The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1878-08-09
mi i 8 Q elan @ O u g.
"As Companion to a Lady,"

'l'm very sorry, miss, but I'm only a
poor woman myself, and if you can't pa y
the rent of this room, | don't see as YOU
can afford the rent of the room up stairs
Here the landlady rubbed her nose vi
ciously upon her apron and stared straight
out of the very dirty window.
AS this was evidently challenge TO
me to reply, l said, as firmly as / could, a
few words which brought out the reason
for the woman's visit that morning.
"Am to understand, then, that you wish
me to leave ?"
"lf you please, miss, at the end of the
week, for there's the gent on the first floor
would like to have this bedroom
Every well, Mrs. Ruddock, said will
find room elsewhere"
"Thanky, miss" she said sharply; and
giving her nose another vicious rub, she
left me to my thoughts and my tears.
For was weak, faint and heart sick and
the coins in my purse had dwindled down,
so that if ] did not succeed in obtaining an
engagement in Il very few days | had no
resource but to creep back to the country
and avow my failure.
Just three months since, and we were all
so happy in the little country vicarage;
and then, in visiting one of his people, my
poor father caught dangerous fever, while
in attending him my dear mother was
stricken with the same complaint, and ere
three weeks had passed Mnna and sat in
the little study alone, in deep black; for
the struggle had been brel, and those we
loved lay together in the green churchyard,
and we were the only intrudcrs now in the
little vicarage that had been our home.
We were nearly pennilcss, too, but Il
brother Clergyman Of my fathers, quite as
poor, came forward and offered us tenn
porary home till, as he said, some opening
should occur to US.
gladly accepted it for Minna but for
myself, was determined to try great Lon
don, and, unaided, battle for myself. In
two years John Murray was to come back
from Australia to fetch me for his wife,
and till then would be independent. So
the day came at last, when, with many
tears, we two girls had to separate, and
with aching heart left the old Lincoln
shire home, and reached the great dreary
void of London early one afternoon.
l was not long in finding a place where
could stay, in the shape of a second floor
front room in one of those heart aching
streets near the Foundling--streets that
echo from morning to night with moulnful
cries uttered by vendors whose goods it is
impossible to surmise, and with the dismal
echoing tones OF the various organs. So
painful were the last to me, that often of
an evening, when / have returned from a
weary disheartening search for an engage
ment, and sat alone and hungry, fearing to
spend my money in anything beyond the
tea and bread and butter upon which l
existed, these doleful sounds-cheering
maybe, to some-have had such an effect
upon me that have sat and sobbed till,
utterly worn out, l have fallen asleep, to
wake, perhaps, hours after, TO find it very
late, and crawl shivering off to bed.
AS the weeks passed on and my adver-
tisements and fees paid to the various reg
istry offices had been without effect, used
to crawl back to my room, growing more
and more disheartened. l was always a
plain, acknowledging girl, and now in my
fastwearing black | began to feel that
was day by day growing more shabby and
weary-looking, and that my feeble chances
OF obtaining post were growing less and
less.
used to sit and ask myself whether
had tried har,,--and knew | had-but it
was always the same. Whether | adver-
tised for situation as governess or went
from registry office to offer myself as
companion to lady, it was always the
same. noticed look of disappointment
as soon as | entered the room, for | was
neither pretty nor ight-looking, and my
mournful black helped to sadden my aspect.
1t was always the same-the lady did not
think | should suit her, and in blank dis
appointment | had to return.
And now it had come to this--that my
landlady had grown as tired of me as the
people at the registry offices where | had
more than once been told rudely thatI was
not likely to get place as governess or
companion, but had better look lower.
That afternoon, evidently suspicious of
my ability to pay, and perhaps disguised
with my miserable way ofliving, and afraid
| should be left an invalid upon her hands,
she had-rudely, it seemed to me-request-
ed me to leave.
In my present circumstances was utter.
ly Frustrated by the news, for dared not
to take lodgings elsewhere; and l could
see nothing now but to sell portion ofmy
scanty wardrobe and go back to beg as
| OH FL g.; H.,