Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-10-11
IN HIS CARE,

Well, little Zaidee, the best | can
90 Tor you is to put you in his care.
Do sou mind, pet?'
Oh, no, do not mind ANYTHING, If
can only reach Aunt Clarence in time,
lime seems to me now the only thing
that is of any value"
So zaidee, with many anxious injanc
tons, and with many lingering "good-
byes," was placed in the charge of
Theodore Maxwell, on a journey by ex-
press train from New York to D..
an obscure station somewhere between
Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
Theodore Maxwell gave keen, sharp
glance at the young stranger, one of
his nabitual sharp glances, made up
OF scrutiny, distrust and expectant in
qulry--a glance such as we might ex.
pect detective, with correct photo
graph of criminal lodged in his pocket,
to give to face that bore on the in
slant some CLEAN of resemblance to the
fatal picture. Not at all the sort of
survey that Zaidee was accustomed to
receive. Indeed, she was pretty enough
and fresh enough in youths rosy ex-
uberance to live in a charmed atmos-
phere of glances. She was passing
through that enchanted period when
every gaze is an admiring one, every
stare compliment, every resting and
re-resting of observant eyes an involun-
tary homage or benediction.
81 hope shall not trouble you too
much" said Zaidee, shrinking from the
cold, hard, and, as she thought, per-
fectly unwilling, adoption of guardian
ship, with something more than sense
of wounded vanity-a sense of woman
ish claim upon manly chivalry defrauded
of it's right.
81 hope not, said Theodore Maxwell,
dryly. 81 think not" he added, more
gently, as the girl turned, with sud-
den soft and yet wild appeal in her vio-
let eyes-a sudden wild appealing, as if
to say: eff you are not going to be
good to me, and fear you are not,
pray let me escape oh, let me escape
instantly"
Escape2 There was no time for that
now. The alarm of dispatch had already
driven her brother from the car to the
depot platform, where he stood visit
, fully gazing after "ittle Zaidee," had
pushed the car from the platform to the
avenue rail, and thence, with presently
speed that brooked no compromise,
had urged the train irrevocably into the
onward rush of things that move, and all
its occupants into the onward rush of
things that are to be. No escape now,
little Zaideel
81 am in his care," she thought.
"and wish he were some one else
any one else--f I do not like him.
Certainly he shall not be troubled by
me-"
She nestled close into her corner.
took at once the wayfaring book from
her travelling sachel, and began to read,
or began to pretend to read, for she
could not see the words her eyes had
filled with tears.
The nest of affection is 30 warm, the
strange air OF the "wide world is sc
cold, tenderness and praise are 80 en-.
dearing and comforting, indifference il
80 repelling and Zaidee, of all girls,
loved to be warmly cared for, and gent,
ly, devoutly treated. No wonder hel
eyes filled with tears and her little heart
ached with the pang-the new pang tc
her-of homesickness. She bad never
left home before, and this stranger by
her side seemed to her the impersona,
tion of strangeness, Indifference, cold
ness-that GOODNESS with will in il ,
of which she had read, trembling, in thu
pathetic stories of wanderers. No won
der she could not see the words of hel
book. Several miles of her journey
were passed before the print cleared.
Theodore Maxwell was by this tim,
reading too a journal of some kind, will
pages of curious diagrams. Zaidee JUS
saw it, and the learned appearance O
the book and the studious attitude o
the reader had soothing effect upol
her agitation. Then she looked ou
upon the landscape, and that too com
forted her. It was one of those wild
stretches of marsh lands traversed b
tiny brooks that look SO calmly as th
sunshine glints over them, and her
and there wild birds hover among tn
reeds. She returned now to her read
ing with some relish, and forgot
shrink from her companion as if he wer
branch of the deadly upas-tree. An
= so they went on very well until they er
tered a tunnel.