Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-04-25
who WINS to Blame 7

DodiNaiiS7 hOdoS loi NohAeiA- @NS''
York.
/ Looking straight out, you would see
down narrow alley which left high
street Just below, and grew dirtier and
| less respectable with every step, as it
wound past rubbish-lined back yards up
| to the square court under Sarah's win
| dow There it came to a dead stop be-
| tween high, thick walls, and never got
on again-just as many inmates of the
| great house had wandered or been driv-
en-who shall judge of all alike From
| the pleasanter highways of life, and had
come to a social stand-still with the liv-
| ing there. For Madame DeNianeys
was not well thought of, and those who
never troubled the rusty bell-pull on the
| front door, took care that both the fact
and the reason should be no secret.
The other ways you might look were
short and unattractiye enOugh-at least
| to an ordinary observer. On the right
a high wall ran at right angles with
! Madam De Vinney's, and from it two
| brown suffered windows looked down
| into the same court, and over the same
stretch of irregular roofs, to the rim of
green, which ended both the city and
| the third view. .IH
The second view is the important one.
Indeed, i should scarcely have noticed
| the others were it not that, whatever
| place they may have had at the opening
| of my story in the mind Of the heroine
if so romantic a title may justly at
tach itself to one who knew no other
heroism than love and duty-they were
| once a great deal to her. The dirty
strip of earth that ended beneath her
window at first seemed, by that mysteri-
Gus association of ideas with things, to
lead out to the well-kept highway and
| to the priceless companionship of those
who walked therein and the delicate
rim that lost all objects and kept only
color for those so far away, hiding the
| fresh country, more like a verdant mist
than any real substance, seemed a re-
membrance no longer. But few
months changed it all. The track of
mud and slime pointed only in, and the
outline of hills and fields gathered the
green mist closer around, the more, it
seemed to Sarah, to keep her out than to
| tell of the added Joy the summer brought
them. So she shut out both views for
ever in stony despair and turned to the
small brown shutters, as we shall also
do. IS.
The shutters swung back one bright
morning, and Sarahs look went in at
the narrow panes with the sunlight. 1t
was not large room, and was plainly
enough furnished. A homemade car
pet, with stripes of gray and black, with
here and there one of neither, covered
the floor, and with the exception of
necessary articles, all of the plainest
description, the room was bare. Moth
ing of elegance was anywhere to be
seen.
The occupant had evidently just en-
tered, for he laid aside his hat, and sat
down at small table to write. He was
anything but handsome Or elegant, sit
ting there in his poor room, working
over the paper with a hasty hand, but
to Sarah he was at least attractive. She
liked the shape of his head and the ex-
preston of his face, and thought she
saw feature of noble beauty in both.
This is a great deal. How many are
those, quick to observe characters and
faces, who have loved others for what
they imagined they would be! 1t is
like buying a parcel OF land, not because
the scene is good or the soil productive,
but because it will rise in value-purely
business transaction. But there was
nothing of this in Sarah, of course, for it
could make no difference to her what he
became. She only noticed the fact and
let it pass.
One popularity she noticed about him.
He had habit of holding his eyes closed
with his fingers for minutes at a TING,
as though they panied him. Once,
when she saw him throw himself upon
the bed to rest, she noticed a bandage
upon his eyes. He has weak eyes, she
thought, and. seeing that he lived by
cOpying-that eye-blurring work-she
began at once to pity him and to watch
his movements close 1t grew to be a
habit with her at length to watch his
windows, and the habit lent pleasure
to the watcher. She felt lonesome if
she did not see her neighbor daily.
SO it is with our poor, human nature.
Hard and cold indeed is the person who
can live without some one object nearer
to his or her thoughts than all beside,
and that object apart from necessary
motives. Even the hardened criminal
will seek companiOnship with whatever
creature that reaches his cell Compan
ionship is as necessary as light and
heat.
Sarah LOche was an Ostracised being
No society would open its doors to her
save that of her own class, and she hated
that. She looked upon her soul-killing
associates as tiends who had rendered
her bread when she was starving, and
swallowed up her whole life in return as
greedily as she had the crumbs she got.
Yet with this stain upon her she was a
woman. She had nothing to hope for
in the future yet she had felt that one
day her present life must end, and she
would be in a measure happy. But
how? The terrible gulf that separated
her from the very humblest and poorest
in the world had never seemed so broad.
The happiness now could not be self
centered, and the gulf must be crossed.
For she loved!
Sarah's hero was a law studcnt-one
of the hundreds of young men who
yearly leave comfortable country homes
to win success in the great cities. He
maintained himself by copying, and
study and work were making him blind.
Sarah learned it all from a friend, and
was terribly affected by the news.
Nothing could come to her from his
well or ill-being, but she had learned to
pity and then to love him. Is not that
enough? r.-
She had some money saved by. and
from that moment she began to redou-
bic her efforts to save more. She had
resolved TO do what money could do to
save him. He had none of his own. and
he must be saved. Every day when the
blinds were open she could see him at
work, and every day his patient head
seemed bent closer over his table, and
his moments of rest more frequent
Once she saw him grope with his hands
in broad daylight, and then, as if n
knowledge of his true condition had just
come to him. he bowed his head, ard
the anxious watcher knew that he was
crying like girl. Her tears fell as fast
as his own. \
That night her gaudy iewelry went
to the pawnhroker and its price was ad- !
ded to her hoard The desired amount |
was reached, and the next day Charles |
Hilton, kneelmg with blinded eyes in
his poor room, praying for death, re-
l. II Il + 90. =.