Mexico weekly ledger., 1892-02-25
that wa, next t. il when Natalie had

Vassar girl passed her On h street as
one suddenly struck with blindness, and
for DAYS at IA time Cachette was the oaly
living creature she saw, the ''glrfN not
counting as q living creature, IN SO much
as she existed for the sole purpose OF
spelling whatever she undertook and
warbling popular melodies to the &C
commandment of piano organs that
stopped under the windows.
Natalie grew wild of gaze and took
walks on the Brooklyn bridge and locked
at the water with speculation in her eyes.
And those eyes were 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 a long line OF
cultivated ancestresses.
Then it came about that Natalie was
merely ''the French girl" and the fiat
was a less expensive still and more
heayenwarf, and "the girl' faded from
the perspective, and money was a scarce
article indeed, and the shopkeepers said
that really we did not want hand EN-
broideries any more-they had gone out,
don't you see, and passementerie la
taken their place.
1t is possible that Natalie's American
lied ideas had undergone considerable
moderation by this time, aud 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
theatsrs, the bright boule wards and the
antiquated but kindly friendships she
had c 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 unis!" eve 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
year!
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 a false stitch here and there.
In Paris she had met Mrs. E. Platt
Clayton at a 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 ul-
terror views regarding her friendliness,
and her sisters and sisters-in-law were
beginning to complaint; for Mrs. E. 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 gone to her head. Still,
eccentricity was a fad in these times
look at the Englishi The truth Is that
Mrs. E. Plat Clayton vas 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 a poet
in china. And Natalie struck her from
the first as being an ideal subject for il
l%ustration.
She worked up to Natalie before she
made a direct attack on her. Then she
ordered a gorgeous altar cloth, to have
put which into the church would have
raised a schism. When she ordered that
CIOLE SIG tOOh vi ltnlIc . uCdu~ SACtIh
ed it, you know. When the cloth was
finished and she made it into an afghan
for her sister Margaret's baby coach, she
had stolen Natalie's arms, her hands, her
hair, one eye-indeed, she might have
opened a museum of comparative anato-
my in a little while. And all because
she designed a coup, no less chan an ex-
quisite plaque with Natalie upon it, in
the style of Vatican and Poisson, the
subject, "Ariadne Deserted by Perseus."
No wonder she ordered SO many en-
broideries, she wanted so many uncon-
scious sittings from the girl, and a model
is always best, thought she, when she
does not know she is posing.
She had Natalie come to her house be-
fore the girls clothes were at their shah
hest, and John Abingdon, Mrs. Clayton's
brother, saw the little thing and laughed
long and heartily, and went to Margaret
and the rest and told them Amelia's Sc
cret, and so saved the family traditions
for sanity.
"And what a beauty the girl isl
thought John Abingdon. "a Dresden
sheperdess, indeed. I never thought
Amelia had good taste before"
The plaque went on and SO did the
rent for Natalie's fiat, and SO did Ma,
tales healthy young appetite and hel
power for wearing out clothing, until at
last the kerchief was all the work she
had, and the plaque was nearly finished
But, then, this was the climax, and, as
everybody knows, after a climax things
can only be worse or better, never as
they were before.
Natalie picked up the kerchief one day
and set about working a daisy in it. All
at once a diamond drop of dew lay in the
heart Of the daisy-a tear.
The sun touched the dewdrop and
flashed up to Cachette's cage, and the
bird began to shriek-to sing heavenly,
Natalie would have said. Whereupon
up jumped Natalie. a second dewdrop on
her lily cheek.
"Quel est lie prix du loyer!" she said
What is the rentD I will soften the
heart of my landlord, who admired Ca
Ghetto only yesterday"
For the owner Of the fiat had paid q
domiciliary visit to his tenants the day
before, and had snapped his finger at tbs
bird for making so much noise, called
Natalie "Miss Bunker" and had after
ward given the agent a piece of his mind
for renting an apartment TO a lone CIR
and letting her get in arrears for rem
at that.
MY other tenants are ladies and gen.
tlemen," he said, "and won't have it
Bounce her next week"
But how was Natalie to know any,
thing Of this?
see pauvre Cachette" (poor Cachette)
she said.
Cachette put his head to one side and
poured out a flood of melody. Natalie
took him from his cage and held him NJ
to her cheek.
"Adieu, Cachettef" she said. "Thot
art all that is left But the Landlord
must be softened-did he not admire thy
song yesterday He may give me time
in which to pay my rent"
She plucked a long single feather from
the wing of the bird and dropped it int
her basket among the fosses ard silvel
threads with which she was embroider
ing her daisies.
Still wayering, 10th to let it go, she
kept the little feathered thing in hel
hand Off and on till evening.
Then with a great wrench and a throt
in her throat she finally decided.
She put Cachette into his cage, threw
1 ~ hA. 1HA +