New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-03-22

choice but it Is far FAR little for the costly work
into which weave the warp aud wool OF my very
life. But II cannot last loagW
These last words were not audible TO isaoei, VINO
stood already in the doorway.
| Well III call tomorrow night, and hiring the
money with me, Alice. Take good care q the nano,
kerchief for il cost fifty dollars Good bye, dear and
she fitted down the stairs and entered her carriage
with sensation OF relief.
The next evening as the tiny boudoir clock chimed
the hour of nine. with svery chime Isabel Middleton
and her cousin Amy Brookes stood in the former s
snmptuousy furnished dressingroom, robed for Mrs.
al Johns fancy ball. The atmosphere of the apart
meut was soft, warm, and perfumed as that Of sum
mer and heavy damask curtains, sweeping down to
the velvet carpets below, excluded every breath Of
air. Without it bitterly, intensely cold Ten
thousand stars gmmered freshly from the deep,
serene vault Of heaven. The very breath of huryng
passengers turned TO ice their lips, and the air
they inspired cut like sharp knife their lungs
while the policeman ran shvering past on his rounds
lest he should be frozen to death by the bitter gripping
| cold
"Wait one moment Amy, love, said Isabel al
must run and tell papa goodbye. I'll be back by the
\ time yOH have got your cloaks aud shawls on n
And she ran down the broad marble staircase TO the
spacious library. where by the lambert lustre of a
single gas-light shining through shade OF emerald
| glass, her father sat reading the evening paper.
| Papa, I've come TO tell you goodbye and show
| you my Dress she said laughing She had no mo
ther and accustomed to thus to her father,
ere she went to brilliant assemblages or soirees for
| his approving SMILE
| He rose as she approached, and looked at her with
its dissembled delight and admiration. She was very
lovely and her attire gorgeous 10 the extreme might
have attracted admiration even from hermit OF Old
Her dress was pale blue tissue, over blue satin,
caught up in hundred graceful folds by small golden
stars and on the rosettes OF each OF her tiny blue
kid slippers glittered constellation of miniature
stars. Everything about her attire carried out this
stellar fancy save a necklace of diamonds, whose
radiance encrcled the throat. Her hair, glossy and
purple black, like the inside OF ravens wing, fell
In rich, heavy curls, to her round, pearlwhte shout
| ders while above her queeny forehead among the
midnight waves OF her hair flashed a magnificent
diamond star, of uncommon size and splendor held
in IL place by small black velvet band which
passed under her curls in such manner that the
star seemed to hover just above her brow, blazing
like tiny sea OF radiance every time its myriad fas-
Gets caught single ray of light.
"God bless thee and prosper thee, my sweet little
Evening STAR said her father, clasping her to his
heart, and holding her little band fondly in his own.
She returned the caress smiling and bushng, and
then re-entered the room, where she had left her
cousin.
/" Come, Amy, dear, suppose John is sadly tired
OF waiting. Where is my mantle !"
And she caught up rich bouquet of hothouse
flowers, and Abby adjusted round her the soft folds
of black velvet cloak, lined with the purest of err
mine
" Give me that bankbil on the table, Abby l
must take that TO pay poor Alice Smith,
" Is it absolutely necessary for you to stop there ~
questioned poor Amy, "Im afraid we shall be de-
| layed, for you know / must go to Thompson's the
florist, to get my wreath Of natural snow drops-hes
been growing them this month, and they only opened
| this afternoon"
Amy was to go as Spring snow-drop, and was
exqustey dressed in white satin veined with green.
" I'll tell you how we'll manage it" said Isabel /;
" you may leave me at Alice's and / will get the
handkerchief and pay her, while You drive on to
Thompsons, and you shall call for me on your return
You will not be long, will your"
Oh, no. III be back in twinkling."
Al.
entered the Luxurious carriage, the coachman touched
up his shvering horses, and the whole cortege rolled
swiftly away.
This evening, which had passed SO speedily in the
splendid apartments of Isabel Middleton hat moved
with eaden feet the solitude OF poor Alice Smith.
She had not tasted food since the visit of her young
patroness, the day before there was not spark Of
fire in the rusted CRATE, and the DIM Pickering light
from her small oll-lamp only served to render the
darkness more awfuly visible, as Alice bent over its
faint lustfe, trying with b0odess and benumhed ing-
to finish the delicate embroidery entrusted to her.
1t was nearly done--the fairy garland of passion
flowers, twning leaves and rose-buds was complete,
all but spray or two, and she was now working in
the golden glmmer of the central star.
Strange and bewdering sensations had passed
across her weary brain several times that evening
Her hands had dropped powerlessly to her sde--the
squalor and poverty OF her dismal room had passed
from her vision, and strange CLEANS Of light and sun
shine, green valleys and sunbathed hills had gOwed
through her veln--part memory, party fancy and
part dellrium. Then they would fade away and she
would again be bending over her endless toll in the
bitter, bitter cold!
The bright, ce-cold stars looked down on her soli-
tude and silence through the broken panes and sill
vered over the fairy palaces and tropical forests that
| the frostkng had hoated away in light, fantastic
clouds, and her eyes, growing DINNER and DINNER,
while another star, the star of Bethlehem, whose
brightness was to guide her feeble footsteps across
the river Of Death, burned before her vision.
| Slowly it came across her senses like the breath
OF summer violets-lke the incense Of blood pop
pies, lullng her to seep-and the wan fingers stiff
ened and grew cold--and the pulses stopped, eter-
nallyl
Frozen to death, with the glimmer OF the golden
star casped to her heartwith the fairy blossoms OF
the cross emblems Of her passion, and the half
| open rosebuds, like her youth, dropping around
| Frozen 10 DEATH
Scarcely an hour had passed away, when the light
footstep of Isabel Middleton auttered up stairs
scarcely audible amid the rattng of the retreatng
carriage wheels and the beautiful girl radiant in her
maiden loveliness, entered the CHASTITY By the
dim light OF the waning oillamp, she could just dis
Germ the figure at the table.
chief2
There was no answer, and Isabel approached close
| to the table,
"Alice Alice are you aseep?"
Still no answer. strange fear chilled through
lsabel's heart-she caught up the lamp with her jew.
eed hand and held it that its turbid light streamed
across the white face OF Alice and danced on the
golden star
With piercing scream she dropped the lamp
which went out in the fall and fed to the furthest
corner of the room. when she sank down, covering
her face with her hands. Her first impulse was tO
fly, she knew not whittier, but anywhere to escape
the fixed and stony gaze of the ghostly figure oppo
site, but in instant she recollected that she
covered with priceless jewels, and was in place
where thieves and beggars were wont to congregate
Alone with corpse She shrunk behind the bed
but 1t seemed to her diseased and distorted lima
ginaton that the dead girl stretched forward to ool
still upon her--she crouehed in the corner behind it
but she fancied that it turned its head The white
and rigid outline seemed TO stir, in the bitter star
light and TO her moral terror it seemed that the stiff
corpse filled the rooms OH would her cousin nerel
come?
There was some faint noise in an adjoining room
aud lsabels heart sprung TO her mouth, she cuns
closer to the shattered wall anoying that it was th
motion Of the CHASTITY something. She thought i
was looking at her-moving its icy iingerl The COLI
drops oozed from around her white lips and the verl
pulses OF her heart seemed to stand still with terror
o, would Amy neper Gomez
Ii was a strange sght-the illreported pair-lsahe
in her gstenng blue robes and respondent diamonds
crouohing like terrified maniac In the dark corner
hiding her ashy face in her decorated hands AM
the stiff stark corpse Of young and fair as her
| self, staring with CLASSY eyes on vacancy! On
dressed for ball the other frozen to death.
Five minutes after, when the wondering Amy cam
to see why her cousin had not come down. she iouu'
her inseusible on the floor at the feet OF the deaf
corpse
II was long ere the horror-stricken girl waket
LIZ ID