The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1865-03-03

lhey need uuSt1np So OlCen, Sne re
Piled in Mrs. Franklins mature tones
and she busted them vigorously will
her pocket handkerchief.
"Ah me |" she said. "Now, what
other foolish thing shall 1 do to prove
to myself that I am not an elderly
housekeeper, but young girl who, by
virtue of her age, should be gay-by
right of birth, wealthy, and of consid.
erution, visited and visiting, as Mr.
Dayton's lady love visits and is visited
He is noble, and good, and handsome,
she said with sigh "She will be
happy. How graceful she danced here,
at the party, the other evening, when
the old hou Sc keeper was permitted to
look onl She looks good and amiable
too. Mr.. Dayton danced with hel
three times. / wonder if have for.
gotten how to dance' and humming
an air she hoated gracefully about the
room. &
She stopped breathless, her cheeks
brilliant from the exercise, her splen-
did hair disarranged
81 believe / feel like stiff old Mrs.
Franklin, with whom dancing doesn't
agree"
Zone more song by that heavenly
voice, Miss Franklin, and / shall GO
away dreaming have heard the an
gels sing" in a ludicrously affected
voice she had before initiated.
"AhW she laughed, but half sadly,
''the compliments poor old housekeep-
err Franklin receives 1 certainly hope
won't spoil her, and turn her silly old
head"
She sat down again at the piano,
and sang "Home, Sweet Home;' then
she played one of Beethovens grand
est and most solemn pieces. She rose
and closed the piano.
"The carnival is ended. Kate Frank
lin disappears from the scene, and
Madam Franklin enters
Neither Mr.. Dayton nor the servants
would have suspected from the placid,
dignifed department of the house
keeper when they returned that even
ing, of what strange freaks she had
been guilty.
The housekeeper, as usual when Mr..
Dayton was alone, sat at the table.
1t had commenced to rain violently,
and the weather had grown suddenly
very cold.
MIR. Dayton, as he had done OCCASION
ally, invited her to the library, where
was cheerful fire in the CRATE. He
read the papers and letters which he
had brought with him from town,
while she knitted
An hour or more passed in silence;
indeed, the housekceper seldom spoke,
except when asked question. At
length Mr.. Dayton looked up Mt her,
and said, abruptly:
"Yours must be lonely life, mad
am, If it is not painful subject, may
| ask how long since you lost your
husband ?"
Two hands suspended their employ
ment, two eyes looked up at him with
an alarmed expression. In his serious,
sympathetic countenance there was
nothing to brighten or embarrass, but
the red grew deeper and deeper in the
brown cheek.
ut is painful subject" she said, at
last, falteringly. 'If you will please
to excuse me-"
pray, pardon me, madam. 1t was
further from my wish, or thought, to
give you pain" he returned with grave
courtesy. @
His manner, after this, was even
kinder than ever before. 1t became
the custom to invite her to sit with
him every evening
She commenced to decline; but, as
he invariably insisted npon reason,
it was not always easy to find one. II
she gave household cares, he called
one OF the servants to attend to it.
Once, she frankly told him it was not
agreeable, but she never did il Sc
cond time; but for week he had
wrapped himself in impenetrable re-
serve, looked cold and gloomy, never
speaking except from necessary civility.
At last the poor housekeeper could
bear it no longer. After tea, without
an invitation, which had not been ex-
tended to her since that night, she
took her knitting and went into the
parlor. The first approach to smile
she had seen ON his face for many
days frightened it then, but he did
not say great deal.
After this it became a regular Gus
tom. There could DO no danger to
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