The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-09
The aa1ehita aaiIu Eae Sunday 71ornig guru g. 1888

1 6Oa &AaC CA66ECSs f>xi0 i
thought we were getting along well
enough when the old ehoir-but we
| can't all view things alike, ron know. :"
IF they'd only got good. respect
/ able girl, wouldn't have said word. .
why. you don't know anything
against Miss Wayne, do you? Thought
she seemed sweet. innocent little
| thing as ever was, myself
well. if you call q shoplsftsr an inno-
cent little thing. I've no more TO say.
"a what?" shuddered Mrs Fairch;ld.
in stiied, husky whisper, her very
amazement sitting her power to articu-
late ardibly.
That's what she is" said Jane. nip
ping her lips together. Il saw her in a
store in Boston one day last spring, as
plain as see you now. She was stand
ing right by me at the ribbon counter,
and she deliberately took up roll of
pink ribbon and put il under her cape.
But the floor walker happened to be
close by. and saw what she had done,
and he took her by the arm and
marched her or"
Where tops faltered Mrs. Fairchild,
in another frightened whisper.
Il can't tell you that never saw
her afterwards. until she walked into
church last Sunday. But wouldn't
have her in my house, that's all"
Can it be, as George Eliot asserts,
with the terrible psychological analy-
sis, that there are moments when our
passions speak and decide for US, and
we seem to stand by and wonder?"
Certain it was that to Jane Prescott
had come an inspiration of crime"
She had not premeditated this, but she
had given the demon within her the
heartiest welcome, and had hidden him
crush this young interloper by any
means in his power, and now she vas
hurried along to this definite charge in
spite of herself. She was not cogni-
zant Of much that passed around her
the rest of that afternoon. She was
one of the first to leave, and reached
her home dizzy and sick, and in COM
plete palsy of terror.
The poisoned arrow did its work. Be-
fore the evening Of the next day the
charge against Edith Wayne was known
all over the village.
Squire Page. himself, enthusiastic ~
he had been in favor of the young sing
er, began to feel, that perhaps he had
been too hasty in selecting q person of
whom he knew absolutely nothing.
The girl was charmingly modest in
manner, it was true, and seemed hon.
est and siucere-but it was SO easy for
imposters to assume such ways. He
had known Jane Prescott all his life
SO had many others of the townspeople
and the one thing that never once oc-
CURED to any of them was to doubt this
womanS word.
Friday had come, the girl must be
notified; it would never do to have her
come again among them.
1t was a cloudy day and nearing
dusk. Jane had been informed that
the squire intended going up to town
in the early evening, and for what pur-
pose.
He must pass her house on the way to
the station. Already had Jane Pres
colt returned TO her normal condition.
Already was she repenting what she
had done with bitterness of misery
and remorse she had never dreamed
could exist in the soul of mortal.
The day had been passed in utter
wretchedness and despair. A word
from her would undo this entanglement;
and it must be said-it should be said,
but somehow she was not ready yet
For what would her future be, after
this baseness to which she had been
tempted-what her position in the eyes
OF those who constituted the little
world in which she had been born and
reared?
Squire Page was hurrying to the sta
ton; for, as usual with him, he had
given himself barely time to reach it
before the train would arrive. So he
did not see the white face at The pariof
window of Jane Prescott's house, and
that the front door stood wide open,
and he did not know that a wild-look-
ing figure had darted out Of the door
and was calling TO him. but with q
voice that could not raise itself enough
TO be heard, as we try in q dream to
shout and are controlled by power
arbitrary and unaccountable. Her
limbs had not failed her, however. and
she sped on after him, reaching the sta
ton as the train slowed up. As he was
about to step upon the forward car she
sprang and seized him tightly by the
arm. He turned to see the~moving lips,
with no sound issuing. and the fullness
of despair in the withered face, and at
once the story was told.
Jane Prescott had received paralytic |
shock, which deprived her henceforth |
of the power of articulate speech, but |
her written confession satisfied the lit |
tie community SO fully that the scandal !
died out at once, and the young singer 1
never felt on her brow the faintest |
breath OF the whirlwind that had we'll |
nigh swept her away.-Harriet E. Wa |
ternan, IN Boston Budget.
Dolly Madison was the second of /
six children in family OF Friends and |
was named for her aunt. Mrs Patrick |
Henry. When she started out for the
village school, where most OF her edu- /
"a ton was received. her mother ALWAYS
sewed her sunbounet under her pretty
,hin and covered her face with linen
mask 70 protect the delicate complexion.
st nineteen she was tall. slender. grace
.ul, with a dazzling complexion and
sweet, blue eTes. She refused Mr.
John Todd wealthy young lawyer.
and said that she never intended 10 |
marry. but by the request Of her father