Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-09-20
CHAPTER XVII
sSzs IN a BOARDING HOUSE.

-"
aoSES IN A BOARDING HOUSE.
Agnes lid nos feel the utter loneliness OF
ner situation until, as she walked along,
square after square, she encountered SO many
hundreds of distracted or curious or impu-
lent faces, and reflected that it was upon
such people that her future support and COM
fort would depend. She tried to discover in
some conntenance the impress of kindly
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT that she proposed to risk
30 much as a question; but it was her first
experience with the busy world, and she
wished to observe its ways, when neither re-
tationship nor personal interest was in
solved. Small encouragement she would
awe felt to approach any that she met.
Men Of middle-age walked by as in dreams,
cold, unobservant, l~istless; the younger ones,
fuller of life, strobe on with high heads, and
atnging glances that were harder TO bear
than stony Indifference, even. Ladies
clothed in costly furs scanned the pretty face
under the mourning bonnet with prying eyes,
or tossed her a hasty, scornful look. Shop
girls giggled and stared. Boys rushed by,
rudely jostiing every passenger. A sorry
world Agnes thought it. In the country she
had been used to receive a kindly bow or q
civil "Good-morning!7 from every person she
met; and the isolation of the individual i'll
the city was to her something unnatural,
even appalling.
She had cut out some b~oarding-house adj
vertisements from the daily papers, and her
first care was to find a home suited to her
slender means. She had a long hunt and an
unpleasant one. but at last fortune favored
her. The landlady, a kind-hearted woman,
was in mourning for her only daughter, and
with the first words she heard she felt her
tLLa-N ..-- - e. I4--l.~ .1 -~EN --s-Nl
stranger. Without any offensive inquiries,
Agnes was at once received, and an upper
room assigned to her. After sending for her
trunk, she dressed for dinner.
The table presented specimens Of all the
familiar characters of clearinghouse.
Down the long row of faces Agnes looked
tlmidly, and at length fastened her eyes upon
a lady in mourning like herself. There is
no p~hysiognomist like the frank, affectionate
young man or woman who looks to find APP
probation and sympathy. Is is not neces-
sary, for such a purpose, to speculate upon
Grecian or Roma noses, thin or protruding
lips, blue, gray, or brown eyes; each soul
knows its own sphere and the people that be-
long in it; and a sure instinct or prescience
guides us in our choice of friends. Alice at a
glance became conscious of an affinity, and
quietly waited till circumstances should bring
her into associations with the woman whom
she hoped TO make a friend.
1t was not long before the occasion came.
Not to make any mystery, it was our old ac-
qaaintance, Mrs. Norcross, who attracted
the gaze of Agnes, and who soon became
her kindly adviser. Never was there a more
motherly woman; and, as she was now al.
most a stranger in the house, she attached
herself TO Agnes with a warmth and an I'M
I cBfVnetra cnifatfu1a fbaA rntAo Yra, Al as~Igc
heart. Agnes lost no time in procuring such
work from a tailor as she felt competent to
do, and applied herself diligently to her task
but a very short trial convinced her that,
at the starvation prices then paid for
needlework, she could not be able to earn
even her board. Then came in the
thoughtful friend, who, after gently drawing
out the facts III the case, furnished her with
sewing on which she could display her taste
and skill. Day after day new employment
came through the same kline hands, until
Agnes wondered how one wearer could want
such a quantity of the various nameless,
tasteful articles in which all women feel SO
much pride. 1t was not until long after, that
she learned how the work had been procured
by her friends active, but ~noiseless energy.
Not many days after their intimacy com
menced, as Mrs. NorcroSs sat watching Agnes
at her work, it occurred to her that there
was a look of tender sorrow, au unexplained
melancholy, which her recent bereavement
did not wholly account for. Not that the
girl was given to romantic signs or tragic
starts, or that she carried a miniature for
lachrymose exercises; but it was evident that
she had what we term "a history" She was
frank and cheerful, although there was pal.
pably something kept back, and her cheer.
I d.
beauty Of flowers that blossom over graves.
No sympathetic nature could refuse conf
dence to Mrs. Norcross, and it was not long
before she discovered that Agnes had passed
through the golden gate to which all foot
steps tend, and from which no one comes
back except with a change that covers all the
after life.
ard so you are in love, poor child" said
Mrs. Norcross, compassionately.
Il have BEEN with a gentle emphasis.
"Ah, you think you are past it now, l sup
poser
4 shan't forget soon-I could not, if !
would; butlove is OVERCOME like yesterdays
sunshine"
"But the sun shines again to-day"
"Well, if you prefer another comparison"
said Agnes, smiling faintly-"gone out like
yesterdays fire.
Sire turks d long timein the ashes unseen.
my dear"
Agnes dropped her needle and looked
steadily at her companion.
u am yeung," she said; ayet l have
outgrown the schoolgirl period. The cur
rent Of my life has flowed in a deep channel;
the shallow little brook may fancy its first
spring-freshet to be a Niagara; but my feel
ings have swelled with no transient overflow.
| gave my utmost love and devotion to a man
Thought worthy. He treated me with neg
lect, and at last falsitied his word in Offering
his hand to another. / do not hate him. /
have none of that alchemy which changes
despised love to gall. But l could never for
give him, nor trust him again. And if he,
who seemed always so frank, so earnest, SO
tendon, so single in his aims-if he could not
be trusted, | do not know where | could rest
my heart and say, Here I am safe, whatever
petidef
Il was a strange thing for Agnes to speak
in such an exalted strain, and she trembled
as she tried to resume her sewing. The
thread slipped and knotted; the needle broke
and pricked her finger; and then. feeling her
cheeks begin to glow, she laid down her work
and turned to the window.
"Don't lose all faith, Agnes; there are true
hearts in the world. Perhaps this lover of
yours, low, has repented and is striving to
find you. Or you may nave been misin-
formed as TO the extent of his treachery. To
take your own simile, you don't accuse the
brook OF fickleness merely because it eddies
around under some fiowery bank; after it has
made the circle, it keeps on its steady
course"
Agnes only shook her head, still keeping
her face averted to conceal the tremor of her
lips.
"But you haven't told rue who this man is.
How odd it would be if / knew hirnl"
~ would rather not have you know. The
secret isn't a fatal one, to be sure; but | pre-
fer to keep it."
Suddenly she stepped back from the win.
dow, ashy-pale, and gasping Historically.
Mrs. NorcroSs rose hastily to assist her, and,
as she did so, noticed her old acquaintance,
Mr.. lakhurst, on the opposite sidewalk. She
helped Agnes to her seat and brought her a
glass Of wafer, and, as she did so, in an in.
slant the long track of the past was illumined
as by a fash of lightning. She saw the rea-