and her only
+child. There is nothing that draws refined natures nearer to each other
+in this world, than mutual suffering. And day after day the girl
+struggled on with her burden, while the elder woman could only pray that
+she might have strength given her from on high. There are other cases
+like this on earth. The mother and daughter are but the type of a class
+of earnest-hearted ones of whom few dream the worth. As another has
+written, "there are many of these virtues in low places; some day they
+will be on high. This life has a morrow."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was a long, cold winter approaching. Clemence's mind was occupied
+with the one question that is the burden of the poor in our
+cities--"What shall we do in order to live through the inclement season,
+which is so nearly at hand?" She could get no work of the kind for which
+she was most fitted. She had in the old days, a feminine love for
+needlework, and she thought, "Why not turn this to account? I might
+manage to eke out a subsistence in that way."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+She had gained one true friend in her adversity. Alicia Linden had
+sought her out and managed to befriend her in various ways. She resolved
+to consult her immediately.
+
+"A good idea," said that energetic lady. "I will try and help you to
+obtain employment."
+
+This she did, keeping the name of the young girl from the circle of
+ladies, whose patronage she solicited. It requires influence, even in
+the humblest calling, to obtain plenty of work at good prices. Clemence
+did not dream how much she was indebted to the kindness of the
+masculine widow for the generous sums that came for her finely wrought
+articles.
+
+"You owe me no thanks, dear," Mrs. Linden would say, and, thinking
+remorsefully of that little feminine gossip at the Crane mansion, would
+redouble her efforts in the young girl's behalf. Mrs. Linden had a fear
+which amounted to presentiment, that the aforementioned clique, of which
+Mrs. Crane was the acknowledged leader, would learn, by some means, of
+her new interest in Clemence Graystone. So great was her dread of such a
+discovery, that she carefully avoided the society of those ladies, and
+did not once venture into the neighborhood of her friends. How her
+cherished secret became known to them she never knew, but, that it _had_
+become known she soon learned, to her chagrin and utter discomfiture.
+
+Clemence was seated, one clear, cold December day, in their little
+parlor, busily at work upon a fancy article that one of her customers
+had ordered for the approaching holiday season. She felt unusually
+light-hearted. Mrs. Graystone had rallied from her illness sufficiently
+to walk about the house, and was now visiting Mrs. Mann in her
+apartments, that worthy lady having beguiled her into an afternoon's
+visit, to give Clemence a better chance to finish her work.
+
+Suddenly the cheerful little room was invaded by two ladies in sables
+and velvet--none other than our old friends, Mesdames Brown and Crane.
+
+Clemence recognized them at once. A pink flush settled upon her pale
+face, but she rose with gentle dignity upon their entrance.
+
+Eager for her triumph, however, Mrs. Crane did not give her time to
+utter a word. "Well, I have found you at last," she exclaimed, panting
+and out of breath. "I declare, young woman, if I'd have known what a
+search I should have, I would not have ventured into this out of the way
+place. Your's a seamstress, ain't you?"
+
+"I am in the habit of taking in work of this description," said
+Clemence, holding, for her inspection, the article she had been engaged
+in completing at the moment she was interrupted.
+
+"Yes, pretty well done. Just look at it closer, Mrs. Brown."
+
+That lady now came forward and examined the work in a would-be critical
+manner.
+
+"Seems to me the stitches don't look as if they'd hold," she said,
+ill-naturedly. "I discharged my last seamstress because she did not make
+her work serviceable. I give good prices; I ain't one of them kind of
+ladies what wants something for nothing. I never believe in oppressin'
+the poor. I have plenty of means, (that was true, for the retired grocer
+was as liberal as a prince.) If a person suits me, and keeps their
+place, they will have my patronage; if not, I pay them off and show them
+the door. My Melindy wants a new silk for a Christmas party, and as I am
+very particularly interested in her doing herself credit on the
+occasion, I want it made under my own supervision. You see, Mrs. Crane,
+it is to be a very exclusive affair, for I heard that the Vaughns have
+accepted invitations, and you know they belong to the very _creme de la
+creme_. Wilfred Vaughn is a catch for any young lady. It won't be my
+fault if Melindy isn't the belle of the evening, for I'm determined that
+no expense shall be spared."
+
+The lady's dear friend vouchsafed her only a spiteful glance in return
+for this proof of confidence. She was thinking of her own beauteous
+Lucinda, and mentally declared that _her_ daughter should outshine
+Melinda Brown on that momentous occasion, if the worthy contractor had
+to go into bankruptcy the next day.
+
+"Now Miss," concluded Mrs. Brown, turning again to Clemence, "I want to
+engage you to come to-morrow morning to work for me, and if you suit, I
+may keep you for some time longer."
+
+There was a look of quiet amusement upon Clemence's face, as she replied
+politely:
+
+"I should be happy to serve you, Madam, but my time is engaged until
+after the holidays, and I never go out on account of an invalid parent,
+whom I cannot leave."
+
+"Oh!" jerked Mrs. Brown, bridling with offended dignity.
+
+"Well, upon my word!" hissed Mrs. Crane, "such airs!"
+
+"I am very glad, I am sure," pursued the former, "to find you so well
+employed. You were recommended to me as a very worthy person in
+destitute circumstances, and I supposed that to one in your _lowly
+position_, work would be a charity. Had you possessed sufficient
+humility, and a proper appreciation of my efforts, I might have taken
+you under my patronage. No matter what you might have been once, Miss,
+you are in the depths of poverty now, and it would be a good idea not
+to be too independent, for you may want a friend. Don't come to _me_, if
+you do, for I have done with you. My conscience is clear. This lady will
+bear witness to my benevolent intentions, and I acquit myself of all
+blame. I have discharged a disagreeable duty."
+
+"Oh, the base ingratitude of this world!" wailed Mrs. Crane. "My dear
+friend, is it not shocking?"
+
+"It defies description," she ejaculated. "Let us depart. Good bye, young
+woman, and remember, 'Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty
+spirit before a fall.'"
+
+"Just one minute too late!" cried Alicia Linden, sinking into a chair;
+"I saw the precious pair just turn the corner. Don't cry, rosebud. I'll
+pay them off yet. I can manage Mrs. Brown and the whole Crane clique.
+They will be sorry for this insult."
+
+"Indeed, I know I am foolish, dear Mrs. Linden," said Clemence, upon
+whose face smiles struggled with tears like an April day. "If this _is_
+poverty, it is at least honest poverty, of which I am not ashamed. I
+will not allow them to disturb me. But, pray, not a word of this to
+mamma."
+
+The short winter days passed, and March came with its cold, blustering
+winds, and severe changes of weather. Mrs. Graystone failed visibly. She
+could no longer conceal from the fond eyes that watched her, that her
+days were numbered.
+
+Clemence's time was so completely taken up in nursing the invalid, that
+she was obliged to abandon all other employment, and her income ceased
+entirely. She knew not what to do. She was in debt to Mrs. Mann, without
+the means of payment, and she knew that the kind woman could illy
+sustain the burden. Mrs. Linden was her only friend, and she was a widow
+of limited means.
+
+Pondering deeply upon the subject, a thought struck her, which she
+resolved to act upon immediately. First, having installed Mrs. Mann as
+nurse in her place, she hastily donned hat and shawl, and hurried out
+into the street. It was a cold, raw, disagreeable day. Little pools of
+water, that had formed in the hollows of the sidewalks, were fast
+freezing into ice, and the keen, cruel wind seemed to penetrate to the
+very marrow of one's bones.
+
+People, well wrapped in rich furs, strong-minded ladies bent on a
+mission, portly gentlemen on their way to their counting rooms, and
+troops of bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked school-girls, passed her on her way.
+Two little pinched, hollow-eyed children came out of a red brick
+building, which bore in large letters over the spacious doorway, "The
+Orphan's Home," and walked beside her. A little eager voice fell on her
+ear:
+
+"I tell you, Marthy, they don't give you _nothin'_ to eat to the 'Home.'
+And I'm _so_ hungry! Wouldn't it be nice if we could have all we wanted
+to eat, just once? I dream every night that mamma comes to me, and
+kisses and pets me as she used to. Perhaps if we are good and patient,
+we may go to her some day."
+
+"Poor little creatures," sighed Clemence. "What can I do to alleviate
+their sorrows?"
+
+She looked again at the wan, childish faces, then drew out her slender
+portmonnaie. "The Lord will provide," she thought, as the time-worn
+"Charity begins at home," rose to her lips, at sight of her scant supply
+of means. "Come here, dears," she said, beckoning to them.
+
+The little ones crept up to her with shy, downcast eyes. She went with
+them into a confectioners, and filled their hands with crisp cakes and
+steaming rolls, and watched them with a moisture in her eyes, as they
+eagerly grasped at what was to them a royal feast.
+
+"Never mind thanking me, children," she said, as they poured out a dozen
+incoherent exclamations, to prove their gratitude. "Always remember
+hereafter, when you feel unhappy, that 'God watches over you, and will
+surely send some one to help you if you only try to do right.'"
+
+She tried to encourage herself with this thought, as she resumed her
+walk. It strengthened her to renewed effort. She paused before a store,
+where the wealth of the earth seemed to be collected in the "gold and
+silver and precious stones," that dazzled her eyes to look upon.
+
+An elderly gentleman lounged behind the counter. She went directly up to
+him, and asked, in a straightforward manner.
+
+"How much will you give me for this ring?"
+
+It was a solitaire diamond, and had been her mother's birthday gift. The
+man looked at her keenly, and saw that she was not used to bargaining.
+He read at a glance, the story of the delicate, mourning clad girl
+before him.
+
+"Fifty dollars." he answered, coolly.
+
+"But it cost three times that sum," said Clemence, "and although I need
+the money, I cannot sacrifice so valuable an article in that manner.
+Besides its intrinsic value, it is very dear to me by association."
+
+"Can't help that," said the man, coarsely, "its intrinsic value is all
+that concerns me. If you don't wish to sell it, of course you can keep
+it. Seeing, however, that its a pretty young lady, I'll make it
+seventy-five."
+
+"Could you not make it a hundred?" she asked, hesitatingly.
+
+"Not a cent more than seventy-five," he said emphatically. He read the
+despair in her face, and knew that whatever her emergency, it was so
+great that she must come to his terms. "You see, young woman," he
+condescended to explain, "you are not accustomed to this mode of
+business, and you do not realize that when people want ready money they
+must give a fair equivalent in order to get it. Times are hard, and a
+dollar is a dollar now. Six weeks later I might give you the sum you
+demand, but, to-day, it is quite impossible."
+
+"Very well, give me the money," said Clemence, desperately; "I cannot
+wait a day longer."
+
+"Cruel, cruel!" she said, as she walked homeward. "It will not meet our
+demands. Where is all this to end?" The keen March wind was kind to her
+in one respect, it removed from her face all traces of emotion that
+would have disturbed the invalid.
+
+Rap, rap, rap, at the little third story room. "Come in," called
+Clemence, listlessly. Mrs. Mann's cheery face looked in at the door.
+
+"Something for Mrs. Graystone," she said, holding out a small package.
+"It was left here a moment ago, by a tall gentleman so completely
+muffled in furs that I could only get a glimpse of a pair of handsome
+eyes. If you will not think me too curious, I should like to know what
+it contains."
+
+"Open it dear," said the mother languidly.
+
+All uttered an exclamation, as a roll of bank bills fell to the floor.
+There was a brief note, which ran as follows:
+
+     "MADAM--Please accept this in payment of a debt, due your late
+     husband by the writer."
+
+That was all, and there was no signature.
+
+"How strange," said the widow; "I knew but little of Mr. Graystone's
+business affairs. It is providential."
+
+"Just five hundred dollars," said Mrs. Mann; "Why, Clemence, it's a
+fortune! Why don't you tell us how pleased you are? You do not say
+anything."
+
+It was true this sudden and unexpected relief, from an unknown source,
+had bewildered the girl. She could hardly bring herself to realize that
+her pecuniary troubles were at an end, for the time being, at least.
+
+"I am very much pleased, Mrs. Mann," she said, brightening, "but give me
+time to get accustomed to my sudden accession of wealth, pray!"
+
+"I would give anything to get that sad look out of your face," said the
+good woman, coming closer to the girl, and folding her in a motherly
+embrace. "Go out for a walk, you have been in the house all day, and you
+look pale and weary."
+
+The long day drew to a close, and night came on dark and chill. The wind
+wailed around the house mournfully, and as it drew towards midnight,
+continued to rise still higher. The clock struck twelve.
+
+There was an uneasy movement of the invalid tossing restlessly. Once she
+made an effort to raise herself, and the thin hands wandered caressingly
+over the bright hair of the young girl who slumbered peacefully beside
+her.
+
+"Poor darling," she said, "you are heavily burdened, but it will not be
+for long. I feel the hour approaching."
+
+A cold moisture settled upon her forehead, her breath came in labored
+gasps.
+
+"Mother," wailed Clemence, now fully aroused, kneeling beside her, and
+chafing the cold hands. "Mother, speak to me?"
+
+There was no response. The girl was alone with her dead.
+
+"I declare, I am nearly distracted myself," said Mrs. Mann to Alicia
+Linden some weeks after. "It would melt the heart of a stone to hear
+that poor dear crying out in her delirium, 'what shall I do to obtain
+this or that for the poor suffering mother?' That's always the burden of
+her thoughts. It's perfectly dreadful. Mrs. Linden, do you think she
+_can_ live?"
+
+"I hope she may, with careful nursing," was the reply. "We will do all
+we can, and leave the event with Providence."
+
+It hardly seemed a kindness to Clemence, when they told her, after she
+became conscious, of how near she had been to death, and that only the
+kindest care had won her back to life.
+
+"It would have been better to let me die," she said, thinking how little
+now she had to live for.
+
+"If God, in his wisdom, saw fit to restore you, Clemence, it was for
+some wise purpose of his own," said her friend.
+
+"I know it," she replied patiently; "but I have suffered so much that I
+am weary of life. Remember, I am all alone in the world."
+
+"No, not alone, dear," said the lady, "for now that you have no one
+else, I intend to claim you. I love you already as a daughter, and I am
+going to care for your future."
+
+Clemence was too weak to do anything but yield, and when she was able to
+ride out, Mrs. Linden took her to her own home. But although she
+recovered sufficiently to walk about the house and garden, and to take
+long rides into the country, yet her faithful nurse began to fear that
+she would never be really well again.
+
+"She needs a change," said the physician. "A journey would do her good."
+
+So they packed up, and went off to the seaside. The bracing air did for
+Clemence what the doctor's medicine had failed to accomplish. In spite
+of the languid interest she took in everything, hope grew stronger each
+day in the care of her watchful friend. And at last the roses came back
+to her cheeks, and when they went back to the city, in the cool
+September days, she was strong and well once more.
+
+"Do you know, Clemence, it is six months since you have been under my
+charge?" asked Mrs. Linden, as they sat sewing by the bright fire, that
+the chilly fall day rendered agreeable.
+
+"Is it possible?" was the startled reply. "How long I have been a burden
+on your kindness! Alas! what changes have occurred within a short time."
+
+"I know what you are thinking of now, child, and I did not wish to make
+you melancholy by reminding you of the past."
+
+"Oh, Madam," said the girl, "it is never absent from my thoughts. You
+surely would not have me forget the great loss I have sustained?"
+
+"No, Clemence," replied the elder, "that would be wrong, but I do not
+want you to brood over it. Remember who sent this affliction. 'The Lord
+gave and the Lord hath taken away.'"
+
+"But she was all that I had to love," said Clemence; "what is life to me
+now?"
+
+"Don't talk like that, dear," said Mrs. Linden, gently, "the
+unrestrained indulgence of grief is always wrong. Have you never thought
+how selfish it was to wish your mother back again, as I have so often
+heard you? God's ways are inscrutable. But though his children cannot
+always see what is best for themselves, He never errs. Your mother was a
+good woman, a faithful wife, and loving parent, but a life of
+uninterrupted prosperity had left her a stranger to the peace that
+cometh only from obedience to the will of Him who created us. It was in
+the midst of adversity that she found the source of consolation. She
+learned then how precious is the love the Father feels for the suffering
+ones of earth. She was willing to go. Her only fears were for you. Can
+you not have faith that the prayers she breathed for your welfare with
+her dying lips, will be answered? You are young yet, and there is work
+for you to do in the world. Interest yourself in some worthy object, and
+you will be astonished at the change in your own feelings."
+
+Clemence looked up with a new light dawning upon her face. These
+thoughts were new to her.
+
+"I am afraid I have been selfish," she said, coming and kneeling beside
+her friend, and locking her slender fingers agitatedly. "It is very hard
+always to do right. Believe, though, that I erred only in judgment, not
+through intention. Help me to do better."
+
+"Dear child," said the motherly woman, touched by the generous
+confession, "we are none of us perfect. We can only _try_. I have said
+this solely for your own good. You realize that, I am sure. My only wish
+is to make you happy."
+
+Clemence took up with her friend's advice. She found enough to occupy
+her, for there is plenty to do in the world. It needs only the willing
+heart. She became the instrument of much good, and many sick and
+sorrowful learned to love the low-voiced girl who came among them in her
+sable robes.
+
+The winter passed quietly and uneventfully. Clemence went very little
+into society. She had no desire for it. She was content to be forgotten,
+and let those who were eager for the strife, crowd and jostle each
+other for the empty honors, for which she did not care to put in a
+claim. Not but that she had once been ambitious of distinction, and had
+been told by loving friends that she possessed talents that it was wrong
+to bury. There was no one to care now for her success or failure. It
+mattered little how the years were passed. They would find her a lonely,
+sorrowing woman, without home or friends. No one, be they never so
+hopeful, could anticipate happiness in such a future. Clemence did not,
+but she knew she should, in time, learn to be contented with her lot.
+Others had been before her. Then, too, something whispered that it would
+not be for long.
+
+Mrs. Linden watched her anxiously, noting the troubled look on the
+girl's face, and questioned her as to its cause.
+
+"Don't yield to despondency," she would say. "You must go more into
+society. Solitude is not good for you."
+
+Obedient to her wish, Clemence afterwards accompanied her whenever she
+went from home.
+
+Thus passed the time until her twentieth birthday. She reviewed, sadly,
+on that occasion, her past life, and formed her plans for the future.
+The result of her cogitations was, that not long after, she left the
+roof that had sheltered her since her bereavement, but to which she had
+no real claim, and commenced upon a new life.
+
+This was very much against her friend's wishes.
+
+"What wild idea has taken possession of your visionary mind now?" she
+queried. "Just when I thought you were quite contented to stay with me,
+you start off to teach a score or more of ignorant little savages in
+some obscure part of some obscure region, not yet blessed with the
+telegraph or railroad."
+
+"Not quite so bad as that, I hope," said Clemence, laughing. "Don't,
+please, raise any objections to my plan, kind friend; for I want to feel
+that it has your sanction. Perhaps, if I get tired of teaching, I will
+come back to you again."
+
+"Very well," was the rejoinder, "in that case you may go, but I shall
+expect to see you again very soon. You will die of home-sickness."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+A lovely June day was drawing to a close, as a stage coach drew up at
+the one hotel in the little village of Waveland.
+
+"Here at last, mum," said the driver, stepping forward to assist a lady
+to alight. "It's been a tedious ride for a delicate looking lady like
+you."
+
+She _was_ delicate looking, and _very_ pretty, with an air of refinement
+that betokened good birth and careful culture.
+
+"Yes," she said, "it has been a weary day's journey, and I shall be glad
+to rest."
+
+She went into the little homespun sitting-room, and laid aside her
+bonnet and shawl, then went to the window, and looked out in an absent
+way. The high, pure brow, and calm, thoughtful eyes, remind us of one we
+have met before, and the slender, nervous hands, locked after her old
+fashion when troubled, prove that it is none other than our young
+friend, Clemence Graystone.
+
+"Jerushy! ain't she style?"
+
+Her reverie came abruptly to an end, and with a momentary feeling of
+annoyance, she retreated from the window, as this exclamation startled
+her into the knowledge that half of the inhabitants of the little
+village were already out and gazing at her.
+
+"What can I do for you, Miss?" asked the obsequious landlord, a moment
+after. It was evident that guests beneath his hospitable roof were "like
+angel's visits, few and far between."
+
+"Supper and a room."
+
+"Yes, certainly, certainly, in no time. Here, Cary Elizy, Elizabeth
+Angeline, Victory Valery, where on earth air they? Neither of them three
+girls is never on hand when they're wanted."
+
+There was a shuffle, a scampering, and much suppressed giggling, then a
+frowsy head peered in at the doorway.
+
+"This lady wants something to eat, and a good cup of tea, directly."
+
+"Yes," drawled a voice, "she shall have it if it takes a limb. Here,
+girls, spin around, I tell you, and git the young woman suthin to eat."
+
+Meanwhile, Clemence surveyed the little room to which she had been
+conducted, guiltless of carpeting, and with only one chair and a
+washstand, beside a huge, old fashioned bedstead, and plump feather bed
+covered with patchwork. But everything was clean and inviting, and only
+too thankful for the opportunity, Clemence smoothed her hair, and bathed
+her aching temples, preparatory to partaking of that "good cup of tea,"
+which her host had ordered, and which she hoped would drive away her
+headache.
+
+But, alas! for human anticipations. The good, wholesome country fare
+which she had expected, proved to be only the refuse of what was
+considered unsaleable in market. In place of the steaming biscuit,
+golden butter, and delicious cream she had promised herself, there were
+huge slices of clammy bread, a plate of old-fashioned short-cake, yellow
+with saleratus; butter, that to say the least of it, was not inodorous,
+and a compound of skim milk and lukewarm water, dignified by the name of
+tea. Leaving it almost untasted, Clemence sought her couch, and was soon
+buried in profound slumber.
+
+She awoke late the next morning, and after a hasty toilet, went down to
+breakfast, to find herself the center of observation. The table was
+tolerably well-filled, with one or two blooming damsels, and for the
+rest, sun-browned country boys.
+
+"Good morning," said the gentleman of the house, heartily. "Kalkilate
+you was pretty well played out, yesterday. Don't look as if you'd stand
+much hard work. You're a school teacher, I take it? Yes, I thought so. I
+can generally guess at a body's business the first time trying. I ain't
+one of the educated sort myself, but I've picked up a few ideas knocking
+around the world. I've got some girls now, I'd like to have learn
+something, but then they don't seem to take to it. I spose that kind o'
+hankerin' after books comes natural to some folks, and to others it
+don't. Me nor none of my family never seemed to set much store by that
+sort of thing. It's a good thing to be gifted, though. There's neighbor
+Green's boy, Bill, he can 'late anything after he's heerd it once, and
+when there's any doins' of any kind comin' off, they send him so he can
+tell the rest, after he gets home, all what happened. But, as I said
+before, it's more'n any of the rest of us can do.
+
+"And, to tell the truth, we don't need to be as wise as Solomon, here in
+these parts, to be as good as the best. When a man gets what you may
+call a little forehanded, he's bound to have his say about matters and
+things, whether he understands them or not. I rather guess, too, Miss,"
+he added, good-naturedly, "if you stay long enough round here, you'll
+git to teachin' one scholar. There ain't many old maids around here, but
+there's any quantity of nice, industrious young men what want wives, and
+ain't a goin' far for to find them, eh, girls?"
+
+There was a good deal of tittering at this last remark, and the
+aforementioned youths blushed to the tips of their ears.
+
+"What singular people I have got among," thought Clemence, who could not
+refrain from laughing at their oddity. "What a strange fate has thrown
+me among them?"
+
+She was destined to learn a good deal more of their singularities,
+during her prolonged sojourn at the little village. A country school
+teacher, having to "board round," has a good chance to study human
+nature.
+
+Before she had been long at her new occupation, she found that she was
+expected to be, literally, "as wise as a serpent, and as harmless as a
+dove." There was no subject--religion or politics not excepted--which
+she was not expected thoroughly to understand and expound; she was
+evidently considered, from her position, as a sort of animated
+encyclopedia, to be consulted at will. And all this, to be able to
+instruct a half-civilized brood of children, of both sexes, in the
+rudiments of reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic and geography, with
+enough of grammar to enable them to stammer and stumble through a simple
+sentence, and arrive safely at the end without any material injury to
+the teacher's nerves.
+
+However, it was, at least, an honorable independence, poorly remunerated
+though it was, and she went to work with a will.
+
+Her first boarding place was at the house of an aged couple, by the name
+of Wynn, who lived a short distance from the school house. Their
+appearance struck her as extremely peculiar. Mrs. Wynn's tall, stooping
+figure, spoke plainly of a hard, laborious life. Her sharp features and
+keen, piercing eyes, made more prominent by the unusual lowness of the
+forehead, told more surely than language, of their owner's propensity to
+investigate the affairs of her neighbor, and proved her claim to the
+complimentary title, they had bestowed upon her, viz:--"That prying old
+mother, Wynn." But what was still more strange, was the silver hair of
+both these old people, and which their age did not seem to warrant. The
+lady, however, with a little lingering of feminine vanity in her heart,
+had made an awkward attempt at hair dye of home manufacture, and from a
+too plentiful use of sulphur and copperas, had succeeded in producing a
+band of vivid yellow upon each side of her temple, while the hair at the
+back and upon the crown of her head, was white as snow. Clemence learned
+afterwards that these worthy people had seen a great deal of trouble,
+and that their prematurely aged appearance was from that source alone.
+
+She was not aware that they had more than one daughter, who was her
+pupil, but as she went into the "spare room" assigned her, and
+carelessly took up a "carte de visite" that lay upon the table, she saw
+underneath the picture of a buxom damsel, in a feeble, trembling hand,
+"My own sweet Rose."
+
+She had before this noticed another queer trait of the people among whom
+her lot was so strangely cast, and that was their singular penchant for
+fancy and high-sounding names. Among her scholars there were, for the
+girls, respectively--Alcestine Alameda, Boadicea Beatrice, Claudia
+Clarinda, Eugenia Eurydice, Venetia Ignatia, and so on, indefinitely;
+and among a group of ragged, bare-footed boys, a number of time-honored
+Bible names, and such distinguished modern ones as George Washington,
+Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Edward Everett, and even down to one little
+shock-headed, lisping, Abraham Lincoln.
+
+"My own sweet Rose," proved, unhappily for Clemence, to possess more of
+the characteristics of a stinging nettle, than of the flower whose name
+she bore, and she was glad when her week was out, and she could leave
+her charming society, for that which she fondly hoped might be more
+congenial.
+
+Clemence had begun to try her strength, and she prayed fervently that
+she might not "faint by the way." What other alternative had she than
+this? It was too sadly true, as she had told her friend, she was all
+alone in the world. What mattered it where the rest of her life was
+spent? She tried bravely to do her duty "in that station in life to
+which it had pleased God to call her." That was enough for the present.
+The future stretched out, dreary and hopeless, before her.
+
+Strangely enough, she never thought that she was young and pretty and
+well born, and might form new ties, if she would. She never reasoned
+upon the subject, for the bare possibility did not once enter her mind.
+This was the more strange, that she had never been in love, and there
+were no memories to rise up and haunt her like ghosts of forgotten joys,
+no dear face that had beamed upon her with the one profound affection
+that comes to every one at some period of their lives. There were only
+two graves under the willows that contained all that had ever been dear
+to her in life. She never dreamed of any other love than theirs, who had
+watched over her childhood, and left her, with prayers to heaven for her
+safety upon their pallid lips. Her one hope was to live so that she
+might meet them again, and that it might be said of her, "She hath done
+what she could."
+
+Clemence Graystone was possessed of little worldly ambition, and she had
+no incentive to exertion, beyond what was necessary to maintain an
+honorable independence. She was content, with fine talents that might
+have won her a name, to be left behind upon the road to fame by those
+who were better adapted to the contest. What was it to her? A
+short-lived popularity, the adulation of the vulgar, the cool, critical
+glances of those who might sympathize and appreciate, but ever seemed
+more ready to condemn. She had no wish to be petted by the crowd, or
+court the gaze of idle curiosity. Better solitude and her own thoughts.
+
+She had enough of the latter, you may well believe. Obscure and
+poverty-stricken, the world passed on, and forgot even her existence,
+after a way it has. She did not "keep up with the times," and she was
+left by the receding tide, a lonely waif upon unknown shores. What lay
+before her, God alone knew. Clemence felt grieved, too, to find that she
+was not liked by the village people. Old Mrs. Wynn took care to inform
+her of that, with a due amount of exaggeration. Her crime consisted in
+minding her own business, and letting others do the same--and they
+called her gentle reticence, "airs," said she felt above common folks,
+and prophesied that any amount of evil would befall her. She did not
+know that it is a trait of human nature to condemn that, which, through
+ignorance, people cannot appreciate the value. Therefore she mourned in
+secret, and blamed herself for being unsocial, and tried hard to be
+patient and forgiving.
+
+At this juncture, when she most needed a counsellor, she made an
+acquaintance, and formed a lasting friendship. She had often admired,
+upon the outskirts of the village, a pretty cottage, embowered in trees,
+and curiosity had led her to question others about its occupant. She
+could only learn that a lady by the name of Hardyng lived there, quite
+alone. That was all she could find out in regard to it.
+
+One morning, however, very much to her surprise, as she had never met
+the lady, she found on her desk an informal invitation to visit her at
+the cottage. Tired of her own thoughts, and wishing for something to
+take up her attention, she at once resolved to accept it--and, in
+pursuance of this determination, after school was dismissed, responded
+to the message in person. The door was opened immediately on her low
+rap.
+
+"How kind of you to come," said one of the sweetest voices she had ever
+heard. "I have hoped and feared alternately, as to the result of my
+unceremonious request. Pray make yourself perfectly at home. I have
+wanted to get acquainted with you ever since I first saw you, but I go
+out so little, I was almost in despair, until I hit upon this method. I
+believe I have not yet introduced myself. I am Ulrica Hardyng, a lonely
+and sorrowing woman, with no one in the whole wide world to love or care
+for me, and I want to be your friend."
+
+She knelt down before the young girl, whom she had already seated, and
+gazed with dark, unfathomable eyes into the sweet face before her.
+
+"Loyal and true," she said, stroking the white hand softly. "I want you
+to love me, Miss Graystone. I knew at the first glimpse of your face,
+that you had suffered, poor child, and I felt for you from that moment;
+for who can sympathize with the afflicted so well as one who has drained
+to the dregs the bitter cup?"
+
+"Oh, Madame!" said Clemence, impetuously, fascinated, as every one else
+had always been by the woman before her, "I shall be forever grateful
+for the smallest portion of your regard. You cannot imagine how
+completely isolated I have been, during my brief sojourn here."
+
+"I believe that," was the reply; "a girl of your intellect and
+refinement can have little in common with, these obtuse village people.
+They cannot understand your feelings, and you cannot possibly sympathize
+with theirs. Your former life must have been very different from this.
+Tell me about it?"
+
+It was a strange interview, but then, Ulrica Hardyng was a strange
+woman, and never did anything like anybody else.
+
+"You will come again?" she said, that evening as they parted. "Fate has
+been kinder to me than I deserve, and sent me a sweet consoler. You and
+I have nothing to do with the idle forms of society. We meet each other,
+and that is quite enough."
+
+"I will come again, kind friend," Clemence answered gratefully, "at an
+early day; for now that I have once enjoyed the pleasure of your
+society, it would be hard to deny myself the privilege in future."
+
+After that they met nearly every day.
+
+Mrs. Wynn had her say about it, too.
+
+"So you've made the acquaintance of that stuck-up widow, have you? I've
+a piece of advice for you. You're an unprotected girl, and might easily
+get talked about. There's something queer about this Mis' Hardyng. She
+don't mingle with the rest of us, and I wouldn't be too thick with her,
+if I was in your place. Leastways, I won't let my Rose make any advances
+towards an acquaintance. Mind, I don't say anything _against_ her, but I
+do as I'd be done by, and give you a friendly warning, such as I'd have
+anybody do by a child of mine, if they was around the world. For my
+part, I always consider it a safe plan to wait and see what other people
+think about them, before I make up to anybody myself. 'Taint expected
+that a woman that's got a character to lose should commit herself in the
+eyes of the world. Remember, too, that on account of your being in a
+public capacity, so to speak, you'd ought to be more particular about
+your morals. It's expected that you will do your best to set a good
+example to the rest of the young folks round here; not, of course, that
+_I_ would say anything, whatever you might do, but then, everybody ain't
+so careful of the 'unruly member,' as the minister calls it. You know
+people will talk. For instance, Miss Pryor dropped in here a few minutes
+yesterday, and while we was taking a sociable cup of tea together, she
+told me that Mis' Parsons told Caleb Sharp, and he told her, that you
+looked a little too sanctimonious to have it natural, and she meant to
+keep her eyes on you, for all you seemed so wrapped up in your own
+affairs. They think you feel pretty big, I guess, for Miss Pryor said
+she wasn't agoing to wait to be put down by you, but took particular
+pains to flounce past you, with her head turned the other way, and never
+pretending to know you was there. Mind, though, you don't say anything
+to anybody about it. I am one of that kind that don't believe in making
+mischief, and if there's anything I do _dispise_, its tattling about my
+neighbors. It's a thing I never do, to talk against folks behind their
+back. There's plenty that do, though, in this very town. Now, there's
+that Mis' Swan, where you're going to board next week, she's been pretty
+well talked about, first and last, and they _do_ say not without cause,
+for you know the sayin' about there always bein' some fire where there's
+any smoke. She makes believe all innocence, but I could tell some things
+that I've seen with these two eyes, if I choose.
+
+"The last teacher we had before you came, was a single young gentleman
+by the name of Sweet. He was a nice, fine-looking man, with a real
+innocent face, and pleasant ways, and I took quite a motherly interest
+in him. He used to be at the Swans' very often, and I had a few
+suspicions of my own. I used to send Rose in, kind of sudden like,
+whenever I see him go by to their house. Mis' Swan felt guilty, for she
+knew what I meant; but, will you believe, the malicious creature
+actually insinuated that I had designs on him, and positively had the
+impudence to send me a saucy message, one day, by Rose, right before her
+husband and that young Sweet. I was so mad that I published the whole
+affair over the place within twenty-four hours. I put on my bonnet, and
+went in one direction, and sent Rose in another, and Mis' Swan found
+herself in a pretty mess, with her name on everybody's lips. But, will
+you believe in the ingratitude of human nature, the woman's own husband
+called me a meddlesome old busy-body, after I had solemnly warned him of
+his wife's unfaithfulness, and I was made the laughing stock of the town
+where I was born, and have lived a long and useful life. Nobody can tell
+me anything to convince me that my suspicions wasn't correct, and it
+went to my heart to have them say that I did it all out of spite,
+because I wanted to secure the school-master for my daughter. But I've
+lived it down, though, and have shown some people about here, that I
+consider them as far beneath me, as the heavens are _above_ the earth."
+
+Clemence found the Swan's a little homespun couple, but, on the whole,
+much more endurable than Mrs. Wynn and Rose.
+
+"I suppose you have heard all about Kate's outrageous proceedings from
+our elderly friend?" laughed Mr. Swan, at the tea-table. "Poor Mrs.
+Wynn. She laid me under infinite obligations, by her efforts on my
+behalf, so much so, that sometimes the load of gratitude fairly
+oppresses me. In case matters had turned out as she feared, though, I
+might eventually have consoled myself with the fair Miss Rose's
+agreeable society."
+
+"There, there, Harry!" said his wife, "don't say anything to prejudice
+Miss Graystone against them. I have forgiven her long ago, and I only
+hope that Rose may succeed in obtaining half as good a husband as
+somebody I know of."
+
+"Well," he said, bestowing a fond glance upon the bright face beside
+him, "we won't say anything against them. By the way, Kitty, I received
+a letter to-day from Sweet, and he announces the advent of another
+juvenile Sweet-ness, to be named in honor of your ladyship. You see,
+Miss Graystone, he is a relative, having married a cousin of my wife's.
+There was some trouble about the match, for Uncle Eben objected to the
+young man, on account of his being a schoolteacher, He used to come to
+Kate for advice, and being rather a favorite with uncle, she finally
+succeeded in reconciling him to the marriage. The young couple naturally
+think her 'but little lower than the angels,' since her efforts in their
+behalf, and I never saw Sweet so indignant at anybody in my life as he
+was at the Wynns, for starting that infamous story. But I told him not
+to mind, it would blow over, and it did. Mrs. Wynn is pretty well known
+here, and like the rest of us, I suppose, has her good traits and her
+bad ones."
+
+"How do you like our little village?" asked Mrs. Swan, to turn the
+conversation, a few moments after.
+
+"I have been here so short a time that I can hardly judge, as yet,"
+replied Clemence. "I think I shall like it better than I at first
+expected."
+
+"Indeed, I hope you will," said her hostess. "We would like very much to
+have you settle among us. You must have observed, by this time, that
+there are few people of liberal education in the place."
+
+"Yet, they are a shrewd, sensible people," said Mr. Swan, "who might,
+under more favorable auspices, make a figure in the world. There are
+many kind-hearted, Christian men and women in Waveland, Miss Graystone,
+notwithstanding their rough and almost repulsive exterior."
+
+"I dare say there are many such," she replied earnestly, thinking of the
+cold, heartless worldlings she had left behind her in the great, busy
+city. "I do not judge altogether by outward appearances."
+
+"Nor I," was the cordial answer; "the coat don't make the man, in this
+community, but if any one is sick, or in trouble, they will always find
+these rough-handed villagers ready to sympathize and aid."
+
+Mr. Swan never made a truer remark than this last. The primitive
+inhabitants of Waveland, although they gossipped about each other, and
+speculated a little beyond the bounds of politeness and decorum, in
+regard to the affairs of the few strangers, who now and then appeared
+among them, were, on the whole, a kind-hearted, sober, industrious
+community. The little village possessed two stores, a hotel, blacksmith
+shop, a school house in which religious services were also held, and a
+post office, presided over, in an official capacity, by the village
+doctor.
+
+There was also a weekly paper published there, by an ambitious youth,
+called the "Clarion," which contained snappish editorials about its
+neighbors, aspiring criticisms upon the publications of different
+authors, always ending in an unmistakable "puff," if they were at all
+popular, or a feeble attempt at discriminating censure, if the unlucky
+scribe was unknown to fame, and had (poor wretch,) his way yet to make
+in the literary world.
+
+Clemence got quite attached to the Swans' during her brief stay with
+them. She regretted to leave them for the uncongenial society of
+strangers.
+
+Her next boarding place was at Dr. Little's. He was rightly named, Mrs.
+Wynn had taken pains to inform her, and they were a well-matched pair.
+
+"The way that man charged, when my Rose had the fever and chills, was
+amazin'. I know one thing, there would be a good opening in Waveland for
+any single young man who wanted to set up opposition to the old Doctor.
+For _my_ part, I'd call on him every time my family needed his services,
+which would probably be pretty often, for Rose is kind of delicate like.
+He'd be sure to have one patron, for it would do me good to spite the
+Little's."
+
+Clemence thought, when she first saw this couple, about whom she had
+heard so much, that though the little weazen-faced Doctor might chance
+to be rightly named, yet the same remark could not, by any means, apply
+to the mountain of flesh he called his wife.
+
+"Oh, but you don't know her," said Maria, their one servant, after tea.
+"I always thought, before I came here, that fat people, especially them
+that had plenty of means, sort of took life easy. But I've changed my
+mind, since I knew Mis' Little. I've been in her service risin' of five
+years, and you might as well think of catching a weasel asleep. It's
+'Mariar,' the last thing at night, and 'Mariar,' the first thing in the
+morning. I don't know when she rests, for she never lays down while I am
+awake, for fear I shant do just so much. If them there philysophers,
+that want to find out the secret of perpetual motion, and can't, would
+come across Mis' Little, they'd own beat. She's just kept a spinning for
+the last five years. And Sundays she's more regular to church than the
+minister himself, besides all the weekly meetings, and always gets up
+and tells what the Lord's done for her soul. Then the Doctor he follows,
+and talks about the gold-paved streets, and all that, and is sure to
+bring in a Latin quotation. After that, he sits down, and goes to
+twirlin' that big jack-knife of his, and I can't help thinkin', though I
+know it's wicked, that if he was to get to heaven as he expects, the
+very first thing he'd do, would be to whip out that knife, and go to
+scrapin' away to get a little gold dust to put in his pocket; he! he!
+he! Don't look so horrified, Miss Graystone. I suppose, now you think
+I'm dreadful ungrateful. One thing I know, they'll palaver you till
+you'll think they was two pink and white angels that had slid down a
+rainbow, especially to make themselves agreeable to you; but Maria
+Mott's no fool, and she knows what she's a talkin' about every time."
+
+Dr. Little had one other servant, a simple minded, ignorant boy by the
+name of Harvey. He worked for his board, perfectly convinced that the
+pious teachings of the worthy couple were sufficient remuneration for
+such light services as were required of him. Harvey was an humble member
+of the same church in which his employer was a shining light, therefore
+it was his privilege to listen, with a thankful spirit, to many precious
+pearls of wisdom that dropped from their revered lips. In fact, Harvey
+was enveloped continually in the very odor of sanctity, whereby he was
+greatly profited. Thus the promptings of his sinful nature were
+effectually stifled, and he grew each day, outwardly as well as
+spiritually, more ethereal, less "of the earth earthly."
+
+Maria Mott was wicked enough to say that it was because he did not get
+enough to eat, and to openly lament the change in the once bright-eyed,
+round-faced boy.
+
+The worthy old Doctor, however, congratulated himself, and said he was
+fitting the boy for heaven.
+
+Mrs. Little used to remain at the tea table to administer instruction,
+not, let us hope, as Maria averred, to watch Harvey so he wouldn't eat
+so much.
+
+"Harvey," she asked, on one occasion, "are you not thankful that the
+Lord has given you so good a home?"
+
+"Yes, Mis' Little, keeps me pretty busy though to earn it," came
+hollowly from the depths of a teacup.
+
+"Mamma," called young Charlie Little, over the banister, "I want Harvey
+to do an errand for me. Will you please give him my order. Here is a
+bright new silver piece for him, too."
+
+"Such extravagance, Charlie!" said his mother, but, coloring as Clemence
+passed her, "I want you to be generous to the poor, my son, I have
+always striven to inculcate the lesson of charity conscientiously."
+
+Mrs. Little _was_ good-hearted and liberal. Clemence felt sorry for
+having misjudged her, as she saw a bright silver piece glitter in her
+hand the next Sabbath, as she sat beside her during the weekly
+collection of contribution for the missionary fund. Maria was wrong, and
+she was sorry she laughed when she spoke flippantly of Mrs. Little's
+magnificent gift of a penny a Sabbath amounting to fifty-two cents
+annually. She ought to be more careful to give people the benefit of the
+doubt.
+
+But she thought differently, when she got home and found Harvey
+patiently blacking Master Charlie's boots.
+
+"Why, Harvey, you were not at church?" she asked, in surprise.
+
+"No, Miss Graystone, they kept me too busy here," was the reply, in a
+disheartened tone, "and now Master Charlie's been off fishin', and got
+all covered with dust, I've got to black these boots over again. I
+should think he'd be ashamed ordering me round like a dog, and then
+walking off without even saying, thank you. If he would give me a
+quarter, now and then, I would not mind, for I never have a penny of my
+own for anything, not even to give of a Sunday. But I don't suppose a
+poor boy like me, has any right to have a soul," he added bitterly. "I
+don't much care, sometimes, whether I ever go to church again or not."
+
+"Oh, don't say that, Harvey," said Clemence, in distressed tones. A new
+light broke in upon his mind. She took from her own scanty supply of
+pocket money, a twenty-five cent note, crisp and new, and handed it to
+him. "I have no bright silver piece for you, Harvey," she said, "but
+here is something nearly as good if you will accept it."
+
+"Oh, thank you, a thousand times," was the grateful response, "I will
+get it changed into pennies for my missionary offering. I was just
+wishing for some money of my own, to take this afternoon to my Sunday
+school teacher."
+
+"Well, I am very glad that I had it to give you," said Clemence. "Don't
+despair, Harvey, if your lot is hard. God sees, and he will surely
+reward you."
+
+"Oh, I will try to be patient," said the boy, lifting his honest face,
+with the great, tear-filled eyes. "If everybody was only like you, I
+would be willing to do anything. But it's only Harvey here, and Harvey
+there, and never a pleasant word, only before folks. It's hard to bear.
+It did not use to be so before mother died. To be sure, we were very
+poor, and I had to work hard, but mother loved me."
+
+"Poor boy!" sighed Clemence, turning away, "every heart knoweth its own
+sorrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+For a delicate girl, like Clemence Graystone, this country school
+teaching proved very laborious work. But she bent to it bravely. It was
+easy to see that these rude little savages whom she taught, fairly
+worshipped her. Children have an innate love of the pure and good.
+Perhaps because they are themselves innocent, until the great, wicked
+world contaminates them. At any rate, the bright young creature who came
+among them every morning, seemed to them a being from another sphere,
+the embodiment of their childish ideas of purity and beauty, and they
+had for her somewhat of that awe that the devotees of the East feel for
+the gods they worship.
+
+She sat before them, with the slant sunlight of a July day falling on
+her fair, sweet face.
+
+"The week is drawing to a close, and you have all worked faithfully,"
+she said, and taking a snowy manuscript from the desk, "now you shall
+have your reward. Instead of translating a little French story, as I at
+first intended, I have written an original one, especially for you."
+
+A noisy cheer greeted this announcement.
+
+"Is it true?" asked several voices.
+
+"Yes, it is true," she responded, "and if you will be quiet, I will read
+it to you." And she began as follows:
+
+
+"THE STORY OF ANGEL WAY."
+
+"Her name was Angelica, but her little school friends called her
+'Angie,' and those who loved her, 'Angel.' This last pet term of a fond
+mother, seemed not ill applied, when one looked at the serene face, and
+the drooping violet eyes, with the prophetic shadow of her fate in their
+earnest, haunting depths. Indeed, the meaning of Angelica, in the flower
+world, is 'Inspiration,' and I think Angel's must have come from God.
+When you looked at her, she seemed like one set apart for some special
+work, like those 'chosen ones' we love to read of. Truly, as has been so
+gracefully said, 'to bear, and love and live,' is a woman's patient lot.
+Yes, to suffer pain, to bear uncomplainingly through weary years, a load
+of grief and shame for others, though she herself may have sinned not,
+till at last it grows too great for her feeble strength, and Death
+comes, not as the 'King of Terrors,' but a welcome messenger, for whose
+coming the weary woman has waited and longed, ever since hope died out,
+and she knew life held for her nothing but wretchedness and woe.
+
+"This little girl, I am going to tell you about, lived in the very heart
+of a great city, up dismal flights of stairs, at the very top of a huge
+brick building, where a great many poor people congregated together and
+called it home.
+
+"There were four of them, Mr. and Mrs. Way, and Angel, and the baby whom
+they called Mary. There had been another member of the little family,
+but God had taken her, and Grandma Way's placid face was no longer seen
+bending over the old family Bible, in the chimney corner. It was very
+evident to everybody but the one who should have been the first to
+observe a change, that the hard-working wife and mother would soon
+follow her. Toil, and care and sorrow, were surely wearing out her life,
+but there were none to pity her but little Angel, and she was only a
+child.
+
+"She was shy and bashful, too, and afraid almost of her own shadow, but
+every night she knelt down and prayed to God to show her how she could
+be useful to those she loved. And the time was surely coming when all
+her little strength would be tried to the uttermost.
+
+"One night little Angel was aroused from her sleep by shrieks, and
+groans and curses, and the sound of a heavy blow, and she sprang from
+her little bed, to find her mother stretched senseless upon the floor,
+with the blood trickling from a wound in her head, and a group of
+uncouth, neighboring women gathered about her.
+
+"'Lord save us!' they ejaculated, 'there's the child, we'd clean forgot
+her.'
+
+"'Mamma, mamma!' wailed the little creature, 'is she dead?'
+
+"'There, there, dearie, don't take on so,' said good-natured Mrs.
+Maloney. 'It's not dead she is at all. You see, the father came home,
+after bein' on a bit of a spree, with a touch of delirium, and raised a
+good deal of a fuss, and they took him away where he'll have to behave
+himself till the whisky gets out of his head.'
+
+"'There, she's comin' to now, raise her up, Mis' Macarty, till I give
+her a little of this to drink. How do you feel now, poor thing?'
+
+"'Why, what is it all about? How came I here?' said Mrs. Way, wildly;
+then, as her memory returned to her, she clasped Angel's little figure
+closely, and wept convulsively.
+
+"'Don't take on so!' and, 'Let her alone, I tell you, it will do her
+good!' and, 'Do you want the woman to git the hysterics?' came
+indiscriminately from the females bending over her. Then Mrs. Maloney
+bustled away to make her a reviving cup of tea, and little widow
+Macarty, with her soft voice and pleasant way, soothed the heart-broken
+woman.
+
+"'Never you mind, ma'am, everybody has trouble of some kind. Remember
+the children that's left, and keep your strength to work for them.'
+
+"'You are good and kind,' moaned the sufferer, 'but I've nothing to
+reward your services.'
+
+"'Can't I do a neighbor a kindness without their talking about pay?
+Suppose I should fall sick myself, maybe I'd have to pay before hand to
+get a little help. Your lookin' better a ready. Don't make the tea too
+strong, Mrs. Maloney, to excite her, and I think a bit of dry toast
+would be just the thing to sort of tempt her appetite.'
+
+"Mrs. Way sat up, and a Doctor, who had been sent for, dressed her
+wounds, and pronounced her case not dangerous. 'You need not anticipate
+any great harm from the blow, madam,' he said, 'but your general health
+needs recuperating. Your mind acts on your body, and you must be kept
+free from excitement of any kind.'
+
+"'Free from excitement,' she thought bitterly, after all was hushed in
+silence, and she lay weak and faint, watching the slumbers of the
+innocent children beside her. 'My God, pity me!' 'What have I done to
+deserve this cruel fate?' She thought of the long, miserable hours she
+had passed alone with her helpless darlings, listening for the unsteady
+footsteps of him who had vowed to protect her, and guard her from life's
+ills. And this was the end. She wished she could die, but for the
+children, what would become of them? 'Free from excitement,' indeed. An
+unprotected woman, with two small children, and only one pair of hands
+to work with, and these disabled, and food and fire to get, and a roof
+to shelter them, to say nothing of warm comfortable clothing.'
+
+"'She got up too quick, and worried too much,' said the Doctor, when he
+was called again a few weeks later. 'I can do nothing for her. Where's
+that wretch of a husband?'
+
+"'In the workhouse,' sobbed Mrs. Maloney. 'What will become of the
+children when she's dead?'
+
+"'Have to send them to the Orphan Asylum, I suppose. Dear me! I never
+could see what poor people wanted with so many children, anyway,' and
+the elegant Dr. Dash sauntered down the four flights of stairs, humming
+a fashionable opera, and speculating how much that beautiful Miss
+Osborne really possessed in her own right.
+
+"'Indeed, they won't go to the Orphan Asylum,' said little Mrs. Macarty,
+'if I have to work and sustain them myself. The sweet, pretty darlings!
+How would I feel if that was my own Katy, now?'
+
+"Nobody being able to say just how she would feel in that emergency, she
+bustled round, sniffing at imaginary Orphan Asylums, and nodding her
+head sagaciously, saying, 'We will show them a thing or two about Orphan
+Asylums, won't we now?'
+
+"But little Angel had a plan of her own. Away down in her child's heart
+there was a sacred memory of a mother's anxious, tear-stained face, and
+grandma trying to comfort her with the message that had been the solace
+of her own grief-stricken old age:
+
+"'Never despair, daughter! Remember, 'whom the Lord loveth He
+chasteneth.' I had a heavenly dream about William, last night, and I
+feel sure that he'll find the right way at last. We'll pray for him
+together, and surely God will hear us.'
+
+"'I believe that, Mother Way,' said the wife, eagerly. 'I could not die
+and leave him to perish. He loves his children devotedly, and I believe
+this child (drawing Angel nearer to her) has been sent by God for his
+salvation.'
+
+"'May the Lord bless and strengthen her for the work,' said grandma in a
+tremulous voice, laying her thin hand upon the child's head, and Angel
+felt from that moment set apart, consecrated, as it were, by the last
+words of that dying saint, for that night, Grandma Way went to heaven.
+She remembered it now, and knew the time had come for her to act her
+part. Mrs. Macarty became her sole confidential adviser.
+
+"'I am twelve years old,' said Angel, 'and baby Matie is nearly two; I
+can take care of her, if you will show me a little now and then, and I
+am going to try and get along here till my father comes back again.'
+
+"'Just hear the little woman, now,' said her listener, in open-mouthed
+admiration. 'Sure it would be a tiptop way to manage, and I'll do my
+best to help you through with it.'
+
+"And this committee of two on ways and means proved so efficient, that
+when William Way returned, sober and downcast, Angel just lifted up
+little Mary, as bright and happy as if nothing had ever occurred to
+sadden them, and that this very room had not recently been the scene of
+a dreadful tragedy, of which the helpless babes were the only witnesses.
+
+"'Ain't it wonderful?' said Mrs. Maloney, that same day; 'Way's got off
+with just sixty days, and come back again, and that child putting on the
+airs of a woman, a tryin' to keep house for him.'
+
+"'And I'm sure that's right enough,' said Mrs. Macarty. 'They could not
+make it out that he killed the woman directly, and who cares for poor
+folks? She's dead and gone, and that's the end of her. Little them that
+makes the laws care! If it was one of them there rich men on the avenue,
+or a flaunting theater actress, or somebody had got jealous of somebody
+else, and committed murder, there'd be a fine sensation. An' there'd be
+pictures in all the shop windows, of how he or she looked in all sorts
+of situations, how they looked when they was a dyin', and how they
+looked after they was dead; and what the murderer eat for his supper the
+night it all got found out, or whether he did not eat anything at all;
+and how many fine ladies had been to console him, and how many equally
+fine ministers had been to pray with him. The newsboys would be
+shriekin' 'murder!' at every crossin', and every corner you turned, it
+would be 'hev a paper, mum, with the latest proceedings about the
+trial?' And to crown all, you'd come home, half distracted, to find the
+children playing with little gallowses, and askin' when pa was goin' to
+murder somebody, till you felt chilled to the very marrow of your
+bones.'
+
+'But poor folks, that live in attics, ain't considered human. I tell you
+what, though, if Mis' Way had a seen her children starving, and stole a
+loaf of bread to save their lives, there would have been a stir about
+it, and a pile of policemen from here to the corner, to 'enforce the
+law,' and they'd have talked in all the churches, about the depravity of
+the poor in these cities, and then sent another thousand or two to the
+heathens. The Lord only knows what the world's a comin' to.'
+
+'And the Lord only cares, I don't,' said Mrs. Maloney, flouncing off.
+The honest truth was, she was a little jealous of her more intelligent
+neighbor, (for human nature is much the same from the garret to the
+drawing-room.) Mrs. Macarty needn't think _she_ was talked down, if she
+did, now and then, get in a word that she had picked up out to service,
+that the rest of the folks in the block could not understand. One of the
+Maloney's, direct from Galway, wasn't to be put down by any low Irish.
+She'd go in and see the babies herself, and patronize them too. So, for
+spite, she took a dish of steaming potatoes, and left little Mike
+roaring, and went in to have a gossip.
+
+"'Oh, thank you, Mrs. Maloney,' said Angel, who was fluttering around,
+setting the table, 'this will be so nice for papa--there he comes now.'
+
+"A footstep sounded without, and the man came in, looking haggard and
+wan. 'The dirty villain,' muttered Mrs. Maloney, shuffling past him; but
+Angel came forward, and smoothed the hot temples, and talked in her
+pretty, bird-like voice. Two great tears rolled out from the hollow
+eyes, and a prayer that God must have heard, welled up from the depths
+of a penitent heart.
+
+"Three peaceful, happy years rolled away. Angel was a tall girl of
+fifteen, and Mary five. They lived in a little cottage in the outskirts
+of the town, and the neighbors envied them their contented lot, and even
+strangers paused to admire their pretty home, and these fair, beautiful
+children. But sin once more entered their little Paradise. William Way
+again relapsed into dissipation, and 'the state of that man was worse
+than before.' The fire died out upon the hearth stone, and want, with
+gaunt, wolfish face, met them wherever they turned. And he, who should
+have protected, gave them only blows and curses. Everything went for
+drink. Angel tried courageously to find employment, but her slender
+wages were rudely taken from her, and half the time they went cold and
+hungry. Little Mary had always been extremely delicate, and she sunk
+under it and died, and was buried beside her mother. Angel despaired
+then, and went on for the future in a kind of maze of bewilderment,
+doing that which her hand found to do mechanically. Only God, who had
+bereft her, pitied her still, and helped her to resist temptation when
+it came to her.
+
+"As her mother had done before her, Angel dragged out the weary years,
+almost hopeless; and the one object of her toil and solicitude, was only
+a pitiful wreck of the former stalwart William Way. Only a miserable,
+wretched creature, that grovelled in the mire of its own degradation,
+and from whose bosom the last spark of manhood seemed to have forever
+fled. To look upon him, you would ask, 'Can this being have a soul?'
+
+"And fifteen more years dragged their weary round, and Angel was thirty,
+and a haggard, care-worn woman. It was a sin and a shame, people said,
+to wreck that girl's life, when she had many a chance where she might
+have married, and enjoyed the comfort of having a home of her own. And
+there were even those mean enough to deride her for her sacrifice, and
+tell her she had no ambition, and call her a fool for her pains; but she
+did not mind them.
+
+"She felt glad that she had not, when, one day, the Doctor pronounced,
+over a broken limb that he was bandaging, that William Way was not long
+for this world.
+
+"'It's wonderful how he has held on so long, at the dreadful rate he has
+gone on, but the last few years have told on him. He can't survive this
+last shock.'
+
+"There was but little time for preparation for a future world; but Angel
+had faith, and, even at the eleventh hour, it met with its reward. When
+she closed the dying eyes, she felt that she could trust the penitent
+soul to the mercy of Him who created it, and 'who can make the vilest
+clean.'
+
+"For herself, she knew that 'when time shall be no more,' she should
+find eternal peace."
+
+There was a quick, gasping sob, and Clemence looked up, as she finished,
+to see a little figure in faded blue calico, flying frantically down the
+road.
+
+"Which of the scholars left?" she asked.
+
+"Only Ruth Lynn," said Maurice Wayne. "_Her_ father used to drink, and
+fell in the mill pond about a year ago, and got drowned. Her mother's
+sick, too, and Dr. Little says she can't live, and has give up goin' to
+see her any longer, 'cause she can't pay. He's stingy mean to do it, for
+he goes twice a day to see that spiteful old Mrs. March, and I'm sure
+_she_ can't live, for ma said yesterday that all her money couldn't save
+her. When I grow up, I'm going to be a doctor, and I'll look after every
+poor person twice as good as I will a rich one. That's what I'll do."
+
+"I did not know before that Ruth's mother was so very ill," said
+Clemence. "I must go and see her."
+
+She forgot it again, though, until about a week after, when the roll was
+called, and she marked again "absent" after Ruth's name, as she had
+already done several times before.
+
+"She can't come any more," said Maurice, "her mother's worse, and they
+say she won't live much longer."
+
+Clemence felt conscience-stricken at having forgotten her, and set out
+for the little one-roomed cabin directly after school was dismissed.
+
+She found the direst poverty and wretchedness. A dark-haired,
+strong-featured woman lay on a couch under a window, where there was
+scarcely a whole pane of glass, and which was stuffed full of rags to
+keep out the draught. A stove, at which a frowsy neighbor was cooking
+some fat slices of pork, for the sick woman, filled the apartment with
+stifling heat and greasy odors.
+
+"There's the schoolma'am," she heard in a loud whisper, as she paused
+for a moment upon the threshold. The invalid tried to raise herself, and
+gave a look of dismay at the squalid scene. Poor Mrs. Lynn had been a
+noted housekeeper, in her days of prosperity, and even at her greatest
+need, nobody could ever call her neglectful, either of her house or
+little Ruth, who, though always poorly clad, looked clean and wholesome.
+Clemence read the whole at a glance.
+
+"Do not apologise," she interrupted, as the strange neighbor poured out
+a profusion of deprecatory exclamations, "I heard that Mrs. Lynn was
+ill, and came over to see if I could not assist in some way. Don't allow
+me to disturb you, madam. How does she feel now?"
+
+"Well, pretty poorly; ain't it so, Mrs. Lynn? Don't you feel as though
+your time was short here below? School-ma'am's been askin."
+
+"Yes, I'm most gone," was the feeble response, "and I should rejoice to
+be freed from my troubles, only for the child. I don't have faith to see
+just how it's a goin to work for the best, for there will be none to
+comfort little Ruth after I'm gone."
+
+"Well, you must just trust in the Lord. That's what the minister told
+you, and he knows, for he's had a good chance to try it, preachin' all
+the time without half enough pay, and a donation now and then. Any way,
+it will be all the same a hundred years hence. There's the vittals I've
+been gettin ready, and now this young woman's come to sit by you, I'll
+run home and look after Tommy. Expect he's in the cistern by this time.
+If you want me, you can send Ruth, you know. Good night."
+
+"Good night, and thank you, Mrs. Deane," said the widow, and then turned
+again to Clemence, "They told me you was pretty, Miss," she said, gazing
+with pleasure at the pure, sweet face. "My Ruth just loved you from the
+first. You don't know how grateful I have felt towards you for being
+kind to the little fatherless creature."
+
+"Oh, don't thank me, indeed," said Clemence, "you would not, if you only
+knew how I have been reproaching myself for not coming before. Tell me
+something I can do for you."
+
+"There is not much more for me in this world," was the reply; "but I
+feel burdened with care about the child. I suppose you can't understand
+a mother's feelings, young lady, and it is weak in me to give up so, but
+I can't die and leave my little helpless girl alone in the world. Oh, if
+I could only take her with me?"
+
+"I see how you are situated," said Clemence, "you need a friend to help
+you. Have you no relatives to look to?"
+
+"No one in the whole, wide world. Little Ruth and me are alone. You must
+have heard how her father died. My poor, misguided husband! He might
+have surrounded us with plenty, but evil companions dragged him on to a
+dreadful end. He was an only son. His parents died, and left him with a
+few hundred dollars. I had always hired out before I was married, for I
+had no one to look to, as I was an orphan. I had, however, saved quite a
+little sum out of my wages, and this, with what James had, gave us quite
+a fair start in life. But he took to drink, and that was the last of our
+happiness. I have buried five children, and this girl is the only one
+left. Would that God had taken her, too."
+
+"How you must have suffered," said her young listener, down whose face
+sympathetic tears had been streaming, during the woman's pathetic
+recital. "It cannot be that you will be left to despair in your dying
+hour. Try and hope for the best, and be resigned to what may be in store
+for you, remembering it is His will."
+
+"I do try," said the woman, meekly; "and you, will you pray for me?"
+
+"Gladly, if you wish," said Clemence, sinking down beside the couch.
+
+"There, I feel stronger now," said the invalid. "You must surely have
+been sent by God to comfort me."
+
+Clemence's face was radiant with a light that told whence came her pure
+joy. She glided around softly, preparing a tempting supper out of the
+delicacies she had brought to the sick woman. Then she drew a chair
+again beside her, preparatory to a night of watching.
+
+The woman fell into an uneasy slumber, and the hours waned, as the girl
+kept faithful "watch and ward." With the early morning light came a
+change.
+
+"Ruth, run for the neighbors," said Clemence, in frightened tones. "Your
+mother is worse," and the half-dressed child fled out of the house,
+crying bitterly.
+
+"Ruth, Ruth!" called the sufferer, "my poor darling."
+
+Clemence came to her side, "I sent her after Mrs Deane," she said,
+soothingly, "she will be back in a few moments."
+
+"It will be too late. I am going--oh, Father, forgive me? I cannot die
+in peace--my little Ruth, my little, helpless, confiding daughter, child
+of my love, I cannot leave her."
+
+The great, hollow eyes fastened themselves imploringly on her face. The
+young watcher felt as if the minutes were hours. She listened for the
+footsteps that came not. The woman's breath came quick in little gasps.
+She tried to speak, turned on her pillow and uttered a feeble word of
+anguish. Her eyes again sought the face of the young watcher, and she
+strove again to syllable incoherent questions. Clemence came nearer and
+bent over her, asking in earnest, agitated tones,
+
+"Will you trust your child with me? She shall be my own, own sister, and
+I will work for her, and love her, and watch over her, while life
+lasts?"
+
+A faint pressure of the cold hand, and a look of heavenly peace in the
+dying eyes, was her only reply.
+
+"She is gone!" said Clemence, as Mrs. Deane appeared in the doorway,
+"Come to me Ruth, you have lost your mother, but you have found a
+sister," and she clasped the sobbing little one to her arms.
+
+"Well, if that don't beat all," said Mrs. Wynn. "Whoever heard of such
+goin's on? What is the girl goin' to do with that beggar-child, I'd like
+to know? A lone female, too, with no one to protect her, and nothing but
+one pair of hands. She's spoilt her market by that move. There ain't a
+young feller in Waveland got courage enough to make up to her now, for
+all that pretty face; nobody wants to take a young'un that don't belong
+to 'em, on their hands to support. She's clean crazy to do it.
+
+"Rose, you'll have to finish the dishes and clean up, if it _is_
+Saturday, for I'm a goin' round to Miss Pryor's. I can't keep that to
+myself over Sunday, not if a whole passel of ministers was to come here
+to dinner, and I love my reputation for neatness, entirely."
+
+It was a fearful responsibility, but now that she had taken it, or
+rather had it forced upon her by fate, Clemence felt thankful that she
+was thought worthy of the charge. She began to love the little, helpless
+creature, who looked to her now for every good. She took pleasure in
+combing the soft, brown hair, that had, hitherto, been twisted into an
+awkward knot, into pretty, graceful curls, and it would be hard to
+believe that the little, slender, sable-clad child, with the serious,
+brown eyes, that always followed Clemence with looks of love in their
+yearning, amber depths, could possibly be the same wild, sly, little
+Ruth Lynn, whom we first knew.
+
+Notwithstanding Mrs. Wynn's adverse prediction, Clemence's "strange
+freak," as they called it in the little village, was not condemned by
+every one. There were a few liberal-minded ones, who saw at once how the
+case stood, and resolved to uphold the girl in her course, though they
+feared for the future, in which there was the possibility of failure.
+And, much to Clemence's astonishment, the gallant Philemon W. Strain,
+editor, came out with a glowing account of the whole affair in the next
+issue of the Clarion, in a three column article, headed "Ruth, the
+Village Child," complimenting the young schoolmistress in such
+high-flown terms, that a rival editor, who read it, thought that she
+must be of a literary turn, and wrote to her to solicit contributions to
+his paper, and another authority in a neighboring village, wanted to
+write her life, and was only pacified by being allowed to dedicate a
+poem to our young heroine, which, happily for her nerves, was never
+published, for being sent by the ambitious strippling to a popular
+magazine, was only heard of again under the head of "respectfully
+declined," accompanied by some severe and cutting remarks, to the effect
+that the writer had better look to his grammar and orthography, which
+uncalled for sarcasm, cruelly, but effectually extinguished what might,
+perhaps, have been a light, that, in the future, might had illumined the
+world with its effulgent rays.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Sabbath in the country. Who, that has ever enjoyed its serene beauty,
+can ever again long for the unhallowed day, that, in the city, is
+seemingly more for the recreation of the masses of working people, than
+for the worship of God. Clemence, leading by the hand little Ruth,
+thought she had never seen anything so beautiful and peaceful as the
+scene. Nature seemed in an attitude of devotion, and quaintly dressed
+little children, with their testaments and Sabbath school books, and
+silver-haired patriarchs and patient women, with sturdy young men, and
+fair, blooming girls, were all hastening, in little groups, to the place
+of prayer and praise.
+
+Clemence paused, for there was yet time before the service, and drew
+Ruth with her, through the gate that led into the cemetery. The child
+shivered and shrank back, and Clemence let her have her way. She went on
+alone, to a distant part of the graveyard, where there was a mound of
+fresh earth, that covered all there was now of Ruth's loving mother.
+
+"Poor, heart-broken woman," she thought, sorrowfully, "she has found
+rest now."
+
+She bent down and made, with a pocket-knife, an incision in the fresh
+earth, and placed therein the long stems of a delicate boquet, which
+she had brought for the purpose. When she arose, bright, crystal drops
+sparkled upon the velvet petals, and her eyes were still shining with
+tears.
+
+"God help me to be faithful to that mother's sacred trust," she
+murmured, as she walked away.
+
+Ruth's slight figure had lingered behind a marble slab, at a little
+distance, and when she was gone, the child rushed impetuously forward,
+and, with one bitter, wailing cry, threw herself upon her mother's
+grave.
+
+Clemence wandered aimlessly down the shady walks, crushing the long,
+rank weeds, and the occasional wild flowers beneath her feet, and at
+last sank down at the foot of a willow, whose long, drooping branches
+trailed nearly to the mossy sward beneath. She buried her head in her
+hands, and her thoughts went back over the past. The retrospection was
+inexpressibly wonderful.
+
+"This is wrong," she thought, trying to shake off the sadness that
+oppressed her; "it will not help me to bear my burden farther. There is
+now, by a strange fate, another, still more weak and helpless than I,
+who is dependant upon my efforts, and I must not yield to sorrow." But
+the tears came again, as the thought that even this child, who, but for
+her, would be utterly forlorn and friendless, had to-day the privilege
+that was denied her, kneeling at the grave of one she loved. How
+peaceful looked this silent home of the dead! "They rest from their
+labors," she mused, "and pleased God, in His own good time, I, too,
+shall be at peace."
+
+It was strange, in one so young; but, Clemence Graystone never spoke or
+acted as though she had a long lifetime of usefulness or enjoyment
+before her. A feeling, that amounted almost to presentiment, told her
+that she had not long to wait for the morning that dawneth only upon
+eternity; and she thought she was content to work and wait until the
+summons came. It might have been, in part, owing to the morbid state
+into which she had fallen, after the death of her parents, and these
+subsequent severe and long-continued trials of her strength, which was
+by no means great, but it was only in part. If there are some of the
+great heroes upon life's battle-field, who have had the future faintly
+foreshadowed to them, just as truly this shrinking, sensitive girl knew
+that, whatever might come to her now, whether of pleasure or pain, she
+should be upheld and borne through it, and that a crown, "more to be
+chosen" than the laurel wreath of a changeful and fickle world, would be
+her sweet reward; even that "crown of glory, which fadeth not away." She
+knelt down where she had been sitting, and asked God to give her
+patience and humility for what might come, then walked on comforted, to
+find Ruth. The child was waiting for her, and as she came along, slid
+her little hand confidingly into hers. Clemence saw that she had been
+crying, for the great brown eyes were humid, and tears still glittered
+on the silken lashes. She stooped and kissed her, but forbore to speak,
+and together they went into the meeting house. The congregation were
+already assembled, and were singing the beautiful hymn which will never
+grow old or forgotten, commencing, "My faith looks up to thee!"
+Clemence seated herself, and bowed her head, and the sweet words went
+down into the sacred recesses of her spirit. An admirable author has
+remarked, "there are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body,
+the soul is on its knees." And, although Clemence's lips syllabled no
+words, her thoughts were those of the most exalted devotion. She seemed
+wrapped about in a spell of dreamy silence, and the words of the sermon
+came faintly to an ear that was all unheeding. When it was over, and
+they rose to sing the last hymn, she sat abstractedly, "among them, but
+not of them." It needed the pressure of Ruth's light hand to rouse her,
+and she stood up for the benediction. After it was pronounced, she
+became conscious, for the first time, that they had been the centre of
+observation. A little group immediately collected around them, and there
+was no end to the staring of those who stood aloof. Clemence recollected
+then, that this was her first appearance with Ruth in her new
+relationship. She felt a slight embarrassment, as so many eyes regarded
+her curiously and rudely, but answered pleasantly the many inquiries
+that were successively made of her.
+
+"Just look at the child!" said Mrs. Wynn, "who would have thought that
+forlorn little thing could appear so nice and scrumptious. Let me see.
+Is that silk tissue that dress is made of? Extravagant!"
+
+"Why, so it is!" echoed a chorus of voices.
+
+"Miss Graystone, I did not expect that a person occupying your elevated
+position in this community, would set such a ruinous example. A teacher
+of youth should look to the cultivation of the mind, not to the outward
+adorning of the person." Mrs. Dr. Little sailed away from the little
+group in as dignified a manner as a lady of nearly two hundred
+avoirdupois could be expected to do, as she threw in this remark.
+
+There was a momentary silence, broken by the irrepressible Mrs. Wynn.
+"What is that, a locket?" she asked, with a little scream of surprise.
+"Is it real gold? Let me see it, child!" She grasped it from the neck of
+the frightened little one. "Oh, its yours," she said in a disappointed
+tone. She had evidently expected some other face than the one that
+looked smilingly up; the very counterpart of the girl who stood before
+her, regarding her with a bewildered look. "Sinful!" she ejaculated, "as
+well as extravagant, to put such ideas into that young one's head.
+She'll have a watch next, and a new silk dress. I fear for the morals of
+this village. Miss Graystone, I expected better things of you. I feel it
+my duty to warn you solemnly, that if you go on in this way, you may
+lose your position and the confidence of the _respectable_ portion of
+this community."
+
+There was such a strong emphasis on the word "respectable," that
+Clemence's face flushed with indignant astonishment.
+
+"At least, madam," she said, in a tone of dignified reproof, "I have
+sufficient sense of propriety to remember that this is no place in which
+to discuss such subjects. I have not forgotten to respect the Sabbath.
+Come dear," more gently to Ruth.
+
+"Whew!" said Mrs. Wynn, looking after her in blank amazement; "If I
+ain't teetotally constonished, and clean put out, like a tallow dip
+under an extinguisher, by my fine young schoolmistress. You heard that,
+I suppose, Betsey Pryor?"
+
+"Oh! of course I heard it," said that piece of antiquity, with a
+spiteful laugh, "and I hope now you are beginning to see through your
+model young lady. Didn't I tell you there was something behind that
+innocent face? 'Still water runs deep.' I knew she was a cute one. I
+ain't lived to for--to my age, if I ain't the oldest person in the
+world, and not know something of human nature. I pity your want of
+penetration, Mrs. Wynn. Massy! just look through that window!"
+
+There was a general rush to that side of the room indicated by Miss
+Pryor, and they were rewarded for the effort with a fresh theme for
+gossip.
+
+"Good gracious, Rose, look!" almost shrieked Mrs. Wynn, "there they go
+with Mr. Strain. Ain't that style now? Come away, Rose, with me, this
+minute. My conscience won't allow me to pass over this chance. There is
+yet time to warn Clemence Graystone, and turn her from the path of
+destruction. I am a virtuous matron, and I must use what influence I
+possess to save others from evil communications. I will even forgive
+that girl for the indignity offered to me this day, in public, if it is
+necessary to save her from misery. Her heart must be melted by Christian
+love and forbearance. Hasten, Rose, and we will overtake them."
+
+Wholly intent upon her pious mission, Mrs. Wynn did not feel any
+disagreeable effects from the vertical rays of the blazing noonday sun,
+but ran down the road after the little group, who moved on, leisurely
+and unconscious, a few rods before them.
+
+"Wait, Miss Graystone," she gasped, "I want to speak to you. Why, Mr.
+Strain, excuse my interrupting you, but I want to speak a word to this
+dear child. Rose, walk on with Mr. Strain, I don't wish my remarks to be
+overheard."
+
+The gentleman paused a moment in a state of uncertainty, eyed the
+blooming Miss Rose Wynn, whose five feet five of feminine humanity, clad
+in bright red delaine, quite overshadowed the delicate figure beside
+him. But he obeyed the elder woman's command meekly, nevertheless, and
+went forward, asking in a pompous tone:
+
+"Is your paternal benefactor indisposed, Miss Wynn? I did not have the
+pleasure of beholding that respected personage at our morning service."
+
+"Who?" queried his fair companion. "Oh, if you mean pa, he's laid up on
+account of takin' cold in the hay field. 'Taint goin' to amount to much
+though. Let's hurry up, ma's motioning me to go faster."
+
+They walked on, and Mrs. Wynn, eying their retreating figures with
+supreme satisfaction, turned and smiled blandly upon Clemence.
+
+"Now, I've got a little breath," she articulated, still with
+considerable difficulty, "I want to ask you what on earth made you fly
+out with your best friend. I didn't mean anything, only for your own
+good."
+
+"I believe you, Mrs. Wynn," said her young listener, generously. "I will
+admit having experienced a momentary feeling of displeasure at your
+words, but I have conquered it, and should have forgotten it, I am
+sure, without this explanation. I am afraid it is I who ought to
+apologise for having forgotten the respect due to age."
+
+"There, now, don't," said Mrs. Wynn, now really in earnest. "It _was_
+mean in me, to say that before them all, and I'm sorry for it, for it
+shows the right spirit in you to try and defend the little creature. You
+have shamed us all out by the way you have acted, and if ever you want
+any help with the child, come to Mother Wynn, and see if she won't be as
+good as her word, and show you the way out of your difficulties."
+
+"Thank you, my good, kind friend," said Clemence, grasping the hand held
+out to her, impulsively. "I am afraid that I am not equal to the
+responsibility that I have taken upon myself in the care of this child,
+but I shall do my very best."
+
+"And angels can't do nothin' more," said Mrs. Wynn. "You're made of the
+right stuff, child, and I'm glad we had this little fallin' out, we had
+such a good makin' up time. I like you all the better. I wish Betsy
+Pryor hadn't been there to see it, though--never mind, I'll make her pay
+dearly for the satisfaction she enjoyed over it. I'll be your fast
+friend from this time forward, and I ain't one of the kind to say a
+thing that I don't mean."
+
+"What a good-hearted, motherly woman," thought Clemence, after they
+parted. "I am sure she meant well all the time." And perhaps it was but
+natural that Mrs. Wynn should put Rose forward, and make her happiness a
+thing to be considered above everything and everybody else. Other
+mothers have done the same, and thought their Clementinas and Matildas
+the dearest girls in the world, and hated everybody cordially, who did
+not see them with their own partial eyes, and value them accordingly.
+People are not so very different from the highest to the lowest, and
+nearly all view the world from one stand-point, and plan and speculate
+as to how they can best make it subservient to their own interest. Mrs.
+Wynn, if no better, was at least as good as the majority of her sex.
+
+That evening Clemence went down to the boarding place which was next in
+order, and which was the residence of a family by the name of Brier. The
+night was glorious. The moon rode proudly through the heavens, and the
+stars glittered brightly upon the deep azure of the evening sky. The
+trees cast dusky shadows across her pathway, as she walked onward, and
+far away to the right of her, stretched a dark forest, shrouded in
+impenetrable gloom and silence. All was calm repose. Sweet odors floated
+to her, borne on the evening breeze, while afar off came the musical
+plash of falling waters, and the murmuring leaves bent to whisper a
+benediction. Charmed by the calm beauty of the hour, she did not observe
+that any one was near her, until a carefully modulated voice fell on her
+ear:
+
+"We meet again, my fair young friend, by a most fortunate train of
+circumstances. What, may I ask, was the subject of your contemplations,
+when I disturbed you? Judging by the sweet tranquillity of your
+countenance, your thoughts were of the most pleasing description."
+
+Clemence recognized the well-known tones at once, even before she turned
+to glance at the new comer.
+
+"Why, good evening, Mr. Strain," she said, trying to conceal that she
+had been at all startled by his vicinity, and feeling somewhat
+re-assured, upon recognizing the village editor. "I was not aware of
+your close proximity. I was admiring this lovely evening. Is it not
+really beautiful?"
+
+"Beautiful!" exclaimed the gentleman, rapturously, "it is more than
+that, it is gorgeous beyond description!" continuing in a newspaper
+advertisement way, with some more remarks of a similar nature. "May I
+ask, Miss Graystone, if you were walking for the purpose of calm
+enjoyment and meditation, or whether you had any decided object in thus
+going out unattended?"
+
+"I had an object," replied Clemence, "I am going to Mrs. Brier's. I
+thought I would go this evening, because it was so pleasant, and in
+order to be ready for my duties in the morning."
+
+"Ah, yes! the Brier's are good, worthy souls, I believe, although I
+cannot say that they are particularly known to me. You must have
+observed, by this time, that I pride myself somewhat on my penetration
+and keen insight into the character of those with whom the extensive
+business of my office throws me often in contact. Yes, you must have
+discovered, by this time, that I am a superior judge of human nature, by
+the perusal of the spicy editorials which have made the Waveland Clarion
+widely known and feared, as well as respected. As one of the admirers of
+my peculiar genius remarked, to the confusion of another of the
+editorial fraternity, it takes Philemon W. Strain to hit off the follies
+and weaknesses of mankind with his humorous pen. But if it is often his
+duty to condemn, it is sometimes, also, his privilege to admire, as you
+cannot have failed to notice within the past few weeks."
+
+Clemence acknowledged the implied compliment, and hastened to change the
+subject. She was glad to behold, in the distance, the lights gleaming
+from the Brier cottage, and hurried forward, the sooner to be rid of her
+not altogether welcome company. Mrs. Brier chanced to be standing in the
+front door, as they came up.
+
+"Good evening, Miss Graystone," she said. "Why, Mr. Strain," in a tone
+of affected surprise, "who would have thought of seeing _you_. Come
+right in, both of you."
+
+"Thank you," said the gentleman, confusedly. "I believe I will walk on,
+as I have an engagement for this evening." Raising his hat to the
+ladies, he strode away with a majestic tread. Clemence breathed a sigh
+of relief, as she followed the spare figure of her hostess into the
+house.
+
+"You must be tired," said that lady, "sit in the rocking chair and rest
+yourself. Johnny," to a pale, sharp featured child, "come and bid the
+schoolmistress good evening."
+
+The child came shyly up to the young teacher, and, as she held out her
+hand, seemed re-assured by her kindly smile.
+
+"I suppose you know it ain't none of ourn," said Mrs. Brier, "its only a
+boy we took to bring up. Nobody knows who his parents be. Brier got him
+at the foundling hospital when he went to sell his wheat to the city. He
+wasn't but two years old then, but he's ten now, and a great, big, lazy,
+idle, good-for-nothing boy, that'll never begin to pay for his keepin'.
+I never wanted the young 'un around, but Brier said he'd come handy
+by-and-by, and save a man's wages; so as we never had any of our own, we
+thought we'd keep him. Children are an awful sight of trouble. This one
+has been such a trial. He has got such a terrible temper, and I have
+hard work to keep him in his place, but I do it, I can tell you," she
+added, glaring spitefully at the little cowering creature.
+
+"Why, he don't look like a very naughty boy," said Clemence. "I think
+Johnny is one of the best behaved boys in school. He is so quiet that I
+hardly know he is there, except when he is reading his lessons, and
+those he always has well learned. He very seldom fails with a
+recitation."
+
+"Well, I'm glad to hear anybody speak well of you," said Mrs. Brier to
+him again. "I hope she'll be able to make something of you. Guess you'll
+show the cloven foot, though, before long."
+
+The child, who had been regarding Clemence with a beaming, grateful
+glance, turned, as the woman concluded these remarks, with a sigh so
+deep and mournful that Clemence's heart throbbed with sympathetic pain.
+
+"We are none of us perfect," she said, gently, "we can only try to do
+right, and ask God to bless our endeavors. It requires a good deal of
+patience with little ones, and a firm and gentle hand to guide them."
+
+"I ain't sure about the gentle, but I'm firm and determined enough. I
+mean to be feared, if I ain't loved. I don't care anything about such
+nonsense as winning a child's affections. He's none of mine, and I'm
+glad of it. He won't expect to be pampered and spoiled like the other
+children around here. And let me tell you, you had better profit by my
+example, in respect to that girl of Lynn's. It was a mighty foolish
+thing, burdening yourself down with the care of that child. You're poor,
+I take it, or you wouldn't be teachin' school here, and you say you're
+an orphan. What would become of you if you was to fall sick?"
+
+"I should still trust in God," said Clemence, "and I believe He would
+open a way for me. I have only done what I thought to be my duty in the
+matter, and I have faith that I shall be fully sustained."
+
+"Oh, you know best of course, but people will have their say, and there
+has been a good deal of talk lately, and rather to your disadvantage.
+'Taint been looked upon in a favorable light here, taking a poor
+nobody's child, and dressing her up to make her feel her importance over
+her betters. I'm afraid you'll yet be sorry that you ever undertook to
+provide for her."
+
+"God forbid," said Clemence earnestly. "I should despise myself for even
+once harboring such an unworthy thought. Whatever the future may have in
+store for me, whether for weal or woe, this child shares it, for there
+is no one else to give a thought or prayer for my happiness. This event,
+which my friends have looked upon as a calamity, has already proved a
+blessing, and has opened for me a new source of innocent pleasure."
+
+"Well, now you _are_ visionary," said her companion. "Mrs. Wynn said so,
+and she gets things generally pretty near right. Guess you'll learn to
+be a little more practical before you get through with this life. The
+world ain't made for folks to dream away their time in, for there's work
+to be done, and you know that them that don't work shan't eat. Food and
+shelter and good, warm clothing, to say nothin' of fine lady fixins,
+don't come for a song, I can tell you."
+
+"I know it," said Clemence, drearily, her thoughts going back to the
+great city, where she had lived and struggled for one who was no more.
+"If I am given to dreams," she mused, "they are not of a sanguine
+nature. There are weary months of toil and discouragements, and many
+failures before me, for the 'end is not yet.' As another has remarked,
+'a wide, rich heaven hangs above you, but it hangs very high. A wide,
+rough world is around you, and it lies very low.'"
+
+A tear trickled down the girl's cheek, and fell upon her black dress. A
+little figure stole up, and knelt beside her, and a timid voice said,
+"Don't cry, please, Johnny's sorry for you." Clemence raised the little
+form.
+
+"Poor child," she said, "you are early accustomed to sorrow." She parted
+the hair from off his forehead, with a mother touch, and noted the
+intelligence and sympathy in the great, thoughtful eyes. "You are a good
+boy, dear, let me see if I have not got something to please you." She
+put her hand in her pocket, and drew out a tiny Bible, and wrote
+therein, before handing it to him, these words in pencil--"John Brier, a
+gift from his Teacher."
+
+"There, Johnny," she said, "keep that always, and promise me to read it
+every day, and try to follow its instructions, for, if you act in
+accordance with its precepts, you will have that peace and happiness
+that comes from a consciousness of having performed our duty."
+
+She leaned forward and rested her head upon her hand after a way she had
+when troubled. Mrs. Brier's uncalled for remarks had disturbed her. Why
+should people say unkind things of her, when she was trying so hard to
+do right. Surely, there could be no wrong in the act of comforting a
+dying woman with the promise that her only child should be cared for and
+protected. She had not been eager to take upon herself this burden, but
+there was no one else, and it seemed almost as if God had intended her
+for the emergency. There was but one thing left, to struggle on as
+hopefully as possible, and live down these adverse circumstances.
+
+"Your room's ready, Miss." said her hostess coming back, suddenly, and
+only too glad of the opportunity, Clemence bid her good night, and
+retired immediately.
+
+"Johnny!" called the sharp voice of Mrs. Brier, at the early morning
+light, "up with you, I tell you. Do you hear? For every minute you keep
+me, you'll get an extra crack!" and, true to her word, there was
+presently a grieved cry from the child, upon whose slender shoulders at
+least a dozen blows were showered in rapid succession.
+
+An hour after, when Clemence went down to breakfast, Johnny came in from
+the woodshed, with traces of tears on his face.
+
+"What's the matter with the young'un?" asked Mr. Brier, as they took
+their places at the table. He seemed to have a little more self-control
+than his amiable spouse, and to be annoyed at such exhibitions before a
+stranger.
+
+"The same old thing over again," was the reply, "he wouldn't get up in
+time to start the fire, and I took him in hand, and I'll do it again, if
+he don't get out of the sulks."
+
+"Why, I guess he means to behave," said Mr. Brier, deprecatingly, "it's
+natural for boys to be lazy, you know."
+
+"Well, I'll take the laziness out of him. What do you suppose he was
+made for, if it was not to work? As if he was goin' to be took care of,
+and have me delve away all of my life, washin' and makin' over clothes
+for him, and he not work and pay for it. There's the cow to milk, and
+take to pasture, the garden to weed, and wood to prepare, besides the
+other errands, and how's it all to be done, if you make a fine gentleman
+of him. It's askin' enough to send him to school, without keepin' him in
+idleness. He was brought here to work, and I intend to see that he does
+it."
+
+"Why don't you eat your breakfast, Johnny?" asked her husband.
+
+"Because, I can't," replied the child, tears filling his eyes. "I'm not
+hungry."
+
+"But I should think any little boy ought to be, that's been out in this
+delightful morning air. Eat your breakfast before you go to school."
+
+"Yes," chimed in Mrs. Brier, "don't leave anything on your plate, or I
+shall keep it for your dinner. I never allow anything to be wasted in
+this house. Here, take these nice, warmed potatoes, and don't let me see
+you putting on any more airs."
+
+"I can't," persisted Johnny, "they are sour."
+
+"Don't tell me that," was the next remark, in warning accents. "I'm as
+good a judge as you are, I reckon. I say they ain't sour. Be they, Miss
+Graystone?"
+
+If she had expected an affirmative reply to this question, she was
+doomed to disappointment. Disgusted with such paltry meanness, Clemence,
+who had pushed her plate away, unable to partake of the stale food,
+replied quietly, "I should say they were decidedly sour."
+
+There was a moment's disagreeable silence, during which Mr. and Mrs.
+Brier exchanged meaning glances across the table. Then he hastened to
+say, "Of course, then, they must be, though I never detected it. Wife,
+how came you to put them on the table? I should think twenty bushels
+ought to last a family of three persons quite a while, especially with
+all the new ones we have had."
+
+"Of course," she answered snappishly, "I didn't know it, or I wouldn't
+have used them. Thank goodness! though, I ain't so dainty as some I
+could mention. If there's anything I despise, it's a person that's so
+poor they can't but just exist, putting on style over folks that can buy
+and sell them."
+
+"Just hear that, now," said Mr. Brier, in a conciliatory tone, "you've
+got a sharp tongue in your head, Marthy; you don't let anybody put you
+in your place, and keep you there easy, without they get a piece of your
+mind. For my part, I like to see a woman independent."
+
+"It don't matter much to me, Brier, what you do like and what you
+don't," said his lady, with a toss of her head, "I'm boss of my own
+house, and no man shall dictate to me, not if I know it. You needn't
+sneak, like any miserable cur, nor put on that smirk to cover up your
+own acts, though I ain't afraid but what I can come out ahead, and fight
+my own battles, if you do show the white feather. Where would you be
+to-day, I'd like to know, if I'd let you gone on with that overgrown
+tribe of your'n? You know you'd never been worth a cent durin' the whole
+of your natural life!"
+
+"You're right there, Marthy," he answered again, meekly enough.
+
+"Do you know, Miss Graystone, that I'd never had this two thousand
+dollars, that I've managed to scrape together, if that smart, managing
+woman of mine hadn't scrimped and saved beyond everything you ever saw.
+'Taint every man that's got a treasure like mine, I can tell you."
+
+And truly they had not, for it does not often fall to the lot of mortal
+man to find in one little, insignificant figure, dwarfish alike in soul
+and body, such a compound of selfishness, duplicity, meanness, and
+vulgarity, as was centered in the object of that gentleman's affection.
+
+Of the many conjugal scenes to which Clemence was an unwilling witness,
+varying from light skirmishes over the breakfast-table, to hysterics
+and a doctor, with the neighbors called in, in the evening, it would be
+impossible to speak at length. It has been affirmed, that, in time, one
+will get accustomed to anything, and Clemence had attained to such a
+proficiency in maintaining a non-committal air, that these little
+diversions would not have disturbed her equanimity, as she solaced
+herself with the reflection that, "after a storm comes a calm," but for
+the fact that this belligerent couple had an unhappy faculty of making
+up their differences at the expense of a third party, and it became her
+unhappy fate, as the last new comer, to stand in the place Johnny had
+formerly been devoted to, as the unfortunate third. Happily, however,
+for her nerves, her stay was short with these inhospitable entertainers.
+
+"Where are you going when you leave here, Miss Graystone," asked Mrs.
+Brier, on the last morning of her stay.
+
+"To Mrs. Hardyng's," said Clemence, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"Possible!" was the exclamation, "seems to me your one of the favored
+ones. No other teacher ever went there before. She don't patronize the
+school, and keeps herself to herself pretty much. I hear she's took
+quite a notion to you. Is it true?"
+
+"I believe we are very good friends," said Clemence.
+
+"Do you know anything about her," was the next query. "Strikes me, I'd
+want to find out who I'd struck up an intimacy with, if I was in your
+place, and if you have learned anything about that singular woman, your
+smarter than the whole town of Waveland put together. It looks
+suspicious to me to see anybody so close mouthed about their affairs;
+looks as if they wouldn't stand investigation, and they're afraid to let
+'em see daylight. I like things all fair and above-board, myself.
+
+"Brier, come to breakfast. It's getting stone-cold. Never mind that
+young'un, he's gone to take the cow to pasture, and I can give him a
+piece when he comes back."
+
+Obedient to the summons, the gentleman in question laid down a damp copy
+of the Weekly Clarion, and seated himself at the table. After glibly
+repeating a few words, of which Clemence could only distinguish "food
+spread before us," and "duly thankful," he asked, pausing and balancing
+a saucer of coffee with great dexterity on the palm of his right hand,
+
+"Did you read that criticism on the lady lecturer? I tell you, that same
+Philemon W. Strain has a peculiar genius for that sort of an article."
+
+"What did you say, Brier?" asked his better half, glancing at Clemence,
+as if she was the offending party, "you don't mean that a woman's got
+brass enough to mount a rostrum and harangue an audience?"
+
+"You've just said the very thing now, Marthy. I knew you would be down
+on that sort of business. Nothing masculine about you, thank goodness!
+I've often felt thankful that I was spared the infliction of a
+strong-minded woman. That's one thing I _couldn't_ stand."
+
+"Well, I guess we are agreed on that subject," said the lady, bridling
+at the compliment, and allowing her thin lips to relax into the
+faintest possible shadow of a smile, "for if there's one thing I
+absolutely abhor, it's these so-called intellectual women. To my mind, a
+woman that pushes her way along to a profession, or aspires to address
+the public, either through the medium of the pen, or on the rostrum,
+ought to be banished from good society, and frowned upon by all
+respectable married women. It's disgraceful, outrageous, scandalous!"
+and, as she uttered, vehemently, these ejaculations, the greenish gray
+eyes flashed upon Clemence a look so malicious and spiteful, as to have
+a totally opposite effect from what it was intended, for she returned it
+with one of quiet amusement, and burst out laughing. She saw at once
+that the conversation had been introduced solely for her own benefit,
+and wondered how they should surmise that she could possibly be
+interested in it. This was the oddest couple she had met in all her
+peregrinations. Mr. Brier was naturally greatly superior to his wife, as
+Mrs. Wynn had said, but was biased in his opinions by that lady, who
+ruled him with no gentle sway. With another woman, whose society would
+have had a tendency to elevate him, there is no telling what this man
+might have become. But having been entrapped into an early marriage,
+with a woman of inferior intellect and but little ambition, he had sunk
+down several grades lower than nature intended him.
+
+He felt this, too, even after all these years had drifted aimlessly
+away, and the knowledge did not make him better. He grew morose and
+cynical, hating everybody who did not move in his own narrow circle. As
+one might suppose, he had not many friends, and his life was not a happy
+one.
+
+"How much misery there is in the world," thought Clemence, as she walked
+towards the school-house. It seems as if almost every one had some
+secret sorrow of their own--and what a singular and deplorable effect
+grief has upon some people, rendering them selfish, and closing the
+heart to pity, instead of remembering their own sorrows, only to
+commiserate and alleviate those of others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+That evening, as Clemence sat alone with her friend, she asked her the
+question which had perplexed herself, and which she had never been able
+to solve: "Ulrica, why are so many people unhappy?"
+
+"Child, I cannot tell you," replied the elder woman, mournfully; "for
+myself, I know that I have for many years considered life a burden to
+me, instead of the glorious boon our Creator designed it. You have never
+asked me anything of my former life, but, to-night, the feeling is
+strong upon me to speak of the past, for I feel strangely in need of
+sympathy."
+
+She bowed her head upon her hands, and great tears coursed down her pale
+cheeks, while Clemence sat in wondering silence; then, recovering
+herself, she began in a low tone:
+
+"I was the only child of wealthy and indulgent parents. From my infancy
+every want was eagerly anticipated by loving friends, who made my will
+and pleasure paramount to everything, and who were ever subjected to my
+imperious rule. At eighteen, I was a spoiled child, without the least
+knowledge of the world, or of the duties and responsibilities of life.
+Then my parents died, and left me to the guardianship of a vain and
+worldly-minded aunt, who became fond of me, in her way, because of my
+beauty and great wealth.
+
+"I mingled a good deal in society, and of course, being an heiress had
+many opportunities for marriage. However I was very fond of admiration,
+and soon succeeded in establishing a reputation for being a thorough
+coquette. At heart, I felt a supreme contempt for those who sought me on
+account of those 'golden attractions,' without caring to look beyond.
+Had I been differently brought up, I believe I would not have been what
+I am to day, a lonely and heart-broken woman, for, though passionate and
+somewhat overbearing, I had many good impulses, which, if rightly
+trained, might have made me wiser and better. But I was left solely to
+the guidance of my own will, and every idle caprice and foolish whim
+were always indulged to the utmost. Among all the gentlemen whom I met
+at this season, there were only two in whom I felt the least interest.
+For one of them, Wainwright Angier, I had a profound regard. I knew that
+he was my true friend. It was my nature to despise those whom I could
+bend to my will. He had too much manly independence for this, and
+conscientiously abstained from flattery. When I did wrong, he
+remonstrated earnestly, and when I told him that his advice was not
+solicited, looked grieved and reproachful. He was far from my ideal of
+perfection, however. It is commonly supposed that people are attracted
+towards their opposites, but though Wainwright Angier's character and
+personal appearance differed widely from mine, yet I never dreamed, in
+those days, of loving him. He was pale and intellectual looking, with
+clear, penetrating eyes, and a firm, determined mouth. But his voice
+was, I think, his greatest attraction for me, for I am one of the few
+who take as much pleasure in an agreeable voice, as in gazing at a
+beautiful face.
+
+"The other, Geoffrey Westbourne--how shall I describe him? Tall and
+commanding in figure, with glossy purple-black hair, and the midnight
+eyes that matched it, he was eminently handsome, and, as everybody
+agreed, a splendid conversationalist. Notwithstanding his acknowledged
+superiority to all others, and the fact that he was petted and caressed
+by every one, I felt an instinctive repugnance to him, that for a long
+time I tried in vain to overcome. Perhaps it was because I had heard him
+so highly spoken of, that I was ready to find fault. However that maybe,
+I felt a secret antipathy to this man. Would I had been allowed to
+follow the warning conveyed in these first impressions, what a world of
+misery I had then escaped!
+
+"'Well, how did you like him?' queried my aunt, after our first meeting.
+'Isn't he splendid?'
+
+"'Not to my taste,' was my reply. 'To tell the truth, I was not very
+agreeably impressed by your Mr. Westbourne.'
+
+"'Shocking!' exclaimed the astonished lady, with upraised hands. 'That
+girl will surely be an old maid. She has no taste. Not like him, when he
+is already deep in love with you? Ulrica, this is arrant coquetry.'
+
+"She had reason to think so afterwards, for the subject of our
+conversation soon became a constant visitor at the house. He _was_
+handsome, talented and agreeable, besides, all my lady friends were
+dying with envy. I felt flattered by his preference, and in time forgot
+my early dislike, or remembered it only to wonder and laugh at my
+foolish, school-girl fancies. Yet, at times, when I was alone, and had
+time for thought, a strange, undefined feeling would steal over me,
+amounting to a dread of impending evil, which I could not easily shake
+off. Another thing troubled me. Aunt Emily annoyed me, by ceaseless
+inquiries as to the result of my acquaintance with Mr. Westbourne. I saw
+that to secure him for me was the one object of her ambition. I
+remonstrated at this feeling, pained at her want of delicacy.
+
+"One day, when she had been questioning me as usual, I replied,
+indignantly; 'Why, any one would think you were tired of me, and wanted
+me out of your way, you seem so anxious about my having an establishment
+of my own. I am very well contented as I am, and neither expect nor
+desire a change.'
+
+"'Now, do listen to reason, child,' she rejoined. 'You must know that it
+is my great anxiety for your welfare that induces me to take upon myself
+all this care and trouble. Tell me how old you are, Ulrica?'
+
+"'Twenty-one,' I said sullenly.
+
+"'And you have been out three seasons, and people are beginning to talk.
+They say it is because you don't wear well, and the men only flirt with
+you and leave you.'
+
+"'As if I cared what they say!' I burst forth in my exasperation. 'Thank
+heaven, I am independent of everybody's opinion.'
+
+"'Yes, in a measure,' pursued Aunt Emily's calm voice, 'but not wholly.
+Society has claims upon you which you cannot disregard. I wish you were
+more willing to consult my wishes, and would pay some little attention
+to my advice,' she added, plaintively.
+
+"'What do you want of me?' I demanded imperiously; 'tell me, in heaven's
+name, and have done with it.'
+
+"'Now you are sensible. I want you to find out just how you are situated
+in regard to the gentleman we have been remarking upon, and, to be
+plain, I've set my heart on your marrying him.'
+
+"'Mr. Angier,' announced a servant in the doorway. We had been so busily
+engaged in our discussion that we had not heard the bell. My aunt rose
+and retreated. 'It's only Angier, excuse me to him,' and she glided
+though a side door.
+
+"I rose to welcome the visitor, with a clouded brow, and eyes that
+sparkled ominously. I was thoroughly out of humor. It was an unlucky
+morning. Before he left, Wainwright Angier made me an offer of his heart
+and hand. I refused him at once, coldly and decidedly.
+
+"'Is it because you prefer another?' he asked, agitatedly.
+
+"'No, that is not the reason,' I replied, proudly. 'I value you highly
+as a friend, but nothing more. I am very sorry this has occurred, but
+_you_ at least will exculpate me from the charge of coquetry. I never
+dreamed of this.'
+
+"'I know,' he answered, sadly enough. 'It is as I feared. And now let me
+ask you, as one whose happiness has long been dearer to me than my own,
+do you ever expect to be happy with such a man as Geoffrey Westbourne?
+Do not ascribe my motive to jealousy, for, believe me, I am incapable of
+a base action. It is only out of the deepest solicitude for your welfare
+that I ask this question, for I fear for your future happiness, and that
+you may be fatally mistaken in this man.'
+
+"'You are impertinent, sir,' I said, rising. 'Geoffrey Westbourne is
+nothing to me, and you need not fear that my affections will be
+misplaced. I must respect the man I love, and look up to him as my
+superior.' My pride was hurt, now, and I was thoroughly angry.
+
+"'Pardon me,' he said, also rising, then added brokenly--'Remember that
+my heart is always open to you. I am sadly afraid that you do not
+understand your own feelings. Farewell, we may never meet again, but my
+last prayer will be for your happiness.'
+
+"As he went into the hall, the figure of a man stopped him, and Geoffrey
+Westbourne called out cheerily;
+
+"'Well met, Angier! What! how pale you look; you are ill. Let me go with
+you to your lodgings. I will excuse myself to the ladies.'
+
+"'Thank you, I am quite well,' said Angier, in a low voice. 'I will not
+detain you. Good bye.'
+
+"I never saw a face so radiant as was that of Geoffrey Westbourne, as he
+entered the room where I stood, hardly knowing whether to withdraw and
+ignore these embarrassing circumstances, or meet him in as collected a
+manner as possible.
+
+"I had no choice. As was always the case, in this man's presence, I
+seemed to have no will of my own. I feared him, and when he repeated the
+same question, in almost the very words his friend had uttered, I gave
+a far different reply. But, if not dictated by inclination, I knew that
+it was expected of me by every one. It almost seemed as if circumstances
+had forced me to choose this alternative, and I accepted my fate in
+complete indifference.
+
+"In three months we were married, and went abroad. We travelled over
+Europe at our leisure, visiting its gay capitals and fashionable
+resorts, its different objects of interest famed in history and romance,
+and, after an extended tour, returned again to our native land, taking
+up a stylish residence in a fashionable quarter of the city, that had
+been my former home. My means seemed inexhaustible, but, somewhat to my
+astonishment, I found, after marriage, that Geoffrey Westbourne's sole
+dependence was upon expectations, which were extremely liable to remain
+forever unfulfilled. I knew now that he had married me for my fortune,
+for he had told me so with his own lips. He had a double motive in this,
+for aside from a feeling of relief in throwing aside the mask of
+devotion, was a petty spite on account of my former indifference to him.
+I do not think he ever loved me, nor was he capable, in my opinion, of a
+pure, unselfish affection for any human being. All he cared for was the
+gratification of self. I mourned bitterly, in secret, over this ruin of
+my hopes. I had no one to sympathize with me now. Aunt Emily was no
+more, and she had been my one true friend, for her affection, if
+misguided, was at least sincere.
+
+"I thought often in those days, of the love of my girlhood, for I knew
+now that it had been sinful in me to turn from the path that had opened
+before me into perfect trust and peace, and walk blindly over withered
+hopes to a loveless future. Time had shown me that I esteemed Wainwright
+Angier more highly in those days than the man who was now my husband.
+But I never spoke of him, and I dared not ask his fate, for I knew my
+husband hated his memory. But one sad day, when, with Geoffrey, I walked
+down the long winding avenues of the cemetery, and read among these
+stranger's graves the name I sought, I think reason must have for a time
+deserted me. I had only one memory, and the words 'my last prayer will
+be for your happiness,' rang again and again in my ear. I knelt down at
+the grave and poured out my grief in all the eloquence of despair,
+regardless of him who looked coldly on. I was wild with mournful agony.
+After that day I never knew one hour of happiness. My husband turned
+from me to strangers. He had never cared for me, and now I was hated and
+shunned. His one desire became to relieve himself of my unwholesome
+presence.
+
+"In the first year of our marriage, I had, on learning of his
+impoverished condition, placed my entire property at his disposal. It
+had been a free gift, for I wanted him to see that I trusted him
+implicitly. I was now completely at his mercy. I had always been lavish
+of my means, for whatever faults I may have preserved, avarice and
+parsimony were not of their number. I learned now that I had committed a
+very foolish act. I had nothing with which to help myself, and was
+completely under his control.
+
+"Suddenly, at a great commercial crisis, everything was swept from us.
+'We are now,' said my husband, 'for the first time on an equal footing.
+The fortune, which you brought me, has been lost from no carelessness
+upon my part. We are engulfed in one common ruin with others who have
+before stood steadfast through similar trials. We shall both suffer in
+common, for I have lost that for which I sacrificed myself, and have now
+nothing to console me. I presume you have learned that fact before this,
+Mrs. Westbourne, and know that I married you for the glittering prize
+which has just slipped from my grasp.'
+
+"'Oh! Geoffrey,' I exclaimed, 'do not be so cruel.'
+
+"'You call it cruelty,' he replied, 'but I say it is a terrible fact. I
+never cared for but but one woman on earth, and I broke her heart when I
+told her that I had forever placed a barrier between us by my own _act_.
+She died soon after our marriage.'
+
+"'Why have I not known of this before?' I asked. 'Why tell me after so
+long a time, when there can be no reparation for the crime? It was a
+double wrong you committed when you broke one woman's heart and made
+another's whole life desolate. I never dreamed you cared for another.'
+
+"'There I had the advantage of you, my dear,' he said coolly. 'I knew
+you were a little too fond of young Angier for my interest. If I had
+cared enough about you I should have been furiously jealous, but merely
+having an eye to the pecuniary advantage, I let the little dream go on
+until I was pleased to put an end to it. Could I have forseen this hour
+I would have acted far differently.'
+
+"A week after he came in with a face pale with excitement. 'Such
+glorious news,' he exclaimed. 'By the luckiest train of accidents I have
+come into possession of a clear hundred thousand, and I don't think I
+shall very deeply deplore the demise of the venerable individual who
+departed this life just at the right moment.'
+
+"I was nearly happy at this announcement. I thought now I could rely on
+his magnanimity. I reflected that I had bestowed everything upon him in
+my prosperity, and I hoped that now he would, at least, be more
+considerate of my feelings.
+
+"But I was unhappily disappointed. 'The tables are turned now, my dear,'
+he said, triumphantly. 'Instead of _my_ house and furniture, _my_
+servants, and _my_ money, it is quite another story, and henceforth I
+shall have a word to say as to the manner in which _my_ means shall be
+invested.'
+
+"He was true to his word. I was left absolutely penniless. If my
+wardrobe needed replenishing I had to tell him the exact amount it would
+take for each article. I had, too, nothing to bestow upon charitable
+objects, for he had always condemned my efforts to relieve others as
+indiscriminate charity, that did more harm than good. He bought
+everything that was consumed in the house, and hired and paid the
+servants himself. This was something new for him to do. My domestics had
+been well trained, and wholly under my control, having been long in my
+aunt's family, and accustomed to my ways. My husband had often heard me
+say that it would be impossible to keep house without these faithful
+attendants, for I was totally inexperienced in such matters.
+
+"Now, however, he dismissed them all, and surrounded me with strangers.
+My remonstrances were unheeded. 'This is _my_ house, Mrs. Westbourne,'
+he would say. 'Henceforth everything shall go as I wish, and if not
+agreeable to you, I can gladly dispense with your company altogether.'
+
+"I soon found that this was the one object dear to him. My presence
+grew, every day, seemingly more intolerable. This new trouble nearly
+overwhelmed me. I learned now that the means that were denied me, was
+daily lavished upon others among whom my name was a by-word. One day the
+postman brought me a letter, in an unknown hand. It ran thus:
+
+     MADAM:--Why do you look so frightfully ill? Every one is remarking
+     upon your altered appearance. You have everything to make you
+     happy. Your husband is handsome, and generous as a prince. To prove
+     it: yesterday he gave me five hundred dollars, and to-day I clasped
+     upon my arm a splendid bracelet, flashing with beautiful gems, also
+     his gift. The wheel of fortune turns, and those who were poor and
+     obscure but yesterday, are rich to-day. _Your_ day of power is
+     over. Do not be the last to see it. Show some spirit. Be up and
+     doing. Your society has lost its charm for your husband, and he
+     finds his only happiness in the love of another who can appreciate
+     him better than you have ever done. Very well! seek your own
+     affinity, and find a new Eden. Don't fret and cry till your eyes
+     are red and swollen, and your whole appearance hideous. It will
+     only recoil on your own head. Nobody will pity you, and the world
+     will pass on and forget you. Live while you live, and leave
+     to-morrow to take care of to-morrow. Remember, "It is a folly to no
+     other second, to wish to correct the world.--CAROLINE."
+
+"This was followed by others of the same nature. It finally became an
+understood thing that Geoffrey should pass nearly all of the time he
+could snatch from business, with women of this class. If I questioned
+him, he would laugh rudely, and ask me how I was going to help myself.
+
+"There was, indeed, but one way, either to bear all this quietly,
+without murmur or reproach, or else obtain a legal separation. I knew
+that this was his sole object, and would have complied with it, for my
+soul sickened of this life; but, I had a child, a delicate girl, and he
+forbade me to take her away. I could not part with my baby daughter;
+better even this wretched existence, and so I continued to watch and
+wait, and pray God not to forget me in my dire extremity. As time
+passed, and my husband saw that he could not move me, he grew impatient,
+and took still harsher measures.
+
+"I have every reason to believe that Geoffrey Westbourne, about this
+time, made attempts upon my life. He was, however, very careful of his
+reputation, and had to be exceedingly circumspect in his movements. But
+I foiled him on every occasion. Then I fell sick, and lay for weeks
+unconscious. I had the cruelest treatment during my entire illness, and
+it was only God's mercy that at length restored me again to something
+like health, in opposition to every effort of my enemy's. It left me
+almost a confirmed invalid. Before strangers, I had every care and
+attention, and when I was ready to sit up, many friends called to
+inquire about my health. As soon as I became convalescent, I had
+resolved to appeal to my friends for aid and sympathy, but I now saw
+that it would be impossible. Had I opened my lips upon the subject, my
+nearest friends would have at once been convinced that my sickness had
+alienated my reason. My husband was apparently filled with the deepest
+anxiety and solicitude for my recovery, and appearences I felt to be
+against me. I hoped, though, that there would be a cessation from all
+persecution, at least for a time. But this was not to be.
+
+"'You are evidently a great deal better, Mrs. Westbourne!' my husband
+said to me, one evening, when we were alone together.
+
+"'Yes, thank God!' I exclaimed fervently, 'I am now nearly restored to
+health again.'
+
+"'You do well to thank God, and not me,' he said with a withering sneer,
+'you owe me no gratitude for the same.'
+
+"'How you must hate me!' I said, trembling at his tones.
+
+"'Hate you!' he replied, with his face to the very lips livid with
+passion, 'if I could strike you out of existence this moment, as you sit
+there, I would be almost willing to serve a score of years for the
+privilege, and even submit to bear the felon's brand upon my person,
+through the remainder of my life. You are a clog and an impediment in
+the way of my happiness, the one encumbrance to be got rid of at any
+sacrifice. It shall be done! I swear it shall be done, if the heavens
+fall and the earth rocks to its foundations!'
+
+"'What shall I do?' Oh, what shall I do?' I cried helplessly.
+
+"'Do!' he hissed, 'listen to me. A short time ago I was so weary of you,
+that, with hardly a reason I sought to rid myself of your presence. I
+then proposed a separation upon any terms that pleased you, not thinking
+it likely that I should ever marry again. I would have been generous
+then, had you yielded to my wishes. Since then the aspect of affairs
+have changed. I have met the woman whom I have willed shall rule over
+this house in your place. She is gloriously beautiful, proud as a queen
+and as rich. I desire to appear to the best advantage before her, and I
+shall not scruple at the means. I want all the world to think that I am
+an injured husband.'
+
+"'Perhaps you have forgotten your old friend Halleck. He called often
+during your illness, to inquire after you, and manifested much interest
+in your case. I learned that he was quite attentive to you during my
+absence last summer. You see you have been thoughtless enough to give me
+just the advantage I wanted, Mrs. Westbourne, and I can bring a dozen
+witnesses to prove your infidelity, when I want them.
+
+"'You may have guessed from what I have said thus far, that I propose to
+apply for a bill of divorce at no distant day.'
+
+"I was perfectly stupefied at this announcement. 'You surely will not
+commit this great wrong, Geoffrey,' I exclaimed. 'You do not wish, nor
+need me to tell you that I am innocent of the charge.'
+
+"'No,' he said slowly, in a more softened tone, though the hard lines
+around the firm mouth never relaxed, and the cold eyes regarded me with
+a fixed, relentless gaze. 'No, I do not. Here, with none to overhear
+us, I will tell you truly that I do not believe you guilty of this crime
+which I am about to charge against you, and to prove before the world.
+You were a spoiled, capricious beauty when I met with you, and I, merely
+a fortune hunter. Our marriage was a fatal mistake. But you have
+discharged your duties faithfully, and I know it will be a satisfaction
+in the future to have this to reflect upon.
+
+"'Do not think, though, that you can swerve me from my purpose. We are
+best apart. Your life will pass quietly and happily in some grateful
+retreat, all the happier for this storm that now threatens your peace.
+You will have nothing to regret. The world will make the most of the
+nine day's wonder, and then it will be forgotten. As for me my lot is
+chosen. Wealth and power are essential to my happiness. I must be looked
+up to as a person of position and influence, and I prefer to be feared
+rather than loved. The wealth I shall gain with the hand of this woman,
+whom fate has destined to be your successor, will place me upon the very
+pinnacle of prosperity. It is a temptation too strong to be resisted.'
+
+"'Of course you, as the victim, will cry out against the cruelty of the
+act, but it will be of no avail. I grant that I am doing you an
+injustice, and you will assail me with tears and entreaties, but, when
+my stoical indifference renders them useless, you will threaten me with
+future retribution, and cry out that God will never permit such
+injustice; but I shall not pause, nor relent. I am no better, nor yet
+worse, than others. Here, in a Christian community, deeds similar to
+mine are perpetrated every day, and strong-handed _might_, reeking with
+crime, flaunts its purple and fine linen in the high places of the
+earth, while persecuted and down-trodden innocence creeps away to hide
+its sorrows in the grave. It is the way of the world, and I choose to
+follow no other leader.'
+
+"'But the child, Geoffrey,' I gasped, 'my precious child; only let me
+take her with me, give me her company in my exile, and I will do all you
+would have me.'
+
+"'No,' he insisted, sternly. 'She is my daughter, and I prefer to have
+her brought up under my own immediate supervision. I wish to make a lady
+of Miss Westbourne, and I do not consider you a proper person to be
+entrusted with the charge.'
+
+"'And you would rob a mother of her only child? God has forgotten me, or
+he would surely punish such iniquity!'
+
+"I could say no more; my strength failed me; the room grew dark, and I
+fell forward at the feet of my enemy.
+
+"It was weeks before I was again able to leave my room. During this time
+I pondered deeply upon the course which it was best to pursue. I was
+without money or friends, and, therefore, utterly unable to help myself.
+I had always been a proud, independent girl, generally more envied and
+admired than loved. I had not cared to make many friends, and now I had
+none to turn to in this emergency. I felt completely crushed and
+heart-broken. Meanwhile, my husband took care to inform me that his
+feelings remained unchanged, and that he was still firm in his
+resolution to rid himself of me. I now learned that he had employed
+legal advice in the matter. As he had said, he would not scruple at the
+means to accomplish his object.
+
+"I thought of all this till my brain grew dizzy, and my heart ached with
+its weight of woe. At last I determined to leave the place where I had
+endured so much misery. I made a few preparations; knelt and asked God
+to forgive me if I was doing wrong, and turned upon the threshold of my
+chamber to give it a last look upon earth.
+
+"Everything looked quiet and peaceful, as if this was the abode of
+contentment. I could not repress a sigh, and my eyes were blinded with
+tears, as I turned to go into the nursery.
+
+"'Jane, go to your supper,' I said, authoritatively, to the servant, who
+sat rocking the child's cradle. The girl looked up sullenly, and I think
+she suspected at once my design. My heart sank within me as I moved
+forward to the side of the unconscious little one.
+
+"'Shure,' said the girl, eyeing me narrowly, 'you'll be after finding it
+warm here with that great shawl around you. It looks better for
+travelin' than a lady's parlor, and would be more becoming to the likes
+of me, than your own illegant shoulders.'
+
+"It was true. I was detected. Was there no hope?
+
+"I grew desperate, for I knew this would all be repeated to her master
+in the morning. This girl was nothing but a well-paid spy upon his
+wife's actions.
+
+"I became indignant as hope fled. 'Did you hear me?' I commanded. 'Go
+down stairs to your supper, immediately. I wish to be left alone with my
+daughter.'
+
+"Instantly the expression of her face changed to one of cringing
+submission, and she rose and dropped a little deprecatory curtesy.
+
+"'Indeed, ma'am, I've had me tay. Ann brought it up, for I takes me
+meals here now, accordin' to the masters' orders. Please, ma'am, shall I
+take away the shawl, and fetch you the one you always wear?'
+
+"'No, stay where you are,' I said, sinking into a chair, and dropping my
+head into my hands to hide my disappointment from the keen eyes that
+watched me.
+
+"Presently there was a kind of gasping, strangling sound from the
+cradle. The girl sprang forward with a sudden cry of fear.
+
+"I was beside her in an instant. The child was in convulsions.
+
+"Then followed a scene of wild confusion. Every thing was immediately
+done for the little sufferer that could be thought of, in the moment of
+terror, and the best medical advice called in.
+
+"But our efforts were unavailing. When the gray morning light stole in
+at the window, little Lina lay like a waxen lily, and her spirit had
+returned to Him who gave it. While I, her unhappy mother, could not
+grieve now that this was so, but rather felt thankful that she was
+sheltered in the loving arms of the Good Shepherd. For her there was no
+more sorrow, nor crying, neither was there any more pain.
+
+"When the funeral rites were over, and I could think calmly, continued
+the lady, I realized how this child's loss would affect my future. I had
+now no object to strive for. Had my little Lina lived, God only knows
+how all this would have ended. I could never have given her up to the
+father who did not love her. I would have struggled desperately for my
+child while life lasted. For myself, I cared not. I had thought that
+night, when my innocent darling was so suddenly taken from me, of
+fleeing away with her to some place of safety, until this storm had
+passed, but now that she was no more, I had no fears.
+
+"I knew, though, that a change must come soon. My husband was resolute
+and never abandoned a purpose once formed. I was fully aware that I need
+not expect any mercy at his hands, neither that our mutual loss would
+soften his heart. It had, indeed, quite a contrary effect.
+
+"'There is now no obstacle to a separation,' he said, once, speaking of
+our differences. 'We have now no longer any interest in common. If you
+will go your way, quietly and peaceably, I will provide for your wants,
+by settling a life-long annuity upon you. Of course this sum would not
+be large, for you will not require a great deal to sustain you in
+comparative comfort. Now, that you have no means of your own, of course
+you must expect to live in a different manner from that to which you
+have been accustomed. And a divorced woman will not be expected to make
+a very lavish display either. I trust that your own good sense will
+teach you the necessity of living in as retired a manner as possible.
+Furthermore, I shall expressly stipulate that you remove to a
+considerable distance from your former home. I do not wish any fresh
+scandal to give the gossips a continual feast. If you submit to my
+conditions we can effect this quietly. If not, then it is war between
+us.'
+
+"'And a court of justice to decide for the right,' I added.
+
+"'Justice!' he sneered. 'You are old enough to realize that it is but an
+empty name. What could a defenceless woman, without means to help
+herself, do against a man of my wealth and standing. You can effect
+nothing by braving me. Look at this proposition, as coolly as possible,
+and reflect well before you decide upon anything permanently. It can not
+be that you have more affection for me than I for you, for I am sensible
+that my course has not been such as would be naturally expected to win a
+woman's regard. However, I do not value your opinion in the least, so
+that fact does not annoy as much as you might think. It is true, I might
+be more polite in stating the case, but you will agree with me that I
+put the facts plainly enough for your understanding.'
+
+"'I would further advise you to proceed as I have proposed, simply from
+a wish to spare your feelings. I believe you to be an honest woman, and
+I should dislike to be obliged to attack your character in public. If
+you were to go away, of your own accord, to some quiet place, I think
+you would find the change agreeable. You would, of course, resume your
+maiden name, and nobody, unless you chose to inform them, could, by any
+possibility, become aware of your former history. I would then place in
+the hands of my lawyer, and subject to your disposal, a sum which I
+would set aside for your own use, giving you a yearly income of five
+hundred dollars. You could live plainly, but comfortably on this sum.'
+
+"'Hush!' I commanded. 'Geoffrey Westbourne, how dare you add insult to
+injury? You have spent, to your own knowledge, a large fortune of mine.
+I blush to think that I have ever called you husband, when you offer
+this last indignity to the daughter of Wilbour Hardyng. You have already
+said more than enough upon this subject. We will dismiss it if you
+please.'
+
+"'Very well,' he replied, 'I will leave you to think over it at your
+leisure. Good-bye for the present. I leave, to-day, for a neighboring
+city, where I shall remain a week, at least.'
+
+"The good-bye, thus carelessly spoken, was destined to be a final one.
+When Geoffrey Westbourne again returned to his home, I was not there to
+receive him. I never looked upon his face but once again. I took with me
+all of my clothing, and the Hardyng plate and jewels, which were my own
+exclusive property. I had also a small sum of money to bear my expenses.
+
+"My husband never sought to learn my whereabouts, content that I should
+have given him the advantage he desired. After a sufficient length of
+time had elapsed, he obtained a divorce on the ground of desertion, and
+married the woman he had determined should be his. They seemed happy to
+all outward appearances, and lived in absolute splendor, such as their
+united wealth enabled them.
+
+"I had removed to a distant city, where none recognized in the sable
+clad widow, the former brilliant belle and heiress. I once visited my
+old home and saw them together; and he, the false one, smiled fondly
+upon the usurper of my rights. Then I crept away, weary of life, to this
+secluded spot, to pass the remainder of my days, where there was nothing
+to remind me of what I once had been.'
+
+"My darling, have I saddened you with my melancholy story?" she asked,
+looking down fondly into the tear wet eyes of the young girl who had
+come and knelt beside her. Clemence could not trust her voice to speak,
+and the proud woman clasped her closer, as they mingled their tears
+together. "How meet," said the girl at last, softly rising, "should we,
+who have suffered, be united by a bond of affection and sympathy!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+When the hour of separation came, Clemence regretted that she must again
+leave her friend's hospitable roof for that of strangers. She thought,
+ruefully, of Mrs. Brier, and hoped that these new people might not be of
+their order.
+
+Her wish was destined to be fulfilled. The plain, simple little woman,
+who came forward to welcome her, when she stopped at farmer Owen's,
+certainly did not look very formidable or repulsive.
+
+"Come in," she said, apparently not a little disconcerted, as Clemence's
+figure appeared in the doorway. "You'll find everything at sixes and
+sevens. I tried to get cleaned up a little before you got here, but the
+baby was so cross, I had to sit down and hold him most of the afternoon.
+He's just gone to sleep, and left me with all this work, and supper to
+get for half a dozen hands, beside."
+
+"Now, that is really unfortunate," said Clemence, kindly. "Can't I help
+you in some way?"
+
+"_You_," said Mrs. Owen, stepping backwards, and surveying the dainty
+figure in the utmost consternation, "I guess not, why, what in earth
+could you do in the housework line?"
+
+"Oh, a good deal, I dare say, if I were to try," said Clemence laughing.
+"You know, 'where there's a will there's a way,' and if you will tell me
+how, I am sure I will gladly assist you."
+
+"No," was the reply. "You just sit still and I'll fly round and kinder
+hoe out some of this dirt. You don't look as if you had been accustomed
+to this sort of thing. Why, of the two, now I suppose, if the truth
+should be known, you are more tired with your work than I am with mine,
+cross baby and all; just think of it, when I was a girl, a day's work
+like this was nothing at all to do, and I was always ready to go to a
+dance, or something of that sort, to pass away time. There's a great
+difference in folks about that."
+
+"I believe you," said Clemence, watching her with interest, as she moved
+around, bringing literally 'order out of chaos.' "It seems to me, that
+no amount of practice could fit me for such work as this. I suppose, of
+course, I could learn in time, by giving strict attention to it, to be a
+fair housekeeper; but my experience in boarding round has proved that I
+do not belong to the class of persons whom they denominate here as
+'handy.' I have seen women enter a neighbor's house in time of trouble,
+and move about as if accustomed to everything, and always know the very
+place to go and find an article when wanted, without asking tiresome
+questions, or put an article in its appropriate receptacle when not
+needed, without being told. But, for myself, though always willing, I am
+generally apt, like to-day, to sit still and wish I could be of use to
+somebody, instead of being always in the way."
+
+"That's because you were born to be waited on, and not to serve," said
+the little woman, good-naturedly.
+
+"Then I am sadly out of place," replied Clemence, with a sigh. "I am
+inclined to think, however, that you are more liberal in your views than
+the rest of our sex. Most of them would tell me that the reason of my
+lack of capacity, was because I did not cultivate my faculties properly,
+or, in plain terms, that I was lazy."
+
+"I don't see that either," responded the other. "A man works just so
+many hours a day, and comes home feeling that his duty is done, and lies
+down, if he feels inclined, or swears at the children for being noisy
+and troublesome, and walks off to amuse himself, leaving his tired wife
+at home, to go on with her work till midnight, if she can't get it done
+before. Nobody thinks of calling _him_ anything but a poor hard working
+body, slaving himself to death, for the good of his family. But a
+woman--just mark the difference. I suppose, though, I need not follow
+out that side of the picture?" she added shrewdly.
+
+"Surely, no," said Clemence, "I know too well by sad experience. Why,
+Mrs. Owen, I never feel the privilege of sitting down after the labors
+of the day have wearied mind and body, without offering my services,
+ignorant as I am of housekeeping, and awkward as I know I must be. What
+would be said of me, if I did not assist in getting tea, or washing the
+dishes, and even helping through with the Saturday's work, to say
+nothing of the Sunday dinner, with its numberless guests to be waited
+upon and entertained, upon the one day appointed for rest."
+
+"Poor little thing! It's a hard life for such a delicate body as you.
+I've heard you was rich once; was it true?" she asked inquisitively.
+
+"Yes, madam," said Clemence, "this is a new experience for me."
+
+"Well, it's hard," she said again. "I can't help but pity people that's
+always been used to having everything they wanted, and suddenly find
+themselves poor, and without anything to help themselves with. I know
+some folks are glad when the proud are brought down to their own level,
+and say that a little humiliation will do them good, but I ain't so.
+
+"Amos and me started poor enough, I can tell you. All we had in the
+world was a little outfit of beddin' and dishes that father gave me, and
+Amos made the furniture himself. But we was both strong and active, and
+what was better _willing_, and we soon got a start and have kept goin'
+ahead ever since. There ain't anybody around here that's better off now.
+There's only one drawback, I think my man's _too_ savin. He's had to
+deny himself so long, that now, although we are in pretty easy
+circumstances, he thinks he can't afford a good many things that other
+people, poorer than we are, call the very necessaries of life. For
+instance, I dress poorer than any woman in the place; Amos even limits
+the number of calico dresses that I have; I get three a year, and one I
+have to put away to sort o' slick up in. I hain't got a delaine one to
+my name.
+
+"Sometimes I get my temper up, and tell him I will have something to
+wear as well as other folks, but he says he goes without as well as I,
+and there ain't no use of our laying out everything for finery.
+
+"Don't you think its about time for me to strike for something that
+people, that call themselves decent, have to wear?"
+
+"Why," said Clemence, truthfully, seeing she was expected to make some
+reply, "don't that seem a little like injustice? It can't be right to
+deny yourself everything, and indulge in no relaxation after such
+laborious employment. You owe something to yourself as well as others.
+Of course it is wise in you to look forward to the future, and it is
+perfectly natural and commendable to wish to lay up something for your
+children, that their life may be easier than your own; but, have you
+never thought that, after all, you may not be working for their best
+interests. Supposing you should sink underneath the burden you have
+assumed, and death should find you all unprepared, would you not regret
+that you had spent your days thus? It does not seem as if any mother was
+called upon for such sacrifices. No woman, or at least, no American
+woman, can endure such severe, unremitting toil."
+
+Her hearer looked startled.
+
+"I had never taken this view of the case," she said, "but you are right.
+My strength cannot always hold out, and if I should be taken away, what
+would become of my little children?"
+
+Here the baby awoke with a scream, and the mother had enough to keep
+tongue and hands busy in the effort to pacify him, and finish her
+labors. As it was, tea was delayed.
+
+The group of tired, sun-burned men, who came up from the field, lingered
+around the kitchen door, furtively watching the pretty young
+schoolmistress, but not venturing to speak above a whisper, until supper
+was announced, when they came in awkwardly, and took their seats.
+
+Clemence was duly presented to them and her host, a quiet, good-natured
+looking man, and during the conversation which followed, they made some
+progress towards a further acquaintance. She was pleased, too, to
+observe that she had made quite a favorable impression, having formed a
+plan in her mind which she now thought might be easy of accomplishment.
+
+Clemence Graystone was both young and enthusiastic, and she thought here
+was an opportunity of benefiting one of her own sex in a quiet,
+unassuming way. She took care to observe closely, much that she would
+have otherwise passed unnoticed.
+
+"Thank heaven!" said Farmer Owen, as he came in and seated himself
+wearily, on Saturday evening, "that to-morrow is a day of rest. Miss,"
+(turning abruptly to Clemence,) "you ought to be absolutely happy with
+only a handful of young ones around you for six hours a day, and the
+rest of the time to do nothing. I am beginning to think it pays to get
+learning."
+
+The girl regarded him with a mingled expression of surprise and
+amusement struggling in her face, as she replied:
+
+"Perhaps my life does seem an easy one to others. At least, I do not
+complain."
+
+"No," said the farmer, "but you've foolishly added to your burdens,
+taking that young one of Lynn's. Whatever induced you to do it?"
+
+"Nothing," she replied, quietly, "but the thought that it was my duty.
+There was none other to assume the responsibility, so it rested upon
+me."
+
+"That's sheer nonsense," he said contemptuously. "What do you suppose
+would become of you now, if you should fall sick, or the child either?
+In that case, it would not be much of a kindness you have done her,
+filling her head with grand ideas, as I hear, about being a lady, and
+all that. She'd go to the poor house all the same, and you would have
+nothing to help yourself with, unless," he added, curiously, "you are
+independent of your position."
+
+"Nothing of the kind," said Clemence. "I depend solely upon my own
+efforts for support, as I have repeatedly declared in answer to similar
+enquiries."
+
+"Then you've done an unheard of thing, that's all that I can say, and if
+you expect to be thought better for it, you are mistaken, for people
+will only call you a fool for your pains, and I doubt if the girl
+herself will ever repay one half your efforts, or feel any gratitude for
+them."
+
+"As to that," she said abstractedly, looking off into the gathering
+twilight, "I have not expected payment and shall not be disappointed in
+that case. However, I do not regret the step. On the contrary, I am
+thankful for the privilege."
+
+"Where's the young 'un now?" he asked. "To Swan's yet?"
+
+Clemence nodded in the affirmative.
+
+"How much do you pay a week for her board?"
+
+"Two dollars," she said coolly.
+
+"And you earn how much?"
+
+"Five dollars per week and board."
+
+"And have had to clothe her besides buying what books and other articles
+a child needs? Well, you are green. They say, too, you dress pretty well
+yourself. Can't see how you manage it on them wages," he added, eyeing
+her with a shrewd, penetrating glance.
+
+Clemence blushed under the close scrutiny.
+
+"Do you call calico expensive?" she asked, calling his attention to her
+own daintily fitting one.
+
+"No," he answered, shifting uneasily in his seat, "of course it's the
+cheapest and best thing a woman can wear, in my opinion."
+
+"Of course," echoed Mrs. Owen, at his elbow, "but what does a man know
+about such things? But I'll tell you one thing, Amos, if calico _is_ the
+cheapest and best thing a woman can wear, I am going to have enough of
+it after this."
+
+"Well, have enough," he said impatiently, "though you will never look
+pretty nor lady-like in anything. So don't flatter yourself, nor aspire
+to imitate others who can. I suppose now, Miss Graystone," turning to
+Clemence, "you think I don't want my wife to dress as well as others on
+account of the expense; but, although I commenced poor, and have been
+obliged to save pretty close, yet I never saw the time when I have not
+done for my family to the extent my means afforded. Times are getting a
+little easier with me now, though I ain't rich, far from it. Besides
+there's another point to be considered. Now if _you_ get an article of
+dress, you have some taste in making and wearing it," and he looked
+admiringly at the trim figure before him; "but Susan here, completely
+spoils everything she undertakes."
+
+"There, Amos Owen," put in the aforementioned Susan, "don't try to lay
+your stinginess on my shoulders, for, goodness knows, they have burden
+enough already. And that ain't so, either, you know as well as I do that
+you're only saying it to be contrary."
+
+"Well, have it so," he said, crossly, and Clemence, to turn the subject,
+asked if they were going to attend morning service on the coming
+Sabbath.
+
+"Not I," said Mr. Owen, "it's asking altogether too much of a hard
+working man like me to get up and start off as regular as the Sunday
+comes, without any rest whatever. I don't feel called upon to do it, for
+one. Wife, here, can answer for herself."
+
+"Why don't you say at once that she has not a decent dress to go in, and
+you prefer to have her stay home and look after the children, while you
+sleep away your time. I've no patience with you, Amos."
+
+"So you are boarding at Owen's?" said Mrs. Swan, when Clemence stopped
+for little Ruth, on her way to meeting.
+
+"Yes," said Clemence, "they are an odd couple."
+
+"They are all of that, and more," she replied with a smile. "I should
+not think you would fancy staying there much, she has the name of being
+a miserable housekeeper, and a shiftless sort of body at the best."
+
+"Why," said the young teacher, generously, "I have not found her so. I
+think she is one of the most industrious women in the place."
+
+"Then," said Mrs. Swan, looking with an air of pride around her own neat
+little dwelling, "how is it she always has such a dirty looking house,
+that you can't bear to eat a mouthful in it, and those ill-kempt, noisy
+children, to say nothing of her own slovenly appearance?"
+
+"Because," returned Clemence, in her defence, "she has more work put
+upon her than two women ought to do, and with so much expected of her,
+it is not to be wondered at that she sometimes fails to achieve
+everything."
+
+"But what a figure the woman does make of herself," said Mrs. Swan,
+smoothing her own satin hair. "She spoils everything in the making up. I
+never saw her in a well made garment, nor her children, either."
+
+"I grant," conceded Clemence, "that she has no taste, but she has little
+time for its indulgence, so, perhaps, she is as well off without it. The
+poor woman is a perfect drudge. She never has a pitying word, or a
+sympathetic look, even from her husband. He seems to think that she is
+only filling her appropriate sphere. Yet, I do not think he means to be
+cruel. He, works hard himself, and expects every one around him to do
+the same."
+
+"I'll tell you what I think about it," said Mrs. Swan, energetically,
+"she never was the wife for him. With a woman who had the least
+ambition, their home would present a far different aspect. As it is, you
+know, Miss Graystone, it _does_ look enough to disgust a neat man like
+him. No one can say, either, but what he furnishes liberally everything
+necessary for the household, and she is as close and saving as he is,
+for all she denies it."
+
+"That is all very true," responded Clemence, "but for all that, I can't
+help but pity her. It seems as if their home might be rendered
+pleasanter. There is enough material there to bring out, and it only
+wants somebody to give them a friendly hint."
+
+"And you think you are just the one to do it, and that it is your
+obvious duty, and all that?" said Mrs. Swan. "Now, just take my advice,
+and don't burn your fingers meddling with other people's affairs, nor do
+any such foolish thing for conscience sake."
+
+"But if I think I ought, 'to do unto others,' you know," said Clemence,
+doubtingly.
+
+"But you had _not_ ought. Just leave matters as they are, and they will
+come right of themselves, and if they don't, why, it's no fault of
+yours."
+
+"That strikes me as a selfish policy," she said. "I can't reconcile it
+with my ideas of what is right."
+
+"It's a safe one, for all that," was the reply. "Take heed to my words,
+and let the Owen's affairs alone. You don't expect to revolutionize the
+family by one effort."
+
+"Still, I can't help but feel sorry for this overworked woman," said
+Clemence, "and what is more, I think as one of my own sex, I may be able
+to do her some kindness without injury to any one. She has neither grace
+nor refinement, such as most women have in common with each other,
+whatever may be their position in life. I don't think that she is
+naturally lazy, as you say. At the foundation, her house is always
+clean. It needs somebody to keep it in order, and have a place for
+everything and everything in its place,' for the lack of which it
+presents this disordered appearance. I believe I can be of some use to
+her, and shall try faithfully to do my whole duty in that respect."
+
+"You dear child," said Mrs. Swan, kindly, "you shame me by your
+disinterestedness. Remember, though, if you get into any difficulty, I
+have warned you solemnly, as I thought _my_ duty."
+
+"I will remember," said Clemence, laughing, "and in that event I shall
+expect, and doubtless receive your warmest sympathy."
+
+After that, she went to work with a will, and was so far successful in
+her praiseworthy labors, that the home of the Owen's began to wear a
+look hitherto a stranger to it. With her own hands, Clemence assisted in
+establishing a new order of things, and when praised by the smiling Mr.
+Owen, would triumphantly bring forward some work of his wife's, which
+had been executed under her own supervision, as a proof that she had
+been kept down, and was not so totally deficient in taste as had been
+affirmed.
+
+These little subterfuges, however, did not always have the desired
+effect, and more than once Clemence was annoyed by an unmistakable
+glance of admiration and a remark to the effect that after she left,
+things would resume their former dilapidated appearance.
+
+"What coarse manners this person has," she would think on these
+occasions, "and how much his poor wife must suffer in his boorish
+society."
+
+She was pleased, though, and somewhat astonished, to see how readily
+Farmer Owen's purse opened at her demands.
+
+"Amos never was so liberal to me before," said his wife, and the whole
+village echoed it.
+
+"Mrs. Owen ought to pay you for staying there with her life-long
+gratitude," said Mrs. Swan. "Let me congratulate you on your
+unparalleled success in that quarter."
+
+"Oh," said Clemence, ingenuously, "as to that, I claim no merit for
+myself. I told you it was more from a lack of knowledge upon the subject
+than from intentional wrong, that this poor woman was made to suffer. It
+only needed some one to point out the error."
+
+"You are a good girl, any way," said Mrs. Swan, by way of conclusion.
+"Who but you would ever have thought of it, I should like to know?"
+
+It very soon became the fashion to patronize and "bring out" little Mrs.
+Owen in Waveland. People awoke to a knowledge of their duty, and
+regularly now, every Sabbath, she came to meeting under the care of two
+or more of the prim-looking matrons.
+
+Clemence was pleased that they had, as she thought, at last begun to
+appreciate her many excellent qualities, but she could not understand
+exactly _why_ these kind people should be at such pains to flaunt their
+good deeds. After much bewilderment, she came to the conclusion that
+they must have thought her presuming, and considered that she ought to
+be put in her place, instead of aspiring to teach them their duty.
+
+"As if," she thought sadly, "I could be guilty of harboring such a
+thought. I am afraid I shall never make many friends in Waveland."
+
+She was glad when Monday morning came again, and she could resume her
+school duties. At least, here was a legitimate object of interest to
+occupy her mind. When the lessons were over for the day, she went back
+with little Sammy Owen pattering along beside her. She seated herself,
+and went to work industriously, on some sewing of Mrs. Owen's, and
+applied herself so closely, that she completed the garment just as she
+was called to supper.
+
+"Well, I have finished your dress," she said, as she came to the table.
+
+"And you are nearly tired to death," said Mr. Owen. "Susan, you ought
+not to have allowed Miss Graystone to overwork herself."
+
+Clemence protested it was nothing, and that a cup of their good tea
+would rest her, and the worthy couple immediately set about loading her
+plate with food enough to have satisfied the appetite of a plough-boy.
+And as soon as she could slip away, she left the table.
+
+Her hostess soon followed her, to try on the new dress. It was a pretty,
+soft-tinted muslin, and made the round, plump figure look more nearly
+approaching to attractiveness than it had ever done before.
+
+"Well, I declare," said the farmer, surveying her with satisfaction,
+"that does look nice and tidy. Now, if we could always have you, Miss
+Graystone, to select my wife's dresses, and cut and fit them, and
+afterwards tell her how to put them on, she would look, positively,
+respectable."
+
+"Here is a collar that I brought for you," said Clemence, pretending not
+to have heard this doubtful compliment, and the delighted little woman
+forthwith burst forth into a profusion of exaggerated acknowledgements
+of her kindness and generosity.
+
+"There, Amos Owen," she exclaimed, blushing with pleasure, "what do you
+think of your wife, now? You can see by this time that she ain't the one
+to be kept down forever, and drudge her life away. She was born for
+better things." And stepping backwards, with a self-complacent smile and
+toss of her head, the little creature, unfortunately unused to fineries
+of any kind, planted her foot, which was by no means a small one, upon
+the delicate fabric and made an awkward rent.
+
+Clemence was ready to cry with vexation. Plainly, here was, at least,
+another half hour's work for her tired fingers.
+
+Mr. Owen gave a long, low whistle, and then a shout of derisive
+laughter, as he turned and went out of the house. Clemence feared that
+her cause was being irreparably ruined, instead of helped along, as she
+so ardently desired, by this untoward event.
+
+"Deary me!" said Mrs. Owen, "what _shall_ I do? I wish I'd never tried
+to dress up at all. Just think how much that cost, and it's only a
+stringy thing after all, and a great big rent in it before its ever worn
+at all. I wish now, I'd got that calico that I wanted to. I should, if
+_you_ hadn't persuaded me not to."
+
+If a few tears fell among the pale, pink rosebuds, with which the
+condemned article was dotted as plentifully as May blossoms, it is
+hardly to be wondered at. Tired, overworked, and a good deal
+discouraged, the pale young teacher might be pardoned for any signs of
+weakness, though she needed to gather up all her sinking courage for the
+future, that lay before her lost in shadow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Somewhat apart from, and forming the western boundary of Waveland, was a
+lovely inland lake, by the margin of which Clemence had been accustomed
+to spend many sad hours, since she had become a resident of the little
+village. A narrow foot-path, that led through the sombre woods, brought
+her to a sheltered spot upon the sloping shore, where she often came
+alone to pass an idle hour. She had come to regard this place as her own
+peculiar property, for no one had ever come here to interrupt her, or
+claim any portion of its solitude.
+
+It was a safe retreat from prying eyes, and it became to the girl, at
+length, the one sacred spot where she could pour out her griefs to that
+One, who looks upon His stricken children only to pity and forgive.
+
+She sat, now, idly watching the sun sink in the western sky, behind the
+far-off hills. She thought, as she noted the sunset, that she had never
+seen anything more beautiful--
+
+    Amber, and purple, and crimson, and blue,
+    Glittering shades of every hue.
+    Fleecy cloudlets of silver-gray,
+    And shroud-like white, for the dying day.
+
+She remembered, as her eye dwelt in admiration of the scene, of the
+beautiful passages in Revelation, and of the gates of pearl and jasper,
+"which shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night
+there." It almost seemed as if she could drift through these cloud
+portals into the peace and rest beyond. Her heart yearned for the loving
+clasp of the sweet pilgrim, who had gone before, and who had entered
+into "the joy of her Lord." The thought comforted her. She rose up
+absently to find two curious eyes fastened upon her, while Mr. Owen's
+voice said at her elbow:
+
+"You find this scene more congenial, it appears, than our well ordered
+household, and dreaming away the hours, a much more agreeable task than
+trying to make a lady of my homespun wife?"
+
+"Why," said Clemence, nervously, not replying to this singular speech,
+"how you startled me. Who would have thought of your being here? How did
+you find me? Have you any message from your wife?"
+
+"None, whatever," he said, regarding her strangely, and replying to her
+last remark. "Do not go, just yet. Miss Graystone; I am tired, and would
+like to rest."
+
+"In that case," returned Clemence, "I will leave you to yourself, and
+walk on, and you can come at your leisure."
+
+"But I want to talk to you," he rejoined, detaining her, "I came here
+particularly for that purpose."
+
+His look said more than his words, and set the girl's heart beating with
+sudden fear, as she thought of the strip of silent forest that lay
+between them and the town.
+
+"I am in haste," she said, starting hurriedly forward, "and will listen
+to you when we get back to the house."
+
+"And that is the very last thing I intend you shall do," he rejoined,
+springing from the grass, where he had thrown himself, and coming close
+to her, "I tell you, I want to talk to you."
+
+"Well, if you have anything to say to me," she continued, hastening on,
+"you can proceed as we go along, for I cannot linger. I was not aware of
+its being so late, until you aroused me."
+
+"There, I did not think of that," he added; "Susan will miss me, and,
+beside, some one might have been watching me follow you."
+
+"_Did_ you follow me?" questioned Clemence, thrown, for the moment,
+completely off her guard.
+
+"Of course," he replied, studying her face intently; "how else did you
+suppose I could find you in that hiding-place?"
+
+"I was not aware that a hard-working farmer was given to such school-boy
+tricks," she said again, in tones of marked displeasure. "If you wished
+to recall me, one of the children would have done the errand equally as
+well."
+
+He laughed sarcastically. "All very proper and correct, Miss Graystone.
+Perhaps I did run the risk of discovery, in my anxiety to find you, but
+one cannot be always upon their guard and remember everything. You are a
+'cute one, now, with that artless face. I studied for weeks before I
+really made up my mind whether it was real or only put on for the
+occasion."
+
+"Did you ever observe me before?" asked Clemence as cooly as possible,
+resolved to cultivate obtuseness, and not apply his words personally, "I
+suppose, now, in a quiet place like this, any stranger is subjected to
+the comments and surmises of nearly all the inhabitants. By the way, how
+many do you suppose the place numbers?"
+
+"Really, I don't know," he answered dryly, "never having the curiosity
+to inquire. Perhaps the Editor could tell you. Suppose you ask him, when
+you meet again, as you seem to be tolerably well acquainted."
+
+"Oh, I don't care so much as that about it," said Clemence,
+indifferently, "and I am not sufficiently well acquainted with the
+gentleman in question, to catechise him in any way."
+
+"Then you were not writing those verses to him, that I saw you put away
+when I spoke to you?"
+
+The red blood flashed indignantly into Clemence's cheeks, at this
+impertinence, but she had a motive in checking any manifestations of her
+fear and anger, so she answered lightly:
+
+"Of course not, it was merely for my own amusement."
+
+"Ah, what an agreeable thing," he said, after a moment, "to have such
+resources of pleasure. How you must despise an ignorant fellow like me."
+
+"There, you wrong me," she said generously, "I am incapable of such
+littleness. Here, in America, where so many of our most distinguished
+men have come from contact with the field or workshop, it would be folly
+in me to despise any one on account of their calling."
+
+"But I have thought it mean, and my whole life has grown distasteful
+since I met you," he said, turning suddenly and confronting her.
+
+They were in a tangled pathway, overgrown with clinging vines, that
+interlaced themselves above and upon every side. It was impossible to
+proceed with this man directly in her way, so she could only stand
+immovably, trying to repress all feeling of apprehension.
+
+He went on rapidly--"I have wanted to go away somewhere, out of this,
+and grow into something above this peasant's life; and all this only
+since I have known you."
+
+"Well," said Clemence, giving him a glance of cold contempt, "What has
+this to do with me? Such aspirations would be more appropriate for your
+wife's ear, than mine, and, do you know, your present appearance is
+rather more ludicrous than sensational? I could respect you at your own
+fireside, or attending to your homely labors, for you were then
+occupying your proper sphere; but, at present, you impress me in a
+totally different manner.
+
+"Go back to your wife, who, if, as you declare, is not a lady, is, at
+least, your equal, for you will never be a gentleman; and you can both,
+if you try to do right, become happy and contented in that calling which
+your parents have followed faithfully and well before you.
+
+"When people, who have never in the course of a long life been
+remarkable for ambition, suddenly come to have aspirations, you may be
+quite sure that the 'arch enemy of mankind,' who is said to be
+indefatigable in providing work 'for idle hands to do,' is plotting
+their certain destruction."
+
+She broke off abruptly, absolutely appalled by the gleam of murderous
+hate that leaped into the man's fierce dark eye, as the meaning of her
+words dawned upon his dulled perception. He opened his lips, which had
+grown white with rage, but no sound came from them.
+
+The next moment a childish voice, near them, called, "Papa! where are
+you?" and Clemence drew a sigh of relief, as little Sammy Owen bounded
+through the bushes to her side.
+
+Five minutes later, she was walking alone, disconsolately, thinking of
+this new trouble that threatened her peace, for she felt instinctively
+that, in the last hour, she had made an enemy, to be shunned and dreaded
+during the rest of her stay in Waveland.
+
+"Well, thank God!" she said fervently, "that I am at least _safe_. I am
+innocent of any wrong intent, and I know that I shall be upheld, now, as
+in every other trouble that has come to me, and in the end, find
+justification."
+
+There was no one visible when she reached the house, but Mrs. Owen, who
+sat with her dumpling of a baby, on the door-steps.
+
+"La!" she ejaculated, as Clemence came in sight, walking wearily enough,
+"what's the matter--be you sick?"
+
+"No," said Clemence, sinking down beside her, "only tired."
+
+"Well, you look as though you had seen a ghost, at the very least. There
+ain't much to you, any way, you give out the easiest of anybody I ever
+see. A good night's rest will help you, and you will be all right in
+the morning."
+
+"I have got to walk another mile before I obtain it, though," said
+Clemence, rising. "I am going to spend to-morrow and Sunday with Mrs.
+Hardyng."
+
+"No, be you?" reiterated Mrs. Owen. "Sakes alive you'll never stand it
+to walk way down there, and feeling tired out before you start. It will
+be dark too, before you get there. I wish Amos was here, and I'd send
+him along, too, but he went off somewhere, I don't know in what
+direction, and ain't even been in to his supper. That makes me think,
+you ain't had your's, neither. Better stay and let me get you a cup of
+tea?"
+
+Clemence thanked her languidly, said her friends would probably have
+some waiting for her when she arrived, and bidding her good evening,
+passed out of the gate, and the slight form was soon lost to view in the
+deepening shadows of the night.
+
+The young teacher's forebodings were soon to be realized. She was right.
+She _had_ made an enemy of Mr. Owen, and he determined to make her feel
+it henceforward, by every means in his power. In his petty way, he was
+as particular about keeping up an outside appearance of respectability,
+as any aristocratic member of a rich city church might be to cover up
+their own glaring deficiencies. It would have ruined him as completely
+in his little circle, to have been found out in his underhand tricks, as
+though he had been of the consequence in other people's estimation that
+he was in his own. He had never, in all his life, been accustomed to
+mingle with but one class of women, and that the ignorant, ill-bred
+gossip-mongers of his own village. Consequently, he was in momentary
+fear of having his recent escapade brought to light, and becoming the
+laughing stock of the place, for having fallen in love with, and been
+snubbed by the pretty young school mistress.
+
+He was possessed of a sufficient share of low cunning to enable him,
+finally, to hit upon a plan by which he hoped this catastrophe might be
+averted. There upon he proceeded to unfold to the astonished partner of
+his joys and sorrows, that he was glad Miss Graystone had left the
+house, for he considered her a dangerous person to enter any family
+circle; that she had sought, with great assiduity, while she had been an
+inmate of his house, to bring misery and disgrace beneath that peaceful
+roof, by beguiling away the affections of the fond husband and father,
+and that, like a second Joseph, he had come through the trial manfully.
+This was enough, and more than enough, for a woman like the one who
+listened in open-mouthed wonder to every word.
+
+Before a week rolled away, every one knew the story of Farmer Owen's
+struggles and triumph. Not that any one, even to his own injured wife,
+for a moment, believed the assertion. Not she. Even with her obtuse
+intellect, she was a woman, and consequently her wits were too sharp to
+allow her to be imposed upon by that palpable fiction. She knew, as well
+as she wanted to, that her dear Amos had been indignantly put in his
+place by Clemence, if he had made the slightest impudent advance.
+
+She knew, too, by intuition, that even had Clemence been of the class
+her husband, governed by his malevolent feelings, wished to have her
+appear, she would look higher than these boorish, homespun farmers. In
+short, she fully realized that the girl despised her husband so utterly
+that she barely treated him with politeness.
+
+But all this did not affect her in regard to the feeling she had for
+Clemence now, and only a woman can understand how the knowledge of the
+girl's innocence only made her hate her the more. She knew that her
+husband was considered too much an object of contempt to be feared at
+all in regard to what he could either say or do.
+
+One would have thought, too, that any one with the least generosity of
+sentiment, might have remembered her praiseworthy efforts in her own
+behalf, and the long hours the young teacher had spent in the vain
+attempt to make her more presentable in the eyes of her friends, and
+argued that this did not seem compatible with such a grave accusation as
+was laid upon her.
+
+But all this was forgotten, or, if for a moment thought of, was put away
+with a malicious feeling of triumph, that the little, plain,
+down-trodden Mrs. Owen had now got into notice as an injured wife, and
+by virtue of that notoriety, could, in the future, firmly maintain her
+position, and refuse to be again consigned to oblivion or the kitchen.
+
+From this time forward, there ruled, alternately, in the little village,
+two rival factions, viz:--those who supported the young school mistress,
+and those who denounced her. The former were few in number, but of the
+more enlightened portion of the community; the latter swarmed and buzzed
+over this precious bit of gossip, like flies around molasses.
+
+Mrs. Wynn early declared herself in favor of injured innocence,
+particularly as the dashing bewhiskered Mr. Philemon W. Strain had just
+deserted Rose, after a desperate flirtation, that had engaged the
+tongues and eyes of those self-same gossips, and might, possibly, at
+some future day, furnish a fresh supply for their delectation.
+Therefore, as a parent who had the interests of a blooming maiden to
+look after and defend, the good lady took pains to array herself at once
+upon the side where it was very apparent that her interests lay. While
+Mrs. Dr. Little, Mrs. Brier, and other respected matrons of the place,
+came out strong on the side of virtue and appearances.
+
+The better to further this project, a Ladies' Charitable Society was
+started in Waveland, of which the Dr's. lady was chosen President, a
+certain Mrs. Caroline Newcomer, Vice President, and Miss Betsey Pryor,
+Secretary and Treasurer. That it soon attained to an astonishing
+popularity was known from the fact that the newly appointed Secretary
+and Treasurer appeared now, for the first time in years, in a stylish
+new bonnet, which her detractors did not hesitate to declare (though
+doubtless actuated by the basest motives of envy and jealousy) had been
+paid for out of the funds of the said Society; and which,
+notwithstanding such malicious assertions, waxed stronger as it grew.
+There was one noticeable feature of affairs at this juncture, that the
+uninitiated were at a loss to account for, and that was the studied
+neutrality maintained by the oracle of the village, who had been wont to
+utter his momentous decisions, upon the current topics of the day,
+through the medium of that "valuable" and popular paper the "Clarion."
+
+Now, however, it maintained a decorous silence upon local affairs, and
+if, by any inadvertence, it was betrayed into its natural play of wit,
+so that, for a moment, it might seem to hinge upon the absorbing topic
+of public interest, and to favor any one side in particular, it was
+immediately observed to lean heavily the other way, to draw off the
+attention of its numerous and discriminating readers. The cause for this
+unusual state of things had not, as yet, transpired, but was soon to be
+made known to those more immediately concerned.
+
+In a small place like Waveland, the inhabitants, as every one knows, are
+very liable to go to extremes in almost everything they undertake. Thus,
+if a new comer excites their favorable notice, they have nothing to do
+but to ride at once, upon the very topmost wave of popular favor.
+
+If, on the contrary, they decide against them, there is no crime within
+the knowledge of man, of which they are not severally accused and
+considered guilty, without any extenuating circumstances.
+
+So it was not so much to be wondered at, that when Clemence once fell
+into disfavor, she had lost the good graces of the majority at once and
+forever. Within a short space of time, every house was closed against
+her, with the exception of a few staunch friends' hospitable abodes,
+and she received a polite but cold request from the school committee to
+resign her situation.
+
+"What _can_ it mean?" she asked in despair. "I surely have done nothing
+to offend these people?"
+
+"As if the miserable, pusillanimous reprobates did not know it as well
+as you!" spluttered Mrs. Wynn, with her apron to her eyes. Clemence's
+white face, with its appealing look, had gone straight to her motherly
+heart. "The unfeeling creatures, to take away a girl's character, like
+that! There had _ought_ to be a place of everlasting punishment for such
+wretches, and I know they'll get it, sure as the Lord reigns. But I told
+you so! I knew how it would be when you went to pickin' that lazy, idle,
+shiftless, good-for-nothing thing of a Mis' Owen out of the dirt, and
+settin' her up to be somebody. I knew there wasn't no ambition in her no
+how, and she didn't want to be anybody herself. She's only mad now,
+because you showed yourself so far above her, and she hates you for your
+pains. You never asked my advice, though, and I thought I'd keep my
+fingers out of the mess, for once in my life. That gossipping, old
+Mother Wynn made up her mind to let 'em have their fling for once, but
+they've gone and dragged me into it after all, and I mean to let the
+whole lot see that I'm enough for them, single-handed.
+
+"I believe that I'll put on my bonnet and start out. I feel too excited
+to accomplish anything this morning, so, if you'll just help Rose
+through with the bakin', I guess I'll make one or two short calls, here
+and there, to see what's going on."
+
+Only too glad to get rid of her own thoughts, Clemence assented, and was
+soon so busily engrossed in her occupation, that she did not hear when
+there came a rap at the outer door.
+
+"Mr. Strain," said Rose, coming in suddenly, with a singular expression
+of countenance, "and, if you'll believe it, he asked to see you alone."
+
+"What for, I wonder?" said Clemence, nervously, pressing her hand to her
+aching forehead, "I cannot imagine what he wants."
+
+"Nor I," said Rose, "of _you_." And when Clemence asked her to follow
+immediately, declared, with a toss of the head, "she couldn't see it,
+two's a company and three's a crowd, you know. I wasn't called for, and
+I never go where I ain't wanted. Hurry up, too, and get rid of him, for
+there's all this work to be done before mother comes home."
+
+Thus adjured, Clemence, with an effort to recover herself, entered
+quietly the room where the gentleman awaited her. After a little
+desultory conversation, he came at once to the object of his visit.
+
+It was as Clemence had feared, and she felt pained to reject the offer
+which was now made her in a straightforward, business-like manner.
+
+She thanked him gratefully, speaking of her present isolated and unhappy
+position.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Strain, complacently stroking his moustache, and seeming
+in no wise disconcerted by his rejection, "I had heard of your little
+difficulty, and it was with that in view that I called to offer you my
+protection. I thought if you were once my wife, that these gossipping
+tongues could be effectually silenced."
+
+"Indeed, I thank you sincerely for your generosity and magnanimity,"
+said Clemence, "and I shall ever remember you with a sense of deep
+obligation."
+
+"Oh, you owe me no thanks," said the gentleman, gazing upon her
+disturbed face, admiringly, "even if I believed the fabrications of your
+enemies, it would not have altered my resolution. I am not, as you may
+have observed, exactly one of these people. I have moved amid far
+different scenes in my time, and my views of life are of the most
+liberal sort imaginable. I consider that I, too, have my weaknesses and
+foibles, in common with the rest of mankind, and I do not look for
+exalted virtues in any one. I admired you from the first, and resolved
+to make an effort to win you. Of my success, you are the best judge, but
+that, I am happy to say, does not alter our mutual regard and esteem.
+
+"Furthermore, I can say from personal knowledge, (confidentially, of
+course) that not one of these worthy ladies who have denounced you,
+would dare to utter or whisper a word against you as my wife, for I am
+already too deeply in their confidence not to render the attempt
+dangerous, as well as disagreeable.
+
+"My dear girl," he added lightly, "this is no place for an angel like
+you, now that you have repulsed the only man who might have befriended
+you. In losing me, you lose everything, for you must be aware that it
+would be sheer folly in me to detract from my own popularity, by
+defending one who denies me even the right to do so. And since I cannot
+trust myself to enjoy the dangerous privilege of your friendship, I
+shall find consolation in the ambition that has engrossed me in the
+past, and rendered me, until the present moment, invulnerable to the
+charms of the fairer portion of creation."
+
+Clemence felt a hysterical inclination to laugh and cry too, when she
+found herself alone, and was only certain of one fact, that this
+morning's work had added to her troubles, not lightened them.
+
+"_Such_ a day as I have had!" said Mrs. Wynn, coming in about tea-time.
+"You are the talk of the town. That little nobody of an Owen has managed
+to stir up one muss, I can tell you. I s'pose, though, if it hadn't been
+her, some of the rest would have made up something on their own hook.
+You see, the women have all been jealous of you from the first, and they
+meant to put you down if they could, and have only been waiting for a
+good chance.
+
+"Why, I heard to day a dozen different accounts of your life before you
+came here; how your father was hung or sent to the States Prison, and
+your mother was no better than she should be, and a lot more that I
+can't remember. Do tell me, for I never heard really how it was anyway.
+I want to put them down when they say such things again."
+
+"Never mind, dear Mrs. Wynn," said Clemence, "I do not. These people,
+like the rest of their class, must have something to occupy their minds,
+and, if their animadversions do fall on my devoted head, it will only
+keep them busy, and do me no real harm."
+
+"But I want to know, child," said the elder lady, giving her a glance of
+motherly tenderness, "for I am interested both in your past and future,
+and I am anxious to learn just what your former life has been." And
+Clemence told her the simple truth of the happy years that were now
+vanished forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+"What shall I do now?" asked Clemence of her friend, Mrs. Hardyng, as
+they sat together in the parlor of the latter's residence. "My income
+has stopped entirely, and I shall have but a small sum after settling
+Ruth's board, which I must do soon, for I cannot leave her any longer
+with Mrs. Swan."
+
+"Why!" questioned her friend, "has she, too, gone over to the enemy?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied Clemence; "she is still a staunch adherent. It was not
+that I had in my mind, but I have been looking into my affairs lately,
+and have decided that, as I can plainly do nothing here, I had better go
+back to the city at once."
+
+"And what will you do there?" queried the listener. "Excuse the liberty,
+but I would like to ask, from no motive of idle curiosity, you may feel
+sure, if you have any friends there?"
+
+"None but good Mrs. Linden, and I have no claim upon her, although she
+bade me come to her as to a mother, when I was weary of this
+'experiment,' as she called it. I only thought she might help me to
+obtain employment, and give me some advice and assistance about Ruth."
+
+"And cannot I do both?" asked Ulrica Hardyng, sorrowfully. "Clemence,
+you must surely think more of this former friend than you can of me,
+since you will intrust her alone with the privilege I would give so much
+to share. You have told me that this Mrs. Linden is a self-absorbed
+woman, sufficient unto herself, while I am only a heart-broken creature,
+isolated completely from those who were once dear to me. Shall I tell
+you how I have watched and waited for this hour, when I could be of some
+assistance to you, and thus bind you closer to me? Oh, I have dreamed
+too long of this happiness, to have it elude my grasp. You cannot deny
+me the boon of having some one again to love."
+
+"But is it my duty, dear friend, to lay my burden upon you? Since I have
+voluntarily taken it upon myself, ought I not to bear it cheerfully,
+having faith that all things will work together for my good, if I only
+trust Him, 'who seeth in secret?'"
+
+"It cannot be wrong," said the elder woman. "Henceforth we will share it
+together."
+
+So it was arranged, and Clemence and little Ruth went to live beneath
+the cottage roof of Ulrica Hardyng.
+
+Meanwhile, busy tongues were rife over this new fact. Waveland had
+expected an exodus from among them, of the young schoolmistress and her
+little charge, and hardly, as yet, knew what to make of her remaining
+quietly among them, and living down these slanderous reports. But, at
+length, after this came to be an established fact, the little village
+had another excitement to create a stir among its most exclusive
+circles, and this was no less an event than the marriage of the
+bachelor editor of the "Clarion," with a lady of no inconsiderable
+literary ability, whose home was in a distant city. And, when the
+curiosity of every one was roused to the highest pitch of expectancy,
+the lady made her entree into the little town with great eclat.
+
+Immediately thereafter, there was a succession of short poems, all
+running upon whispering zephyrs, murmuring rivulets, and the like, and
+each signed, "Euphrasia Anastasia Strain."
+
+The newly-made bride was welcomed with a cordiality, that was
+astonishing, considering the boast that her husband had once uttered in
+regard to the former vows of eternal fidelity from these same ladies.
+However, time works wonders, and it was evident, from the energetic
+manner in which the matrons of Waveland denounced the least apparent
+departure from the narrow path of virtue, that a thorough reformation
+had lately taken place in their midst.
+
+Mrs. Strain was also speedily elected to a prominent position in the
+Ladies' Charitable Society, which had now got to be a regular
+institution of the town, by, virtue of having now thrown upon its tender
+mercies, one paralytic old woman, two little orphans, a poor young woman
+out of a situation, and a reformed drunkard, who had spent a fortune in
+his time, and had also the reputation of having been a "ladies' man,"
+which considerably heightened their generous interest in him. The
+Society had now got upon a firm foundation, and had proved itself no
+scheme from the visionary brain of an enthusiast, but of a thorough,
+practical character, that won for it the respect and veneration of
+everybody who knew of its existence.
+
+There was one thing to be considered, it gave its members plenty to do,
+and, meanwhile, Clemence had a short respite. She had ample time, now,
+to give to little Ruth, and her love for the child became stronger each
+day, as always happens when we deny ourselves for others.
+
+They took long walks together in the woods that surrounded the pretty
+village. Clemence had an artist's eye, and she loved to wander amid
+these scenes of beauty, that had power to calm her troubled soul as
+nothing else could do.
+
+Little Johnny Brier often joined them, and Clemence, whose heart ached
+for the little creature, with the white, wan face that spoke of
+suffering, used to cheer him, and try to inspire him with hope for the
+future.
+
+But he would say, fastening his wistful eyes upon her, with a look that
+always gave her pain:
+
+"I like best to have you tell me of heaven. I do not believe I shall
+ever be happy in this world; but, I want to try and do right, so that
+when I die, I may go to live with God and his holy angels."
+
+"But you must not indulge in such a morbid state of feeling," Clemence
+would say gravely. "If your Heavenly Father sees fit to have you labor
+for Him upon earth, you should not murmur nor repine, but strive humbly
+for submission. You may be sure that there is something for you yet to
+accomplish. God witnesses your misery, and knows of your longing to go
+to Him; but, you are not yet prepared. The discipline of life is needed
+to prove that you can deny yourself for the good of others. You can show
+your trust in the loving hand that guides you, by striving to bear your
+present trials patiently, and in His own good time He will surely send
+relief."
+
+"Do you really think that?" was the oft repeated question, and the
+troubled eyes would scan Clemence's face, till her own were filled with
+blinding drops. "I try so hard to be good and patient, but I can't hope
+for anything better. Something seems to stop me, when I try to pray to
+be made useful in this world, and it comes right out of my heart to ask,
+instead, only to let me die. Sometimes I have waited outside the
+graveyard, and watched a little spot under a shady tree, where no one
+ever goes, and I have thought how pleasant it would be to lie down
+there, with the daisies and violets to creep over me lovingly, and never
+wake again to any more pain. I don't think I would like to be happy, for
+you are not, dear Miss Graystone, and I don't think some people are ever
+made to be. I believe God means to make them feel how bad and wicked the
+world is, so they will want to leave it and go to Him. Don't you think
+He means that, when He tells us about there being no more sorrow nor
+crying in heaven? Oh, dear Miss Graystone, I know you sometimes feel
+just like that, for I have seen it in your eyes, and you look just as I
+have often dreamed my own dear mother did. And, don't be angry, but
+every night, when I say my prayer, I tell Him about you, and pray that
+you may be taken away from these wicked people, you and little Ruth.
+Last night I had a dream. I thought I stood upon the bank of a broad
+river, and the water moaned and whispered like human voices, and came up
+around me, and just as I was beginning to be afraid, a sweet, low voice
+came to me, borne across the waters, and mingled with their murmur,
+'fear not,' and then I thought that I knew this was the river of death
+that you had told me about in the Sabbath School, and I clasped my hands
+together, and cried out for my dear, dear teacher, and then the water
+rose about me till, as it reached my lips, I awoke."
+
+"Poor, little one," said Clemence, parting the boy's hair from off his
+forehead, with a mother touch, and as she gazed down into the innocent
+eyes, with their far-off, dreamy look, a foreboding of the future came
+to her, that she put away with a shudder.
+
+"Come, children," she said, taking a hand of each, "we will retrace our
+steps homeward." She stooped and kissed the child's forehead, as she
+parted from him. "Good-bye, Johnny," she said cheerfully, "be a good
+boy, and try to remember all that I have told you."
+
+The child gave the required promise, and turned away, but came back a
+moment after:
+
+"Miss Graystone," he said, standing before her, and raising his eyes
+fearlessly to hers, "don't you think I have always tried to be good?"
+
+"Yes, Johnny," she answered truthfully, "I know that you do. You are a
+real little hero, and your patience and fortitude have often set me an
+example, while I have grieved over the melancholy circumstances that
+have made you so old in sorrow."
+
+"Oh, thank you for that, dear, dearest Miss Graystone." The child was
+sobbing convulsively, so that Clemence became frightened for him.
+
+"Why, my poor child, you must not grieve so. I cannot bear to see you so
+unhappy," she said, bending down to him, "try and smile for me once,
+dear. Look now, at that cloud floating above you. See how it breaks,
+revealing the blue sky beyond, and think what I told you of the cloud
+with the silver lining. Don't you remember it, Johnny?"
+
+"Remember it? oh yes," he said eagerly. "I have never forgotten a word
+you have ever uttered. I believe I shall think of them just before I
+die, and tell you about them in heaven. Kiss me again, please, and then
+I will go. I feel better now."
+
+Clemence drew the child again into a close embrace, and then, releasing
+him, waited at a turn in the winding path, until he was out of sight.
+
+It was about the same hour, nearly a week after, that Clemence was
+walking alone, musing upon her own unhappy fate, when, startled by a
+rustling of the branches near her, she turned, to behold little Johnny
+Brier rushing hastily past, without looking to one side or the other,
+and following the path that opened upon the margin of the lake.
+
+A strange fear took possession of Clemence. She called several times,
+"Johnny!" authoritatively, but the child sped on, unheeding. The girl
+grew faint and dizzy, and though she turned to follow in the direction
+in which he had gone, her limbs refused to support her, and she sank
+down, nearly in a state of insensibility.
+
+Footsteps again aroused her, and she started up with a feeling of hope
+animating her to renewed effort. A moment after, Mrs. Brier appeared
+upon the scene furious with rage, and flourishing in her right hand a
+large whip.
+
+A look of guilty fear overspread her face, as she beheld Clemence's
+agitation.
+
+"Have you seen Johnny?" she asked, breathlessly, Clemence pointed,
+without a word, toward the water. An awful look of terror leaped into
+the woman's eyes, and she turned and rushed frantically away.
+
+When the girl could gain strength, she went after her, and there, at the
+water's edge, a crowd of people were collected, uttering ejaculations of
+horror over the lifeless remains of the child she had a few moments
+before beheld in all the agony of the wildest despair.
+
+A woman turned from the crowd as Clemence approached. "He ran away," she
+said, "and I suppose came down here to play, and fell into the lake.
+It's no fault of mine. I've warned him often enough to keep away, and
+now he has only received the reward of all disobedient children."
+
+Clemence strove to speak, and brand this woman as a murderess, in the
+sight of God, but the words died on her lips, and she fell down, where
+she stood, as lifeless as the still figure before them.
+
+There had now happened to Clemence Graystone, that which, it seemed, in
+her forlorn situation, was the worst that fate could inflict upon her;
+her health failed entirely. She grew; sick, even "unto death." The long
+days of the late summer and the early autumn passed, and she lay, in
+her pale beauty, upon a couch of pain. The world, this busy, struggling,
+toilsome world, seemed slipping from her grasp, and heaven was very near
+to her. Her tired feet had borne her to the very brink of the dark
+river, whose waters chanted their solemn requiem, as the child had told
+her in his dream. She longed to follow him, and sometimes, in her
+delirium, would cry out his name suddenly, with every endearing accent.
+It seemed almost as if the words of the boy had been prophetic, and his
+strange dream was thus to be fulfilled.
+
+He lay now in the very spot that his childish eyes had sought longingly,
+and one who remembered him came daily to place the beautiful flowers he
+had loved in life above his grave. Poor little Ruth! her days passed
+sadly enough. Her only friend might soon be taken from her. Her all was
+centred in the slight, attenuated form, that lay tossing restlessly upon
+what might be her death-bed. The little patient watcher grew each day
+paler as hope died out, and, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the
+elder woman, she only left Clemence's bedside for her daily walk to the
+graveyard.
+
+Ulrica Hardyng cared for the two who had been so strangely committed to
+her care, as though they had been the sisters God had denied her. She
+hung over the sufferer, administering her medicine, and allowing none
+but the doctor and the hired nurse to approach her.
+
+"There shall be none of these rude creatures about you, my darling," she
+would say determinedly; "they have done you harm enough already."
+
+She despised these people, as was natural, from her very nature, which
+was generous, but given to strong likes and dislikes, and their
+treatment of the orphan girl had brought upon them her lasting contempt.
+She had also before had a specimen of their tender mercies, and was
+fully aware of the adverse judgment that had been passed upon her own
+actions upon her advent among them. She thought, therefore, that little
+good could be got from associating with any of them, though, like a real
+lady, she took care to be always civil and polite to every one.
+
+When the news of Clemence's dangerous illness was spread throughout the
+town, there were many to grieve for the sweet-faced stranger, who had so
+lately come among them, and there were some to wonder what would become
+of her if she should linger along without finally recovering her health.
+
+"Poor child," said Mrs. Wynn, brushing away the tears, "I have just been
+to see her, and she don't look to me as if she'd last the week out. I
+believe she is far more dangerous than the doctor thinks."
+
+"And if she dies, what will they do with that girl of Lynn's?" queried
+Mrs. Brier. "She'll have to come on the town. I knew it was a perfect
+piece of folly for that schoolmistress to take her to support, with only
+her small salary. It's just as I predicted. Her strength _has_ failed,
+and she can't do nothing more. 'Be just before you are generous,' is
+_my_ motto."
+
+Mrs. Brier never said a truer word than that in her whole life, for she
+had never been guilty of many generous or self-denying deeds, and no
+one could accuse her of erring in that respect.
+
+The different benevolent Societies also met, and discussed the
+probability of little Ruth Lynn's being thrown upon their generosity.
+They finally decided that, in case of any such calamitous ending to the
+madness of Clemence Graystone, the child should be turned over to the
+proper authorities of the village, and they would wash their hands of
+the whole affair.
+
+Their fears proved entirely groundless. By some inexplicable means, the
+two waifs, thrown thus strangely upon the protection of Widow Hardyng,
+managed to exist without either the aid or sympathy of the rest of the
+town. And Clemence, as the days grew cooler, rallied, and became rapidly
+convalescent.
+
+With returning strength, came again the old anxiety for the future. She
+knew that her generous hostess, though willing to share her all with
+them, ought not to be thus burdened. Her means were limited, and the
+strictest economy was necessary to make their narrow income meet their
+present wants. Clemence realized that her illness had brought additional
+expense, which she knew not how to meet. The doctor's bill alone, which
+she had not the means to meet, was appalling; besides, there were others
+clamoring for a settlement of their dues. Mrs. Hardyng had repeatedly
+cautioned her not to retard her recovery by brooding over her unhappy
+position, and had taken these obligations upon herself.
+
+In her feeble state of health, it was impossible for Clemence to
+undertake any employment. She was almost in despair. After all her
+superhuman efforts, she seemed placed in a worse predicament than when
+she first commenced to labor for her bread, and there was now another
+dependant upon her efforts. Long before she was really able, Clemence
+had begun to employ herself upon different articles of fancy work, such
+as she thought she could dispose of in Waveland.
+
+She managed, by this means, to obtain, from time to time, small sums of
+money, which, if they did not materially aid her, at least made her feel
+a little more independent. Among other things, which her friend
+suggested that she might be able to dispose of to advantage, was a
+prettily shaped basket of some frosty white material, whose glittering,
+transparent beauty was relieved by bright-tinted flowers, with long,
+creeping vines, and leaves of a vivid green. It took some time for its
+completion, and when it was finished, Clemence hoped that its extreme
+beauty would captivate the eyes of somebody who had means to pay
+somewhat of its real value.
+
+"Beautiful!" exclaimed the shop-keeper who purchased all Clemence's
+articles. "I'm afraid, Miss, you won't find ready sale for it here,
+though. There ain't many that can appreciate a thing like that in this
+village. I would not venture to run the risk myself, but if it was
+anything in the way of finery now, it would be different. If you will
+embroider some of those gay scarfs and slippers, and some more of the
+children's fixins, I'll buy them, for they take mightily."
+
+"Then you don't think I can dispose of this at any rate?" asked
+Clemence, despondingly. "I need the money very much."
+
+"I know you do," said the man compassionately, gazing into the girl's
+pale face. "You ought not to be working at anything after such a
+dangerous illness. Perhaps you had better leave it here for a few days,
+and I will see if I cannot get any orders for you."
+
+"Very well," said Clemence, "I should be greatly obliged if you would,"
+and she turned away more hopefully.
+
+Upon her next inquiry, she found that a Mrs. Burton had desired her to
+call, with specimens of her work, at her house, which, by the way, was
+_the_ mansion of the place. Clemence had heard much of this lady, but
+was not personally acquainted with her.
+
+"It's all right," said the brisk, little storekeeper. "I think she is
+the very one for you to go to, for she has plenty of money at her
+command. She took quite a fancy to the basket of flowers, and inquired
+all about you, asking if you would not call and see her directly."
+
+Clemence gladly followed the advice thus given her, and after a walk of
+about half a mile, found herself at Mrs. Burton's residence. The lady
+herself came to the door. Clemence introduced herself.
+
+"Oh, yes, you are the one Mr. Weston was speaking about, and I told him
+I thought I might be able to help you in some manner."
+
+Clemence thanked her, wondering inwardly, at the same moment, if it
+_was_ as disgraceful to be poor as many people seemed to think it. This
+was not the first time this thought had arisen in her mind. She had
+suffered before having any experience in the matter, that, in a country
+like this, where nearly all of the wealthy and influential members of
+society have arisen from obscurity, that honest labor was really no
+disgrace, and that if a person offered a fair equivalent for money,
+either by the labor of the hands or brain, that it was a very laudable
+thing to do.
+
+But, upon having to make the trial, she had been not a little astonished
+at the result. She found that if she offered her articles even below
+their real value, that it was considered an act of magnanimity for the
+purchaser to hand out the miserable pittance that was her due. She had
+many times been told, insolently, "I do this to help you, because Mr. or
+Miss, 'This, That or the Other' told me you were poor and obliged to
+support yourself by this means," and this, when the one who uttered it
+knew that they had got twice the worth of their money, and were
+congratulating themselves over thus taking advantage of another's
+necessities; nor was her own, as she well knew, by observation, an
+exceptional case. Everywhere vulgarity and ignorance can flaunt itself
+before the admiring eyes of the multitude, while gold hides with its
+glitter every defect.
+
+Yet, what could she do to protect herself? If she resented these
+indignities with honest pride, what would become of her, and that other
+who looked to her for support? Whatever it is possible for _manly_ pride
+and independence to achieve, there is nothing for a woman but
+submission.
+
+Clemence Graystone had long ere this put away all hopes of earthly
+happiness, and lived only by the light of an approving conscience. She
+took her troubles to her Heavenly Father, and in His smile forgot that
+the world frowned. She had the consciousness within her of having done
+her whole duty, and she lived not for this world alone. She felt that
+she was only one of the many, and she cared not for distinction among
+those she despised. The fickle multitude elevate to-day and dethrone
+to-morrow, leaving their once petted favorite to whatever fate may await
+them.
+
+Thoughts like these floated through Clemence's mind, as she followed
+Mrs. Burton into the parlor, and took a seat.
+
+"You have seen a good deal of trouble, I believe," said the lady,
+scanning the girl's face closely. "Yes, madame," said Clemence, briefly.
+
+"This is a world of trouble," she went on, applying her handkerchief to
+her eyes. "I, too, have my full share. I am deeply afflicted. Miss
+Graystone, I am an unloved wife."
+
+She began to sob hysterically at this announcement, and to weave
+backwards and forwards in her chair, while her listener shifted a little
+uneasily upon her seat, wondering what could possibly be coming now.
+
+"Yes," she said mournfully, "the man who vowed at the altar to love and
+cherish the treasure committed to his keeping, has proved recreant to
+the trust reposed in him. Look on this ethereal form, and upon this brow
+shadowed with grief, and at these eyes that have grown dim with weeping
+for one who is all unworthy of my devotion. Alas! that I should come to
+this, who was once surrounded by everything that could make life a
+blessing. This hand, that others prized, and sued for in vain, is
+unvalued now. On my wedding day, one of my rejected suitors came to my
+new-made husband, and exclaimed, in accents of deep despair,--'Charles
+Burton, you have won her from those who would have devoted their whole
+lives to her service, and counted it as nothing, that they might bask in
+the sunlight of her presence; and I warn you, guard well the priceless
+jewel. You have forever placed a bar to my happiness in this world, but
+if you never cause one feeling of regret for this day to rise in that
+gentle bosom, all is well. I can deny myself for one I love better than
+life itself.'
+
+"_This_ was the man whose suit I scorned, to listen to that of the
+perfidious being whose name I bear. I am a miserable victim. Life is
+unsupportable to me. Next spring, if my husband does not return, like
+the prodigal, remorseful and repentant, I shall become a missionary, and
+give my life for the cause I love."
+
+Here came a renewal of tears and heart-rending sighs. Clemence watched
+the woman in undisguised amazement, as she arose and paced the room,
+wringing her hands in the most woe-begone manner imaginable. Her wild
+appearance immediately suggested the idea that she might be suffering
+from temporary aberration of mind.
+
+Clemence rose with a quick thrill of fear. "Since you are indisposed for
+company," she said, "perhaps you would not care to be troubled with my
+little affairs at present. I can call again some time next week, if you
+desire it."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Mrs. Burton, "come again, when I am feeling better.
+This pressure on my brain will be relieved. Hush! do not say more, the
+servant will hear you. I am watched, and have no liberty to speak of my
+troubles without watching my opportunity. Good-bye, now, you can leave
+the basket until you come again, when I will remunerate you
+sufficiently."
+
+"The woman must be insane; do you not think so, Ulrica?" asked Clemence
+of her friend, after she had concluded a narrative of her interview.
+
+"Perhaps," said Mrs. Hardyng, doubtingly. "It looks like it, her talking
+about being watched, but I am of the opinion that a jealous, passionate
+temper has more to do with these paroxysms than anything else. She has
+always had the name of ruling her husband, and her scowling, swarthy
+visage, and evil-looking eyes, seem to substantiate her claim to
+possessing strong, vixenish proclivities. I fancy they are quite well
+matched, however, and that clouds in their domestic horizon are of every
+day occurrence. Neither should I at all relish the idea of being taken
+into the lady's confidence, for after they have got over their quarrel,
+they will be apt to lay the blame upon a convenient third, and I should
+not covet the distinction."
+
+"Well, I have only once more to go," said Clemence, "and shall take care
+to be guarded in my remarks."
+
+Which resolution was followed to the letter, when she found herself
+again in Mrs. Burton's parlor. The lady was cool and dignified when they
+met, but soon relapsed into a tearful state. Clemence was again forced
+to listen patiently to a long recital of Mr. Burton's shortcomings and
+disagreeable qualities, both of a positive and negative order, and felt
+sure before it came to an end, that she was much better acquainted with
+the dark side of that gentleman's character than she cared to be.
+
+Her position was a delicate one. Somehow, she could not help thinking,
+as she looked at the face before her, that, arrayed in its pleasantest
+smiles, it could, by the barest possibility, be only passable, and now
+looked really hideous in its disgusting and futile rage. Really, if
+there could be any excuse for such domestic infidelities as had been
+pictured so graphically, Mr. Burton certainly ought to have the benefit
+of them, for he seemed to be almost as much "sinned against as sinning."
+
+As soon as she could get away without positive rudeness, she did so.
+Mrs. Burton had declined to become a purchaser of her articles,
+retreating from her former protestations of benevolence, under the plea
+that her wretch of a husband curtailed her supply of means, in order to
+gratify his own avaricious disposition.
+
+"Just as I expected," said Mrs. Hardyng. "The true state of the case is
+this: that woman is a jealous, narrow-minded, illiberal creature, with a
+tongue 'hung in the middle.' She wanted to get you there simply to
+satisfy her own idle curiosity, and insult you with her insolent
+patronage. You have made another enemy, and that is all there is of it."
+
+"I hope it will prove all there is of it," said Clemence, uneasily. "I
+am sure I owe her no ill will, and I can't imagine why any body should
+wish to injure me, for I try not to offend them, but simply wish to
+mind my own business, and allow others to do the same."
+
+Mrs. Hardyng laughed musically. "Why, child, that is the supreme cause
+of all your unpopularity. You mind your own business too much for these
+good people. You are not as old as I am, and you seem to have got a
+one-sided view of matters and things generally. I dare say, at this
+moment your unsophisticated mind harbors some such creed as this, that
+if you pursue your own poor and worthy way in meekness and humility,
+without obtruding yourself upon other people's notice--in short, only
+ask to be left in peace to follow the bent of your own harmless
+inclination, that you do not ask what it is impossible to accomplish.
+But you are mistaken. There is no one so poor and humble but what these
+little great people will find time to criticise and find fault with
+whatever they may undertake. So, no matter how modest and unobtrusive
+you are, by comporting yourself in a dignified and lady-like manner, you
+offer an affront to these people, who, though themselves deficient in
+every attribute of politeness and good breeding, yet are sufficiently
+instructed by their dulled instincts, to realize your infinite
+superiority, and hate you accordingly."
+
+"Why, Ulrica," said Clemence, startled by her friend's vehemence, "you
+quite overwhelm me. I wish, though," she added; with a sigh, "that I
+could doubt the truthfulness of the picture."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+"What are you doing there, Clemence?" asked her friend; "not destroying
+that pretty article, I hope."
+
+"Yes and no," was the reply. "Upon examination, I find that it has
+become quite soiled, and thought I would make another frame to put these
+same flowers into."
+
+"Now, that is really too bad, making you so much extra trouble when you
+are feeling so ill. I noticed, though, that it had lost its freshness
+and purity--looking, in fact, as if some careless servant had swept on
+it."
+
+"I presume that is the case," said Clemence; "any way, it is completely
+ruined now."
+
+"What can this mean?" she exclaimed, a moment after, holding up a lady's
+gold pin. "Is it not somewhat remarkable to find an article of this
+description here?"
+
+"No," said Ulrica Hardyng, coming forward, with an expression of
+contempt upon her fine features. "I can't say as I consider it so. I can
+understand precisely the motive that induced that woman to plot this
+piece of mischief. She meant to ruin you, Clemence, in the estimation of
+the whole community; in short, to brand you as dishonest. If you had
+effected a sale of the article, without examining it closely, you would
+never have detected the proximity of this valuable ornament, and when it
+was called for, which would surely have occurred, you could not, as a
+matter of course, have produced it. Do you not see the whole trap at a
+glance?"
+
+"What have I not escaped?" ejaculated Clemence, pale with agitation.
+"What motive could possibly have led a comparative stranger to act
+thus?"
+
+"There are numberless reasons," replied her friend. "The woman had
+placed herself, to a certain extent, in your power, by her uncalled for
+revelations of their domestic affairs, and she wished to have something
+to hold as a rod over you."
+
+"Don't you think it might have been an accident?" willing, as usual, to
+believe every one but herself in the right.
+
+"No," said Mrs. Hardyng, indignantly, "it was a premeditated act, as
+deliberate as it was infernal. My innocent darling, God has protected
+you, and vanquished your enemy."
+
+"What base, designing people there are in the world," sighed the girl,
+sinking down by the couch upon which her friend reclined, upon her
+return from a walk the next evening. "You were right, Ulrica. I read in
+that woman's guilty face, to-night, the confirmation of my doubts."
+
+"She did not admit it?" said the other, starting up eagerly.
+
+"Not in words, but her looks proclaimed her part in the transaction more
+eloquently than any form of speech. She knew that I read her craven soul
+as I stood before her."
+
+"This is too much?" said Mrs. Hardyng, rising and pacing the floor in
+violent agitation. "I will see to this matter myself, for it is too
+great an insult to be borne patiently without the charge of cowardice."
+
+A few days after, as Clemence was walking, with downcast eyes, in the
+direction of her friend's residence, she met in the narrow pathway two
+gentlemen, one of whom raised his hat respectfully, and paused to speak
+with her.
+
+It was Mr. Gilman, one of the school committee. Clemence respected and
+venerated him, and had on many an occasion felt grateful that his
+influence was generously exerted in her behalf.
+
+The gentleman paused now to say that he had nothing to do with her
+dismissal from school, having used every argument in her favor, in vain.
+He concluded by professing himself more than satisfied with her
+services, and convinced of her ability as a teacher; desired her to
+refer to him for a recommendation to any situation that she might have
+in view.
+
+Clemence thanked him gratefully, and walked on with a lightened heart.
+She remembered, afterwards, that this gentleman's companion had been
+introduced by the name of Burton.
+
+This latter personage had a little burly figure, with head carried very
+erect upon a short, thick neck, that looked still shorter from the long,
+flowing beard, thickly sprinkled with gray.
+
+He did not look like a "wretch," nor yet, as if he had sufficient energy
+or capacity for any deep scheme of villainy. Still she felt sure this
+was the individual whose shortcomings and misdeeds generally, she had
+heard descanted upon.
+
+Clemence laughed, as she wondered how it was possible for any one to be
+so carried away by their feelings, as to be jealous of a submissive
+looking little man like this. Yet, having fallen in love with him once
+herself, and forgetting that youth had flown, and that the husband of
+her youth was only a plodding, middle-aged family man, it was not so
+very remarkable that a naturally jealous woman, like Mrs. Charles
+Burton, should imagine that her especial property was coveted by all
+those of her own sex who were not similarly blessed.
+
+"Poor woman!" thought Clemence, "she is a victim to her own unhappy
+temper."
+
+She forgot the circumstance altogether, and it was only recalled to mind
+when the village postmaster handed her a letter, which read thus:
+
+     MISS CLEMENCE GRAYSTONE:
+
+     Miss--On Thursday, the 23d instant, you were seen by certain
+     parties, on a secluded avenue of this village, in earnest
+     conversation with two gentlemen,--one of whom was Mr. Charles
+     Burton. Report gives him the character of a perfidious and
+     unfaithful husband. How then does it look for a young lady, whose
+     name is now the subject of idle gossip, to indiscreetly hazard her
+     reputation still more by such intercourse. There could be but one
+     object in this, which was, doubtless, _revenge_. But, let me ask,
+     what will it profit you, to add still greater pangs to that already
+     suffered by one who mourns the loss of her husband's affections?
+     Know that, through all, she will cling to him, for she loves him
+     still, and is a devoted wife and mother. Nothing of coldness or
+     neglect on _his_ part can change _her_ feelings, or turn her from
+     the path of duty. As a friend and a Christian, the writer of this
+     would calmly advise you to abandon all efforts either to see or
+     communicate in any manner with the gentleman, upon any subject
+     whatever; not even in the presence of a third party, as there is
+     said to be an official who watches over the interests of a wronged
+     and heart-broken wife.                                  WATCHER.
+
+"Really, this is assuming a tragical character," said Mrs. Hardyng, to
+whom Clemence went at once for advice. "'The plot thickens,' as the
+story-books say. Why, child, take courage; you will be a heroine yet,
+and I shall be thrown completely in the shade--left disconsolate and
+forlorn."
+
+"Don't jest," said Clemence, shuddering. "You can't think, Ulrica, how
+all this pains me. I never dreamed of such a result of my efforts, but
+rather supposed, if we tried to do 'what their hand found to do,'
+patiently, they would be borne out in their undertakings. I am innocent
+of premeditated wrong to any one."
+
+"There, don't cry!" said Mrs. Hardyng. "This is only a passing cloud,
+and your future will be all the brighter for the shadow which now
+threatens to envelop you in its gloomy folds."
+
+"I wish I could think so," said Clemence. She took her hat mechanically
+as she said this, and went out, hardly knowing whither to bend her
+steps, but feeling stifled, and wanting to be alone.
+
+By-and-by she found herself seated by a new-made grave. A memory of the
+pale, patient little face, that used to haunt her footsteps, came to
+her, and she thought sadly of the child's unhappy fate.
+
+The daylight faded slowly out of the western heavens; the shades of
+evening gathered round. Suddenly, as the girl sat absorbed, a tiny hand
+stole into hers, and two sorrowful, tear-filled eyes sought her own. It
+was little Ruth, who had missed her, and whose loving heart would not
+allow her to rest while one she loved suffered.
+
+They walked homeward together, under the starlit canopy, and Clemence
+thought that, whatever might come to her, there was one whose pure
+affection was wholly her own.
+
+"Here, child, is another letter for you!" said Mrs. Hardyng, coming in
+from the village the following day. "You are getting to be a personage
+of some importance, I perceive."
+
+"Why, who can it be from?" queried Clemence. "I have no correspondents."
+
+"Perhaps another anonymous communication," said her friend. "Open it and
+see, for I am dying of curiosity."
+
+"It is from dear Mrs. Linden," said Clemence. "Here is what she writes:"
+
+     "MY ABSENT DARLING: Why have you not written or come to me? By your
+     long silence I have been led to infer that you may not have
+     anything pleasant to communicate, and, therefore, fear to disturb
+     me with the narration of your misfortunes. I have looked for your
+     return for shelter from the home from which you went forth, like
+     some weary bird with drooping wing and plaintive song. That home is
+     always open to you, with its fond welcome. Can you have found new
+     friends who have grown dearer than her who bade you good-bye with a
+     prayer in her heart for your future? If you are happy, which God
+     grant, then I am content. But I have a strong presentiment of evil;
+     and I fear, I know not what, when my thoughts turn to you. There
+     was a promise about coming back when tired of your experiment. I
+     mean to hold my wayward one by that promise. Do you recollect
+     being accused of too much independence? If I remember correctly,
+     Mrs. Bailey thought that one of your greatest faults, that needed
+     speedy correction. I don't want you to exercise it towards your old
+     friend. Some of these days, if I do not hear from or see her, I
+     shall come and claim my daughter.
+
+     "It can't be possible that you have found anybody in that
+     out-of-the-way locality to feel particularly interested in--eh,
+     Clemence? I have sometimes thought that some other more famed
+     mortal engrossed the affection that belongs, by prior claim, to me.
+     Don't encourage any of those rustics, for I have somebody here so
+     infinitely superior to any one whom I ever met before that I have
+     decided that there is only one girl in the world worthy of him.
+     Now, if I have aroused your curiosity sufficiently to have you call
+     for 'more,' I will change the subject, and give you a little of the
+     gossip that I know will interest you.
+
+     "The last sensation is nothing else than the elopement of Melinda
+     Brown with a curly-haired hotel waiter. Imagine the scene when the
+     fact became known to the disconsolate Brown _mere_. The girl has
+     found her level at last, my dear. It was all time and trouble
+     thrown away trying to make anything of her. Melinda could not be a
+     lady, because, as I always contended, it wasn't in her. She is now
+     in her proper sphere. I hear that her husband has set up in the
+     same business in which his worthy papa-in-law began life. Melinda
+     lives in apartments over the grocery, and enjoys life hugely, as
+     she never did in the elegant mansion she has left forever.
+
+     "I've still another wedding to chronicle. You surely have not
+     forgotten our fair Cynthia, the former confidante of Mrs. P.
+     Crandall Crane, but now, alas! her friend no longer, but that
+     lady's deadliest foe. But to 'begin at the beginning:'
+
+     "Some months ago Mrs. Crane made the acquaintance of some new
+     people, whom she hastened to describe and present to her dearest
+     friend. One of them was a young gentleman, of fair, effeminate
+     beauty and manners, and extreme youth. In fact, he had but just
+     been emancipated from the strictest discipline of stern tutors.
+     This fortunate youth was the sole heir of a wealthy and indulgent
+     step-father, who had followed the remains of a second 'dear
+     departed' to the grave, and was said to be inconsolable, living but
+     to secure the happiness of this only son of his cherished and lost
+     Amelia. The gentleman, whose name was Townsend, purchased an
+     elegant villa at a convenient distance from the city, and installed
+     therein a faraway cousin as housekeeper. This worthy person was
+     immediately surrounded by the Crane clique, who made her long and
+     oft-repeated visits, until, no doubt, she wondered greatly at the
+     cause of her popularity. Of course, being only a poor dependent on
+     the bounty of her relative, she was naturally pleased and flattered
+     at being the object of so much friendly regard, and she took every
+     pains to make herself agreeable to her new-found friends. Another
+     fact proved the gratitude of her disposition, and that was the
+     praises which were continually lavished upon the gentleman over
+     whose mansion she presided. In this poor woman's estimation, Mr.
+     Townsend was a model man. It had been her valued privilege to visit
+     him occasionally during the lifetime of the second Mrs. T., and
+     nothing from her description could have been more beautiful than
+     his devotion to the lady during her long and lingering illness.
+     Besides, he had taken her son to his home and heart, and had given
+     every one to understand that this young Addison Brayton was to be
+     the future possessor of that vast wealth. To come to the point at
+     once, Mrs. P. Crandall Crane 'sighted them,' and mentally
+     appropriated the young gentleman for her own Lucinda. To that end,
+     she schemed and labored, and, just as the darling prospect seemed
+     about to be brought to a final consummation, fate, in the person of
+     her friend Cynthia, interfered to put a stop to the proceedings by
+     marrying the young gentleman herself! Words are inadequate to
+     describe the scene that followed upon this denouement. Mrs. Crane
+     was in absolute despair for a time, until a new idea entered her
+     fertile brain. Mr. Townsend, in the first paroxysm of rage, had
+     disowned the recreant youth, and turned him from his doors without
+     a farthing of the wealth that was to have been his princely
+     inheritance. That much abused gentleman had no nearer relations
+     than the far-removed cousin before referred to, and consequently
+     here was a magnificent fortune, with only the encumbrance of a
+     fine-looking, well-preserved gentleman, actually going a begging.
+     The thing was not to be thought of for a moment.
+
+     "'Many a heart is caught in the rebound.' 'It would be a pretty
+     piece of revenge!' soliloquized Mrs. Crane, complacently, 'if
+     Lucinda should yet reign mistress of that mansion, for all Mr.
+     Addison Brayton. How it _would_ spite Cynthia!' With renewed
+     energy, but this time more cautiously, the sagacious lady laid her
+     trap for the unwary footsteps of the unconscious Townsend. He was a
+     frequent visitor at the house, feeling always sure of a warm
+     welcome from the urbane hostess. The plan worked admirably, and at
+     last the gentleman called to solicit a private interview with the
+     contractor.
+
+     "'Mr. Crane is not at home,' said his smiling lady, 'but you can
+     leave the message with me.'
+
+     "'Ah, yes!' said Mr. Townsend, with evident embarrassment; 'no
+     doubt you will do equally as well. I called, my dear madam,
+     to--ah--solicit a great boon at your hands. You are aware how
+     bitterly I have been betrayed by those whom I trusted.'
+
+     "'Yes,' put in Mrs. Crane, sympathetically.
+
+     "'And you have, I know, felt for my lonely and desolate situation.'
+
+     "'I have, indeed,' said the lady.
+
+     "'Since I have been intimately acquainted with your charming
+     family, I have learned to value, and, in short, feel a deep
+     attachment, for one whom, I believe, fate intended to fill the
+     place of my lost loves!'
+
+     "'My own Lucinda!' interrupted the other, raising her handkerchief
+     to conceal her satisfaction. 'Dear girl, it will be hard to part
+     with her. You cannot realize a mother's feelings, Mr. Townsend!'
+
+     "'But,' cried the gentleman, in tones of surprise and alarm, 'I do
+     not call upon you for so great a sacrifice. It was not Miss Lucinda
+     that I meant, but another, to whom I have reason to think I am not
+     altogether disagreeable. Surely you cannot be ignorant of my
+     profound affection for your self-sacrificing sister, the widow of
+     my late respected friend, Deane Phelps!'
+
+     "'Oh!' tittered Mrs. Crane, starting with great violence from her
+     seat; 'you mean Jane. Well, I'm glad she's got somebody to think
+     something of her at last. I congratulate you upon the prize you've
+     won. I shall make all haste to impart the agreeable intelligence.'
+
+     "'You artful specimen of an underhand nobody!' said Mrs. P.
+     Crandall, bursting into the room where the little widow stood,
+     looking really pretty with her soft flush of happy expectation in
+     her face. 'You'll rue this day, if I live!'
+
+     "'Oh, sister, don't!' said the low, grieved voice of the other. 'I
+     do so want your love and sympathy.'
+
+     "'Love and sympathy be d-d-darned!' sputtered Mrs. Crane, working
+     her long fingers convulsively. 'Walk out of this room in a hurry,
+     before I scratch your eyes out, you soft little caterpillar!'
+
+     "'Ruined! ruined! ruined!' she cried, sinking down and bursting
+     into a passionate flood of tears. 'Everything goes crossways. This
+     is a doomed family. Crane can't keep up appearances a week longer,
+     and Lucinda will be washing dishes in Jane Phelps' kitchen yet.'
+     Which prophecy will, in all probability, yet become literally true.
+
+     "I had these facts from Mrs. Jane Phelps Townsend, who told me that
+     her brother-in-law had lost all of his ill-gotten gains, and,
+     unless her husband assisted them, they would sink into the lowest
+     depths of poverty.
+
+     "I'm just hateful enough to feel glad of it, too, Clemence. I never
+     knew, until lately, that I could be wicked enough to rejoice over
+     other people's calamities. But I can't help it. Last week I took a
+     roll of fine sewing to Mrs. Addison Brayton. 'What are you crying
+     about now, Cynthia?' I asked of the disconsolate figure that sat
+     crouched over a sewing machine.
+
+     "'Oh, Mrs. Linden, I'm so unhappy,' she whined. 'There is a cold
+     winter coming on, and I don't know but we shall actually starve to
+     death before spring.'
+
+     "I remembered the insolent remarks of this lady, and the rest of
+     her set, when a certain little bright-haired pet of mine was
+     similarly situated, and tormented, like Martha, about 'many
+     things.'
+
+     "It needed all my Christian charity and forbearance to keep from
+     actually twitting her on the spot. I can't help but pity the
+     forlorn creature, though. She's married that little spendthrift,
+     who was brought up in idleness to rely on his expectations. They
+     don't either of them know anything about work, now they are thrown
+     upon their own resources. That is not the worst of it. The boy has
+     dissipated habits, that I fear will cause Cynthia yet to bitterly
+     regret the step she has taken against the advice of their best
+     friends. However, they must make the best of what cannot be
+     recalled. Then, too, she is married; and, if it be true that
+     happiness consists in securing the objects that allure us, then
+     should Cynthia be happy that she has at length attained the object
+     of her life-long ambition, and can at last write _Mrs._ to her
+     name. She is no longer an old maid, which is something gained, in
+     her estimation.
+
+     "The youthful husband seems the most to be pitied of the two. On my
+     way home I met him, shabby and forlorn enough, and _what_ do you
+     suppose he was doing? Positively in the capacity of errand boy,
+     carrying parcels to deliver. He is an under-paid drudge in a retail
+     grocery, on starvation wages. He turned purple with mortification,
+     and pretended not to see me. 'Oh, my countrymen, what a fall was
+     there!'
+
+     "But I am afraid I have shocked your forgiving spirit by my
+     hardness of heart until you are ready to deplore the depravity of
+     human nature. My tender one! I am not like you. It comes hard for
+     Alicia Linden to overlook injustice or forgive her enemies.
+
+     "She has always a place in her heart, though, for absent dear ones,
+     and she often thinks regretfully of one sweet face that used to
+     smile at her hearthstone.
+
+     "Can you not come to me, Clemence?
+
+     "Last Sabbath I went to place my offering of flowers at the graves
+     of our buried dead. The golden glory of the autumn day poured its
+     heavenly radiance into the far depths of my soul. How lovely looked
+     the silent resting-place of our dear ones. I thought sadly of you,
+     and wished you were near me, to mingle your tears with mine.
+
+     "As it is, I can only pray that God will guard you with loving
+     care.             Your affectionate                       ALICIA."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+It was Thursday afternoon. The "Ladies' Charitable Society of Waveland"
+had assembled at the house of its President. The usual business of the
+meeting had been dispatched, and the ladies were engaged in the more
+congenial employment of retailing the village gossip.
+
+"Have you observed," queried Mrs. Dr. Little, "how wretchedly ill that
+young Graystone woman is looking? The doctor was saying, only this
+morning, that he thought she was in a decline."
+
+"I suppose its botheration, for one thing," said Mrs. Brier. "She had
+ought to have been more circumspect, and then she would have kept her
+position. I don't see how she can live without work, any more than
+anybody else. We can't be expected, though, to want a person with her
+morals contaminating our innocent children. That girl has travelled the
+downward road with awful rapidity since she came here. Just to think,
+she has been the talk of the town!"
+
+"I have been greatly afraid," said Mrs. Little, "that the Society would
+be called upon to help her, if she gets worse again; She seems to be
+living, at present, on that widow Hardyng. How are those two to get
+through the winter, I should like to know? As for the child, it will
+have to be bound out to somebody who will make it work, and then there
+will be an end of all these mincing lady airs. One thing I know, it's
+out of our power to help them. She must have some relations somewhere, I
+should think. I wonder what her antecedents really are, any way. I could
+never quite make the girl out yet."
+
+"Then I am a little shrewder than the rest of you, that's all," spoke up
+the voice of Mrs. Caroline Newcomer. "I found her out some time ago.
+Listen, ladies, all of you who have any curiosity upon the subject. I
+learned her whole history through one of my servants, who had lived in
+the same city from whence this mysterious personage came. By a curious
+coincidence, these Graystones, mother and daughter, came and took
+lodgings beneath the same lowly roof to which the poverty of this Mrs.
+Baily had driven her for shelter.
+
+"Of their former life, my informant knew little, but when she first
+became acquainted with them, they were miserably poor, and in debt to
+their landlady. At length Miss Clemence Graystone succeeded, by the
+rarest good fortune, in obtaining a position as governess in a wealthy
+family. She was, however, afterwards dismissed, (as Mrs. Baily
+afterwards learned, through one of the employees,) in disgrace, for
+having designs upon a young gentleman of fortune--the uncle, I believe,
+of her pupils.
+
+"How they managed to live on through the winter was a wonder to the
+whole household, or pay the expenses of the widow Graystone's sickness
+and death, which occurred in the spring. The landlady seemed to think
+everything of them, and refused to satisfy anybody's curiosity in regard
+to the matter. The girl Clemence went away with a strange woman, as soon
+as she recovered from an illness that followed her mother's death; and
+that was the last known of her until she turns up here, to make capital
+out of her pale face and mourning garments, which, I dare say, she
+thinks look interesting.
+
+"So that is the whole story about this young woman, who is probably at
+this moment laughing quietly in her sleeve, at the clever way she has
+imposed upon the inhabitants of this benighted village. I took pains,
+since her dismissal by the School Committee, to write and find out these
+particulars; and while I was about it, I thought I would also make an
+effort to discover something of the former life of the woman who calls
+herself Ulrica Hardyng. I always had my suspicions of her, which you
+will see have been duly verified;"--and she proceeded to relate, with
+great animation, to the gaping crowd around her, a garbled account of
+the misfortunes of the divorced wife.
+
+"And now, madam," said a calm, low voice behind her, as she finished
+speaking, "since you are so good at relating other people's histories,
+suppose you give these worthy persons, a similar account of your own
+proceedings and peregrinations?"
+
+It was none other than Ulrica Hardyng, who stood before her in _propria
+personae_. She had, in pursuance of a resolution made some weeks before,
+determined to be present, although uninvited, at this meeting, and
+justify her friend before her numerous assailants.
+
+"_You_ here?" articulated the woman, guiltily, as she gazed fearfully at
+the stern, set face before her.
+
+"Yes, I am here," was the reply, in a voice that trembled with outraged
+feeling, despite the powerful effort for self-control; "to prove that I
+know you at last, as the woman who won my husband from me.
+
+"Good people," she said, turning to the astonished and abashed
+spectators, "this woman has told you the truth, mainly, concerning me,
+at least; but with one reservation. She is the daughter of this Mrs.
+Bailey, whom she represented as a servant, and the cast-off mistress of
+the Geoffrey Westbourne who was once my husband."
+
+A denial trembled upon the lips of the woman, who shrank away in abject
+terror, but her voice failed her. The impassible face that looked down
+upon her seemed the very personification of unrelenting justice.
+
+"Woman," she said coldly, "your sin has found you out."
+
+The groveling figure suddenly erected itself with a defiant gesture.
+"Well, and what of that?" rising, and looking boldly around. "It must
+have happened some time or other, and I'm sick of this whining
+hypocrisy. I had rather go back to the old life again, where there is no
+restraint. But I am as good as the rest, I tell you, Ulrica Hardyng.
+These women, who profess Christianity, have deliberately robbed a poor,
+innocent, unoffending girl of her reputation, because they were jealous
+of her youth and fair looks, and mental superiority. Besides that, a
+dozen or more of these pious ladies were in love with the man who wanted
+to marry her, in the face of them all, and who was cooly rejected. I
+would have defended the poor thing myself, but _you_ had to take up on
+her side, and then, because the friend of one I hate can only be my
+enemy, I sought to drag her down to my own level."
+
+"And you put the finishing stroke to your malicious efforts," said that
+lady, "to-day by a tissue of falsehoods against her. At present I shall
+not attempt to refute these assertions, knowing that right will
+ultimately triumph. I understand _your_ tactics thoroughly, Caroline
+Bailey, and I am not even surprised that you are ashamed to own your
+wretched parent, who has put you in possession of these few facts mixed
+with so much falsehood."
+
+"How did you learn my real name?" asked the woman in amazement.
+
+"Through an old friend whom I persuaded to trace out your whole career,"
+was the reply. "I could have forgiven _my_ wrongs at your hands, but
+when you saw fit to attack that inoffensive girl, I determined to unmask
+you."
+
+"And much good may it do you," was the cool rejoinder. "I am tired of
+this monotonous existence, and had already decided soon to leave this
+humdrum village. As for proving your assertions, you need not be at the
+trouble. I do not deny a word you have uttered. It's all true, and
+more."
+
+"I had a few twinges of conscience," she added sneeringly, "and thought
+I'd change my mode of life; but it was never in me to behave like a
+saint. People follow the bent of their inclinations most generally. I've
+heard many good, but mistaken persons pity women who had gone wrong, and
+try faithfully to reclaim them, but it's all lost labor. Most of them
+take the downward road because it's the easiest, and comes natural, and
+after a time it's impossible to reform them, with a precious few
+exceptions. I've found out, though, since my short and sweet experience
+in this community, that I ain't the worst creature in the world. Say
+what you will, I am just as good at this moment as the rest of the women
+here. This girl that they have persecuted is about the only decent body
+among them. That's why they hate her, for being a continual reproof to
+them."
+
+"Oh, you need not nod, and wink, and draw away from me as though I was
+contagion," she said vindictively, "I know you all. I happen to be in
+the confidence of a certain gentleman that some of you know too
+intimately for your own good. You, for instance, Mrs. Brier, (glancing
+meaningly at the little woman,) and you, Mrs. Charles Burton, and you,
+and you, (pointing in rapid succession to several demure looking ladies
+who had eyed her with glances of apprehension.) It's about time for Mrs.
+Euphrasia Anastasia Strain to begin to keep an eye on her husband's
+movements, if she happens to be the least bit of a jealous nature."
+
+These concluding remarks produced a decided sensation. Every lady rose
+simultaneously to their feet. Mrs. Brier fainted, and dropped limp and
+lifeless and unobserved. The Editor's lady went into hysterics, the
+demure-looking females "lifted up their voices and wept," and everybody
+but Betsey Pryor seemed struck with general consternation. "Thank
+goodness!" exclaimed the last mentioned lady, pursing up her thin lips,
+"_I_ never had anything to do with the men. Nobody can accuse me of
+that, anyway."
+
+Which was but too true.
+
+The spinster having uttered this emphatic remark, folded her garments
+over her immaculate bosom and went forth to seek consolation in a cup of
+Mrs. Wynn's good tea.
+
+Profiting by her example, the others immediately bent their steps to
+their respective homes, and that was the last meeting of the Society
+ever held in that village. It then and there, at the height of its
+apparent prosperity, came to an untimely end, to the lasting grief and
+shame of a few worthy souls, and the amusement of many more, who were
+wicked enough to rejoice over its ignominious downfall.
+
+Soon after Mrs. Caroline Newcomer left Waveland to return no more, and
+not a little to the astonishment of every one, Mr. Charles Burton sold
+his residence to a wealthy gentleman and removed with his family to a
+distant city.
+
+That was the only change that occurred except the departure of Mrs.
+Euphrasia Anastasia Strain, who went home about this time to visit her
+ma; and that of Rose Wynn, who left off going to church and Sabbath
+School, to become wholly invisible a few weeks after.
+
+"So this was the 'Caroline' who favored you with all those anonymous
+communications," said Clemence to her friend when they were discussing
+the affair together.
+
+"Yes, the very same," sighed Mrs. Hardyng. "She doubtless followed me at
+the instigation of Geoffrey Westbourne to spy upon my actions and report
+to him. I do not know what his object could have been, unless he feared
+that I might seek to communicate with his present wife, who I feel
+convinced is not a party to his base transactions, and who believes him
+an injured saint. Perhaps, too, he hoped to gain something against me
+from these gossips, or knowing that I was unaccustomed to poverty and
+isolation, believed that I might break through these self-imposed
+barriers and resort to crime. But he should know me better. It is no
+relief from misery to plunge into infamy, but only hurls the wretched
+victim into darker woes. I know that I have been far from perfect, but
+the soul of Ulrica Hardyng is free from the stain of crime. He whom she
+served faithfully and conscientiously ought to be the first to award the
+meed of praise, but in its place there is only the bitter brand of a
+life-long disgrace."
+
+"I don't believe that even the best of men truly appreciate the value of
+a pure-minded woman," said Clemence, thoughtfully. "They are too gross
+and material, and I have met with very few whose society seemed to have
+a tendency to elevate. In the company of the majority of men I feel a
+constraint and like uttering the most commonplace remarks. Yet their
+idle curiosity leads them to seek to penetrate the very 'holy of
+holies' (if I may be allowed the expression) of the soul, and which they
+can neither understand nor appreciate."
+
+"Oh, child!" said the elder woman, coming to her side; "my pure-browed
+darling, I pray God that you may never suffer misery like mine. I had
+rather the child's dream would be realized; that you might be permitted
+to follow him, though my lonely heart aches at the thought of losing
+you, than that you should be dragged down to a life for which you are
+not fitted. Never marry, Clemence, for you are more likely to be
+wretched than happy. I have so little faith in any man that I should
+fear for your future if you were to bestow your affections upon any one.
+I mean to guard you well hereafter; and I am sure that there cannot be
+the least possibility of your ever having met one to appreciate or
+awaken a feeling of interest in your mind."
+
+The girl did not reply to this half-uttered query, but a faint rose-tint
+swept into the pale cheeks, and up to the blue-veined temples.
+
+"But to be an old maid, Ulrica," she said a moment after, in a troubled
+tone; "it is a dreary future for any woman to contemplate. It used to be
+the one object of my ambition to devote my life to some good cause,
+thinking that thus I might rise above worldly cares, and grow nearer
+Heaven. But of late my whole being shrinks from such a course."
+
+"It seems to me that a single woman cannot be as useful as one 'whom the
+dignity of wifehood invests as with a garment.' You know there is a
+stigma attached to old maids that must detract from their usefulness."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Mrs. Hardyng; "and of late I am beginning to think
+that it is, perhaps, in some cases but too well merited. Do you know,
+dear, that all the spinsters of my acquaintance have got married on
+their very first offer? I can't help feeling a little mortified that
+some of my models that I have held up triumphantly as examples to prove
+the usefulness and necessity of their existence, should have failed me
+in the end."
+
+"There is Miss Aylmar, who amassed a fortune by teaching a Ladies'
+Seminary. She was a pattern old maid in my estimation. However, much to
+my chagrin, when I thought she was nearly ready to receive, after a long
+and useful life, the rewards for her good deeds in another world, she
+suddenly assumed the airs of a sixteen-year old boarding-school miss,
+and, after trying in vain to captivate, by the weight of her golden
+attractions, a young and handsome, but penniless professor, succeeded at
+length in fastening a respectable widower. She trots him out regularly
+every Sunday with that ineffable smirk of satisfaction that only an old
+maid can assume. Then there was Miss Anthon, a demure little body, who
+wore her gray hair brushed back from her placid face, without resort to
+hair dyes, cosmetics, or other rejuvenating articles of the toilet. She
+kept her eyes open, though, and in her unobtrusive way, after lying in
+wait for her victim all these long and weary years, she suddenly pounced
+upon a fortune to reward her patient and persevering efforts. You see,
+this woman had no capital of beauty, intellect or money, and so she
+assumed the only _role_ that a quaint little creature like her could
+carry through successfully. At the risk of her own life, she
+courageously sat through a case of malignant typhoid, in the hope of
+making an impression upon the heart of a good-looking youth, by
+restoring to him his invalid mother. Unfortunately for her purpose, the
+old lady died, and, after finding that her disinterested efforts to
+captivate the son were in vain, she turned her attention to the task of
+consoling the disconsolate widower, and is now mamma-in-law to the man
+she wanted to marry."
+
+"You are not presenting a very attractive side of the picture," said the
+other, laughing.
+
+"No, but a true one, nevertheless. I wish women would be true to
+themselves."
+
+"There is another failing of our sex," said Clemence, "that has often
+come under my notice; and it is this: Let a gentleman enter society and
+have it whispered around that he is what is called a 'ladies' man,' with
+the added interest of one or two sensational anecdotes of a young lady
+who went insane out of a hopeless attachment for the gentlemanly
+scoundrel; or that this or that infuriated husband who has challenged
+him to mortal combat; and, though the stain of murder be upon that man's
+soul, women who call themselves virtuous will welcome him with approving
+smiles.
+
+"Why, I have been completely disgusted, and that more than once, to hear
+women of the most exemplary character praise and hang upon the words of
+these smooth-tongued villains. I have now in my mind one in particular,
+whom the world looks upon as a devoted wife and mother, and who I think
+has never yet contemplated sin. Yet I know better than herself, that she
+is hovering on the brink of a precipice, that may, at some future day,
+engulf all she loves, with herself, in one common ruin.
+
+"Society, as it is now constituted, is dangerous, and calculated to
+contaminate any pure-minded woman who enters it, unless she be blessed
+with sufficient decision of character to choose a strict line of conduct
+and abide by it, at the risk of being called dull, prudish, and
+uninteresting.
+
+"Those of the old school, with their rigid notions of etiquette, their
+stately courtesy, and grave, dignified manners, were far preferable to
+the style assumed by Young America at the present day. Although not
+deficient in a love for my country, I hardly wonder that the people of
+the European cities which Americans visit complain that these 'plebeian
+Yankees,' with their 'loud' style, their fussy dressing to the extreme
+of fashion, their slang, and their still more intolerable 'double
+_entendre_,' exert an unfavorable influence upon society, and
+'_desecrate_' the places where they tread."
+
+"I believe you are right," said Mrs. Hardyng; "and it has struck me
+oddly enough that we, who are so extremely opposite in every respect,
+should find so many subjects upon which to agree. I have often grieved
+over these foibles of our sex, not having failed to observe, with
+regret, that there are fewer exceptions than there should be.
+
+"Now, I should think, from the very nature of things, that a woman would
+always instinctively defend her own sex, and hurl contempt and scorn at
+those who basely sought to take advantage of her weakness. There seems
+to me to be _one_, all-powerful reason why they should do this, and it
+has puzzled me exceedingly to know _why_, with the self-love that all
+women possess in common with each other, and their natural tendency to
+jealousy, they should feel at all elated at a tale of flattery that they
+_know_ has been rehearsed before, as often as there has been found one
+to listen.
+
+"Now, it is no recommendation to _my_ favor to realize that I am only
+one of a dozen, and that Frizzolinda in the parlor, or Jemima in the
+kitchen, would each prove equally as acceptable in their turn; that the
+arm that embraces _me_, has stolen with just as delicious uncertainty
+around the cook's buxom waist, and that the eyes that seek mine with
+such glances of affection have sought with an equal fondness in their
+melting depths those of every lady of my acquaintance. I'll confess, if
+it _is_ a weakness, for a woman who gives everything to the man she
+loves, that I am exacting enough to demand a more exclusive attachment
+than this. 'Verily, these things ought not to be.' Women should look to
+it; for I think there are some few social reforms, that are of more
+vital importance to the sex than even the right of 'suffrage' and the
+dictatorship amid the councils of the nation. Few women care for this
+last honor. The majority in America marry early in life, and their
+highest ambition is to achieve distinction in the social circle."
+
+"That brings me to think," said Clemence, "of the flirtations between
+married couples, that we see going on continually around us. I always
+had an idea that I should not enjoy quite such a risky love affair as
+they promise. Not but that, like every one else, I suppose, I think it's
+very agreeable to be admired; but then it's not tranquilizing to the
+nerves to remember that a jealous wife may be cultivating her finger
+nails with a view to exercising them upon one's countenance. I prefer
+the 'human face divine' in its natural state, being of the opinion with
+another that 'beauty unadorned is adorned most.' Do you know, Ulrica,
+that I lost my taste for guitar music listening to a little
+pink-cheeked, simpering married woman, eternally strumming to a Benedict
+of her acquaintance, in lovelorn tones--'I'll be true to
+thee,'--accompanied by the most languishing glances? I was the more
+disgusted, too, when I recollected that this woman was the lady
+Superintendent of an up-town Sabbath School, and considered a pattern by
+every one. Besides, she called herself a Christian, and a tender, loving
+mother, while she absolutely stinted her children's food, in the absence
+of her husband, who toiled early and late in the counting-room, to buy
+finery to air before her married beau, and make the jealous, passionate
+wife whom he left waiting at home (and whom, she knew, hated her as
+only a wronged woman _can_ hate,) still more miserable.
+
+"Oh," she added, shuddering at the contemplation of this grievous sin,
+from which her pure soul recoiled, "the Father knew the weakness of our
+common nature when He taught us the daily prayer to avert temptation."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+"I declare!" said Mrs. Wynn, looking up from the gilt frames in Mrs.
+Swan's parlor, "the changes that have been going on in Waveland do beat
+everything. Only think of it! Why, the town hasn't been so lively for
+years before. There used to be only an occasional wedding or
+christening, or funeral; and now, strange faces that no one knows
+anything about, meet you at every turn."
+
+"Oh, I don't know about that!" said Mrs. Swan. "There has only been one
+or two arrivals here; that new family who brought out the Burtons, and
+the new minister and his wife. By-the-bye, they say he married her just
+before he came here, and that she was a widow."
+
+"Yes, I know that," replied the old lady. "I heard the report, and,
+thinkin' it was only natural that we should be a leetle curious about a
+woman who was a goin' to give tone to our society, I made bold to ask
+her about it. She put her handkercher to her eyes, and cried the least
+bit, when she spoke of her former pardner. 'Dear soul,' she said, 'he's
+in Heaven, but the Lord's got work for me to do in this world yet,
+Sister Wynn.' She's a leetle too dressy, and I'm most afraid will set
+the young folks here an example of extravagance; but I believe she
+means well, and expects to do her whole duty."
+
+"Well, I shall wait for her works to prove her disposition," said Mrs.
+Swan. "I believe that 'actions speak louder than words.' I'll admit that
+Arguseye _talks_ well--she's a gift that way; but I ain't drawn to her
+as I was to the dear motherly saint that has left us."
+
+"No, you can't expect another like her. I don't know what the old Elder
+will do, now; but it won't be long before he'll follow her, in my
+opinion," was the rejoinder.
+
+"She's gone to that happy land where the wicked can never enter," spoke
+up Betsey Pryor, who had been industriously stitching away during this
+dialogue.
+
+"It's a good thing to realize that, Betsey," said Mrs. Wynn, slyly. "I'm
+glad you've found out the danger of evil communications."
+
+"Don't say another word," said the spinster, showing signs of dissolving
+in tears. "I've learnt a lesson this past summer I shall never forget."
+
+"I don't wonder that you feel so," rejoined Mrs. Wynn, smiling grimly.
+"I never look at you now, and remember the Secretary of the 'Ladies'
+Charitable Society,' without feeling thankful that you have riz like
+that--what do you call it?--from its ashes, and are once more an orderly
+and respectable member of society."
+
+"Have you observed," asked the good-natured hostess, striving, out of
+pity for the disconcerted Betsey, to turn the conversation into another
+channel, "anything of these new people at the Burton place?"
+
+"A leetle, but not much," said Mrs. Wynn. "I was so upset by their
+sellin' out so sudden like, when I thought they was as much fixtures
+here as the place itself, that I ain't had much time to think about
+these new folks."
+
+"As for me," continued Mrs. Swan, "I like them already. Being such a
+near neighbor, I have a chance to see a good deal of them. Their names
+are Garnet, and that pretty younger lady is the wife of their only son."
+
+"It took some money, I should imagine," pursued Mrs. Wynn. "Of course
+these folks must be rich."
+
+"Yes, they paid twelve thousand, cash down, for their present home, and
+the old lady told me they had other property besides."
+
+"Do tell!" and "Gracious sakes!" ejaculated both her listeners at once.
+"I must call right away." "It ain't neighborly to neglect strangers."
+
+"I've another item for you," added the communicative Mrs. Swan. "They've
+bought that cottage down near the Widow Hardyng's, for the young couple
+to commence housekeeping for themselves."
+
+"Why, what's that for?" was the next question; "don't they agree?"
+
+"Oh, yes, perfectly; but the young people want a little home of their
+own, 'a play house,' the elder Mrs. Garnet calls it. For my part, I
+think it only natural. Mr. Swan and I did not want to stay with either
+of the old folks after we were married, but came off and set up for
+ourselves."
+
+"That's the house that Mrs. Newcomer lived in, ain't it?" asked Betsey
+Pryor.
+
+"The very identical one," replied Mrs. Wynn. "I am glad that woman has
+left, for it was a living disgrace to any respectable community,
+harboring such a character."
+
+"But nobody ever dreamed anything of her true history. If they, had they
+wouldn't have associated with her," said Mrs. Swan. "She was a dreadful
+creature, and I can't make out yet why she should take all that pains to
+come here and persecute two unoffending women like Mrs. Hardyng and her
+young friend."
+
+"But don't you see," reiterated Mrs. Wynn, "it was at the instigation of
+Mr. Westbourne, Mrs. Hardyng's former husband, and probably she wanted
+to gratify her own malice. I can understand her motive, for no doubt she
+cordially hated this woman, whom she felt she had wronged."
+
+"But Miss Graystone?" queried Mrs. Swan. "I should think her sweet,
+patient face would have touched the heart of a stone."
+
+"It seems she did have some compunctions," said the old lady; "don't you
+remember there at the last meeting of the Society, she said she would
+have taken the girl's part, only she thought she could hurt the widow
+still more by wounding this young girl? Betsey can tell you better about
+that, though," she added, wickedly; "ask the former Secretary to give
+you the particulars. I had not the honor of being present on that
+occasion myself."
+
+"Don't ask me to rehearse it," said Miss Pryor, in subdued tones, "I
+can't bear it. My nerves have never yet recovered from the shock."
+
+"We will excuse you, then, Betsey," said the other, magnanimously, "and
+proceed to the more congenial occupation of disposing of some of these
+nice biscuits and delicious tea that I see Mrs. Swan has prepared for
+us."
+
+The pensive beauty of the mild Indian Summer flooded hill and valley
+now. Where the sombre shades of green had erst clothed the forest,
+brilliant pennons of flame-colored, and crimson-dyed, and paler tints,
+shading into amber, and gray, and russet brown, lit up the woods with
+their bright-hued splendor.
+
+Clemence, with her little charge, loved to wander through these places,
+that nature had clothed in rarest beauty for her worshippers. This was
+her favorite season of the year. Sometimes a foreboding oppressed this
+young dreamer that it might be her last hours of earthly enjoyment. She
+used often to look with pity into the child's face, where a sweet
+seriousness lingered, and it gave her sympathetic heart pain to think
+that the child should be old beyond her years. Indeed, there was the
+same wistfulness about the younger face that we have noticed about our
+heroine, and there was a gravity of expression about the tender mouth
+that told of a capacity for suffering unusual in one so young. It was
+apparent that, like the tried friend who toiled daily to sustain her,
+sorrow had early marked the orphan girl for its own. If misfortune or
+death were to overtake this fragile creature who stood between her and
+the storms of life, what would become of Ruth?
+
+There were trials, and temptations, and dangers lurking in the path of
+the innocent child. Would she surmount them all bravely, and achieve
+victory in the battle of life?
+
+This thought haunted, continually, the mind of the young teacher, and
+gave her hourly pain. There was but little to attach her to life, and
+only for this child's love she would have longed for the hour when God
+should call her home. As it was, the girl had not sufficient faith to
+leave all in His hands. With her sad experience of life, she dreaded all
+that might come to her darling. And hope had nearly died out in her
+heart.
+
+Seated by the little grave, which was the shrine at which she poured out
+her daily petitions, Clemence thought despondingly of the past, and how
+little there seemed for her in the future, to which every one around her
+looked forward with such eager anticipation.
+
+The dreary waste stretched out unsmiling, and inexpressibly desolate.
+The path of duty seemed straight and thorny.
+
+While she sat, sorrowful, the child, who had been watching her with
+tender eyes, came and knelt before her. "Let me come and sit with you,"
+she pleaded, laying her soft, rounded cheek upon the two hands folded
+idly in Clemence's lap. "I cannot play while I know you are grieving on
+my account."
+
+"Why," asked Clemence, arousing with a start from her reverie, "what put
+that odd fancy into your head, little one?"
+
+"Oh, I have known it for a long time," said Ruth, earnestly. "Although I
+never have told you before, I realize more and more every day how much
+you deny yourself for my sake. I owe you more than I can ever hope to
+repay."
+
+"There, there, child," said Clemence, astonished at her vehemence. "What
+on earth has put all this into your head? Who told you about
+self-denial? Have any of these rough villagers been seeking to wound you
+by speaking of your state of dependence?"
+
+"No, oh no," protested the little one, wisely, "nobody told me except
+Johnny. We used to talk of it long ago, of how kind and good you were to
+two poor little children like us. Johnny used to think you must be an
+angel, like those we read about at Sabbath School, for nobody ever
+treated him kindly until you came. He said good people were always
+afflicted and persecuted."
+
+"Poor little tired heart," said Clemence, commiseratingly, "it is now at
+rest. But, Ruth, you must not allow these recollections to sadden you.
+The little bound boy had not much to brighten his dreary life, and he
+knew not what it was to possess the buoyant hopefulness of childhood.
+Sorrow had made him wise beyond his years. Its weight crushed him down
+like a bruised lily. The Good Shepherd listened to his pitiful
+supplications, and he is now safe in the fold above. I don't want _your_
+life to be one of gloom, my little adopted sister. I have tried to make
+you feel happy, but I fear I am but dull company for a little girl."
+
+"You are the best, the _very_ best," persisted the little devotee, with
+worshipping eyes. "I would like to be always near you, and it is only
+the thought that I am a burden that clouds my face with one shade of
+care."
+
+"How often have I told you, Ruth," returned Clemence, gravely, "not to
+disturb your mind with such fancies? It displeases me to have you talk
+upon these subjects, that a little girl ought not to think of at all. I
+have never told you of your obligations, and I do not wish it to form a
+topic of conversation between us. I want your love and obedience, and
+that is all that a little girl like you can give. You have not added
+greatly to my trials, and as yet I have experienced few inconveniences
+from having another to provide for. God has raised up a kind friend for
+us in Mrs. Hardyng, and we will not question His wisdom who has made us
+what we are, but strive always to remember in whose hands our future is
+placed."
+
+A look of pain flitted over the child's open countenance, and a tear
+trembled upon the silken lashes.
+
+"Have I offended you?" she whispered, creeping closer. "I only wanted to
+tell you what was in my heart. I don't want to hide anything from you."
+
+"You have done quite right," said Clemence, embracing her; "run and
+play, now, dear; a race will do you good and dry these tear-drops."
+
+She kissed the little one and pushed her gently away; then leaned her
+head upon her hand in the old attitude of weariness, and watched her
+until the slight form of the child was lost to view among the trees.
+
+Little Ruth's remarks had disturbed her. There was too much foundation
+in their present circumstances for anxiety. Still there was one drop of
+comfort in the midst of her trials. The young teacher knew that time had
+dissipated the cloud of suspicion and distrust that had hung over her
+for so long, and which had been created by the basest envy. The School
+Committee had lately tendered her again her old position, which she had
+declined with thanks. She was too weak to labor now, either with hands
+or brain. What did this strange lassitude, this very weariness of
+spirit, betoken?
+
+The sad-browed dreamer knew but too well the end of all this; though,
+whatever it might be, it was surely for the best, or it would not be
+suffered.
+
+While her thoughts were engaged upon the subject, she resolved to write
+without delay to Alicia Linden, and speak to her about Ruth. Mrs.
+Hardyng should not have everything put upon her. She had trouble enough
+of her own.
+
+Clemence, who felt as if she did not want to presume upon the generosity
+of her friend, knew that the masculine Alicia would be prepared for any
+emergency, having both the will and the ability to help her. It was only
+her extreme conscientiousness that had led her, thus far, to struggle on
+with her self-imposed burden. The girl had argued that it was not right
+to call upon others to relieve from that which she had assumed of her
+own free will.
+
+Now, she beheld matters in a clearer light. There was a higher Will that
+took out of her hands the ordering of her own actions. She had tried to
+act wisely, and from the best and purest motives. Her strength having
+now failed utterly, it was her duty to strive and repress all these
+rebellious murmurings and go forward in the narrow path so many had
+trodden before her.
+
+This was unusually difficult for one of Clemence Graystone's proud,
+independent spirit, but if pride conflicted with duty it must be
+conquered. There was but one way, to "be careful for nothing."
+
+However, it was the fault of her nature to go to the other extreme, and
+despond when she could not see the path beyond marked out distinctly,
+and illumined by the star of Hope.
+
+Now, life had nothing in it but the affection of this clinging,
+dependent child, to draw her from the contemplation of that future for
+which her soul had longed these weary months of sorrowful waiting, and
+where she hoped to gain the sweet reward for all her striving.
+
+She had sought to live for the hour that was approaching, remembering,
+all these years, that "Heaven is won or lost on earth; the possession is
+_there_, but the preparation _here_."
+
+The girl knew she had failed often, but she felt willing to trust
+herself to the mercy of Him who loves those He chasteneth. She repeated
+softly these words from a gifted woman's pen:--
+
+                   "Though we fail, indeed,
+    You--I--a score of such weak workers--He
+    Fails never. If he cannot work by us,
+    He will work over us."
+
+A sudden footstep roused the young dreamer, and her startled gaze rested
+upon a form before her. A faint dash of crimson kindled the pallid
+coldness of the pure face. She rose and moved forward with outstretched
+hands, while the voice of Wilfred Vaughn asked, in sorrowful accents,
+"Can this be the Clemence Graystone I have known, or only her wraith?"
+He pressed the slender fingers tenderly in his own, and while every
+lineament of that noble face spoke of his grief at finding her thus, he
+said to the wondering girl, who looked upon his sorrow, "What a grievous
+sin has been committed here! My sweet-faced darling, they have
+sacrificed you to their cruelty. You have been the innocent victim of a
+dreadful wrong."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+"Do you recognize this handwriting?" asked Mr. Vaughn, after a few
+moments desultory conversation, handing her a letter.
+
+Clemence uttered an ejaculation of surprise, "Why, it looks like mine,
+though I never saw it before. What a singular resemblance."
+
+"What is more singular still, it has your signature," said the
+gentleman; "read it."
+
+The young girl obeyed, mechanically, and her companion watched her in
+interested silence, while the blushes came and went on her pure face.
+
+Her look deepened into one of anxiety and consternation as she read.
+"What can it mean?" she asked, in distressed tones. "Who has sought thus
+to injure me?"
+
+"A jealous, wicked woman," he returned, sadly. "It was a cruel deed, and
+brought its own bitter reward of remorse and shame. But I will give you
+the whole story."
+
+"You doubtless wondered at your abrupt dismissal from Mrs. Vaughn's
+employment upon so slight a pretext as Gracia gave you. I never dreamed
+of the possibility until you were gone, and, when I questioned her as to
+the cause of the non-appearance of the face I had learned to watch for,
+she gave me this, telling me to thank her for having saved me from a
+dreadful fate.
+
+"The letter seemed to explain itself. It opened my eyes to the state of
+my own heart.
+
+"This shock, for a time, nearly overwhelmed me. I never believed,
+though, even in the darkest hour, that you could do anything really
+wrong. I knew that you were tried by poverty, and only pitied your
+sufferings, resolving to render whatever aid might lay in my power.
+
+"In pursuance of this resolution, I therefore traced out your residence,
+secretly, and in my efforts learned something of your former history. I
+found that I had known Grosvenor Graystone in his days of prosperity,
+and took new courage in finding that you were the daughter of that
+upright man.
+
+"Not wishing to make myself known at that time, I still hovered around
+you, thinking that, if you needed a protector, I would become visible at
+the right moment."
+
+"And," interrupted Clemence, "you were the unknown friend who sent us,
+at our time of greatest need, the means that defrayed the expenses of my
+mother's last illness, and interment. How much I thank you, you can
+never know."
+
+"I did not intend to speak of that," continued Mr. Vaughn. "I did
+nothing of what I had planned, on account of being called suddenly away
+to the death-bed of a distant relative.
+
+"As soon as I could do so with decency, I returned, and my first visit
+was to your lodgings, where I had determined to present myself in person
+and make the acquaintance of Mrs. Graystone.
+
+"What was my grief to learn that that estimable lady was no more, and
+that, after a long and dangerous illness, her I sought more
+particularly, as the one whose happiness was most dear to me on earth,
+had gone away with a lady whose name I could not learn.
+
+"As I was turning away in despair, a voice called to me. I turned and
+beheld a woman beckoning to me from an upper window. This person I
+recognized immediately as having once seen, in your company, and
+joyfully retraced my steps, in the hope of hearing something that would
+give me a clue to your whereabouts.
+
+"'I'm Mrs. Bailey,' said the woman, coming down and standing in the
+doorway, 'and I kalkilate you're after some news of that young girl that
+used to go out governessing.'
+
+"I replied eagerly in the affirmative.
+
+"'Well, there ain't much to tell,' she said, slowly. 'The mother took
+sick and died, and the girl herself just managed to live through a
+dreadful long illness. She was hardly able to sit up when she went away.
+I hear she's gone travellin' for her health. If that's so, _somebody_
+must have furnished the means, and it wasn't that widow, who was the
+only friend they had in the whole wide city. More like it was a certain
+handsome young gentleman I could tell you about.
+
+"'I'll tell you what it is, Mr. Vaughn,' said the woman, eyeing me
+closely, 'you are wasting valuable time that might be better employed
+than in following up an adventuress. Take the advice of a disinterested
+friend, and let this Miss Graystone alone.'
+
+"Of course, I then and there indignantly resented this officiousness;
+but she reiterated her caution in my unwilling ears, and, finally, when
+I was about to leave her, took from her pocket a small slip of paper.
+
+"'Read that, Mr. Vaughn,' she said.
+
+"I did so. It was a marriage notice of a Mr. Legrange to a Miss C.
+Elizabeth Graystone."
+
+"A distant relative," said Clemence. "We were not intimately acquainted,
+and this is the first intimation that I have gained of Cousin Lottie's
+marriage."
+
+"Being somewhat confused at the time," continued Mr. Vaughn, "I
+supposed, of course, that this was the lady I sought, and that farther
+search was fruitless. There seemed now no more to be done. Of my
+feelings of disappointment and regret, I will speak hereafter.
+
+"Having now nothing to occupy my attention, I mingled more in society,
+at my sister-in-law's earnest solicitation, though I cared little for
+the strangers whom I met. More than a year passed in this aimless way.
+
+"One evening, however, at a brilliant soiree, I met an elderly lady,
+with whom I got quite well acquainted in the course of an agreeable
+conversation. She was a woman of keen intellect, and it seemed to me
+rather a masculine mind. I was astonished to find such an one amid this
+idle crowd of gay worldlings, and I spoke at some length of the pleasure
+I had enjoyed. She told me, then, that we were not such entire strangers
+as I seemed to suppose, but that we had a mutual friend, a young lady
+who was then absent from the city.
+
+"This, of course, piqued my curiosity, and, upon asking an explanation,
+she told me all she knew of the one whom I had so long been vainly
+seeking.
+
+"In return, I gave her my whole confidence. She invited me to call at
+her residence the following day, which I did. It was the home where you
+had spent those long months of seclusion, and the lady was, as you must
+have guessed, Mrs. Linden.
+
+"I learned from her everything that I wished to know save your present
+place of residence, which she refused to divulge.
+
+"'I expect my pet will return to me, when she has wearied of her present
+mode of life,' she said, 'and then you can renew your acquaintance under
+more favorable auspices.'
+
+"It was in vain I pleaded for farther confidences. She was inexorable. I
+had, therefore, only to exercise patience, and, as I had now everything
+to hope for, I was happier than I had been for many long months.
+
+"To while away the time, which, in my present mood hung heavy on my
+hands, I started, in company with my sister-in-law and a party of
+friends, on a pleasure excursion. We took passage in a steamer bound for
+Lake Superior, every one anticipating an unusual amount of enjoyment.
+Alas! what a terrible ending to it all! Let me hasten over this
+dreadful tragedy; although I can never hope to drive the awful scene
+from my mind.
+
+"We were in the height of our enjoyment; little groups, with bright,
+animated faces scattered here and there, and apart from the rest, either
+promenading the decks, or sheltered in some retired corner, happy
+lovers, whispering softly of the future that would never come to them,
+for already the sable wings of death hovered over our careless band.
+
+"By some unforeseen accident, and owing to no carelessness on the part
+of the officers, the boat had taken fire, and when discovered by the
+passengers the flames were making such rapid headway that escape seemed
+impossible for the greater portion. It was a wild and awful scene.
+
+"In the tumult I had sought out the children, Grace and Alice, and
+carried them with me to a position from which I intended to leap with
+them into the water after it became impossible for us to remain longer
+on the burning steamer. I was just securing the life preservers about
+them, when a heart-rending cry reached my ears, and the next moment my
+sister-in-law grasped my arm. She was nearly frantic with fear, and in
+the agony of the moment thought of nothing but her own preservation. The
+sight of her completely unnerved me. I pointed to the children,
+beseeching her to calm herself, and I would save them all. We were not
+far from land, and, being an expert swimmer, I believe I could have done
+so, had not my movements been impeded as they were. As it was, I could
+do nothing. Insane with fright, the instinct of the mother seemed to
+have died out. There was but one way. The flames were rapidly nearing
+us, and, giving instructions to the children--who seemed more like women
+than the shrinking creature who cowered before them--I made one more
+effort to impress upon Gracia's mind the necessity for implicit
+obedience to my instructions.
+
+"I succeeded in gaining her attention and approval of my plan, but with
+the awful danger behind us, there were still precious moments wasted
+before I could induce Gracia to venture into the water, of which she
+seemed to have a horror. I made almost superhuman exertions to reach the
+land, and depositing my almost insensible burden, turned again to
+attempt the rescue of my darlings. But I was too late. Faint, and nearly
+exhausted, I was making but slow progress, when a heavy beam, floating
+in the water, struck and rendered me unconscious. A boat that had
+hurried to the scene of the disaster picked me up, with others; but I
+never saw again the two little beings whom I left, with their childish
+hands clasped, waiting for me to return and save them."
+
+"Oh, heavens!" ejaculated Clemence, "not dead!--my two little pupils."
+
+"Yes, dead," said Wilfred Vaughn, hoarsely; "buried beneath the waves,
+and their only requiem the moaning of an angry sea." He paused for a
+while, with his face buried in his hands, and then resumed:
+
+"This awful visitation seemed to change Gracia. She had been a proud,
+ambitious, selfish woman. I never wanted my only brother to marry her,
+but he was infatuated with her splendid beauty, and when I saw that his
+happiness was at stake I ceased to oppose him. After he died I hovered
+near to watch over the children. But I never liked Gracia Vaughn,
+because I could not respect her. Now, on what proved to be her
+death-bed, I felt for the first time an affection for her, born of pity.
+I think if my sister-in-law could have lived she would have been a
+better woman. But the fiat had gone forth, and her days were numbered.
+Naturally delicate, the intense excitement and exposure so lately
+endured, set her into a low fever that at length terminated her life. As
+she neared the 'valley of the shadow of death' her vision seemed
+clearer. The scales fell from her eyes, and the repentant woman knew
+that her life had been a failure.
+
+"'It is better so, Wilfred,' she said to me, just before she died. 'I
+have been only 'an encumberer of the ground.' I can be better spared
+than others, for my life has benefited nobody. There will be few to miss
+me.'
+
+"'Oh, Gracia!' I exclaimed, shocked at the thought.
+
+"'Nay,' she answered me, 'but it is true, and right. I have been selfish
+and unlovable, and more than that, sinful. Do you think God will pardon
+me!'
+
+"'Can you doubt that He who sent His Only Son to die for us, and to save
+not the righteous but _sinners_, will hearken unto our supplications?' I
+said, earnestly. 'My dear sister, you have been weak and perhaps wicked,
+but surely none of us are perfect.'
+
+"'But you do not know all,' said Gracia, averting her face. 'I have so
+longed to tell you, but have lacked courage. There remains but little
+for me to do in this world, but I cannot die until I have retrieved, by
+the humblest confession and fullest reparation, the great sin of my
+life.'
+
+"She covered her face with her hands and wept softly, and then said, in
+a voice shaken by emotion, 'You remember the young girl, Clemence
+Graystone, who interested you so strangely, and whom I engaged as
+governess, with your sanction. It was to destroy her happiness that this
+wicked act was consummated. For a reason which her woman's heart will
+too surely tell her, I conceived from the first a violent dislike to the
+young teacher. She had not been long in my employ before I began
+watching her closely, in the hope of detecting some fault that would
+render a sufficient and plausible excuse for my discharging her. I knew
+that in such straitened circumstances the position she held was a
+lucrative one, and so great was my antipathy to one who had never
+knowingly injured me, that I could not bear the thought of benefiting
+this orphan girl in the smallest degree. At last, coming to the
+conclusion that there was not the slightest hope of discovering anything
+against her that would bear inspection, and discovering that she was
+every day growing more and more in favor with the entire household, I
+resolved quietly to resort to artifice to accomplish that which I could
+not hope to bring about in any other way. It was very easy to steal into
+the school-room after hours, unobserved, and, after some practice,
+imitate her handwriting closely enough to have it pass for genuine with
+any one not familiar with it. This I did, and then discharged her. When
+you asked the reason, I placed in your hands that which was in itself
+enough to blast the character of a young, unprotected girl. But I
+repented,' she said, excitedly, watching my face, which at this
+unlooked-for revelation must have expressed all the horror and
+repugnance I felt. 'Wilfred, don't quite despise me. Forgive me, or I
+cannot die in peace.'
+
+"I remembered her condition, then, and soothed her as I would an infant.
+Against my entreaties, almost commands, she proceeded with the harrowing
+story: 'I felt supremely wretched after I committed this wrong deed, and
+at length, after some months, I traced the girl out in the hope of doing
+something to aid her, and thus quiet my uneasy conscience. But she had
+gone from her former place of residence. A woman who gave her name as
+Bailey told me all I wished to know, and I felt quite relieved and
+happy. She said the girl's mother had died, and that after a long
+illness this Clemence Graystone had gone away with a gentleman, giving
+me to understand that I need not feel troubled about her being in want,
+for the girl was not friendless, but had those to aid her of the same
+sort as herself. Of course, if this young governess were really unworthy
+of all this anxiety, as the woman had intimated, then I had not done so
+much mischief as I feared, and there was not so much to regret. I threw
+off the recollection, and the whole circumstance had completely faded
+from my memory, when I learned the truth of the matter from a
+seamstress who had lodgings in the same building. This woman gave me an
+entirely different version of the case, describing in eloquent terms the
+girl's filial devotion to her mother in their dire necessity. I learned
+now for the first time the real magnitude of the sin I had committed. I
+wanted to tell you all then, but dared not. Now, however, with the grave
+yawning beneath me, I have no longer anything to hope or fear in this
+world. There is one thing yet which I can do to repair my error and show
+that my repentance is sincere. My poor lost darlings had a fortune of
+fifty thousand dollars left to them jointly by a deceased uncle. They
+were to come into possession of this money when Alice had reached the
+age of eighteen and Gracia twenty-one. In case of their death it was to
+revert to me. I want to convey this sum to Clemence Graystone, because I
+willfully and maliciously misrepresented her character to the man who
+would have made her his loved and honored wife. It was a cowardly and
+cruel act. I shudder to think what the consequences may have been. It
+may be that want and grief have plunged her into crime. I could never
+learn her fate, but the thought of her sweetness and purity has
+comforted me when I have thought distractedly of her. I could never
+connect anything but guileless innocence with those calm, clear eyes,
+and that lofty brow, whereon intellect sat enthroned.'
+
+"'But, Gracia,' I interrupted, 'are you aware of the import of your own
+words?'
+
+"'I am,' she said, 'and I mean to fulfill them. My mind is perfectly
+clear upon the subject. There is no necessity for a lawyer. I will write
+out my wishes in a few words, and sign my name without witnesses. I
+shall give this into your charge, Wilfred. It is a sacred trust. Find
+this girl, if you have to search the wide world over, and tell her of
+this conversation by my dying bed.'
+
+"I told her all then that I had learned in the last few months, and
+promised faithfully to perform the sad office. It almost made her happy.
+She died soon after.
+
+"When the funeral obsequies were over I sought my late brother's lawyer,
+intending to place the business in his hands before I sought you.
+However, he laughed at the whole story as a piece of absurdity; told me
+that the pretty governess was doubtless married to some honest fellow in
+her own sphere in life, and advised me to destroy the unimportant slip
+of paper, pocket the fifty thousand, and say nothing. I left in disgust,
+resolving to keep the whole affair, for the future, in my own hands. I
+immediately hurried to Mrs. Linden with the marvelous story, and she
+gave me your address and a God speed. That is all that I have to tell,
+except that I am here to congratulate you upon the change in your
+fortune."
+
+"Don't jest," she said, looking at him with tear-filled eyes. "It was
+only over these graves, two of which hide those who were dear to me,
+that I have gained this great good."
+
+"Then I will stop jesting," he said, gravely, "and utter only the truth.
+Clemence, I had another reason for seeking you. You have learned my
+secret, and know, now, my deep love for you. Tell me if I may hope for
+its return."
+
+For answer, she extended her hand in silence, and across the grave of
+the child who had worshipped her, he clasped and raised it reverently to
+his lips.
+
+Its pallid whiteness struck him mournfully. He kissed it again and
+again. "A brave right hand to wield in one's own defense, and battle
+with a cold and selfish world. It is like nothing in the world but a
+snowflake, as light and as pure."
+
+"Now, you are laughing at me," she said, the deep carnation blooms in
+her cheeks making her beautiful.
+
+He gave her a glance of adoration. "Here," he said, having disengaged
+something from his watch-chain, "is a ring that belonged to an only and
+beloved sister who died in early youth. I have a fancy it would fit your
+finger, and I always intended it for my wife, as the most highly valued
+gift I could bestow upon her. How would you fancy it for an engagement
+ring?" slipping it upon her finger, where it hung loosely.
+
+"I should prize it more than a Queen's diadem," said Clemence,
+eloquently.
+
+"You shall have the diamonds, by-and-by," giving her another glance that
+riveted her own, and then he kissed her, as the seal of their
+betrothal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+"I was just thinking of you, Betsey," said Mrs. Wynn, as the figure of
+the spinster appeared in the doorway of her little sitting room. "Set
+right down, and I'll have a cup of tea ready in less than five minutes."
+
+"Thank'ee, I believe I will," said Miss Pryor, "though I didn't intend
+to stay only long enough to tell you the news. I put this shawl over my
+head and run just as I was."
+
+"That's right, I'm glad of it. We'll have a sociable time now, Mr.
+Wynn's cleared out. I never could bear a man around my kitchen. But what
+news do you mean!"
+
+"Why, ain't you heard?"
+
+"Not a livin' word of anything. What on earth can have happened so
+wonderful?"
+
+"Well, that does beat all. Just to think! And you ain't seen a certain
+magnificent gentleman, as grand as a prince, that sailed up to Widder
+Hardyng's and asked for Miss Clemence Graystone? Every girl in town is
+in love with him already."
+
+"Do tell! And here I be tied to the house waitin' on Rose, and never
+dreamin' all that's goin' on. You might have come over and told me
+before, Betsey. I'd have done the same by you."
+
+"Seein' as how it all happened yesterday, and I only found it out last
+evening after prayer meeting', and it ain't ten o'clock in the forenoon
+yet, I calkerlate I ain't done anything so very monstrous," said that
+individual, in an injured tone.
+
+However, the sight of a steaming cup of tea that filled the air with its
+appetizing fragrance, soon mollified her, and after dispatching one cup
+at boiling point, she paused to take breath before partaking of a
+second.
+
+"You see this is all there is of it: The elegantest man you ever saw
+drove up all of a sudden to the tavern and wanted to know where Miss
+Graystone was boarding. You'd better believe they asked him a few
+questions, but he waved them all off, polite-like, but in a way that
+convinced every one that he knew his own particular business better than
+anybody else knew it for him; and dashed off in the direction of Widder
+Hardyng's. Mrs. Swan's little girl happened to be down there on an
+errand for her mother, and she heard all that transpired. His name's
+Vaughn, and he's Miss Graystone's beau. He staid and talked a long time
+with Mrs. Hardyng while he was waiting for the schoolmistress, who had
+gone away; but after a time, when she didn't come back, he was so
+impatient he went off trying to find her."
+
+"And you didn't see him at all?" queried Mrs. Wynn.
+
+"Oh, maybe I didn't," said Betsey, with a toss of her head; "trust me
+for finding out anything I once set my mind on. I called in, carelessly,
+on my way down here this morning, and had an introduction to the
+gentleman himself. Not knowin' what else to say to start conversation, I
+asked him if he was a relative of Miss Graystone's, though of course I
+knew better. I praised her up to the skies, and you had ought to have
+seen his face, beaming with smiles. He seemed to take a sort of notion
+to me after that. I 'spose, though, Mrs. Hardyng gave me a settin' out
+as soon as my back was turned, by the one-sided smirk she gave when the
+gentleman shook hands with me cordially when I came away, and thanked me
+for being so good to his young friend. I see Ruth playing on the street
+corner, and quizzed her. So putting this and that together, it seems
+that this girl, that everybody called an upstart and an adventuress, has
+been a rich lady once, and never known what it was to soil her hands
+with work of any description."
+
+"I knew it," said Mrs. Wynn; "I always said so. It shows my superior
+penetration. I'm glad I stood her friend in the dark hour of adversity,
+and shall hasten as soon as possible to learn the exact truth of all
+these rumors."
+
+"So you are here, Betsey?" exclaimed Mrs. Swan, putting her head in at
+the door. "I thought I saw you go by, and followed as soon as I could
+get my things on."
+
+"Well, I never!" said Mrs. Wynn; "come in; you are just in time. Set by
+and I'll put on another cup and saucer. We was just talking over the
+new arrival in the village."
+
+"I believe half the population are similarly employed," laughed the
+little lady. "Every one I met stopped and spoke to me about it, and as
+luck would have it, as I was turning down a cross street I saw Mrs.
+Hardyng ahead of me and joined her at once. She told me the whole story.
+This Mr. Vaughn is a rich gentleman, who has come down here to marry the
+schoolmistress. It seems, too, that she's lately inherited some property
+by the death of somebody, I couldn't make out who--some relative I
+suppose--though it don't matter. Any ways, a cool fifty thousand has
+fell to her, and I don't know as I could point out a more deservin'
+person."
+
+"Wonders will never cease!" exclaimed Mrs. Wynn, staring blankly, into
+her empty tea cup. "Clemence Graystone turned out to be a rich heiress,
+after bein' perfectly abused the whole live-long summer by everybody in
+the town of Waveland but me. It's beyond my comprehension. But I always
+knew she was a lady, and stuck to her through 'evil and good report.'"
+
+"Fifty thousand dollars!" gasped Miss Pryor; "do I hear aright? I wonder
+what Mrs. Dr. Little, and the Briers, and all them that turned against
+her, will say to that? It will be a particularly sweet morsel for the
+Owens. I must call round and visit each one of them, to enjoy their
+discomfiture."
+
+"What a thing it is to be ignorant and narrow-minded," added Mrs. Wynn.
+"I can't see how people get along through life without any knowledge of
+human nature. Our poor departed Elder used to say he never could quite
+make up his mind what to think of a new-comer until he had my opinion of
+them, and, if I _do_ say it, as shouldn't say it, I've used these eyes
+thus far to pretty good advantage."
+
+"If she'd have used them less about her neighbors and a little more in
+looking after that precious daughter of hers," whispered the spinster,
+maliciously, as the old lady rose to put away the dishes, "it would have
+been better for all concerned, I guess."
+
+"Why, Betsey, how you _do_ talk!" replied Mrs. Swan. Then in a louder
+tone: "I came near forgetting another thing that I wanted to ask you
+about. I've sustained a dreadful shock. It's on account of these new
+people at the Burton place. I had a long confidential talk with Sister
+Arguseye, lately, and I haven't had a peaceful moment since. She called
+in to see me to warn me about associating with them. You know she came
+from the same place that they did, and knew all about the family."
+
+"What did she say?" chorused both voices.
+
+"Well, I'm grieved to say her report wasn't favorable. It seems the
+elder Mrs. Garnet, who appears to be a perfect pattern of propriety, has
+a grown-up, illegitimate daughter, whose existence they are trying to
+conceal from strangers, whom they think they can successfully impose
+upon."
+
+"They have come to the wrong place for that. Vice will be exposed in
+this community, and the workers of iniquity receive their reward,"
+responded Mrs. Wynn, oracularly, and pursing up her thin lips and
+sniffing her sharp nose higher in the air; "we must ferret this out,
+Betsey."
+
+"We must, indeed," echoed the spinster, looking as if nothing would
+delight her more; "such a state of affairs cannot be tolerated in our
+midst."
+
+"The worst part of it is," continued Mrs. Swan, "they say that the
+modest-looking daughter-in-law, whom I have felt so interested in, is
+equally culpable, and married the son for similar reasons. I feel
+dreadfully about the affair, for I was expecting a good deal of
+enjoyment in their society."
+
+"They seem very intelligent and agreeable people; but I can't doubt
+Sister Arguseye's positive assertion. A minister's wife couldn't lie,"
+said the elder lady, in a tone that showed deep conviction of an
+unpleasant truth. "There is but one way to find out; to go and state the
+facts, and have the truth elicited."
+
+"But who is to do it?" asked Mrs. Swan. "_I_ can't."
+
+"Are you equal to the emergency, Betsey?" asked. Mrs. Wynn.
+
+"I believe I possess the Christian fortitude to do my duty, however
+disagreeable it may be," replied that personage, with the air of a
+martyr being led to the stake.
+
+"There, it is settled," said the old lady. "We will go together"--which
+they did that very day.
+
+Pretty little Mrs. Garnet had finished her work for the day, donned a
+fresh calico that fitted her plump form without a wrinkle, and sat
+crooning a soft lullaby to that objectionable baby, when they entered.
+She welcomed the ladies hospitably, but eyed askance their sombre and
+awful countenances.
+
+"It's a pleasant day," she said, by way of starting conversation.
+
+"There's _nothing_ pleasant to me, in this wicked world," said Miss
+Pryor, dolorously.
+
+"How is your rheumatism, Mrs. Wynn?" she asked again, after a prolonged
+silence, hoping better success from this question regarding that worthy
+lady's manifold ailments.
+
+"It's heavenly in comparison with the state of my mind," was the
+unlooked-for response.
+
+Then there was another dreadful pause, broken at length by the elder of
+the group. "I've a revelation to make, neighbor, that is of such a
+nature that I shudder to speak upon the subject, and which closely
+concerns more than one person in this immediate vicinity."
+
+Thereupon the good lady proceeded to unfold the story that had emanated
+from the minister's wife, in regard to the deplorable state of the
+morals of these new-comers in the quiet village.
+
+Instead of being shocked at the recital, and literally extinguished, as
+she undoubtedly ought to have been, by the knowledge that her former
+little peccadillos had come to light, the bright-eyed hostess burst out
+laughing in the very faces of the lugubrious guests.
+
+"It's turned out as I expected," she said, at last, when she had done
+laughing. "Now, ladies, so far as these slanderous reports concern
+myself, I care very little about them, for I can refute them by
+bringing convincing proof to the contrary." Thus saying, she rose, and,
+after a short disappearance, returned with a marriage certificate and
+the family records. "Here," she said, "is the date of my marriage, some
+three years back, and the birth of our only child--just one year ago.
+Baby was twelve months old yesterday.
+
+"But now comes the disagreeable part of the story. My husband's mother,
+whom I love and respect, for having, in the years since I first knew
+her, been all that I could ask in a parent, had one painful episode in
+her life. She was to have been married to a wealthy gentleman, whom she
+loved devotedly; but, on the day appointed for the wedding, the expected
+bridegroom met with an accident, which proved immediately fatal. After
+he was buried, the object of his fondest affection found _what_ his loss
+at such a moment had become to her. A dreadful truth was revealed to
+her, which became immediately known to those most interested in her
+welfare. Furious with rage, and forgetting that his child needed now his
+tenderest care, the outraged father drove her from his door, with the
+command never to enter it. It was then that a former lover, who had
+worshipped her from afar in the days of her prosperity, came forward and
+offered her his protection and an honorable name, that had never been
+sullied by disgrace.
+
+"In her distressed circumstances, she accepted him thankfully. They were
+married immediately, and not long after this child of the former lover
+was born. It was the one false step of a young, inexperienced girl, and
+bitterly repented and atoned for in after life. The story is well known
+where these facts occurred, as there was not the least attempt at
+concealment."
+
+"Then you admit, Madam, that your relative _did_ commit a grievous wrong
+at one portion of her life," said Miss Pryor, with a glance of severe
+virtue.
+
+"But she repented, Betsey, and was forgiven, we trust," said Mrs. Wynn,
+gently, thinking of one at home who had wrung her aged heart by a
+similar misstep.
+
+"That is not all I have to say upon the subject, either," said Mrs.
+Garnet, spiritedly. "Since the minister's dashing lady has commenced
+this cowardly attack upon one I love, I shall not hesitate to speak the
+entire truth. This widow, who was never a wife until she lately married
+her present husband, and who, I regret to say, has thereby imposed upon
+a very worthy man, has a grown daughter of unsound mind, who is bound
+out to a family, where it is well known she has not been treated any too
+kindly. The heartless mother, engrossed in the pursuit of some victim of
+sufficient credulity to easily fall into her snares, has spent her time,
+and what money she could earn, in beautifying and displaying her
+bold-looking face and unwieldy figure, totally regardless of this
+unhappy being, who has never known a mother's love and care. I can
+imagine the reason for her opening hostilities in this manner. Knowing
+that we were perfectly familiar with every portion of her former
+history, and judging by her own spiteful self that we would improve the
+first opportunity to make the facts known, she thought to poison the
+minds of the community, so that our story would not be believed.
+However, this was all labor spent in vain. Mother and I mutually agreed,
+that if the woman chose to reform, we would be the last to injure her in
+the estimation of others."
+
+"Can you prove this?" demanded Miss Pryor, gazing stolidly at the
+animated speaker.
+
+"I can, by producing the lady's own daughter, of whose very existence, I
+doubt not, the pious Elder is at this moment in profound ignorance,"
+said Mrs. Garnet.
+
+"That alters the case materially, then," said Mrs. Wynn. "These facts
+must be carefully investigated, and if they are true, it's very likely
+our new minister will have occasion to resign before long. You don't
+bear any hardness, I hope, neighbor. It's been a very tryin' task, but
+somebody had to undertake it."
+
+"Of course," was the reply. "Our object is to elicit the truth, and I am
+willing to help probe this matter to the bottom."
+
+"Now," said Betsey Pryor, when they were again upon the street, "we will
+stir up some excitement, I guess. Let's go to the minister's as straight
+as ever we can."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+Miss Pryor had never uttered a truer remark than the one at the close of
+our last chapter. There _was_ an excitement in the little village,
+before which the sensation created by the pretty schoolmistress, became
+as nothing. The wordy war raged fiercely, and life-long enmities were
+created between those who had been intimate friends, endeared to each
+other by years of pleasant intercourse.
+
+Meanwhile the offending Garnets were socially ostracized. Only little
+Mrs. Swan resolutely defended them. It seemed that this determined lady
+was destined to become the champion of all the persecuted of her own sex
+in the tiny village.
+
+Of course, this matter found its way before the dignitaries of the
+church, over which the worthy Elder presided. Dr. Little, as one of its
+most influential members, hastened to give his support to his
+professional brother, and bitterly denounced these intruders, who sought
+to create disturbance by their idle tales. The minister's wife and the
+doctor's lady became like sisters in their friendship, and it followed
+that the feminine portion of the Garnet family were under a ban that
+excluded them from speech or friendly intercourse with any but the
+single exception we have before mentioned.
+
+If that had been all, these innocent objects of aversion might have
+stood aloof and cared little, in the conscious power of rectitude. At
+first they trusted that some new excitement might arise to absorb public
+attention, and they be released from their painful position and
+disagreeable notoriety. But, with time, their trouble seemed to increase
+instead of diminish, and only added to the difficulties of their
+situation.
+
+At length old Mr. Garnet rose in righteous wrath. "Wife," he said,
+emphatically, "I never had anything to do with a woman's quarrel before.
+I did think that after this Prudence Penrose, that has imposed upon the
+parson, found we wasn't going to say nothin' about her half-witted
+daughter, that she'd take the hint and let us alone; but I see she needs
+a lesson. I am sorry, seein' how things has turned out, that I hadn't
+interfered before the affair went so far, but it isn't too late now.
+There's the minister, and Dr. Little, and Deacon Jones, and a lot more
+of them, goin' to hold a meetin' about sueing my little daughter-in-law
+for slander, against the character of a woman that never had any to
+lose. So I reckon I will have my say on the subject, too." Which he set
+about doing directly.
+
+Shortly after the irate old gentleman was seen in close conversation
+with the village constable, and after some plotting, that worthy started
+with the swiftest team in all Waveland for Ainsworth, the former
+residence of both the Garnet family and the minister's lady.
+
+Mrs. Swan was sitting with little baby Garnet on her lap, at her
+friend's house, the next evening, when the door burst open and Mr.
+Garnet, senior, appeared in a state of excitement, such as he had never
+been seen before by the little brown-eyed woman, who looked up with a
+startled glance at his unexpected entrance.
+
+"Richie's come," he shouted, waving his hat triumphantly. "I've sent for
+her, and here she is. I gave the Constable a commission, and he's been
+and brought Richie, and got all the proofs of her parentage."
+
+"Thank Heaven!" said Mrs. Swan, giving the baby a toss in the air, while
+its little soft-hearted mother hid her head on the old man's shoulder,
+and shed a few tears of thankfulness and relief.
+
+"What! crying just at the hour of triumph?" said her spirited friend. "I
+did not know how cruelly you had suffered from these base suspicions,
+until now."
+
+"There, there, child," said Mr. Garnet, gently, smoothing the satin hair
+with his horny hand, "get on your things and wrap up the baby. There's a
+select few up at Dr. Little's to-night, and, though he ain't a
+particular friend of mine, I've a notion to give him a surprise party, a
+kind of comin' out occasion, you know, for the minister's new
+step-daughter."
+
+The spacious parlors of the doctor's residence were as brilliantly
+lighted as the illuminating power of six large kerosene lamps, in full
+blaze, would allow, and as Mr. Garnet had declared, a "select few" of
+that gentleman's friends were there assembled, to talk over the
+feasibility of the minister's calling the detractors of his amiable wife
+to a speedy account before the proper authorities of the village.
+
+That injured lady sat enthroned in easy chair, in a quiet corner,
+casting martyr-like looks upon her sympathizers. Just as we are
+observing that stately personage, she interrupted the Elder, who had
+been speaking, with great volubility, "Don't say another word upon this
+painful subject, husband. I can't bear it. To think that all my
+well-meant efforts should be rewarded with such base ingratitude, wounds
+me deeply. Still I would use no harsh measures, but ever incline to the
+side of mercy."
+
+"But justice must be done, my dear sister," said the doctor. "In your
+generous disinterestedness, you must not forget that you owe something
+to your husband and the church, over which he presides. Your dignity
+must be sustained, and it would never do to pass over this matter, since
+it has become the theme of idle gossip for the whole town. _I_ advise my
+brother to call in the aid of the law, without delay."
+
+"Oh, I could never think of that," returned the lady; "something else
+will have to be decided upon. I do not wish the Elder to be drawn into a
+lawsuit on my account. I can live down these foul aspersions. In time,
+these people, whom I have come among, will know me as I am."
+
+It seemed as if the lady's prophetic forebodings were to be literally
+verified then and there. As she ceased speaking, there came an imperious
+summons at the street door, that turned all eyes immediately toward the
+one mode of entrance and exit.
+
+"Ahem!" said the host, moving with majestic tread to answer the knock,
+"it seems that we are to have some more visitors." "What! who!" as the
+corpulent figure of old Mr. Garnet appeared upon the threshold.
+
+"Good evening, doctor; you did not expect me, I know," said that
+gentleman, coming forward, "but I thought I'd drop in unceremoniously
+with my friends, here," (turning and revealing the little group behind
+him,) "as I had some particular business with two of your guests, that
+could not possibly be delayed."
+
+At that moment a piercing shriek was heard from the corner, where the
+minister's lady sank in a terror of guilt and shame. She had caught
+sight of a slender, ill-clad figure, that stood peering in from the
+darkness without, at the light and warmth of the cheerful room. The
+great, wild, haggard eyes glanced curiously and searchingly around, till
+they reached the woman's hiding place, and rested upon a form strangely
+familiar; then, with a slow, shuffling, uncertain gait, Richie Penrose
+strayed into the room, regardless of those who watched her, and went
+directly up to the rigid figure, that bore on its white, set features
+the very impress of despair.
+
+"Mother," the girl said, kneeling before her, and speaking in confused,
+stammering accents, "they told me you sent for me to come to you and be
+cared for, and have food and warm, pretty clothing, and no hard work or
+cross words or blows, such as they gave me in the home I left. You used
+to promise me, mother, that when you got somebody with gold enough to
+buy all these, that you'd take me away from there. So, when that man
+came for me, I hurried and got away before they should be sorry, and
+come and take me back again. Is this the pretty home you used to tell me
+about? and is that man my father?"
+
+There was no reply to this last question. The minister's wife had
+fainted.
+
+All eyes were now turned toward her unfortunate husband. He rose to his
+feet, reeling from the effects of the sudden shock, and the dreary
+hopelessness of his face touched every heart. "My friends," he said,
+huskily, "there is little to be said. This sudden revelation has crushed
+me, till my soul grows faint with the bitterness of a terrible woe.
+Believe me, I have had no part in this wicked deception, but only
+considered that I was in the pathway of stern duty, in defending the
+character of my wife from those who I was led to believe were her
+enemies. I ask your forgiveness and sympathy;" then, without a word of
+adieu, groping like one shut from broad daylight into thick darkness, he
+passed out from among them, while those who looked on with moistened
+eyes knew that this cruel blow had broken his heart.
+
+Old Mr. Garnet drew the back of his rough hand across his eyes. "I'm
+a'most sorry I meddled," he said, regretfully. "It's the first and last
+woman's quarrel I ever mix up in. But I couldn't have them grieving my
+little Daisy to death. What possessed the woman to stir up this piece of
+mischief?"
+
+"What's to become of the girl?" interrogated Dr. Little. "I don't want
+her left on my hands. And allow me to say, sir, that I consider this
+intrusion in my house an unpardonable liberty."
+
+"Very well," was the reply, "our business is ended, and we will
+withdraw. As for this unfortunate child, I will care for her until her
+proper guardians manifest a disposition to relieve me of the charge."
+
+Not a little to the surprise of all Waveland, the woman who suddenly
+found herself the center of observation, and whose haughty spirit could
+not brook humiliation, disappeared immediately after this eventful
+episode, leaving no clue to her whereabouts.
+
+The unfortunate Richie was provided with a comfortable home, and upon
+the death of her mother's husband, which occurred not long after, she
+came into possession of a sum sufficient to provide for her maintenance
+during the rest of her life.
+
+Years after, a woman haggard and old, with traces of crime upon her
+hardened features, passed through the little village, begging her way to
+a neighboring city. A simple-minded girl, sitting in a doorway, whom she
+accosted for alms, emptied all her little store of pocket money into the
+poor wayfarer's outstretched palm. This girl was none other than Richie,
+and the woman who failed to recognize the vacant but placid face, was
+her own unhappy mother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+It was the eve of the New Year. The snow had folded its white mantle
+over the earth, and in the gardens, where the flowers had hidden their
+fragile beauty from the ruthless fingers of the Frost King, it gleamed
+whitely from amid the sombre foliage of the hardy evergreens. On lawn
+and terrace it lay in uneven drifts, tossed at will by the chilling
+winter winds. Pendant from tree and shrub hung glittering icicles, and
+on the window panes the frostwork looked like the invisible effort of
+some fairy spirits, that a breath from mortals would dissolve.
+
+The bright New Year is ever welcomed as a season of enjoyment for those
+who have happy homes, where friends meet around well-laden boards, to
+return thanks for past prosperity, and form plans for future happiness.
+But to others, friendless, forsaken, and perhaps weary of a life of
+ill-requited toil, the retrospection is often inexpressibly mournful.
+
+Alone in her room, at her friend's humble cottage, sat Clemence
+Graystone, watching for the noiseless incoming of another year. The
+light gleamed redly out from the blazing wood fire, lighting up the
+small apartment with its cheerful glow, but failed to call anything like
+warmth or color to the marble face that drooped low with its weight of
+painful thought.
+
+The morrow was to be her wedding day. She raised her head and glanced
+around the room, which was filled with all the paraphernalia of the
+wedding toilet.
+
+An undefined dread took possession of her. It seemed as though this
+happiness, that appeared so near, was yet to elude her. A mirror stood
+where she could behold her own image. A sadness stole over the girl's
+spirit as she looked at the semblance of herself there reflected. As she
+gazed, she seemed to be communing with some invisible presence, and she
+found herself pitying the young face in the mirror, as if it were
+another than her own.
+
+While she looked sorrowfully, a second shadow became dimly outlined
+behind it. Clemence started in momentary terror. The thought occurred to
+her of the old-time superstition connected with this illusion. She
+remembered that an old nurse had told her in childhood that it was an
+omen of death to behold this spectral shadow. In spite of her freedom
+from vulgar superstition, her lips grew colorless, and her heart beat
+with alarm. She sank down again into her chair, cowering close to the
+cheerful fire.
+
+An hour passed thus. The clock struck twelve. The girl roused herself
+again at this--remembered that this was to be the most eventful day of
+her existence. "I must retire," she soliloquized; "it will never do to
+have pale cheeks or troubled thoughts for my wedding day. Would that I
+could make myself beautiful for his dear sake."
+
+A smile of hope and joy wreathed the lips of the soft-eyed dreamer. She
+paced the floor absently backward and forward, with far-off gaze; then
+knelt at her bedside and breathed to the kind All Father a prayer for
+guidance and strength for what might come to her.
+
+Clemence Graystone's future seemed, for the first time since her
+father's sudden death, to hold in it somewhat of happiness for her
+portion. The dreary waste had changed to a smiling landscape, that
+glowed beneath skies of a roseate hue. There was surely nothing now to
+fear. With the love of one powerful to protect her from life's ills,
+means to lavish upon the wistful-eyed child who had grown each day
+deeper into her affections, and a firm, trusting faith in the guidance
+of One who ruleth over the world He has created, a faith that had kept
+her from despair in the darkest hour, and made her young life beautiful;
+with hope beckoning, with smiling eyes, to the crowning glory of
+womanhood, this girl, who had suffered so much from fate, ought to have
+been content and happy. But the mysterious shadow of her coming doom
+brooded darkly over her.
+
+At length, inspired with a sudden feeling, for which she could hardly
+account, Clemence rose, and seated herself at her writing-desk. If she
+had been given to spiritual sympathies, she would have said that her
+hand was controlled by some unseen power. As it was, there was a look of
+awe upon the pallid face that bent to the task, and the girl was whiter
+than the paper before her, as she wrote thus:
+
+     MY DEAREST FRIEND: Something within me, a strange, mysterious
+     influence, the whisperings, perhaps, of some angel spirit sent to
+     call me hence, impels me to write these few words of farewell.
+
+     If nothing should happen me, if my life should flow on tranquilly
+     into the valley of peace that my fond fancy pictured, then I will
+     keep this to laugh over, as the wild vagaries of an over-wrought,
+     excited imagination. But, if death should find me at my labor of
+     love, you will know how irrevocably my heart has been given to you,
+     and realize somewhat of the depths of that affection which my lips
+     have never dared to frame. Oh, my darling, had I been permitted to
+     live, I would have worshipped you; and if God calls me, I will
+     still hover around you, and be the first to welcome one I loved to
+     Heaven. All that you have been to the weary-hearted girl, you will
+     never know. Life seemed hopeless, but your affection has made it a
+     dream of happiness. I have wanted to tell you how deeply your image
+     was graven on my heart; how one face that was dear to me haunted my
+     sleeping and waking dreams. I would have lived for you, and can die
+     breathing a blessing for your future.
+
+     There is one other that I have cared for as a mother would the babe
+     she carried in her bosom. My patient, tender-eyed Ruth--watch over
+     her when I am gone. Sometimes, when thinking of this hour, I have
+     prayed that its bitterness might be averted. Realizing the agony of
+     parting, the cruel severing of the clinging tendrils of unselfish
+     affection, I have shrunk from the trial. But now I feel that my
+     strength is sufficient, even unto the end. Though I walk through
+     the "valley of the shadow of death," I do not fear, for I can
+     behold the light that breaks beyond, "over the delectable
+     mountains."
+
+     My own Love! Strive to meet me there. Others have gone before--the
+     fond eyes that watched over my cradle, the mother who nursed me
+     during the hours of helpless infancy, and he who sheltered and
+     protected my early youth with tenderest care. I shall know and love
+     them again. The thought makes me happy.
+
+     I have one last request to make. During my years of loneliness,
+     when I have met with so much to dishearten and discourage me in my
+     efforts to earn an honest livelihood, I have learned to pity the
+     struggling, self-supporting ones of my sex, as only those can pity
+     and sympathize who have suffered from a similar cause. I have often
+     wished that I had means to provide a home, not for "fallen women,"
+     but for those patient toilers who are breasting the cruel,
+     overwhelming waves of adversity. There are many such, thrown from
+     loving homes upon the charities of a cold and selfish world. It is
+     my desire to benefit them, and, with this end in view, I would
+     leave the money which has so lately come to me, to be expended in
+     the erection of a home to shelter helpless and unprotected women,
+     who are incapable of self-support, either wholly or in part.
+
+     This is no school-girl fancy, but a plan long matured, formed from
+     experience and observation. It is a sorrowful fact, that has come
+     within my own knowledge, that more than one delicately-reared girl,
+     having an innate love of virtue and horror of vice, has fallen into
+     infamy from this cause. They have resorted to crime from a total
+     inability to sustain themselves in even the humblest manner, or
+     provide the coarsest food and clothing by their own unaided
+     efforts. I would be glad to give what means and influence I may
+     possess for so worthy an object, and I trust you to carry out these
+     my last wishes.
+
+     I can write no more. God be with and comfort you, my own, own love.
+
+That was all. The pen dropped from the nerveless grasp. Clemence bent
+her head wearily on the table, and fell into a trance-like slumber.
+
+The night waned. The dawn of the New Year found the pale sleeper with
+her golden head still pillowed on her arm, and the last words that the
+slender fingers would ever trace, waiting for the coming of one to break
+the spell of silence, that had hushed the pale-browed sleeper into
+everlasting rest.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+"Dead! dead! dead!" moaned Ulrica Hardyng, bending in agony over the
+lifeless form, and looking vainly for some answering gleam of
+recognition in the blue eyes, that had ever beamed upon her with glances
+of love and sympathy.
+
+And this was the end of all these months of working and waiting, which
+was to be crowned with a glorious fruition that had filled all hearts
+with joyous anticipation.
+
+But there was no time for idle sorrow. A little white-robed figure, with
+great wild eyes, and tangled curls falling over dimpled shoulders, stole
+into the room, and flung herself at the feet of the still figure, that
+drooped now in the woman's arms; and then a cry rang through the house,
+so fraught with anguish, that people hurrying by, in the early morning
+light, stood with startled faces, and questioned as to its cause, then
+reverently entered the house of woe.
+
+Below, in the little parlor of the cottage, they laid all that was
+mortal of Clemence Graystone, and there, he who had hastened to meet the
+loved one, passed the long hours of that New Year's day alone with his
+dead.
+
+Grief, like joy, should be sacred from stranger eyes, and we will not
+linger over the scene, but glide softly from the place that has been
+made desolate by the dread presence of the destroyer.
+
+They buried the young teacher by the side of the child she had loved in
+life, and whose sad dream was thus fulfilled. The people whom she had
+come among, only to be slighted, and more than that, persecuted with
+malignant energy, united at her death in awarding the meed of praise
+they had denied her in life. It mattered little, though, to one who had
+left the cares and trials of earth behind, what remorseful tears were
+shed over her mortal remains. It was all over now, and the troubled
+heart had found peace, and that pure joy which "floweth like a river."
+
+In the little cemetery at Waveland there is one carefully-tended spot,
+that is the shrine at which a little group of sable-clad mourners meet,
+to mingle their tears and prayers together. Two of them are elderly
+women, who greet each other as "Alicia" and "Ulrica," and the others, a
+grave-faced man, leading by the hand a young, delicate-looking girl, are
+Ruth, and her guardian, Wilfred Vaughn.
+
+The marble slab before which they kneel, bears this upon its pure
+surface: "Clemence Graystone, aged 21 years." And underneath, the simple
+but expressive words, "At rest."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Clemence, by Retta Babcock
+
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