Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-07-21
PART II.


The way which lies between Princes Gate
aud Whtechape is neither short nor pleas
ant there is a whole series of cuts and wind
ings and unexpected turnings to be taken
yet neither locality experiences any serious
inconvenience from the comparative inaccessi-
bility of the other.
The glaring July sun beat down upon the
pavement, shedding a fierce light on all
around making the staring geraniums in the
flower-boxes look redder than ever, and bring
ing out sudden points of brightness in the
steel harness and glossy coats of Mrs. Pierre
point carriage. horses, which stood impatient
ly champing before the door of certain
house in Princes Gate. Jarvis and John, one
ON the box Of the victoria, the other standing
on the hot pavement, were BY no means in a
good temper.
"'Haventno patience with missus' s whims,"
said the coachman, grumply "Whitechapel
indeed and on such day as this"
Maybe she's taken to distrio visitin',"
suggested John, mildly.
Not 'er !" (contemptuously)- not
'er line. Mark my words, she's up to some
game or other" Jarvis never finished that
sentence, for at this point the door was flung
open and Mrs. Pierrepoint came forth to the
outer air.
"Whitechapel or not Whitechapel," (as
Jarvis said 'the missus" had certainly shown
no carelessness with respect to toilet that af-
ternoon.
Perhaps some stiff backed people might
have considered her costume hardly suitable
to q one-year- ar-old widow she had cast off the
heavy Grape dress, bonnet, and mantle, to
which she had so rigidly adhered during the
first twelve months of her widowhood, and
wore some soft transparent web. like material,
with dark line ripping down it, which lost
| itself every now and then in the folds. Her
hat was soft and feathery, of some graceful,
indefinite shape in the front of her dress
were two heavy, half-opened roses of q deep
| creamy color
She stepped into the carriage and repeated
her orders of the morning to the obsequious
John, Number ?, St. Gibbs Buildings, near
the Bsthnal Green Museum"
An observer more penetrating than the
footman might have remarked a rather higher
note than usual in the well-trained voice, a
brighter sparkle in the eyes, faint quiver in
the full, red lips; but John was thinking about
the long, hot journey before him-envying
his mistress the lace parasol, which made her
look SO cool and comfortable.
The carriage rolled from the door Mrs.
Pierrepoint lay back with wide eyes aud part
cd lips through which came the short, quick
breath. She could not think her head seem
ed in confused whirl, half-delicious half
terrible. To-day to-day she was to reap the
reward of long months of self-denial aud self
repression. There would be struggle-she
was prepared for that, for Frank was terribly
proud but of ultimate victory she felt sure.
Her whole being seemed in a sweet fever,
swayed by "prodigal inward JOY" such as
she had not experienced since the old reotory
days; q Joy enhanced perhaps by its very
want of a sure foundation on which to rest
Absorbed in her own thoughts, it was not
till she had been borne far beyond familiar
places that she was aware of the change oi
scene. When she was reused from her reverie
by the unaocustomed sights, sounds, and
smells, she looked around her with little
start o. surprise and terror.
Frank a curate in Whtechape 1t seemed
impossible. Frank, with his ultra-sensitive
ness to external surroundings his shrinking
from anything harsh, or disoordant, or un
slightly his keen delight in the soft, the har
monious, the beautiful
She saw the narrow, crowded streets, th'
endless rows of houses, from whose every
window hard, worn faces of hall. starved peo
pie were peering women leaning far ou
over the sill with the disregard of DANCE
characteristic of their class, screaming harsh
ly to over-lhs-way or street acquaintanees
Children swaTmed over doorsteps, on the foot
way, in the roadway, jostling the chafferinl
crowd round the "oosters barrows, elicitinl
oaths from the men, who lounged, smoking
} ! and swearing, about the pavement.