Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1894-03-23
HER LOVE LETTERS.

I Jeanle Campbell came back from the
tailor's shop where she worked and
found company of boys and girls con-
gregated round the doorstep of the tall
tenement house in which she rented one
small back room. They were hooting
and jeering at man seated in his shirt
sleeves on the doorstep placidly s,nok
ing huge German porcelain pipe. The
man did not seem i'll the least disturbed
at their jeers and shrieks, but smoked on
with his eyes fixed upon the one strip Of
sunset sky visible above the grimy roofs.
Jeanne pushed her way in.
whats the matter?''
"Yah, Dutchy! INT e bloomin
soft? Give boy shillin to go and
fetch IN somethin to eat and is with
'ere for IN! INT e a style? Wonder
'ow long he'll w'ite!'
"Who is he?'
ga blooming Dutchy! e carn't
speak no English, . earn 't-'as to mike
signs--and nobody ERE carn't speak
nothink else. INT e a softy?"
The girl paused and looked at the
man. There was something in his pa
tent attitude that aroused her pity.
Some softer remembrance of the days
before she came to this great, wicked
London came over her. The man s eyes,
SO blue, clear and bright, and the healthy
tinge Of his wholesome face smote upon
her with pang of recollection of the
honest Scottish faces she had left with
for fhair oOpfa1,t whom che
had started forth to see life in London.
She went up to the man and signed
to him to follow her indoors. She tried
to make him understand that he had
been robbed. The soft, gentle tones
that answered her were quite unintelli-
gible. He smiled, shrugged his Shout
ders, spread his hands and looked at her
with that calm trustfulness enc sees in
dogs and children.
She smiled, nodded, pointed up the
stairs and then ran out of the house.
She returned with a loaf Of bread and
a half pound of sausages for him and
roll for herself. She would make that do.
He was stranger, alone and friendless.
She put the things i'll his hand, point
luS QOWll tlS SlICCG do IL " 41o1OdIO Illao
she had brought the things from the
boy. He seemed to understand, took
her hand and raised it to his lips. The
action was SO simple, SO grateful that
she felt ashamed and ran up the stairs
to her own room.
I Her comfortless breakfast of dry
roll the next morning made her little
regretful of her charity the night be-
fore. "He must shift for himself. as l
have had to do" the thought, and she
went out to her days work.
When she returned in the evening,
she found him standing outside his
door. He bowed and smiled, opened his
door and showed his various purchases
on his table. He had evidently found
his way round to shops. She went up
the stairs, feeling the least little bit dis
appointed that he did not require her
help any more. He seemed different
from the jaded, vulgar men and wom-
en- she came in contact with in her city
life. The air of the fields seemed to
cling to him still. She thought as she
toiled up the weary stairs how sweet
the country must be looking now. Was
the sun shining ON the hills at home
and making the waters Of the loch
sparkle, the bonny hills that she would
never see again! Friends were dead,
and to tailoress at 10 shillings week
it was indeed far cry to Lock Awe.
Something was on her table, little
sketch of sweep of wide hills, with fir
forests clinging to their sides, little
cluster of houses with wide overhang-
inc roofs and shutters to the windows.
A figure was standing in the doorway
of one of the houses.
"That is his house," said Jeanie to
herself. "What funny thing to do, to
give me a picture of it! I wish l could
send him back one of Loeb Awe and our
house up on the braes."
The next day was Sunday. She usu-
ally passed the morning in bed, tired
out with her week S work. When she
came down about the middle Of the day,
she met him coming in, evidently in his
Sunday best. Could he have been to
learned the manners of Eureka court
yet.
She tried to express her thanks by
looks and smiles. He seemed to under
stand and laughed, and then she felt
with quick touch of dismay that he
glanced in surprise at her untidy dress
and tousled hair. Jeanne did not g tidy
herself until afternoons; then in an
enormous hat and feathers and much
becurled head she peram bulated the ad-
jacent streets in company with girls OF
her acquaintance, not yet vicious, only
ignorant, vain and craving for little
of that happiness which seems to all
girls their birthright.
That same hair was in papers now
she blushed as she recalled the fact
her hands were grimy, her face un'
washed. His eyes noted it.
They did not meet again during the
week, but next Sunday morning found
Jeanie with her hair out Of papers and
her hands washed. She was lettering at
the street corner when he came back in
his spruce clothes. She gave him a
pert nod. She felt annoyed with him
for some unknown reason and that even
ing made herself as resplendent as pos
sible in her cheap, gaudy fnery,
''He shall see that / can be smart,
too" she thought, and tossed her head
as he appeared.
He stopped, and drawing notebook
from mis- pocket rapidly sketci,ed q
church front upon it. She shook her
head. He looked puzzled. Then his
quick fingers drew the outside of one of
the commonest type Of meeting house.
She shock her head again and moved
off. Somehow she did not like to show
him how she spent her Sunday evenings.
The weather BECAME very hot. Jeanne
dropped more and more in the unhealthy
workroom and stuffy streets. He seemed
to notice 1t, for on one Saturday night
she found drawing of trees and path
and figures walking about, and under
meath the figures ? 80. Could he be ask:
ing her to 60 for aswalk? She waited
in to see.
At $50 knock came at her door.
There he was, with his square, ugly,
good natured face smiling at her. She
felt awkward going down the stairs with
him. What eo1ld they do during 9
,w4.orle walk if neither could speak te