The Cecil Whig., 1873-04-12
PEARL AND EMERALD,
CHAPTER XVI.
NATHAN LEVI ABROAD.

1t had been matter of habit with her tc
look " Good-morning to him while she
had been an inmate of the 6Janchisser1e,
and now that she had returned to it as an
out-pensioner, it was easy and natural fol
her kind nature to fall into old kindly
ways. At first, it may be remembered,
she had taken notice of him because he
was hideous, and wretchsd- looking, and
poor, and an object Of hate and derision OF
the world. Now she did so because he
was in some sort an old acquaintance
His silence, too, was an additional cause
for this slight act of charity; for had he
spoken to her, there is little doubt but
that, with all her courage, she would have
taken to her heels and run away.
Her friendly notice of him, slight and
purely instructive and thoughtless as it
was, had already been of some service to
him as sort of patent to pass along the
not too polite or considerate street without
being molested. She had-though she
used to come and 60 without speaking to a
soul but her Acknowledgement n-somehow
managed to become both respected and
popular. Perhaps it was by reason of
that lady-like look of hers, which seemed
to grow in proportion to the increasing
shabbiness of her apparel; perhaps it was
that Elise had been making her story, so
far as it could be known to an outsider, a
subject of neighborly gossip, with the ad:
| dition of romantic touches of her own
But, .be that as it may, Felicia's agis was
broad enough to defend her portegees, of
whom she had more than one, inclusive of
homeless NANCY dog, and a crippled
| child; so that, though Levi was still re-
garded as an ogre, he no longer ran the
risk of having one of his eyes knocked out
| by stone or his old hat scattered about
| the pavement and rendered, if possible,
less valuable than they were already.
He had never paid much attention to
Felicia's greeting on former occasions;
but on its renewal after so long and inter-
ruption, he could not but feel sensation
as of having found something that had
long been lost. 1t was exactly as though
an infalliable clock had stopped, and had
then suddenly an unexpectedly taken to go
on again. While it had been in the habit
of going, no one had noticed its striking,
| to which the ears had been rendered deaf
| by habit. But it was missed, though only
| through the substitution Of one sort of si-
| lence for another; and when it began to
strike again it was with the welcome voice
of an old friend speaking to ears that were
no longer deaf, but glad and surprised. 1t
was even SO that the "Good- morning, Mr..
Levi" of Felicia, struck upon the old
clothesman's ears.
| And she was like clock in another
sense also, by which in all weather he
might tell the hours, making up for the
loss of his watch, which had long gone
the way of all watches SO soon as money
becomes of more value than time. Every
morning, wet or fine, she was there to re-
ceive or to deliver up the supply of work
at which she labored, while her husband
was toiling at his mngnum opus. Next to
the Emerald, she was the one event Of his
monotonous round of days. At last he
came somehow to mingle in his mind the
two, as if they made one double but in
seperable idea. The Emerald, indeed, lost
none of its old fascination, and the terrible
sacrifices that he had made for its sake had
rendered its possession more necessary to
him than ever; but it had come to lose a
little of its own original splendor, and to
supply the loss by rejecting light that
| was not its own.
| His history was now complete. He had
sacrificed his whole fortune, all the COM
monest comforts of life, all natural instincts
of affection, his whole self, body and SOUL
for the sake of this talisman, to which he
was now almost bound to cling with the
grasp of desperation-which he must now
force to make up to him for all things, and
in spite of all. 1t had to stand to him in
place of wealth, comfort, friends, relations,
in effect, it did, and more. II carried
him above and beyond the world, 10 which
there was left no link to bind him, and
which he therefore hated and loathed. One
miracles cannot but look with scorn and
disgust upon daily life and all its ways
Only as he looks upon the world so must
he expect the world to look upon him.
No wonder that his neighbors regarded
him also with contempt, tempered only by
fear; no wonder that the gentle heart OF
of Felicia, to which fear and contempt
were unknown, regarded him with an un-
conscious, unsympathetic and mysterious
sort of pity, that found expression in hel
eyes and in her voice whenever she saw
him. She saw no visions and dreamed nc
dreams; she new nothing of his superior
ty; and yet, had she known of it, his very
superiority itself would have rendered him
only by so much the more a subject for hel
compassion.
1t may be remembered that the Grams
touns had been of very considerable service
to old Mrs. Levi in helping her to live, il
that can be called being Of service under
the circumstances; and in this intercourse
Judith had been the natural go-between.-
Indeed, it is doubtful if Mrs. Levi hersel
would have accepted assistance except ig
norantly and by deputy. One day Felicis
was accompanied in her usual solitary wall
to the blanchisserie by the old woman, who
had found occasion to pay u visit to hel
patroness.
The lord of the enchanted palace passet
as usual.
! "Good-morning, said Felicia The oil.