Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1879-11-14

MeanWnllo, the nTSC Gay VI heAoA az
tendance at Miss Minerals school
drew to close. Supper was over. The
musical exercises came to an end.
The evening worship was over.
The whole school marched off in batal-
lions, with an inch Of wax candle IN a flat
candlestick for each room.
Gas was forbidden and indeed turned off
from thesdormltories.
And at last Helen, with four young la
dies who belonged to her room, was fairly
shut into her nightly resting-place.
Then came metamorphosls which as
tonished the newcomer.
The elegance of demeanor which had
characterized her companions in the rooms
below dropped off like SO many masks.
One, the tailest and most stately, wedg-
ed her scissors into the door in such a
manner as to form temporary bolt, and
| stopped up the key hole with bit of wad-
ding.
The next produced long wax candle
from her pocket and having lit it, flourish
ed it aloft, with a cry of:
"Who cares for old Ramrod's regula-
lions now?'
And the third rushed to corner of the
room, turned up the carpet and with an
exclamation of-"Here are two, one for
you and one for me,' held up two letters.
The fourth girl, with little ecstatic
shrek. caught her prize and tore it open.
And the young lady Of the wax candle
thus addressed Miss Ellen White:
81 don't suppose you II 60 and tell old
Patterson. We shall have to keep your
secrets after while. Biddy, the cham
Der maid, is our postman. She'll get all
your love letters for you and bring them
up on the sly"
II haven't any love-letters. l have no
lover" said Helen blushing.
"Your ma is strict, / SUPPOSE said the
other. "Well you'll have plenty before
you've been here six months. It's the
incest school ever went to. Old RamrOd
that's Miss Patterson, you know-can't
see an inch beyond her nose, and we f1irt
splendidly, Miss Collins and all. Miss Col
Inns is an assistant when we promenade.
Our first class has the name Of being reg
ular witches, all through the town. We
know all the fellows
Helen listened with new emotions rising
in her breast.
She began to feel delighted with the idea
of school.
She had thought it a dull routine of geo.
graphy and history, music and mathemat-
les; but flirtations, love-letters, and a
knowledge of all the fellows frightened
the vista amazingly.
She listened to the epistles, which her
She even helped one of the girls to answer
hers, and she retired by the light of the
long wax candle, to read herself asleep
over piece of literature by some French
author.
She awoke the next morning to find the
young lady in the next bed up and dressed.
and to hear her declare that she had been
flirting out of the window for an hour
with the splendidest fellow"
So 6awned new life upon Helen White,
LIE her mother little dreamt of.
Weeks passed.
She also flirted; she also received love-
letters from strangers; she also subscribed
to the library and read bad French books
by the score. fs 4..
She was naturally a silly girl, and had
no strong principle to sustain her. r.a
Guided by her companions, and the easy
prey Of circumstances, she behaved mos
foolshly, and forgot all the old ideas of
propriety which had once been her guide.
To one of her admirers who signed him.
self ''Carlos,'' she wrote as girl ought
scarcely to write to her betrothed lover.
And she forgot how guilty she would
once have felt had she kept secret from
her mother.
Mrs. White was delighted with Helen's
progress. a.s se ua...,55 ..
Miss Minerva gave her volume, "The
Guide to Young Ladies'" as prize for
fine department; and nobody had any sus-
picion that her head was full of nonsense,
and her pocket full of love letters from an
utter stranger, to whom she had told all
the part iculars of her life, and the full ex-
tent of her fortune, and to whom she had
given vows of eternal constancy; not ex-
actly in black and white, for black was vo-
ted vulgar at Miss Minerva g, but in pur-
pie. MaI
At last the climax arrived.