Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-04-08
VIII OLE NUMBER 432.


that. The creature was sinking under
fatal disease which might need two years
to kill her, and the girl remembered only
her pain and misery.
Hetty supported her. She worked
like .igress, regarding it as little in
terlude in ber life which would in no
way affect the future.
1t did though, in manner Hetty little
expected. Only a month before the
woman's death, she received legacy
from England. Every penny of it was
willed to Het!y. There she was--a rich
woman.
She gave me all those details with an
odd mixture of fun and seriousness that
was peculiar TO her.
Yes she said, Il was rich but which
way turn? In my o!d home they be-
lieved me utterly lost, and suppose any
body who had discovered that l had been
living, for two years, with worn out
dancer, would have decided the same.
Did | hate the world therefore D.? Not
a bit | believe that nobody is really
crushed who has energy enough to de-
serve a different fate--and | did not
mean to be crushed, | assure you
TIE love of her girlish years had sur
vived all that long season of trouble and
poverty. She had not made herself
known TO Gordon; he should never
learn the straits to which she had been
reduced. Some day, when he would be
glad TO welcome her as his wife, she
would seek him-but not then.
she could not refuse herself the plea
sure of seeing him unperceiyed whenev-
er it was possible. She used TO linger
near bis studio to see him pass out
Night after night she stood in the snow
and rain, watching the light in his win
dow, till policeman would warn her
that she had stood there long enough.
When her riches found her, the first
impulse of her soul was to seek Lau-
renee. He had gone to New Orleans
for the winter. She would go too.
Then it was she altered her name,
from reasons evident enough.
a widow could travel, you know she
said. Besides. the dress was protec-
ton. don't believe it was wicked /
had, unwittingly, assumed the garb that
was so soon to be in keeping with my
poor hopes
She found Gordon she sent for him.
Never once did it occur TO her that he
could have changed. The belief that
his love was honest and pure as hers
had been her mainstay during those
years
He came to see her. What his coarse
fancy thought, when he found her sur
rounded by the appurtenances Of wealth,
you can understand. Her first incohe-
rent words aided his conviction, and his
confessions struck the death blow to the
poor girls love.
She left him, and left behind her dead
affection, her faith and trust in all things
But that state of mind was its own cure
in nature like hers.
She was nearly mad for months; then
it all passed. | do not mean that life's
freshness came back God help US il
never does but she had learned to sep
arate that man from the ideal she had
worshiped. There was only the wasted
affection to mourn now.
Laurence Gordon learned the truth
and wrote to her, asking her to be bis
wife.
That letter worked my cure, said she.
Il woke and found myself worlds beyond
that old dream. can laugh, you see,
but the pain was terrible it stings yet,
although the man himself is
no more to me than if he never had ex.
isted.'
And what did you do then ?
II pulled out the gray hairs which
showed here and there, as relics of that
time, buried my dead, locked the door of
the vault, and set out in the world afresh.'
The rest of her story was soon told.
She visited Europe, travelled about at
her own pleasure, having suecumbed to
The laws of the world sufficiently to pro-
vide herself with staid companion TO
serve as dragon.
In Paris she met the ancient Princess
P, bad an opportunity of obliging
Ter in some way, and the consequence
vas that the old woman had taken her,
n her wicked, but most fashionable
lands, carried her back to Italy with
Ter, showed her in Venice and Milan,
md now presented her to Florentine
ociety at the Baths.
Mabel had great success. There was