The Wilmington daily Republican., 1895-10-16
HOME CHARITY.


coming dress of another order.
Scene-A ooffoe palace In the east end.
Aminta-You horei The very last per
son I should have thought OF seeing. What
In the world brings you TO these partsp
And what . sweet little love Of a bonnet
and cloaki
Marcia--You, Amintai You CAM think
how deliciously refreshing Il is to SEQ
somebody you used TO know before you
had an object In lifei wish had known
before made up this costume for myself
that thorc was an order with such q per-
foot dream of dress as yours. don't
think it interferes with ones moral infiu-
ence and-er-power over the masses TO be
properly got up, do youf Come and have
some tea-n penny cup-and tell me where
you are staying and what you are doing
and everything.
Aminta-Two 1umpsf 4 gave up sugar
last month, on principle, you know
haven't an idea what principle-and now
quite dislike 1t, which Is a perfect bless
Ing, because the self denial goes on all the
same. you sec. and the unpleasantness
doesn't. oh, I'm living In Henrietta
street, and I'm elevating the people. I
must have been doing 1t almost three
wecks think, and papa said-fathers are
% unsympathetic--that 1t was only a
freak and wouldn't last. It Is SO horribly
clean and respectable that assure you for
the first week I was perfectly miserable.
Marcia-Yes, know that feeling my
self, where 1 am In Powers court. A
court sounds beautifully immoral, don't
you thinkf But assure you there hasn't
been single brawl or even q drunken
Irishman since I have been there, while
some of the children actually have o clean
pinaforo once q week and u bath every
fortnight. How do you elevate your
masses2
A.nt,t. Uon = S--sk I--,--. -.s,-
A man from Oxford-such an exquisite
Intellectual face, only rathcr spoilt by the
fnost frightful boots--givos the sweetest
little classes on Swinbnrne and Rossetti
and that sort Of thing. I go to keep the
masses In order, only thero never have
been any masses, quite fortunately for me,
except one mass, who was a oostermonerr,
who came In because OF the stove, he said,
and went to sleep all the time. And then
thcre are tens for feathers ana fringes, and
you have to try 10 drop In few refining
words with the sugar. And what is your
order for, Marcias
Marcis (readily)-Oh, it's called the
"Sooiety For the Amelioration Of the Con-
dition Of tho Poor In Their Own Homes"
and 1t means that you call on them and
tell them not to hang out their washing to
dry in the sitting room-they haven't
anywhere else to hang It, you know, but
that's not your fault-and how to bring
up IA children on 10 shillings a week and
that kind of thing, which would be easy
enough, only IL Is so dresdfully discourag-
ing when you find out as you always do.
about their own business than you do.
What-er-made you go in for elevating,
Amintaf
Aminta with confusion and q slight
blush)-Go In for its
Marcia Quitting down her cup and look
ing up with interest)-Yes.
Aminta-Oh, I don't know exactly.
Lots of things. The world seems always
rather hollow at the end Of the season,
don't you think? And we were going to
be buried alive for the rest Of the year in
Hampshire, where, mamma said--msm-
ma is 30 effete, you know-I should find
lots Of duties awaiting me, which was
enough to discourage any girl. And
looked over somebody's erticles-I forget
whose--in magazine-I forget which,
all about woman's work, Woman with q
capital, you know, and
Marcia with a sigh)-How oddl 1t
was just the same with me.
Aminta (sympathetically)- with your
Marola--Almost exactly. I'd tried ev-
erything, you know. had been in for
golf and skirt dancing and literature and
rational dress and new womanhood and
reolting and cooking and novel writing and
bicycling and everything, but IL was-all--
Aminta (sentimentally)- )-Bran and saw
dust.
Maroia-I wasn't bit hasty, assure
you. So when found out that in the So
oiety For the eAmelioration, etc., you know,
you could choose your own dress and only
had to do with the refuse Of tho popula-
tion had tho sweetest selection of caps
| and bonnets and decided finally.
Aminta (with tender admiration)-How
! brave of youi
| Marcia-well, " was rather. My people
| prosecuted me dreadfully. And Tom would
say, when people remarked TO him "How
| sweet of your sister," "Oh, she's been
crossed in love, i suppose. They all do 1t. /"
Aminta with start and blush)--
Toni And that's just what Chariie-you
used to know Charlie when you were in
the world, didn't youf-says about me.
Marcia (with blush)-Charliep
(There is a long pnuse.)
Aminta-Was 1t Charlie, Marciaf
Maroia--Was IL Tom, Aminta7
(Therc Is the longest pause of all.
Aminta-Because IL It should have been
Charlie 1t wasn't that he did not care foI
you, but that until Uncle Julian mosi
thoughtfully died last week he hadn't
enough money to say he cared for you.
Maroia-Was 1t that? And IL II should
have been Tom, Aminta, until he got hil
commission, you know, a sense of honor
such an inoonvenient thing, isn't it,
prevented him from telling you his rea,
feelings.
"a pause.)
Marcia-Can you come to tea with m,
tomorrow Five, Powers court, you know
Tom might be there too.
Aminta-I shall be delighted, If yor
don't mind my bringing Charlie, who Il
coming to see me In Henrietta street.
Marcia (as they part)-Shall you muci
mind coming down from your elevation
Amintaf
| Aminta-Shall you dreadfully miss you
society for aanoliorating, Mnroia?-Blaol
and white