The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-11-10

through the mail addressed to Caroline.
She took it to her room, and, although
there was no one in the house but her
Eelf, locked the door. She pondered.. If
she should use the dye, would she be the
only one deceived? Would the rest of
The world pierce the deception at once2
ne sat there awhile pensively hstless in
her manner of thought, examining the
label. Then sudden revulsion against
me deceit of the world overmastered her.
Lhe arose from her chair and drew il
long breath. She applied the spark Of
self condemnation and shook at the ex-
plosion.
"EeeverT"
There was no danger now that she
wo1ld ever use the dye She perused
tho list of testimonials. "Mrs." was the
abbreviation that prefxed each sigma
ture. 1t would be no disgrace to grow
gray if she were married now. Surely
not. Not so much of disgrace if she
were widow now. So she thongh5.
But an unmarried womani A spinsterl
She drew the cork from the bottle and
|
With a penknife she scraped off the la
bel. She put these scrapings, the testi-
monials, the wrappers and inner wrap
pers into her pocket. She would burn
them later
Five years ago an ocuiist examined
Carolines eyes and told her she was near
sighted "a fact she had known for the
previous decade. He prescribed glasses,
and she purchased them. She concealed
them in that drawer of the bureau that
was always kept locked, except when it
was necessary to take out or put away
certain valuahles and keepsakes. When
nobody was about, she would wear them.
She was reluctant to do 80, but they add
ed to. her comfort. And the newspapers
and Thackeray and Hawthorne and Bal
FAC must be read, even at the expense of
personal vanity.
An unmarried woman, with no father,
| b mother, an income of pittance, a
hngle servant, was excusable for doing
almost anything. So she wore them.
She did not dare to look at herself closely
in the mirror when she first put them on.
She stood about 10 feet back, at which
distance she noticed that her hair had
an iron gray appearance. She gained
courage awhile later, and examined her
telf in the hand glass; That iron gray
shade was her optical illusion. There
were black hairs and white hairs-a
slight predominance of white. Rarely
thereafter did she wear them when gaz-
ing into the mirror. She turned her
head away when walking past it. Every
time she put them on she did it with
wry face. Once she cried and was about
to throw them away, but restrained her.
self.
A few weeks ago Caroline plucked the
last black hair from her snow white
head. She did it with the same petu-
lance with which 10 years before she
had drawn out the first thread of white,
the one ray of light in the black dark
ness. She took from the bureaus secret
drawer a small envelope, and from this
distracted that original curiosity. She
| plilCeu IL ny Vic Sluo VI llllo ldIOtI Jay :
cqrio, the black hair, the, last remnant
Of the cascade that had been the admira-
ton of her school friends. She wound
them about her fingers and tied them,
then placed them in the envelope.
1t was the spirit of the gambler in his
moment of desperation with which she
had done this. The world should know
now that Caroline could grow old I'M
finchingly. She pick ed up a volume of
'The Scarlet Letter." that was near at
hand, to steady the envelope while she
wrote simply:
e. am spinster. John loved ME
and would have continued to love me.
Now he is the statesman upon whose
words depends the welfare of nations. l
have discovered that loved him, but
was preiudiced. He wore glasses'-
She locked it in the bureau and tried
the drawer to make sure.-Irving S. I'm
derhill in Buffalo Illustrated.