Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1890-03-01
A CINDERELLA.
BY OLIVE HARPER.

Horace Gray had married pretty
Hetty Marble because her prettiness
had pleased his eyes and her preference
for him had pleased his vanity, when it
was considered that she chose him, a
poor, struggling lawyer. from num-
Der of richer, handsomer men, and he
fully intended to make her life a very
happy one.
Hetty was an orphan, and had neat
little home of her own and three thou
sand dollars in the bank, and was sew
enteen years old when they were mar
ried, but Hetty's parents had never con-
siderered education as needful, and
Hetty had been taught to work, but
had scarcely enough education to know
how to read or write, and her grammar
was such as to set all her husbands
nerves on edge, as soon as the glamour
of the honeymoon had worn off, and he
showed disgust for her ignorance so
plainly that she wept bitter tears in Sc
cret, but, poor child, did not know how
to go to work to learn.
She was the best little housekeeper
in town, her house was the picture of
neatness and order, and her table was
something that even the selfish husband
appreciated.
Hetty's prettiness ripened into true
beauty, sweet and tender, and yet as
time went on, Horace grew more and
more irritable and unkind and open in
his remarks about Hetty's lack of ed
ucation.
Years went on, two, three, four, and
Horace became quite famous as a law
yer, and he took Hetty's money without
scruple and fitted him mp an elegant
Office, and took clerks, and had, withal,
manner of pushing himself forward,
so that by the time the four years were
past he was elected member OF the Leg
islature, and he was rarely at home ex-
cept to his meals, as he appreciated, at
least, the merits of a good dinner.
But he despised his poor little wife
because she could not shine in society,
because he could not invite people to
his home for fear that he would be NOR
titled by some glaring ignorance of
what the world holds necessary to
know, and his heart grew bitter and he
was by no means silent on the subject.
Hetty grieved and wept for many
months, and even years. She tried
blindly to read, hoping that that would
teach her what to say, and how to say
it, but it was no wonder she could not
understand the ponderous tones which
filled the library, and her heart grew
heavier, and ached harder all the time,
and she felt like despairing, when
chance threw her in the way of a
woman, who, now sick and weak, was
glad of such an occupation, as that OF
teaching this poor child, who looked
upon learning as her one hope for fu-
ture happiness.
Fearful of ridicule or of being for
hidden, poor Hetty said nothing to her
husband about her plan, and if he no
ticed any difference in her speech, he
set it down to her having picked up a
few hints from his own carefully chosen
language.
Days and nights during his absence
for three long years, poor Hetty studied,
worked and read with her friend and at
home, bending all her energies toward
learning all the accomplishments that
made other women so charming.
Hetty had rich, clear voice, and a
SSS0 OeAA III AAA'AolCS SHC OCNObOO
two hours every day to severe and hard
practice and cultivation of her voice,
and at last there came day when her
friend said:
Il can teach you no more. You have
learned all that I know, and now you
must either get higher teachers, or
study alone"
So an arrangement was made, and
Hetty continued to study at her friends
home, but with professors that were
considered the best, and Hetty worked
so hard and with such determination,
that she soon began to feel the conf
dence in herself that knowledge gives,
True, her home was not quite so well
kept as before, but Horace's dinners
and comforts were looked after as well
as they had always been, and he was as
captions and fault-fnding as before,
even more so, for now he was In the
midst of a great senatorial election,
which he hoped would result in his