The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1873-06-19
EUb and FyOac.

| CtEutu lutLustlNt- dDOuI their nel2n-
bOrs, but regretted their sorrow civilly,
were pleased with their gladness 20
litely, and cared nothing at all if
they disappeared entirely. A hum
drum house, where people came and
went, and nothing happened; where
We were all q sort of shadows; and
the most silent and shadOwy of us ali
was little Rosa Mayne-an insignifi-
cant little body at whom you never
thought of looking twice; so fair and
pale and small that she never seemed
10 be real entity, and going on so
quietly, with so few words and small
| stir, that you forgot to notice her ex-
| istence, as though she were a mere
part of the inanimate surroundings.
If you had funny thing to say, you
never thought of glancing toward Ro-
sa for a smile. II you told pathetic
story it was not for the sake of the
tear in ROsa's eye. And Rosa might
be sick, or sad, or sour-she had it all
to herself, for there was nobody who
knew a word about it.
But, as ] said, all at once there was
| sunshine in the dreaTy and dingy
house, and the sunshine fell through
Rosa. Flowers began to be blooming
in the old vases; ivies began to deco
rate the parlOr; wonderful things in
canvas and worsted began to brighten
1t; old prints framed in homemade
passe-partOut began to adorn it; tiny
| fernery was established in the win
dow; pretty work was lying around;
| the old piano was open; and there
was pink bow at r 3 rs throat, and 4
pink color on her cheek and a sparkle
IN her eye, and she was tripping
up and down in a gay bustling way,
like one who has established a right
| to be in the world, and found it recog-
niZed, and her sweet little childish
I voice was carOling from room to room
and on every stair and landing. And
We wondered all of US where in the
I world our eyes had been, and We all
of us used them now, and we saw
long black lashes and gray eyes, and
crOwning twist of black hair; deli
cate features, a thin sweet mouth, and
skin transparent and white as lilies
are, save for this fresh new color that
was always rippling over it now. We
could not call her pretty, but we want
ed to look and look again; and just as
we were all of us falling in love our
selves, the real cause of the metamOr-
phosis came upon the scene, and we
fell back and made salaam to ROsa's
lover.
By all of US, mean the young gen.
tlemen of the hOuse-fOr my part
was poor old maid in my fiftieth
year, and OF course, it was little mat |
ter what / thought or did, being a
piece OF lumber that Time would have |
swept out of the way if he had known
his business.
Little Rosa was our landlady's step |
daughter well enough by her
step-mOther, for all we ever saw; but |
the poor lady could afford her but few |
indulgences, and the young girls life |
had passed in the shadow that bleach
ed and blanched her, and kept her the
unnoticed thing she had bean. But |
now she was out in the sunshine-the |
sunshine of hope and joy. Somebody |
came home with her from church; |
somebody took her out to concerts;
somebody sat in the parlOr with her
in the evening, long after her mother
was sleeping the sleep of the just; |
somebody met her unexpectedly as
she went on her errands or took her |
strolls; to somebody she had become |
the very center of the universe, and
the sun rode in the meridian just |
above her head. All these other peO- |
pie, these boarders, who had never |
taken her to lecture or theater, who |
had forgotten to say good morning to
her-she had changed roles with them
and it was they who were the shad-
owsi
But, nevertheless, she could afford |
them a little of her sunshine. A lit |
tie! that sunshine just filled the /
house. She was a person OF import |
ance; her lover was a king among |
men; he thought her peerless among |
women. She knew better herself, but |
it was delightful to have him think |
so.
She went about now jingling the
keys at her belt-she was learning |
housekeeping. Randolph was rich, |
but that made no matter; she could |
bring him nothing but herself; she |
meant that that self should be perfect |
in all the accomplishments within |
reach, and was sure nothing would |
give him more comfort than his wife's |
mastery of q thorough system of
housekeeping. The poor little happy |
thing had no other accomplishments, |
except the strumming of a simple ac- |
compartment to her simple songs. |
But apparently Randolph thought she |
needed nothing more, for he looked |
at her in 4 way that implied she was
already all a woman should ever hope I
to be.
He was handsome fellow, this !
Randolph Howe-One of those superb |
creatures thst can take girls hearts |
by storm through sheer force of their |
animal strength and beauty, if they
have no other force; tall, well-made, |
dark-eyed, smooth-cheeked, and with |
masses of ebon black hair, with kind
manner and bright wit, he seemed |
doubtless to the little pale Rosa like |
being from another planet and of su-
periOr race.
Perhaps he was of superior race,
though, at any rate, / fear he thought
so. If he did not, his friends did, for
the HOwes were an old family in the
city that had always held their heads !
aloft, had always married rank and
wealth, had never made q mesalli- !
ance; the refinement of generations |
ought to have told upon them if it did |
not; and if there is any such thing as
progressing toward perfection in a
greater ratio than that in which our
fellow-mortals progress, the Howes,
from the greater advantages, might
be supposed to have done so. Of
course, then, it might also be suppOs-
ed that, having made so much prog
ress, these people were able to see
through the thin triviality of social
distinctions to the solid basis of worth
in person. But nothing would have
been further from the truth. They
did not believe much solid basis of
worth really existed out of their own
social circle; they thought it required
generations of riches of learning, of
ease, of travel, of fine friends. fine ta-
| bles, fine clothes, to make this solid
basis OF worth, save in those rare ex-
ceptions which might go TO prove the
rule-and of course Rosa Mayne the
daughter of a poor boarding-house
keeper, was not one of those excep-
tions; and when they heard in what
direction Randolph was drifting, they
quietly ignored tie facts, and waited
for Randolph to return to his own
place.
] But Randolph had no idea of return
ing at present. Perhaps he was wea-
ry of the aimless and dilettante life:
of the languid and elegant ladies; of
the girls 3 little LldSe, and with a GER
tain affectatiOn of musical, or theatre
cal, or scientific slang. There seemed
to him something so new and in
nocent, in this little Rosa of his, that
it recalled to him one scene in his life
when, leaving 3 heated ball room,
where the muslin blossoms still
bloomed gaudily round the chande-
liers, and the exOtics on the breasts of
the dancing women were fallen and
| faded, he had stolen into a garden,
where the morning srtaw rs lust mir
roring itself in the bosom of a dew
drop shining on half-bloWn rose.
Perhaps the naughty Howes would
find their senses in time; meanwhile
he was very sure he had not lost his.
And as he was his own master, and
master of a tolerably good inherit
ance, he did not feel it necessary for
him 10 sue his mother and sisters for
consent that would never be given,
l and 1T wss his intention now to mar