The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-04-26

! eftest way" There, at last-forty-si, half-crowns; ffty-shree shillings twenty seven sixpences. Yes, but what did tha
 come to! Here indeed xas a mathe matical problem which fot long tim. refused to De solved. Never in her If, had Phnbe reckoned silver up to a sin gle pound: surely there were here man, pounds. She grew hot with vexed impa. tience: she must know how much t al made. Arrange them in heaps of ter shi.lings each; then, would not every two such make one pound. With trem. bling fingers she put her calculation into practice. One, two. three-nine whole pounds, and one shilling, and one loose little sixpence. FbGbe kissed the six. pence
 This time she could not dance round the table: impossible even to trust even Chirrup with such secret as ,hls Why !, she had forgotten to close Chiuup's door
 what was she thinking of? She rose to do 1t. bu; before she reached the mantel- piece, quite forgo, her purpose, and stood once more gazing at nothing.
 Slowly, slowly. the fact acquired reality IT her mind that she was in possession of nine pounds, one shilling and sixpence
 Don't think tha, she specula,ed as to how MT Guy became possessed of the sum; phoebe's little brain had enough to do to grasp the certainty of her having
 inherited such fortune. Yes, fortuue
 who that she ever knew had been able to boast of such wealth as this. Her father, she had been told, in the by-gone days, before he took to drink. earned sometimes two pounds week: that. in itself, made a man substance. Bu, nine pounds, and all at once, and ready converted into small change. phrbe's head smote the stars.
 i Her breeding recommended, but this time there were no wrinkles on her fore head, no need to hold her hands Tn her i bosom, she was as warm as if there had been big fire in the grate. What should she do with it:-that was the subject of her thoughts. Probably there were some weeks yet 10 be provided for before she would have work again and what was that out Of nine pounds. Ii leit margin of limitless possibilities it brought within her grasp the undreamed opportunity of forming and gratifying desires. The girls and women of Ph ae be $ 1 class knew nothing of social discontent l; starve them and they scarcely think it hard, SO much IS 1t in the order of events give them just enough to keep together body and soul, and II will not occur to them to be other than quite satisfied. Doubtless they peer q; times into ,ha, far stretch of golden haze which shrouds the Elysium of the wealthy: they like to read ei that country. and dimly to con cei.e its glories by much ,cll of the inn agination. But they know too well that for them there Is no road thi;her 10 ever be unsettled hy the contrast between such dreams and the reality of their own wax ing life. And phpbe imagined even less of luxaries than other girls of her kind. Very seldom had she been out of Hox- lon; even the streets of the West End were strange to her. Her daily work had kept her in dingy little rooms uo out ot-the-way streets the flowers she helped 10 make she had scarcely seen in their mounted condition far less did she know their appearance an the heads and dresses O. those who had money 10 pur- chase such adornments. You canno, conceive how hard it was for her to even form precise ideas of what she would be like. To her excited fancy the whole world lay at her feet; and the coolest of us would ind il embarrassing to have to pick and choose under such circLm- stances.
 Clothing of course warm winter cloth ing. Not of bright colors; no, for she had never been able even to put, on the semblance of mourning for her sister. and that duty should regulate hei choice oi hues. She would be newly attred from head to foot; that at last was clear 10 her. Little by little she recalled cer- tain shape et hat she had observed in certain windows; a particular jacket, also. had unawares stuck in her memory. Fhen-a dinner, oh, a really good din ner, something vaguely savory to begin with, and something more definitely sweet afterward. \ day of shopping and of gazing at shops a day of feas,;ng, What pity that poor Chirrup's appreci- ation in the matter of food was so limit Cd . t was hard tha, he corldn', even eat mince pie. Was there no one for whom, she could buy New Years pre- sent? Yes, there was Lofty Simpson. whose cough was so bad; the only girl with whom she had had anything like friendship. and who, unfortunately had gone into service when the bad times be- gan. so that their intercourse had come 10 an end. She would buy something and take II to Lotty's mother who would send ii on. Surely here was employ men, for day: One other thought, however. shaped itself slowly and timor- ously he theatre. At the !" Britannia" hard by. there was a pantomime the walls around were glorious with advertise ments of its unimagiEaole magnihcence. Dare she go to the theatre? Would her sister have liked it. Impossible to de- eide: she must wait and see when the next nigh. came.
 Whatever could ihe time be. The streets were so still. There the church. clock was chiming now T would strike One, Frightened al the lateness of the hour. Phoebe undressed herself in d few seconds. and sprang into bed.
 The surging sheen of dream-waves subsided Tn the moments of waking, but.