Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-06-09

to be measured
for riding
habit. He remembered the frock of
large plaid that she wore, all green and
blue and black, and he remembered
her blue felt hat with its ostrich
feathers; but what had made IL still
deeper impression upon his boyish
mind was her pretty pink -and-white
face, her great hazel eyes, and her
sunny curls, which, after being caught
at the nape of her neck with a dark
blue ribbon, went ripping down over
her rough brown coat nearly to her
waist. He had stood Mt the little desk
in the corner, making out bills-for
it was Saturday, and, there being no
school, he was engaged at his usual
holiday occupation.
He WAS sixteen then, and he tancied
that she was year or two younger
for he had overheard her mother say
that it was her first riding habit, and
that they did not care for an expensive
one, because she would outgrow it, He
recalled that she had blushed at this,
as though it were crime to be young
and growing, and that n feeling of re-
sentiment had come into his heart
against her mother for subjecting her
to such an embarrassment
Seven years had wrought n great
many changes, but the shop was i'll the
same old place there on Sixth avenue,
under the shapow of the Jefferson
Market Police Courts brick walls, and
with the elevated railroad trains rum
bling past the windows of the upper
room where he studied and whore he
slept. Karl Engfer, the tailors son,
however, was no longer a a school-boy,
looking after his fathers books and
making out his fathers bills on holi-
days. He was now student Mt the
general theological seminary-a Pro
testant Episcopal clergyman in embryo
and he wore sombre black garments
~ a somawhot "lari"al cut to indicate
his chosen profession.
Why he had gone into the church he
hardly dared to confess, even to him
self, because he was really II conscien-
tious young fellow Mt heart, and he
believed that there was such thing as
divine call to the priesthood. In
his case he doubted if the call was
divine. The orthodox teachings of Il
maiden lady who presided over the
class in the mission Sunday school that
he attended on Curmine street had not
been without effect. He had accepted
the Scripture Us truth, he had been
baptized and he had been confirmed
but the impulse to go forth and preach
the Gospel had come rather from a
wish to elevate himself above the level
of the surroundings in which he had
been born and raised, than from any
burning desire to lift his fellow-man
slough of despond.
Young Engfer now and then inflicted
upon himself II sort of moral flagclla-
ton. AT such times he opened his
own heart to his own honest gaze,
and he invariably found there Il
deeper underlying motive for his
course, of which he WAS half ashamed.
1t was nothing more nor less than an
ambition to gain position from which
he might aspire to the love of the little
maid in the plaid frock who had
ordered her first riding habit from his
father on that Saturday seven years
ago.
1t would not have been an unworthy
ambition, he told himself, under other
circumstances. If it were only sec,
ondary consideration If he had given
himself to the church first, and this
desire had come afterward, he could
have pacified his Gliding conscience
with the assurance that wife such ae
Madeline Sturgis would make him
would be of incalculable assistance to
him in his parochial work +; but now he
felt that he was using his holy calling
as means to accomplish an end that
was distinctly selfish, and as such
hypocritically base.
These moods, as might be sup
posed, were morbidly depressing. All
the afternoon he had been fighting
over again in his heart the same old
battle between the right and the
wrong of it; and now, tired out by
the struggle, he had come down from
his little upper room into the tailor
shop on the ground floor, and was
standing looking out through the glass
door at the passing throngs on"the
avenue.
Workingmen and workingwomer
were hurrying home from their day.
toll; the surface cars were crowded
and at short intervals long, heavy
trains Numbered by on the elevated
road overhead. The hurry scurry o
the scene diverted him for the mo
ment, and he would probably hav,
been lifted completely out of his dol
drums, had not that one name, Spoken
by his fathers voice, at that instan
fallen upon his ear
The old man was evidently il
trouble. He had spoken, somewha
graciously, to his cutter, who wa
busy chalking out n pair of trousers
which were for Herr Fleischman, thu
walking gentleman ut Amberg's Thea
tire, and which must be finished in tim
for the premier of the new comedy oil
the following evening. His question
was as to who would carry home a Ger
tain riding habit for "AIeea Sturgis.
The errand-boy was out. Karl kney
that it was the busiest season of tn
year with his father, and that Gottlieb