The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-05-18

and Mr.. Cunningham"
"From whom did you derive your in
formationG" asked Helen, coldly.
"Well, from himself" replied Miss
Hill, with a would-be conscious laugh.
cat least, he asked me to go with him
to the opera party tomorrow night, and
as knew that o had expected to nc
company him, I supposed, of course"-
"You are at liberty to suppose any
thing you like, Louise" said Helen, ''but
if you please" still more stifly, 81 should
prefer not to discuss the subject"
And Miss Hill, with a satisfied air, de-
parted. A moment later Helen had
snatched the letter from her desk, crush
ed it passionatcly into a tight, hard ball,
and flung it into the wastc-basket. "He
shall never see it-neyerI" she declared.
with an indignant sob, as she left the
room.
In a little while Mary, the housemaid,
came in, broom in hand, opened wide the
windows and placed the waste-baskct on
the window ledge while she went to seek
her dustpan. AS she opened the door a
m~ischievous-or was it beneficcnt2-puff
OF wind whirled our particular bit of pa
per, in company with a torn dress-makcr's
bill and the programme of a morning
concert, out of the open window! All
three were blown together to the street
corner, and there parted company. What
happened to the other two was never
heard, but Hclcn's letter became some
how wedged in between q lamp-post and
q small block of coal which had been
dropped near it, and remained there till
toward evening, when it was noticed and
picked up by an old scrap collector, who
stuffed it-our poor, violet-scentcd scrap
into her sack among a lot of very dirty
rags and papers of all kinds and cmptied
all together that evening on the floor of
the cellar which she occupied with her
sister. Now the scrap collectors sister,
known as "Sairey" Mallory, was o
''swceper" at the large thcater where
Patti was then nightly thrilling. Her
duties led her thither every morning ut 0
o'clock, and kept her there usually for
five or six hours. She was in the habit
of carrying with her a crust of bread or
some similar dclicacy to serve as lunch
con. On the Thursday morning. being
seized with un%accountable daintiness, it
occurred to her to wrap up her crust,
which usually went unprotected into a
corner of her huge pocket. She sought
among her sisters heap for a suitable
wrapper and selected Hclen's crushed
letter, which, although it had lost much
of its original freshness, was still several
degrees cleaner than the rest. She smooth
ed it out-not being able to read, its
contents had no interest for her-wrap-
ped it round her crust, and slipped the
parcel into her pocket. There it reposcd
till noon, when Mrs. Mallory, having
nearly finished her work, seated herself
in company with Mcsdamcs Flanagan
and O'Riley, parquet and balcony sweep
ers, in one of the lower boxes, and pro-
ceeded to discuss her luncheon. The
theatcr, with its dim half-light and long
rows of carefully "saeeted" seats, was a
ghostly looking place; the shrill voice of
an "undcr-study"-whose services, ow-
ing to the illness of a prima donna, were
likely to be in request, and who was hav-
ing a solitary rehearsal on the stage, toss
ing about her lean arms as Elvira-was
the only sound which pierced the silence;
the three old crows in the box mumbled
their crusts and conversed in whispers.
Suddenly a door banged, and the firm
tread of the stage manager was heard ap-
preaching. In fear and trembling Mrs.
Mallory and her companions made a hasty
exit from their comfortable quarters-an
exit so hasty that the aforementioned
lady's luncheon wrapper-in other words,
Helen's much abused letter-dropped on
the floor and was kicked unnoticed un-
der one of the chairs-the identical chair,
in fact, which was occupied that evening
by Miss Louise Hill. Thus it came to
pass that during the second act of
"Lucia" a certain we'll known blue mon.
ogrtm on a torn and dirty piece of paper
which lay half concealed by Miss Hill's
sweeping train attracted the attention of
that young fady's escort.
BY and by he managed, unobserved,
to secure it, and, making some excuse,
retired to the foyer. Ten minutes later
the indignant Miss Hill received by a
messenger Mr.. Cunningham's deepest
regrets and apologies for being obliged