The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1862-05-29
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1t he is less than that, his opinion can
have no influence over me-"
Scarcely had she finished speaking,
when the postman entered and laid note
on the table before her. Every vestige
of color fed from her face, as she read
the few words written there, pressing her
hand against her side like one in pain.
Directly she went up to her chamber,
and came down no more that day. Her
sole earthly prop had fallen
At breakfast, she made her appearance,
calm and emotionless as usual. She
kissed little blue eyed Freddy, stroked the
white kitten that leaped purring upon her
knee, and conversed On different topics
with her accustomed cheerfulness. When
the meal was concluded, she laid two
pieces of paper before her mother, and
asked her to read the contents aloud
One was the note she had received the pre-
vious day-the other was her reply. The
| first ran thus
| sMiss Burns Circumstances, of which
| YOU must be aware, render it eXpedient that
| the childish engagement as we were pleased
to term it, made between us so long ago,
| should be dissolved. Probably you will be
as ready to agree to this request as | am to
make it. Let me hear from you soon.
Yours truly,
BLAKE HAMMoND."
The answer was brief and concise.
| AFR. Hammond Consider yourself free.
ANNETTE BURNS"
To all the surprised exclamations Of
her parents, she returned but one reply
| at is better so and never let the sub
| ject be renewed"
And from that day forth the name of
Blake Hammond was unspoken a Elm
! stead.
But despite her seeming serenity, it
| cost Annette no slight effort to submit to
| the sundering of tie, which, for four
happy years, had bound her. Four years
ago, when she was nineteen and he TWEEN
ty-two, she pledged her faith to Blake
Hammond, and they were to have been
married on the coming Christmas day.
Circumstances had occurred, which, to
the worldly mind of young Hammond, JUS
| titled him in breaking the plighted word,
and casting the trusting girl from his
heart.
He was ambitious, though poor he
aspired to wealth, his idol and how could
he ever reach the glittering treasure, if
he married an insolvent's daughter
CHAPTER II.
For five long months had Annette
Burns toiled in the noisy factory. Far
from all her kindred, in a strange city,
and among unsympathizing strangers, she
went about her daily task. From "cock-
crow until starli ght"-the same, weary,
monotonous round-unvaried by single
kind word or friendly smile Every
thread she wove in the senseless web was
record of the Death Of some fair hope !;
every desolate sunset marked the fading
out of little more brightness from her
young life.
Nothing but the thought that she was
to save the beloved roof over the heads of
her dear ones buoycd her up and kept her
arm strong and willing. Only the re-
membrance that she was laboring for
father, and mother, and Fred. cheered
and sustained her.
The other girls-her gay companions
in the factory-expended their hard got
ten money in gaudy dresses she made
no purchases-eve dollar was boarded
as jealously as the miser boards his gold.
The first payment to Mr.. Steele, the hol-
der of the mortgage on Elmstead, had
been promptly met; and only by the clo-
| sest application and economy could she
expect to discharge the next instalnent.
The girls sometimes joked her about
her meagre wardrobe the light-headed
young men employed about the establish
ment called her the Quakeress and her
landlady entreated her, as special favor,
and for the credit of her boarding house,
to purchase a new bonnet. But Annette
endured all in silence, and kept on in the
old way.
Her quiet, statues9ue beauty attracted
much notice. and, if she so willed it, she
might have been what each one of her
young companions aspireo to be-thc belle
c. the factory. But her sole wish seemed
to be to escape observation, and she turn
ed deaf ear to all the batteries and gal
lantries of the admiring young men,
When strangers visited the room in which
she worked, she never looked at them, but
kept on with her business. What right
had she to meddEe with the gay and hap
Ply world
One day, her overseer, Mr.. Granger,
said to her in passing,
"Miss Burns, there is to be a grand
levee at the nall this evening, in honor of
the arrival of Mr. Templeton, the owner
of the mill He has been in Europe for
the past two years. You have heard the
girls speak of the ovation, presume 2"
eyes sir /"