The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-05-12 00:00:00

CHAPTER XXXI.
MADELINE.

AFTER a few days spent at Mrs. Crimp's board-
ing-house, a conversation between Mrs. Chard and
Margaret Seytou had placed her in possession of the
humble aspirations of the lace-weaver toward the
attainment of future independence.

Mrs. Chard listened with sympathy, and an earnest
desire to aid her; the result was, that a small shop
was secured for her in a cross street leading out of
Oxford-street, not yet much known to fashionable
people, but her patroness promised that it should
not long remain in obscurity, she would bring her
friends and acquaintances to deal at its modest
counter.

A small stock of laces and other fancy goods were
selected with great judgment and skill by Margaret,
who seemed to possess intuitive knowledge of the
business she was ambitious to enter; and she showed
so much energy and forethought, that her patroness
was more pleased with her than ever.
The money needed to start her in 'business was
chiefly furnished by Danvers, as prepayment for
taking care of Madeline. Contrary to the expecta-
tions of her physician, a few weeks of judicious
medical treatment in the asylum, restored her the use
of her reason, and the violence of the first despair
sunk into a species of apathetic quietness. She gladly
accompanied her old friends to the new home pro-
vided for them, without asking why she was made
their inmate, or who bore the expense of taking care
of her.

All earthly interests seem to have faded from her
mind, and she moved about like one in a trance,
whose feet trod the weary earth, but whose thoughts
soared through illimitable space, seeking for ever for
a glimpse of the angel form she insisted she had
beheld as it flitted from its tenement of clay. She
would sit for hours in rapt contemplation, communing,
she declared, with the spirit of her lost child; and she
seemed to derive so much comfort from this halluci-
nation that her companions made no attempt to
convince her of its unreality.
But the whole of Madeline's time was not riven to
dreaming, for Margaret would gently draw her atten-
tion to the necessity of performing her part In their
little menage; and with child-like alacrity she would
attend to the wants of the blind mother, and perform
such domestic duties as fell to her share.
Margaret attended to the shop, and when not wait-
ing on customers, kept her nimble fingers busily em-
ployed in lace making; while the room in the rear, in
which the three lived, was kept in order by the in-
dustry of Madeline. Margaret had, however, little
time to give to her trade, for so many elegant
women came to her humble establishment to pur-
chase her most costly wares, that her stock in trade
was soon nearly exhausted; and she thankfully saw
before her a prospect of turning over her little
capital so rapidly as to lay the foundation for a
prosperous future.
Mrs. Chard had enlisted the sympathies of her
numerous friends in favour of the widow and her
daughter, but the young shopwoman, with her self-
possessed, graceful manner, and sweet face, soon won
for herself a place in the good will of her customers;
and those who once dealt with her, were sure to re-
turn whenever they needed such articles as siva could
supply.
How grateful this poor girl was for the helping
hand held out to her in the sea of poverty in which
she was plunged, language can never paint. She
beheld herself rescued from want;' from the haunting
fear that loss of sight was to be her inevitable doom,
and enabled to place her invalid mother in compara-
tive comfort. All these results she believed had
sprung from her kindness to the unfortunate Made-
line, and she felt the truth of the words her mother
so often quoted—
" Cast thy bread upon the waters, for after many
days it shall be found."
(7b be continued)