Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-31

She laid it away with sigh and picked up an old newspaper. How slow the forenoon went.
 She read down the advertising columns How many beautiful things in the world, and all for sale! Somebody must have the money to buy them or the stores wouldn't be run ming. Where was it all? Did anybody work any harder for it than her father and herselfs Jane Graves opened her little pocketbook and shook it over the table; but it was as empty as the day she bought it.
 Then there came light tap on the street door. This must be the gentleman" this tall, elegant figure in checked summer suit; and he actually lifted his hat to her.
 My name is Ellingsworth
 He needn't have told her; he had figured in the girls fancy for years as the very in,- personation of rank and wealth.
 '1 called about maid Mr. Graves gave me leave to speak with his daughter Is she iny'
 q suppose I am the one Will you come ing"
 She watched him as he crossed the room to the nearest chair How much lighter he walked than she could; and one might have thought from his unconsciousness that he had been used to just such miserable room as this all his life He showed no surprise at her being the prospective maid servant; no doubt he knew it all the time, and the way he spoke was only part of his good man. ners. But then she could not imagine his showing surprise at nything.
 There will be but little to do.n Mr. FL ingsworth continued, looking at her face and not seeming to see how ill she was dressed. There is only my daughter; you may have seen her, yess and myself. The wages will be small" and he named them and smiled So1ocn cline Your fatheI. spoke to me as if VOL! did not like the factories"
 Out at service: well, why nots Could it be any more degrading than the life she lived {? and such wages, too. Why, she could dress quite prettily then; and her girlish heart fluttered. And she could leave ugly things and rude people, and breathe perfumes and have only graceful surroundings: what mat ter if they were not hers:
 She would be lifted right up in the very atmosphere she longed for Yesterday she had envied the Ellingsworths, tomorrow she could share their beautiful life with them Why not?
 She lifted her bright eyes to his face. It was ill half profile at this moment, and she could see his hair was just touched with gray How could men in this world ever grow old! He was smooth shaved, showing in full effect the delicate, cynical curve of his thin lip and the clearly defined outlines of his chin. He must have been very oddly affected by the poverty pictured so unmistakably about him but there was not the smallest sign of it on his well bred face.
 ''I will go,' she said abruptly; "when do you want me!'
 II shall be away for fortnight" he said, rising, with his own admirable smile "You can come when I return"
 She rose too, but could think of nothing proper to say. But how poverty stricken she would look in her factory clothes. Her spirits had fallen already.
 By the way" MT. El1ingsworth turned, as if a sudden business item had struck him. It was a peculiar expressionless monotone he used sometimes when on delicate subjects that seemed to have as little personal quality as a printed page. "I always pay in advance; be kind enough to accept your first months wages and our bargain will be closed"
 The girl found herself alone, looking at the crisp, fresh looking bank bills he had placed in her hands. "How thoughtful these rich people are. They have time for it, sup pose"
 Her wardrobe was very simple. There hung over the back of the chair the dull check of a merino, chosen long ago to endure the most service with the least show of it. On the bureau before the mirror was paper box holding discarded ribbon or two, pink or cardinal, and two or three pieces of cheap jewelry the girl was too proud to wear.
 "It won't take me long to pack,' she said l aloud.
 She suddenly took a pretty attitude of lis tening She had closed the door into the sick chamber in a moment more and stood il l the middle of the sitting room when Currar l came in.
 ''Why, you don't look very sick, Jennie have to walk to Lockout by 8 o'clock, but thought would look in just a minute" s'I am going to leave the mill" How pre- l occupied he seemed tonight. "I am going te leave the mill, NIT. Curran," the girl repeated with beating heart. He might not like hel pew plan, and at the very thought of, his dis approval she felt all her bright hopes taking to themselves wings; and the old dreary pie ture of factory gates and soiled calico dresses carle back.
 "Going away, little girl!" He seemed to speak with slight effort, as if his mind was can't be any worse off, but we shall miss you."
 And was that all he had to say when he thought she was going forever out of his life had he no reproaches for here
 ''I am not going far," she began hurriedly.
 ''There would be no use going far" He had seated himself on the other side of the table from her, and rested his face on his hand. "It is just the same everywhere. Wherever there are thousand souls ten will grind the rest. I don't suppose the rich mean to be so unjust, not all of them; they don't stop to notice that they are getting all the good things in the world. It never oc- CUTS to them to wonder why the great earth seems to produce only for them"
 Jane Graves sat back in her chair, her hands crossed in her lap. Why didn't he talk about her just ittles She looked up at his absorbed face wistfully.
 sWhy, Jennie, sometimes l get so tired trying to stand up against it all so sick ot my own heartache, that can make nobody share with me-" He had risen to his feet and was walking moodily across the room. That very night he must pour out all the precious energy of his soul into dull, stolid ears, that seemed so slow to understand. A hall full of strange faces would look up coldly at him and his hot words would be quenched as they fell from his lips, in the unmoved depths of their hearts It seemed so vain, all he could do or say, and he felt so tired tonight, long ing, instead, to rest his head on some gentle breast, and be soothed with some foolish words of comfort and tenderness.
 The girl had risen, too, and stood resting the back of her hand on the table. But he1 eyes dared not lift to bis. She trielis tt