The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-08-24

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4 Bleak windows the other day
And, Ella, added Flossie, 'sl'vo been
out with Aadrevs after school several
g times to Tottenllatn Coart road and War
dours street and Oxford street oh, every
4 where, hunting up old furniture, and
can show you where they haye some
beautiful things-no shans, but really
\ good.
.sYou know, Ella. said Mrs. Hylton,
4 observing that she did not answer, Il
want you to have pretty house and
you and George must order exactly
what you like, but think you will find
] may be some help to you in choosing.
Thank you, mother, said Ella, With
4 out any animation; ell don't think
we shall want much"
You will want all that young people
in your position Go want, I suppose,
said Mrs. Hylton little ilnpatiently;
'.and Of course you understand chat the
bills are to be my affair"
! THANK you, mother" rnurmured Ella
again
She did not feel able to tell them just
/ yet how this had all been forestalled =
she felt that she would infallibly break
down if she tried
sYou seem little oyerdone tonight,
my DEAR said her mother frigidly. She
was naturally hurt at the very uneffusiva
way Ia Which her good offices had been
met.
81 have such q dreadful headache
pleaded Ella. I'll think / overtired
myself this afternoon!n
'sThen you were very foolish, after
travelling all yesterday as you did. ]
don't wonder that George was ashamed
to come in. You had better go to bed
early, and / viii send Andrews in to you
with some of my sleeping mixture
Ella was glad enough to obey, though
the draught took some time to operate:
she felt as if no happiness on peace OF
mind were possible for her till George
had been persuaded to undo his work
Surely he could not refuse when he knew
that her mother was prepared to do ev-
erything for them at her own expensel
And here it began to dawn upon her
what this would entail; Georges words
came back to her as il she had heard
them actually spoken. Did he not say
that the house had been furnished out OF
his savings? What was she asking him
to do? To dismantle it entirely; to hui
initiate himself by going round to all the
people he had dealt with, asking them as
a favor to take back their goods; or else
be must sell them as best he could for
fraction of their cost Who was to re-
fund him all he had SO uselessly SPENT
Gould she ask her mother to do sol
Would he even consent to such an ar
rangement il 1t was proposed?
Then his sisters how could she avoid
offending them irreparably, perhaps in
volving George in a quarrel with his
family, if she were to carry her point
As she realized for the first time the in
evitable consequences of success, she
asked herself IN despair what she ought
to do, where her plain duty lay?
Did she love George, or was it all de-
lusions Was he less to her than mere
superfluities, the fringe Of life?
She did love him, in spite of any pass
ing disloyalty of thought. She felt his
sterling worth and goodness, even his
weaknesses had something lovable in
them for her. And he had been plan
ming, spending, working all this time to
give her pleasure, and was this his re-
ward? She had been within an ace of
letting him see the cruel ingratitude that
was in her hearti aWhat selfish
wretch I have beenw she thought; ''but
l won't be-no, / WON'T George shall
not be snubbed, hurt, estranged from his
family on nay account No, she would
suffer, she alone-and in silence. Never
by word would she betTay to him the
pain his well intentioned action cost her
not even to her mother and Flossie
would she permit herself to utter the
least complaint, lest they should insist
upon opening Georges eyes.
SO, having arrived at this heroic re-
solve, in which she found a touch of the
sublime that always consoled her, the
tears dried on her cheeks, and Ella fell
asleep at last,
Some readers, no doubt--though pos
sibly few of our heroine's sex-wil smile
scorufully at this crumpled rose leaf
agony, this tempest in a Dresden teaeup,
and the writer is not concerned to deny
that the situation has it's ludicrous side.
But for a girl brought up as Ella Hyl-
ton had been, in an artistic milieu, her
eyes insensibly trained to love all that
was beautiful in color and form, to be
sensitive to ugliness and vulgarity, it
was a very real and bitter struggle, a
hard won victory, to come to such de-
cision as she formed. Life, heaven
knows, contains worse trials and deeper
tragedies than this, but at least Elias
happy life had as yet known no harder.
And SO far she must be given the credit
of having conquered. Resolution is, no
doubt, half the battle. Unfortunately,
Elias resolution, though she hardly per-
ceiyed this at present, could not be ef-
fected by one isolated and final act, but by
long chain of daily and hourly forbear-
ances, the first break in which would
undo all that had gone before.
How she bore the test we are going to
see.
She woke the next morning to a sense
that her life had somehow lost its SAVIOR;
the exaltation of her resolve over night
had evaporated and left her spirits fiat
and dead; but she came down neverthe-
less determined to be stanch and true to
George under all provocations.