Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-18
THIRTEEN At TABLE
BY MRS. BURTON HARRISON.

Copyright, 1895, by Bachelor. johnson Bacheller
If any one had told Felicia Charlton the
year before that she would be spending
this summer at Newport as dweller IN
one of the most famous of the new houses
that are the glory of that favored resort
she would have laughed in the face of the
recounter of such fairy tale-that merry,
heartsome laugh of hers-for Felicia well
deserved her name.
But the event least expected had oc-
Cured. The gay, pretty, poverty stricken
southern girl. the daughter Of an ancient
line, who during her nineteen years of life
had never known any but the hard rubs
of fortune; who had grown up to woman
hood under the wing of a widowed mother
scarcely eighteen years her senior, as
lovely to look at as Felicia herself but for
the traces left on her face and form by
care and by thought how to make SUBJ
sistence for the two and to provide an
education for Felicia that should enable
her to be self-supporting.
Latterly things had gene from bad TO
worse with the Charltons. They had spent
one year in the desolation of poor coun-
try neighborhood, with relatives, glad oil
the pttance their board afforded; and at
| an offer from a friend of early days who
| was about to open boarding school to act
| as her housekeeper. At the same time,
Felicia entered upon the exhilafatins
career of assistant to a decayed gentle
| woman in Baltimore. who made and sold
| the pickles and preserves so renowned IN
old-time Maryland cook books Ana all
| this, while the girls high spirits had never
| tagged. She had laughed and prattleu
and smiles from the little mother in
| her hours of darkest despondency. She
| bad tt,to Of oh
| fulnes3 the broken-spirited lady who man
ufactured pickles and preserves and. while
carrying on her uncongenial work, lost no
opportunity of looking for something bet
ter In this stress, to Felicias credit be 1t
inscribed, it did not occur to her to write
verses or story, and offer them for &C
ceptance to frst-class magazine.
Summer had come around again, ana me
prospects of spending it in piping hot
fiat. in the temperature Of Baltimore be-
tween June and October, and in the conf
pany of Mrs. Ballantyne and her gas stove.
was all that presented itself to Felicia's
mental gaze. But in her heart little bird
kept singing over and over the blithe It'd
ings that her mothers employer was TO
take her old friend on a visit of two
months to the mountains of Virginia, where
Miss Kennard was wont to return in her
vacations to the household of parents who
could give her food and drink and shell
ter, at least. How much better vas this
than Felicia had dared to hope. Fresh air,
fresh milk, shade trees on green lawn,
the Blue Ridge mountains encompaSSlnS
their daily horiZon-what matter If the
Kennards' poor old plantation house were
falling to rack and ruin, so that there was
a roof to cover FeliCia's dear little mother.
to whom all these luxuries were promised?
1t had not been without fierce maternal
struggle in the little widows breast that
this invitation had been accepted. That
she should be taken and Felicia left cost
her gentle heart strange pangs. But
Felicia who had way with her none
could withstand, had simply forced her
| point. She had packed her mothers trunk,
| had gone with her to the station. had part
| ed with her, to all appearances. joyfully,
walk over the burning bricks of the pave
! Just then little victoria had driven
| close to the sidewalk near her, and pulled
| up A Young woman, charmingly dressed
had leaned forward and hailed her by
name. Felicia, with start of pleasant
| surprise, recognized an old schoomate.
western heiress, who had recently married
and taken up her abode here in her hus-
| bands city.
| Between the two girls had passed the
| usual expressions Of fervent greeting, and
| Felicia, installed under the hood of the vic
| toria, was quickly the way with Mrs.
| Branham to her pretty bridal home.
| What a contrast to 1t was presented by
| the dull and paltry sitting room of Mrs
| Hallantyne's fiat, where, later. whilst adj
| justing their modest tea table, Felicia tried
| to entertain her employer with her new
| budget of gossip. But the dame, who had
! a touch of toothacahe and was not much
| in sympathy with the holiday side of life, of