The Sunday morning news., 1891-12-06


Natalie wondered if she would have to
take cheaper fiat, go gradually down
and down till she finally landed in the
east side, which she read so much about
in the papers and with SO much horror.
But the cheaper fiat came nearer and
nearer every day till at last it could no
longer be kept off The companion
made room for lower priced article in
the way of half sized maid who could
scorch chop and ruin eggs in the most
accepted fashion.
Still the greatest quandary Of all was
i not yet.
That was next to it when Natalie had
not the rent for this cheaper fiat, the
Vassar girl passed her on the street as
one suddenly struck with blindness, and
for days at time Cachette was the only
living creature she saw, the ''girl" not
counting as a living creature, in so much
as she existed for the sole purpose Of
spelling whatever she undertook and
warbling popular melodies to the ac-
compartment Of piano organs that
stopped under the windows.
Natalie grew wild of gaze and took
walks on the Brooklyn bridge and looked
at the water with speculation in her eyes.
And those eyes We're remarkably fine
ones, too, and consorted well with the
/ clear white complexion and even teeth
and a charming figure that came as the
ineradicable bequest of long line of
cultivated ancestresses.
Then it came about that Natalie was
merely ''the French girl" and the fiat
was less expensive one still and more
heavenward, and "the girl faded from
the perspective. and money was scarce
article indeed, and the shopkeepers said
that really we did not want hand em-
/. broideries any more-they had gone out,
don't you see, and passementerie had
taken their place.
1t is possible that Natalie's American
lied ideas had undergone considerable
moderation by this time, and of nights
when she could not sleep for wondering
how she would get through tomorrow
maybe her thoughts fitted over to Paris
and the gayly lighted streets and the
theaters, the bright boulevards and the
antiquated but kindly friendships she
! had once enjoyed-from all of which she
! was separated by more than time and
| distance.
! "Oh, Cachette!" she would cry up to
her inseparable companion with his head
under his wing, ''nous sommes etroit-
ment unisl" (We are very closely unitedD
Then the great quandary of all came
she could not pay the rent for even her
poor fiat, her gown was very shabby.
and the pot au feu was neither very sue
culent nor nutritious-and all this in a
| yearl
The only work she had was a kerchief
for Mrs. E. Platt Clayton, and she cried
so much that she could hardly see to do
| it and made false stitch here and there.
In Paris she had met Mrs. E. Platt
! Clayton at reception-of which more
| anon--and the lady held to her yet.
Though it may as well be confessed just
here that Mrs. E. Platt Clayton had III
i terror views regarding her friendhness,
and her sisters and sisters-in-law were
beginning to complain; for Mrs. L. Platt
! CLAYTON had sent them so many useless
embroideries that they spoke among
themselves, and mutually owned that
Amelia had always been a little odd and
that maybe it had goneto her head. Still,
/ eccentricity was fad in these times
look at the Englishl The truth is that
Mrs. E. Platt Clayton was an artist
She had been in Dresden and the little
town Of Sevres, and believed the affiatus
had come to her and that she was poet
in china. And Natalie struck her from
the first as being an ideal subject for il.
lustration.
She worked up to Natalie before she
made direct attack on her. Then she
ordered gorgeous altar cloth, to have
put which into the church would have
raised a scnism. When she ordered tina
cloth sne toaE off Natalles shead-sketch
ed it. you know. When the cloth was
finished and she made it into an afghan
for her sister Margarets baby coach. sfs
had stolen NaIalie,,a ANUS. her hands be-