The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-04-15

| aiming INC 1.neH 70 sC7o-lr II bore any in
| itials, and, though there were none. it was
| owing TO her suggestion that they discov-
cred mt so early Il stage tho only distin-
| gushing mark that existed. This was q
mole, shaped like a pear, just below the
| left shoulder.
The sensation was not long lived. Com
pared 10 the suicide, it fell very fiat in
deed Mrs. Edwardcs'' was never traced;
nobody remembered very distinctly what
| she looked like She was very young, very
| elegant and very fashionable. Those were
| all the details that were forthcoming and
| there are thousands of women answering
| to such description in London Her de-
! serted child found the destination that the
| policeman had mentioned when his ewes
first fell upon her, the workhouse, and
Lady Mildred Arbuthnot was welcomed
! with effusion by her parents and made a
=, brilliant entrance into society. The story
of her fall and shame was locked in her
own breast. Nobody guessed, nobody sus-
pected, nobody had any idea.
| The child WIS made much of in the
workhouse-not for the mystery connected
with her, because n workhousc teens with
such mysteries-but ON account of the
| beauty she developed and her dainty i'm
perious little ways. There was q nurse
| there "a cousin of the matron's), gaining
| experience in midwifery, who took to her
especially, and Nurse Mathers and the
| matron used to dress the mite out of their
own pockets so that, although she was
| nurtured In the workhouse, she never
wore the odious clothes. When she was 8
| years old, she could easily have been adopt
ed by some wealthy people, but the guard
| ians, with an intelligence that deserved
publicity, refused their sanction, and SO
she remained in her squalid surroundings
for six months more.
AT the end of those six months Nurse
Mathers retired from the workhouse to es-
| tablsh private practice, and she took the
child with her. dispensing with the for
mality of asking the guardians consent.
The waif had been named Lily Brown,
| and almost the earliest of Miss Browns
fecollections was "a humble house off the
Pentonville road, where she lived with
| kindly laced little woman whom she called
"Auntie." From there she was sent to
school, and as the nurses practice grew
and improved till she sometimes received
rs much rs G20 or $50 q month for case,
30 did Lily Browns education thrive, I'M
III, by the time she was II years of age,
she was lovely and accomplished young
lady admirably qualified to be a goyerness
which WAS IA high and noble destiny.
1t was as governess that she started
her career, though her appearance was In
iome degree against her, a governess or 10
years OK age looking like young duchess
not being in popular demand. She secured
q situation to teach three little children of
an elderly widower in Bayswater, and In
this place she remained for seven years,
leaving 1t only because the father now
! wished to send her pupils abroad.
! Shortly after her dismissal Nurse Math-
ers died and Miss Brown was tho recipient
by will of tho whole of her savings.
With this legacy, and the amount she
| had laid 10y during her residence In BAYS
water, she found herself possessed of be-
tween 200 and $500, and she felt she was
entitled to take q holiday, or, to put it
moro explicitly, to crafty taste for travel
| by indulging in u few months sojourn in
! Paris and Rome.
She was, however, entirely friendless,
the dear old woman who was gone being
the only creature she had had In the world
to love, and tho drawbacks to her scheme
speedily presented themselves After all
it might be more expcdient to find some
lady going abroad and obtain tho post of
companion" to her. She decided to I'D
vertisc, and for the present, unopprcssed
by anxiety, she installed herself In comfort
able apartments to await replies.
1t Will be seen shat for discarded child,
| stray who WAS taken to the work house
albeit she had been brought up in igno-
rance of the fact-Miss Lily Brown had got
on fairly well.
If she herself might be said to have pros
percd, her mothers career had been ono of
almost uncxampled splondor. After re-
fusing half dozen offers, brilliant even for
her position, md being the reigning beauty
beyond dispute for three seasons she had
Mt length accepted the Earl Of Barbellion,
and the Earl OF Barbellion, having the
grace to die within year OF their alliance.
had left her with n rent roll of gro 600
and daughter, who II she did not
exactly inherit her mammals attractions
was quite sufficiently passable In view OF
the settlements she could bring.
PnI,1n,., hnrl., thnen snttlnu,nn.. a. ..-.-