Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1897-02-05

tached to her unconventional attitude
had quietly fizzled out along with her
meagre claims to beauty. When the
world had gone well 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 a middle class young
woman who enjoys excellent health
and wholesome temperament. Now
the light in her abundant hair and her
bright color had died for want OF vital
sustenence, 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 ard EN- otions which make
beautiful woman irresistible, but she
hai 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
woman enters into her walk as it does
into her dressing.
Hannah's lodger was, it is true, an
elderly party so the maid-of-all-
work described him, "alwsys 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 on
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 he 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 a man of powerful intellect grows
TO depend on practical woman with
an intelligent brain who is his daily
and boarly companion. Habit is
stronger in men than in women. Five
or six wears had passed since her par
ents' death, bringing little or no
change into Hannah's lie. She slsved,
and toiled, and pinched for the eel
derby 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 theE 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
iour months rent which was still
unpaid; but only a feeling of tender
ness for his eccentricities would come
over her, and she hugged 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 ne
cessities of his simple life if he ha.
devoted it to them, but she spends all
his money on them messes and invent
ihE t4lAAS US y nO uoC ~ nv OANf
as Arabella remarked when he over
looked her tip one Christmas Day
II amt 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 hal 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, aud the
"elderly party would put on the
new shirt or wear the new. socks with
out the slightest suspicion that the
familiar patches and darns we're miss
ing. He acted as intellectual food