The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-04-20

| to the cad of the first year. After that,
if we are both satisfied, we will make
contract"
We'll, you don't hesitate to say
what you want. do you?" Here old
John Jenkins did what no one had ever
known him to do before-he smiled
Who's to be the judge when you have
learned the business as you call it?''
he asked.
You are" replied the girl. Il have
always heard You we~e honest. and /
do not look for injustice.
If Sarah Jenkins had pondered all
day she could have said no wiser thing
than this, for John Jenkins pride was
in what he was pleased to call his hon
esty. He had been called hard and
avaricious and unyielding, but no one
had ever said he was not honest.
''All right, my girl he said. and his
tone had softcned some what. You
come and try your best and III do the
right thing by you"
That was how Sarah Jenkins came
to sit at desk in John Jenkins office
for fifteen years, and then the old man
turned his face TO the wall and died,
leaving his granddauShte everything
he possessed. as it had been expected
he would do
On the day that the property was
made over to her, Sarah went to the
humble boarding-hous that had been
her home for long time and. shutting
herself in her room, sat down TO think
Cha lanf-a1 al 1,a 81
place She looked over her plain.
scanty wardrobe. She looked at her
self in the glass. And then she looked
again at the folded paper which said
she was worth million She went
back over the dull routine of her life
Sarah had reached the age when most
women are happy wives and mothers
But, for her. the years had held moth
ing but hard work. Even the romances
OF happy lives written in books had not
Interested her. She had not understood
them. All her thought had been con.
centrated upon her work That was
at an end now, and she realized for the
first time that something was missing
ont of her life. Immediately she missed
the something she began vaguely to
long for it. Her woman's nature
seemed to awake, and with its awail-
ening came to Sarah Jenkins the first
really unhappy moments OF her life.
She began to compare herself with
other women They had never in
terested her very much before. But
now she seemed. all at once, to keenly
realize that they were different from
her. She went again to the glass and
looked at herself. For the first time it
occurred to her that she was very
plain; that the dressing of her hair was
unbecOming, and that her gown fitted
badly and was not like other women's
gowns. Sarah did not possess ribbon
or bit of lace or Il jewel Her room
had none OF the pretty trinkets with
which women like to surround them
selves. She stood looking in the glass
for five minutes, thinking. Then she
put on her hat, went out on the street
and walked straight to one of the
stores where she purchased an entire
suit of clothing, from hat to gloves.
i want something handsome" she
said to the saleswoman; something
that fits me and is becoming"
This done, she went back to her
room, dressed herself in the new things
and then deliberately placed one after
another of her possessions upon the
CRATE fire. Within an hour she had not
one solitary thing that she had ever
owned before.
She left the house without a word of
fare well. and 'vhen she reached the
sidewalk she stood for Il moment won
dering where she would 90. She had
not friend in the great city. All the
people she knew We're merely business
She had only the
clothes she wore and-a million dol
IaaS.
1t is a matter of wonder, even to
those who realize it best, what mira
cle may be wrought with money. In
-hree months from the day that Sarah
stood in The street with nothing save
her inheritance she was owner and
mistress of one of the Disappointed
houses in New York. There was no
ack now of fine dresses and laces and
Jewels; no lack OF people who called,
eaving cards and invitations, and no
ack OF men who were ready to pay
,ourt and complime hts to her.
These three months had been a rev.
,lation TO Sarah 1t was her first ex-
with the social world. But
Ter long business training had given
Ter keen insight into things and had
aught her to form quick and nearly
llw2ys correct opinions of people.
For the first month she was inter-
,sted. The second she was bored, and !
he third she was thoroughly unhappy
md dissatisfied. The functions Of So !
iety she found wearisome. The po- /
lite lies that people continually told I
ach other Disguised her. The light |
less with which society regarded wha. /
he considered crimes shocked her. She /
ound herself longing for something |
hat was genuine aud good, and won
erinS whether anybody was really /
Ionest
This state Of things became intol-
rable to the plain, practical business /
roman She thought it all over one
light. Is she sat alone in her luxurious
hamber 1t was different, vastly dif-
erent, from the room where she did
er thinking tbree months before.
) as this what she had missed then
nd lonrcd for-to sit alone in the
lIdst Of all this splendor and wonder
What She should do with herself; To .
ealize that not one Of all the new
riends who swarneG about her and
eadily accepted her hospitality really
AIRED 4 button for her? Could she
pend all the years Of her life this
way? No She could not and sho