Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-10-25
ALEXANDRIA, La, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25 1873.

all sunshine to them now; / hope they
will not be disappointed.
why should they be?' asked Mrs.
"A good many are," said Mrs. Tenant.
Il suppose Charley is very richr'
BY no means. Iwish he was. What
made you think so?'
"Well, Katy seemed to have a good
many nice things, and then, too, she spoke
about having servants to do her work"
20, of course they must live as other
people do. Then although Charley is only
Observation-Disclosures clerk, he is highly
connected, and will introduce Katy to the
best society in New York; and she won't
want him to be ashamed of her."
Fifteen hundred dollars isn't a fortune,
to be sure, but then it will do very well for
a young pair just starting i'm life. It's
three times as much as John and | had to
begin with, and we always lived comfOrta-
bly,: hope they will be able to lay up a
little something every year."
IF they manage to live on it, think
they'll do very well.' said Mrs. Winn,
laughing. "You can't expect them to do
in New York just As you and John did up
there in the woods. However, Charley
will be promoted by-and-by, and besides,
there's rich uncle who may be Obliging
enough to die one of these days and leave
him something"
live within their means wherever they are,
and if their neighbors haven't sense enough
TO appreciate it, their opinion isn't worth
much. AS to the rich uncle, it's pity
Charley's got that idea into his head; it's
i'll waiting for dead mems Shoes" said
Mrs. Tenant.
Here the conversation dropped. But
that night when she went to her room, she
took from her pOrte-mOnnaie a check for
several hundred dollars which she bad in
tended to give Katy to :" set up housekeep-
ing with" She looked at it q moment,
then putting it between the leaves of her
bank-book, she said:
'I'l keep it for the present. Poor
thingsi They'll see the time when they'll
need it more than than they do now, or
my name isn't Desire Tenant
III.
IL their letters might be trusted, the
newly-married pair were now happier than
any two persons had ever been since the
world began. They had found each other
perfection. Katy's dresses fitted beauti-
fully, her jewelry was much admired, and
there was something entertaining going
on every hour of the day. Wasn't that
enough to make anybody happy?
A few weeks later they had left Sarato-
ga, the gay season being over, and COM
menced housekeeping in New York.
Here, also, fortune seemed to favor them,
for, as Katy wrote to her mother, they
had " secured cook who was treasure,
nice little girl TO wait on the table and
tend the door, and everything went on like
clock-work."
Then followed winter of balls, parties
and theater-going, and another season at
Saratoga, after which Katy's letters grew
shorter and less frequent.
Three years passed, and Mrs. Tenant
heard nothing from her niece excepting
the curt announcement by some of the
Winn family, g A letter from Katy; all
well;" and she was beginning to think
there really was some patent way of living
like millionaire on fifteen hundred per
annum, when she was one day surprised
to receive letter in Katy's own hand
writing.
The first three pages were devoted chief
ly to apologies for her long silence, and a
disquisition on the process of teething as
illustrated in her baby, but the fourth page
was as follows:
AS was rummaging over q closet the other
day, what should come across but the box you
brought us when we were married, with all the
thing in it just as you placed them. declare
couldn't help crying, 1t brought everything back
SO fresh to my mind. o, how happy we all were
then! Not that am unhappy now-I wouldn't
have you think 80 on any account-but sometimes
IL seems to me that nothing would be so pleasant
as to lie down in that quiet old Barnstable grave
ward with m haby nv m side
81 don't know how it is, but seeing that box
made me think OF you, and having thought of
you, can think of nothing else; SO now 1 am
going to ask q great favor. lwant you to come
and see us. Father is feeble, and mother cannot
leave him, and besides she isn't just the person
one needs when one is in trouble; you under
stand. Not that there is any serious trouble
either; but l cannot explain how it is. Come
and see for yourself, beg Of you.
tP. S.-i am sure there is something wrong
with Charley, but it only makes him angry to
ask him what it is. He will tell you if any one:
there is no one he respects SO highly"
Mrs. Tenant was not the woman to re-
sist such an appeal as this, and i'm the
shortest possible time was at her niece's
house. A single glance showed her that
Charley had changed indeed. He was not
only paler and thinner, but there were
lines of care which it was pitiful to see on
a face so young and the forced gayety of
his conversation was sadder than the de-
lection which settled down upon him when
he believed himself unobserved. As to
Katy, she was but the ghost of her former
self. Her household affairs exhibited every
phase of bad management. "The treas
ure of cook" had left long ago, taking
the spoons with her, and the nice little girl
had followed soon after with the spoon
holder. "A poor exile of Erin''-very
poor indeed-now reigned in their stead,
and so despotic was her reign that nobody
in the house dared assert his rights but the
baby, and he asserted his, day and night,
most strenuously. Each and all Of these
persons felt the influence of Mrs. Ten
nant's presence, though it would have been
difficult to say how, for it manifested itself
silently, as the dew falls upon the parched,
thirsty earth.
Weeks passed, and she had made no eff
fort to win Charley's confidence as to the
burden which was weighing him down