Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-12-16

past--if ever" she said, then / win change
this dress and you can come back TO men
She bowed and entered the house.
CHAPTER "
THE LINT scRApING AND BANDAGE MAKING
UNION.
Rachel Bonds viii had carried her tri-
urnphantly through a terrible ordeallhow
terrible no one could guess, unless he followed
her to her room after the interview and saw
her alone with her agony She did not weep.
Tears did not lie near the surface with her
The lachrymal glands had none Of that ready
sensitiyeness which gives many superficial
women the credit of deep feeling. But when
she did weep it was not an April shower, but
midsummer tempest.
Now it was as if her intense grief were a
powerful cautery, which scared and sealed
every duct of the fountain of tears and left
her eyes hot and dry as her heart was ashes.
With pallid face and lips set until the blood
was forced from them, and they made a thin
purplish line in the pale flesh, she walked the
floor back and forth, ever back and forth,
until half stumble, as she was turning in
the dreary round, revealed to her that she
was almost dropping from exhaustion.
How many she did not know, but when she
came forth it was with the composuue of one
who had fought the fight and won the victory,
but at a cost that forbade exultation
There was one ordeal that thus far size had
not been called upon to endure From the
day on which she had donned her sable robes
to that of HarrY's return no one had ventured
to speak his name in her presence. Even her
father and mother, after the first burst of in
dignation, had kept silence in pity for her
suffering, and there was that in her bearing
that forbade others touching upon a subject
in her hearing that elsewhere was discussed
with the hungry avidity Of village gossips
masticating fresh scandal
But she could not be always spared thus She
had not been SO careful of the feelings of less
favored women and girls, inferior to her in
brightness, as to gain any claim for clement
treatment now, when the displacement of
portion OF her armor of superiority gave those
who envied or dsliked her an unprotected
spot upon which 70 launch their irritating
little darts.
All the sewing, dorcas and mite societies of
the several churches in Sardis had been
merged into one consolidated Lint Scraping
and Bandage Making union, in whose enlarged
confines the waves of gossip flowed with as
much more force and volume as other waves
gain when the floods unite number of small
pools into one great lake
In other days a sensational ripple starting,
say in the Episcopa1ian "Dorcas,p was stilled
into calmness ere it passed the calm and
stately church boundaries. 1t would not do
to let its existence be even suspected by the
keen eyes of the freely-censorious Presbyterian
dames or the sharp-witted, agile-tongued
Methodist ladies.
The rising fervor of the war spirit melted
away most of these barriers to free inter
change of gossip. With the first thrill of
pleasure at finding that patriotism had drawn
together those whom the churches had long
held aloof, came to all the gushing impulse to
cement the newly formed relationship by con-
filling to each other secrets heretofore jeal-
ously guarded. Nor should be forgotten the
narrative stimulus" every one feels on gain
ing new listeners to old stories.
1t was so graciously condescending in Mrs.
Euphrosyne Pursifer to communicate to Mrs
Elizabeth Baker some few particulars in
which her aristocratic associates of St Marks
had grieved her by not rising to her standard
of womanly dignity and Christian duty
that Mrs Baker in turn was only too happy
to reciprocate with similar confidence
in regard to her intimate friends of Wesley
chapel.
It was this sudden lapsing of all restraint
that made the waves of gossip surge like
sweeping pillows.
And the fotsam that appeared most Ere
quently of late on their crests, and that was
tossed most relentlessly hither and thither.
Ipoo L
and relations to each other.
The Consolidated Lint Scraping and Band
age Making union was holding regular ses-
sion and gossip was at spring tide.
at is certainly queer" said Mrs Tufts, one
Of her regulation smiles Illuminating her very
artificial countenance; 'it is singular to the
last degree that we don't have Miss Rachel
Bond among US. She is such lovely girl /
am very, very fond of her, and her heart is
thoroughly in unison with our objects. It
would seem impossible for her to keep
away
All this with the acrd sub-navor Of irony
and insincerity with which an insincere
woman can not help tainting even her most
sincere words.
"Yes,n said Mrs Tabitha Grimes,
"Rachel Bond started into this work quite
Her enthusiasm died OUT about as quickly as
his courage, when it came to the actual
business, and she found there was nobody to
admire her industry, or the way she got her.
self up, except parcel of married women"
swell, why not" asked Elmira Spelter, the
main grief of whose life was times cruel in
flexibility in scoring upon her face unconceal-
able tallies of every one Of his yearly tights
over her head, "why shouldn't she enjoy these
golden days! Youth is passing, to her and to
all of us, like an arrow from the bow It'd
be absurd for her to waste her time in this
stuffy old place, when there are so many more
attractive ones 1t ought to be enough that
those of us who have only few remnants
of beauty left, should devote them to this
work"
"WeIl," snapped Mrs Grimes, "your dona-
ton of good looks to the cause--eyen If YOU
give all you got--will be quite modest, some
thing on the widows mite order. You might
easily obey the scriptural injunction, and
give them with your right hand without your
left knowing what was being done"
Elmira WINGED under this spiteful bludgeon-
ing, hut she rallied and came back at her an
tagonist.
"Well, my DEAR she said quietly, athe
thought often occurs to me, that one great
reason why we both have been able to keen
in the straight and narrow path, is the entire
lack of that beauty which SO often proves a
snare to the feet of even the best intentioned
women
Peacemaking was one of the prerogatives
assumed by Mrs. Tufts as belonging to the
social leadership to which she had elected her
self. She now fastened to check the rapidly
opening breach.
Ladies, she said, blandly. Athe discussion
has wandered Our first remarks were, be-
lieve, about Miss Bond, and there was sur
mise as to her reasons for disseminating at
tendf nee upon our meetings.
The diversion had the anticipated effect.
The two disputants gladly quit each other, TO
turn upon and rend the object flung in be-
tween them
Why Rachel Bond don't come here any
m0rep said Mrs. Grimes, with a sniff that
was one Of the lxeenest edged weapons in her
controversial arrnory When you know
Rachel Bond as well as | do, you'll know how
little likely she is to do anything that's not