River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-11-29

issued circulars of the New Ladies
School,.
Apparently the ladies of Mrs. Myra
Smiths hotel had been well posted as TO
the probable success of such an enterprise.
Eleanor had all the scholars she could man
age to begin with, and the project to all
appearances was an assured success. But
there are many elements TO success which
the world does not estimate, and the end
of the first year revealed condition very
much like this: She had made in actual
cash $4,000. Out of this was TO be de-
Quoted the extra rent, the servant hire,
fire, etc, the cost of school furniture, he
waste of provisions and clothing by ser
wants, etc. Putting il dewn IL figures
George made one side just about balance
the other.
Eleanor's eyes filed George" she
said, ''you can make white look black,
if you may only use figures TO do it with.
1t is too bad to make it appear that
have had my labor for my pains.
have made $4,000 this year, sir; there are
my figures"
"But, Nellie, dear, if you have spent
$4,000 in unnecessary rent, servants, fur
niture and waste, where is the gain9 Per
haps il is worth naming, also, that the
children have missed you, and that have
missed you, and you are not so fresh and
pretty as you were"
'sThe school has made $4,000, George"
said Eleanor, going back, woman
fashion, to the point she thought .iavul-
nerable.
"But it has swallowed up my hand
a hoe A a
Lucy an Irish maid, instead of tender,
graceful, intelligent mamma; it has sur
rendered my table and roast beef to
Bridget; it has stolen the bright nymph
who used TO stag TO me and read to me.
and keep my home full of rest and sun
SHINE Nellie, dear, don't like this
school. Let it go. l sm making money,
darling"
"Not quite enough, George 1 can
help, and why not let me. We must be
content to live for the future little
while. Besides we have gone to great
expense with school-furniture this year;
next year all will be clear gain. If we
seek till we find, then we don't lose our
labor"
SO Eleanor won her way again, and the
school opened so prosperously that she
was obliged to get an assistant teacher.
Having one stranger in the house, it
seemed to be as well to fill all the rooms
with beading scholars, and these necessl-
tated an extra cook and housemaid. Six
or eight noisy young ladies and French
teacher did not improve Georges home.
1t was not to his taste any night, but on
! reception evenings he was quite sure to
have business either in his office or in the
hotels till midnight.
He came home after one of these de
tentions with a very grave face. Mel
lie," he said, "do you remember Mr..
Smith,"
"Myra's husband!"
1.-THE same"
II think not. George. Nobody ever
saw him."
"Nobody ever will again, am afraid.
| went to Smiths hotel tonight to get
from a Decatur man the upset price of
10000 bushels OF wheat, and found the
whole place full of his disappearance.
He left the yard last night at six o'clock.
No one has seen him since"
Had he any money on his persons"
"Only trif1ing balance of his own
salary"
"Perhaps he fell into the river. 1t is
shame to have the North Bridge turn
in the rapid manner it does. If he was
on il, sand it was dark, this is possible.
Katie's sister was drowned in that way
last winter"
"The river froze last night; if so, his
body will not be found till spring"
"Well, it might have been worse.
Mrs Smith has always taken care ofherself
and him too; the boarders used to call
him Mr.. Myra Smith"
AZ hope no one will try to call me Mr..
Eleanor Wright"
"George, what an ideal Circumstances
alter cases. Does not everyone knew that
George Wright is the cleverest grain
dealer On Water street,"
Such remarks as these were by no means
uncommon, and they bad their effect. A
feeling quite unde6nable, but to which
Eleanor was keenly sensitive, stood like
wall of mist between George and her.
/ say a wall of mist, because ii exactly
expresses the cold, depressing strata, that
she now so seldom had either the will or
power to smile away.
For to tell the truth, the worry and
fatigue of the second year had been very
great. The French teacher had been a
constant source of trouble; the boarders
had kept her night and day in anxiety;
the children had both been ailing all win
ter; George had been dull and unsym-
pathetic, and staid more and more away
from home; she had been cheated out of
two bills and found difficulty in collect
ing others. The spring found her look
ing eagerly forward to the close of the
session.
About the beginning of May, George
had TO go 10 New York on business, and
when he bid her good-by her weary, pale
anxious face touched him into an ex
preston of real tenderness. "Dear, sweet
Nellie he said, holding her to his heart
"when come back that dreadful school
will be dismissed, and we can have
month or two of real time happiness
my darling"
The words haunted her all day. She
heard them through the iiingling of pi-
amos. the murmur of recitations, and the
formalities of the dinner-table and the
evening reception, When she went to
the nursery that night both the children
had high fever The doctor was sent
for. He feared it was scarlet fever, and
at once accused the nurse of having taken
the little girls into an infected quarter of
the city.
Eleanor sat up with her sick babies
that night, and during those lonely, mid
night hours asked herself some very
solemn questions. In the morning she
informed her scholars of her children's
sickness, and its probable dangers, dis
missed the day-school sine die, helped the
boarders to pack their trunks, and went
with them one by one to the trains or
hnntn rrhich war. to conway them home