Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-05-09

would be more 8sll-
what had displeased you than to BE-
treated with this odd coldness-so I'M
like your former self"
cam to be taken to task for my
manner?' asked Mrs. Grahame, in re-
ply. ''Do you hold that to be very
dutiful or respectful thing to do from
you to me, Maria?"
And poor Miss Sparkles, baffied at
each turn and every endeavor, felt
there was nothing for it but silence,
patience, and doing her best to reeov-
er the affection she had lost-lost she
could not tell how.
Some deaths are mercifully swift,
and others are painfully slow and lin
gering. The moral follows the physi-
cal law, and in the death of friend
ship are repeated the same conditions
as those which surround the gradually
weakening vitality of the body-or
those which cut the tie between
breath and spirit with stroke as sud
den as lightning flash. Ever inf1u-
enced by Mrs. Anne, the old lady's
love for her gradually died, till at last
the psychological moment came-the
times were fully ripe, and Oracle
might be effectually introduced. Des-
tined to be successor, there now only
wanted the occasion. Miss Sparkles
must be dispossessed, but she must be
put in the wrong, and in manner
made to cut her own throat. 1t was
only a little thing. The largest events
generally do hang on little things, and
tragedies which fill the world spring
from initial circumstances no bigger
than mustard seed. Among the do
nestle duties which Miss Sparkles had
hitherto performed with such signal
success was that of the care of the
linen. Mrs. Grahame had fine stock
of linen, and was as proud as a good
house keeper should be. During the
daughter-like epoch of Miss Sparkles'
management, no reasonable fault
could have been, or ever had been,
/ found with the manner in which she
| had fulfilled her charge. But now,
when Anne's niece Oracle came in as
! the successor, suddenly, eric! crac!
as the French say, the keys of the
linen closet were demanded, and the
care of the linen was handed over to
the newcomer.
elbow have I deserved this?n said
Miss Sparkles, flaming, as was not
unnatural. ssI have done my duty.
Why do you dispossess me?o
'sThat is my affair." said Mrs. Gra-
hame. "Surely can do what [ like
with my own?'
Well, the bright-eyed little girl bore
this, her first snub direct in favor of a
rival, with as much patience as she
could command-w which, truth to say
was not an overwhelming amount.
She did make it rather uncomfortable
for her rival, and show her temper
with perhaps less discretion than hon
esty-less prudence than sincerity
At all events, she gave the occasion
that was wanted, and put herself sc
much in the wrong that Mrs. Grahame
found the fitting handle for the shaft
OIO NoHOOo w O1AlOW, e1lIO gave NIlSS
Sparkles her congo.
So now, turned out from the soft
warm nest on to the bare and prickly
perch, the poor little girl was cast into
space, and if she fell to the ground
altogether, neither Mrs. Grahame in
stigated by Anne, nor Anne influenced
by greed and jealousy and the worst
form of nepotism, cared. It was the
fashion to pretend that all and sundry
had borne many things because of hel
furious passions of her neg
lect of duty; and that they were al
well quit of her, an incubus as she
had become. And Oracle took he1
place calamity, and played into he1
aunt's hands, as it was intended she
should.
In the neighborhood where this lit