Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-03-03

\MA and any interest at
nM tached to her uncon,
" ventional attitude had
quietly fzzled out along with hel
meagre claims to beauty. When the
world had gone we'll with Hannah,
and she had possessed the irritable
devotion of an invalid mother and the
undivided love of selfish father, she
had worn modestly the good looks
which belong to middle class young
woman who enjoys excellent health
and wholesome temperament. Now
the light III her abundant hair and her
bright color had died for want OF vital
sustenance. and her rather prominent
features had bleakened with the un.
resting struggle for existence. A
stranger would not trouble to question
if her unsympathetic. manner WAS the
result or the cause of an unsatisied
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 as some women do. A
plain woman's battle in life is defying
her own ugliness. Hannah had fallen
into the way of walking like plain
woman, and the world accepted her as
. such, for the assurance Of beautiful
uornan entarr i,,kz,.l>-s,.-----1i-----
- ~ = essing.
Hannah = Alodger was, it is true, an
sselderly party" SO the maid.of-all-
work described him, Railways messing
about with them chemisty fzzicks /;
'e's wonderful clever, but it don't
bring in no money, and if IL wasn't
that Miss Hannah was bit sweet oD
him she'd ave cleared i'm out along
With his publishing smells long ago. :"
Hannah was "bit sweet" on the
''elderly party" When her mother
and father had died her lodger had
not given thought to tie fact that it
would be advisable .or him to leave
his comfortable quarters. Hannah had
grown necessary to him in his work,
and he had learnt to depend on her,
as man of powerful intellect grows
to depend on 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 par
ents' death, bringing little or no
change into Hannah's life. She slaved,
aud toiled, and pinched for the Gel
derly party" who was too self-cen-
tered to guess at the true extent of
her poverty. He was casual about his
payments, and she would never re-
mind 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 extrayagantly
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 a
woman's quickness of thought to the
iour months rent which was still
unpaid; but only feeling of tender
ness for his eccentrlcities would come
over her, and she hugged to her heart
tie thought that she could help him
in the work by waiting for the over
due rent.
he was poor, and his income would
kave barely covered the modest ne
cossities of his simple life if he haG
devoted it to them, but she spends al
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
sI amt got no use for the like of hi!
sort" Clothes he never bought, anG
Hannah, with beautiful regard fol
the feelings of the man she loved
stitched and mended and patched, ant
bit by bit replaced his worn ane
shabby wardrobe. She was careful
mover to put into his room any new
garment she had made until the ruth
less laundress had robbed it Of it
newness. Then she would substitute
is for one which was beyond even hsl
clever need!ecraft to mend, and th'
s'elderly party" would put on th'
new shirt or wear the new socks with
out fhe slightest suspicion that tn
familiar patches and darns were miss
sag. He acted as intellectual foot
and nourishment to her starved brain
SID. she became the pratical part o
his uneyenly balanced character
which nature had left wanting. Sh
often argued with herself that thel
existence together in that house wa
proof that purely platonic iriendshi
can exist between a man and woma
if they are intellectual people. i
was false argument, and she knew it
for her love for him (of which b
never !or moment suspected) wa
eating her strength away day by day
and undermining her constitution
She had mis- undivided attention, an
he was fond OF her, but the fact tbs
she was 6 woman, and not much owe
thirty, had never really forced itse
on his mind, and certainly not on h
feelings. A man, if he could ha7
made himself as useful and as con
parionable, could have taken ht
place. :.
One day the peace Of HaDnah's III
vas broken by the coming Of cousil