The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-21

- O e.

The inhabitants of Harplestowe had
ceased to discusS Hannah Fletcher's
questionable positiers toward her lodg-
er, and any interest attached to her
unconventional attitude had quietly
f1zzled out along with her meager
claims to beauty. When the world had
gone well with Hannah and she had
possessed the irritable devotion Of an
invalid mother aud the undivided love
of a selfish father she had worn mod
estly the good looks which belong to
a middle-class young woman who en-
joys excellent health and a wholesome
temperament. Now the limit in her
abundant hair and her bright color
| had died for want of vital sustenance,
and her rather prominent features had
bleakened with the unresting strug-
gle for existence. A stranger would
not trouble to question if her Gnsympa-
| thetic manner was the result Or the
cause Of an unsatisfied existence.
Hannah Fletcher had spent the best
years of her youth subduing the pas
siOns and emotions which make a
beautiful Irresistible, but she had not
studied her own ugliness and mastered
1T as some women do. A plain woman s
battle in life is defying her own ugli-
ness. Hannah had fallen into the way
Of walking like a plain woman, and
the world accepted her as such, for
the assurance Of a beautiful woman
enters into her walk as it does into
her dressing.
Hannah's lOdger was, 1t Is tr,re, an
elderly party" so the maid of all
work described him, always messing
about with them chemistry fizzicks; 'es
wonderful clever, but it don't bring in
no money and if 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" Oh the elderly
| party" When her mother and father
had died her lodger had not given a
thought to the fact that, for the girls
reputation in the village, it would be
advisable for him to leave his comfort
able quarters. Hannah had grown nee
essary to him in his work, and he had
learned to depend on her as a.man of
powerful intellect grows to depend on
a practical oman with an intelligent
brain who is his daily and hourly COM
raniOn. Habit is stronger in men than
in women. Five or six years had pas
| sed since her parents death, bringing
little or no change into Hannah's life.
She shaved and toiled and pinched for
the elderly party" who was too self
conferred to guess the true extent of
| her poverty. He was casual about his
payments and she would never re-
mind him. To brighten up her rooms
and bring a 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
a touching enthusiasm for his own
generosity and thoughtfulness. Her
practical mind would fly with Wo-
mans quickness of thought to the four
months rent which was still unpaid,
but only a feeling of tederness for his
eccentricities would come over her,
and She Rugged to her eheart the
thought that she could help him in his
work by waiting for the overdue rent.
He was poor and his income would
nave barely covered the modest neces-
| stiles of his simple life if he had de-
voted it to them, but "he 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. Il
amt go no use for, the like of his sort.
with a beautiful regard for the feelings
mended and patched and bit by bit
replaced his worn and shabbywardrobe
She was careful never to put into his
room any new garment she had made
until the ruthless laundress had rob
bed it of it's neWness. Then she would
substitute it for one which was beyond