The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1897-02-20


w. ventional attitude had
quietly fizzled out along with her
meagre claims to beauty. When the
world had gono we'll with Hannah,
and she had possessed the irritable
devotion OF On invalid mother and the
undivided love of q selfish father, she
had worn modestly the good looks
which belong to a middle class young
woman who enjoys excellent health
and wholesome temperament. Now
the light III her abundant hair and her
bright color had died tor want OF vital
sustenance. and her rather prominent
features had bleakened with the IN.
resting struggle for existence. A
stranger would not trouble to question
if her unsympathetic manner was the
result or the cause OF al unsatisfed
existence.
Hannah Fletcher had spent the best
years OF her youth subduing the pas
sions and emotions which make
beautiful woman irresistible, but she
had not studied her own ugliness and
mastered it rs some women do. A
plain woman's battle in life is defying
her own ugliness. Hannah had fallon
into the way OF walking like q plain
woman, and tho world accepted her as
such, for the assurance of q beautiful
woman enters into her walk as it does
into her dressing.
Humans ledger was, it is true, an
"eldery party" so the maid.of-all-
work described him, Railways messing
about with them Chemistry fizzicks;
'e's wonderful clever, but it don't
bring in no money, and il it wasn't
that Miss Hannah was bit sweet on
him she'd ave cleared i'm out along
With his Publishing smells long ago..
Hannah was a "bit sweet" on the
"elderly party When her mother
and father had died her ledger had
not given thought to tie fact that it
would he advisable zor him to leave
his comfortable quarters. Hannah had
grown necessary to him in his work,
and he had learnt to depend on her,
rs man of powerful intellect grows
to depend on q practical woman with
an Intelligent brain who is his daily
and hourly companion. Habit is
stronger in men than in women. Five
or six years had passed since her pnr.
ents' death, bringing little or no
change into Hannah's life. She shaved,
and toiled, and pinched for thu eel.
derby party" who was too seli.cen-
tered to guess at the true extent Of
her poverty. He was casual about his
payments, and she would never re-
nina him. 10 brighten up her rooms
and bring little pleasure into her
day he would now and then go out
and bring her home an extravagantly
beautiful bunch Of flowers, or a pair
Of palms, and present them to her
with touching enthusiasm for his
own generosity and thoughtfulness.
Her practical mind would fly with
woman's quickness Of thought to the
tour months rent which WAS still
unpaid; but only feeling of tonder.
ness for his eccentrlcities would come
over her, and she Rugged to her heart
the thought that she could help him
in the work by waiting for the over
due rent.
he was poor, and his income would
have barely covered the modest no.
cessities OF his simple life if he had
devoted it to them, but she spends all
his money on them messes and invent
ing things as aren't no use to no one"
as Arabella remarked when he over
looked her tip one Christmas Day;
II mint got no use for the like OF his
sort" Clothes he never bought, and
Hannah, with beautiful regard for
the feelings OF the man she loved,
stitched and mended and patched, and
bit by bit replaced his worn and
shabby wardrobe. She WAS careful
never to put into his room any new
garment she had made until the ruth.
less laundress had robbed it of its
newness. Then she would substitute
it for one which was beyond even her
clever needlecraft to mend, and the
"elderly party" would put on the
new shirt or wear tho new socks with
out the slightest suspicion that the
familiar patches and darns were miss
ing. He acted as intellectual food
and nourishment to her starved brain,
and she became the pratical part OF
his uneyeuly balanced character,
which nature had left wanting. She
often argued with herself that their
existence together in that house was
proof that purely platonio friendship
can exist between a man and q woman
if they are intellectual people. It