The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-06-13
THE LONDON RAoAMuFF1N.
Dorothy Remnant, in English Magazine |

lDorotny Iennant, in English Magazine.
 One afternoon, attracted by the sinRu- larly refined face of flower. girl passing in the Strand, went up to her, bought some of her flowers, and asked her to come and sit to me, explaining that wished to "take her likeness" She said rather condescendingly. that as her busi- ness-time was chiefly of an evening when the theatres were open, she would con- sent to do SO. The next morning. an hour after the appointed time, my flow. er-giIl appeared. She looked nonchal- antly about her; then, seeing large mir TOT, stood some time before it in silence, gazing lovingly at herself and at length exclaimed: "Well, it is a rare chance to see one's self like this Y and turned her small antique head from side to side, bridling and peacocking with infinite grace. She was shy and yet de6aat.
 Her clothes hung closely and yet loosely round her graceful form, showing the de- 6ciency of under-clothing. Her head was bare; her beautiful, rusty hair in rich profusion gathered up in a careless knot. When the cold wind blew, she drew her ragged shawl over her head. Her ignorance, her knowledge, her au- dacity were fairly bewildering. She seemed to have no affections, no ambi- ton. Sometimes she would laugh, as if born to do nothing else, but with mel ahcholy look in her eyes. This young forsaken thing lives alone in a room she paid for by the week. She likes to stay in bed till ten or eleven in the morning, though on market days it was necessary to be at Covent Garden very early to buy flowers. These she arranged as taste fully as possible with wire, leaves and fern, placing them in light flat basket filled with moss, which is usually carried tilted on the palm ot the hand. Tn the afternoon she took up her stand at the entrance to some restaurant in the Strand, or by the approaches to Charing Cross station. As soon as the theatres opened she hovered about the entrances, but on wet nights no one would finger to buy button-holes." People only thought of hurrying into or away from the theatres, so the unsold flowers had to be carried home and kept fresh if possible, to be palmed of, when they seemed withered, in dark corners of the street, "not too near the street lamps" The girl could read, she said, but didn't hold to books" Ladies never gave her anything she cared to read; it was always "goody rubbish they wouldn't so much as look at their. sels." She used sometimes attend a sew ing class, where ladies came to read aloud twice week, "but it was heavy reading" Once an old gentleman preached" about scarlet fever, and what poor people should do "but there wasn't much sense in what he said" was her only comment.
 Oae of the gveatest pleasures she con- fessed was looking in at shop windows, es- pecially the jewellers shops in the Strand. Lockets earrings and bracelets, she spoke of with something like fervour. The photographs of actresses, profes- sional beauties and the royalties, seemed also source of unfailing interest. CT don't think much of Mrs. Langtry I know plenty of girls about the market quite as well looking, though not so stylish" She much objected to the queen being photographed in bonnet and the prince of Wales in a tall hat. It ain't distinguished it don't matter so much how the royal people looks in. doors, but they shouldn't go out in them common things"