The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1897-02-04

She had his undivided attention, and
he wa fond of her, but the fact that
she was O woman, and not much ver
thirty, had never really forced itself
on his mind. and certainly not on his
feelings. A man, If he could have
made himself as useful and as COM
pariouable, could have taken her
place.
One day the peace of Hannah's life
was broken by the coming Of a cousin,
an orphan like herself, who had
written and asked Hannah to give her
a home while she looked, for work.
Hannah wrote and welcomed her with
bitter misgiving at heart. She had to
toll night and day to make money to
pay for food enough for herself tad
her lodger.
Madeline came, and, like a hot wind
passing over a sensitive plant, she
withered up Hannah's courage. She
was young, and the beauty of her ami
NAL health was startl.ps. She stood
in Hannah's humble parlor 10 the
MONDAY sunlight, straight as q young
palm tree and beautiful in symmetry,
a pulsing, tingling piece OF flesh and
blood. colored like a pale pink reony.
Hannah felt herself grow colder as she
looked at her. Madeline's eyes were
SO blue that if you came into the gar.
den and she was there it vas her two
g~ermanders iringed with black that
caught your notice, and her ~childishly
perfect teeth closed tight when she
laughed, and her passionate lips quiz
cred into smiles. Blue eyes such as
Madeline's, and white young teeth
alone can make q face provoking to
the dullest sensibilities; when she in
troduced herself (blushing for her own
prettiness) to tho elderly party he
cursed the white teeth in his heart and
blamed the beauty Of her eyes for he
knew not what. And poor Hannah,
whose eyes had had color in them
once, with a growing numbness ut her
heart for her own plainness in con
trast, followed the pink flower that
moved SO glibly rJout the house, Civ
ing her the best that lay in her power,
MAJ .9lling at her cousins beauty,
which was after oil principally the
result of perfect health and and self
ish disposition.
Weeks passed into months, and
Madeline had planted herself firmly in
the house; Hannah could not turn her
out, and she never suggested going,
and never made any serious attempt to
get work. Her orphan and pennies
condition served her as u useful means
Of appealing to the sympathy Of the
elderly party" As time wont on,
Hannah saw less and less of her ledger,
her cousin appropriated as her charge
his study and laboratory, and it was
bitterness and gall to Hannah to see
her administer to him all the little at.
tentions which she had been wont to
perform, and the last straw was that
Madeline talked as if she gave enough
help to fully repay Hannah for her
room and keep.
Hannah. with her heart smarting Mt
the bitter injustice of things, could
not tell her that she was day by day
robblng her Of all that made life bear
able. Madeline had taken to using
the "elderly party's" study as her sit
Eting room; it was moro attractive
than the prim parlor downstairs; and
when Hannah was hard at work dur.
ing the hot August days-days that
made her look psler and palmer than
ever, her cousin would sit reading a
novel in her favorite basket chair,
with her feet up on the rungs of an.
other-s Pretty picture of ease and
comfort. She never forgot to look up
at intervals, with q cnt.llke something
in her blue eyes and in her soft, pur.
ring voice, and say to her companion,
Don't you wish that Hannah would
stop fussing and come and sit down?'
And as, when q woman is partlcu'
larly busy, q man generally does think
she is "fussing" and choosing to do
something totally unnecessary. the
"elderly party" came to look upon it
as quite natural that Madeline should
be his hourly companion, and that
she should sit in an easy chair while
Hannah, hot and weary in mind and
body, should toll and strive for them
both.
After Madeline had been with them
three months Hannah's ledger came
into q fortune. II was not a large
one, but it would enable him to live
in ease and comfort for the rest of his
life. When Hannah heard the good
news, what she dreaded most did not
happen. He did not suggest moving
into moro luxurious lodgings; he
seemed to consider himself n fixture IL
the old wainscoted room with its cot
tage window and old oak floor but he
bought more pretty plants and fresh
hot house flowers, which Madeline nov
accepted with a blush and prettines'
that sent his blood coursing through
his veins.
She knew that she had appealed a
first sight to the human passion laten'
in the scholar, as Hannah had nevel
done. Intellectually she was nothing
A. H.. L,,k f,r th,f oha Aid mot Dsiaya