Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-09-20
Miscellantous.
1NC0RRIGIBLE.
CHAPTER I.

"A man who comes and goes to and
from his business in the city on the knife
board OF an omnibus -
II know; | have thought of that |
shall be able To watch for him coming
home
"A man who will take you to live in a
>eml-dctached villa, ON some suburban
road no one ever heard Of
Yes; they are SO comfortable, those
scml-dttached houses--"
Small rooms
II like small rooms; how cosy they are
OF An evening when the curtains are
drawn CLOSE. | shall have his tea ready
for him, YOU know, when he comes home
he always looks so tired after his day 5
work; poor Edgar
'I on had better say will have shrimps
and watercresses At once, aud then there
will be"
No further depths OF vulgar enormity
possible. Wei, we will have shrmps and
watercresses then ~
Katie you are incorrigible. ~
so Miss Collier used to say !" returned
the subject of this lattering remark, with
gentle sigh of submission to fate, as
though the quality of incorrigibleness
were thing she cosld no more help than
the color OF her eyes or hair.
Let us take glance at this unmanage-
able Kate. Dark eyes. deeply set beneath
well-dcfned brows; square, low fore.
head, round which the FURNISHED locks
formed delicate tendris; little straight
nose, and the sweetest and most perfect
mouth, hardly ever close shut, and just,
only just, showing tiny line OF pearl
white teeth rs TO stature, neither notice
able for height nor the reverse, but very
noticeable indeed for supple figure that
owed none of its slimness to compression.
There is gravity almost trenching upon
sadness in this girls eyes, that seems at
variance with the sweet mouth; and
psychologist would have predicted. from
the union of the two, that when the ex-
perience OF life should have deepened and
developed her character she would pos
sess much power of endurance, together
with keen capabliiy Of suffering. Such
characters are brave even to defiance, and
wont to seek little comfort either in self
pity or in the pity OF others. And Katie
was one who loved with passionate inten-
sity, when once her tenderness was
aroused only clinging the CLOSER to those
she held dear, when others scorned,
sllgnleu, Ut TlulCuleu tDeIU.
She and her sister Maud, one year her
senior, had been left molheress when too
young to realize their loss; they had been
reared under the care of a governess, who
10y her devotion aud wisdom, had almost
succeeded in filling a mothers place. but
at the time my story opens matters were
greatly changed. Miss Collier had left
them TO 20 and reside with an invalid rel
ative, and--greatest change OF all-their
father, John Draper Stewart, had married
again, and close alliance, the result OF
similarity of great tastes and ideas, had
come about between Maud and her STEP
mother SO you see, Katie was some-
what ''leit out in the cold!'
In fact, as we have just heard her sis
ter declare, she was ''incorrigibe," and
not even the combined wills of the other
two. not all their sneers and ceaseless
chickering's, could induce her to give up
here young lover. Edgar Birley. fear
that the pretty rebel received underhand
encouragement from John Stewart him
sell, for though the new wife ruled him
with rod OF iIOn, and made him pay
pretty figure Tor having married person
"well Connected and ci-devant beauty
into the bargain, he like the honest city
merchant he was, held certain strong no.
tons of fair play. and roundly declared
that he ''liked the lad
Now, to use Mrs. Draper Stewards own
expression, her husband and the obnox-
iOus Edgar were "tarred with the same
brush.' For she was one of those women
who think it no shame to sneer at hus-
bands profession, and yet, at the same
time, by no means disdain to batten in the
luxury that is the result thereof.
Certainly, so far as being both "city
men, and honest, har,i-working members
OF the mercantile world, Mr. Stewart and
Edgar Birley were "birds of feather"
Here, however, all likeness ended, for
while the former, by a series of lucky bus
ness undertakings, had rapidly become a
rich man, Edgar's father had done just the
opposite, and the sons prospects had SUI
Tered accordingly, and this succession of
reverses had gone far to break the health
and spirit of old Brley, and to scatter to
the four winds OF heaven the earnings Of
lifetime. His son, however, seemed
nothing daunted, and put his shoulder to
the wheel with will.
No wonder either, with Katie's loving
eyes and bright smile TO give him courage
MIS-. Draper stewart lSnOfeu ali Lon
don lying east of Temple Bar, and if any
one Generally Kate, by the way,) made
use OF the word warehouse" she put her
scented handkerchief to her nose, and
snitied plaintively, as though something of
an i'll SAVIOUR
"Came between the wind and her gentilty."
Still her friends were wont to say that,
really Amelia had done very well for
herself" for they pardoned the merchants
shortcomings in consideration OF his year
ly thousands. Amelia was now engaged
IN IA struggle to do still better for herself,
which meant attaining as high ring OF
the social ladder as possible. Maud. just
10, stately and beautiful, and as vain as
any plumed macaw, seemed no bad lul-
crum upon which to rest the social lever,
and the stepmother was not without hopes
that brilliant marriage might at length
assure the family position and satisfy her
own craving ambition.
Maud was "out," but Kate still only
futtered upon the edge OF the social world,
and ceaseless were the domestic meanings
over that ametaable affair with young
Birley. However, this affair had risen
and eliminated before the second Mrs.
Stewart began her reign, and while Kate