The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1878-12-26
"a WINTER LILY"


New Years eve @! e."
A clear, beautiful night, with the
least touch of frost in the delicious air,
and brilliant indigo sky, thickly stud
ded with stars, like sparks of fame.
/ Ius small, peat reom on The upper
most floor of six tory tenement, a pale,
petite young lady stood at the window
lhouehtfully watching the motion and
glitter in the street below.
On a couch on the other side of the
apartment lay weak-faced woman, evil
deptIy i'll, or, what is worse. thought
herself SO. And, III truth, Mrs. Maria
CARL was Que Of those dependent, cling
ing, upambitious creatures whom the
world pities sometimes, and dsspises al-
WAYS. She had been reared In that
unenyiable grade of society known as
"gepteel poverty"-that peculiar, super
fetal class whose heads and hearts are
as empty us their stomachs, and whose
cilded idleness is poorly suggestive OF
: Solomon's lilirs," inasnuch as neither
one nor the other tolls po+ spins, At
twenty she had sold herself toa rich old
husband, whose childless widow she had
been for years. Mrs. Carll. who could
not make her own caps no more than
she could earn them, and who could not
tell a mortgage from love letter. woke
up one fatal morning and found herself
NJ poor as she had been in the days OF
her girlhood She felt that the only
role Of life left her was that of an Gin
tcresting invalid in reduced circum-
stances" and she assumed it accordingly,
1T was crushing blow, my dear Mrs.
Gruudy, assure you, and I shall never
recover from it-never,' she was wont
to say, pathetically, behind her handker-
chief of worn and ancient lace. -
On this New Year eve she awoke from
a prolonged slumber, and saw her niece
Liuuie, standing rale and pensive be-
side the window, blurred by the delicate
frost tracery of tho early night.
Have you made up your mind yet,
Linuie p she inquired fre,fully.
IL have not, aunty,' faitered the
Young girl, sighiug as she turned from
the window and paused before a large
glass vase, in which magnificent Span.
ish lily had just burst into bloom. For
Liuuie, those green, rich leaves and the
odor of the creamy flower aroused the
memory of love sweeter than life and
enduring as mortality itself.
It was on one DELICIOUS April morning
tha. Erie Wariord brought her the
young bulb with its green leaf-plants
lust breaking through the sand and wa
ter Of the cyrssal jar, and bade her tend
it carefully in memory Of him: They
we're not quire so poor then as they now
were. They had pretty rooms, and she
had plenty of work coloriug photographs
in diugy preteusion of a studio, where
she sang all day long and dreamed hap
py dreams of her lover aud her future
when she should be his wife.
1t was spring then, and the days wer'
long and warm. and she was satisfied
with life and all it mi ight bring, desplt'
the pcevish and enternal repinings o
her burdcnsome relative
1t was winter now. and the days wer
brief aod dark, with storm and trouble
She had no work, and the last penny 9
her earnings was gone. All her hand
some dresses and precious trinkets wer
in the pawnshop. The last coal wa
dying out in the CRATE, and the las
crumbs in the cupboard would not hav
fed "the one sparrow for whom 60
careth."
OF Erie Warford she had not hear
since the day on which he had brough
her the souvenir flower. He might b
untrue, or he might be dead, or th
. naughty and eccentSic old grandfathe
) might have cajoled him into some lov'
e less. selfish marriage.
Don't be uneasy about the future
little ONE Erie had said at parting, 'th
r old gentleman has never refused me an.
thing, and he will not oppose me 81
r riously ic such a momentous matter
} marriage. Before this lily flowers 20
D. shall BE- my vile, and heRill. beqaite
e proud and fond of you as he is indu
gent to me-
But that was very long ago; and
she thought Of the inexplicable absen
and silence of months. big tear like
3 diamond dowdrop fell and flashed IN
: the heart of the blossom.
She had another suitor nova WOO
old and ndd and rich and persistent.
= .You arc a sensible young womhs
E Ms L:nniie,' he said one day, ''a'
,,borafore, 7 think. not pleased wi