The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-12-31
Seleet Story.
ALWAYS A NEW YEAR" ;"
CHAPTER |.

Clara Manley's nature was impulsive
and intense. When she was a child in
arms, her father was wont to call her his
''little flame Before you know she
wants anything she's got it, he would
explain. \ rough and gruff old fellow was
Elijah Manley; besides store of gold, he
had extracted strength and obduracy from
his Western mine, but the pick and the
drill are hardly the supporters of cultured
old age, however rich that old age may be.
His heart was tender, though, and in it
there was Il poetical spot, and this spot
became the radiant centre of his being
whenever he thought of his daughter
| Clara His wife, Catherine, was all well
enough in her way, but that way
had been his-she had shared his priva-
tions and hardships, she had toiled as
strenously in the cabin as he had in the
shaft. One may love the companion of
such life, but she can never be an ideal
an ideal must be enshrined, only to be
gazed at in reyerential moments, and then
inclosed again with in gates of ivory. Now,
from the time in her childhood when Eli
jah first ''struck luck Clara had been so
guarded by absence and distances. Her
parents had offered up their love as a
sacrifice to the future, and had sent her
from the camp in the West to the metrop-
oils in the East. There, through the
care of her father friend and lawyer,
Reuben Oatfeld, she had been placed in the
best boarding school. if best means the
most expensive, as, of course, it does dur
ing this reign of the golden calf And in
this school she had remained, scholar in
term time, Il guest in vacation, and a
favorite without intermission, until the
tidings cnme of the triumphal entrance of
Elijah Manley into the world of million
aires
Thoroughly trained though Clara was in
the elegance of constraint, she never lost
those attributes which had won her father $
designation. Impulsiye and intense she
had been as little child; as young
woman she was still impulsive and intense.
Nature was stronger than artifce, and con-
tinually asserted itself to the CONSERVATION
of the tutelary artifcers. Yet these pre-
ceptresses all loved her; she was so honest,
so true; perhaps they realized in their
hearts that sawdust is an essential of dolls;
perhaps they admired incontnently what
they had failed to destroy. Even Ma
dame, the French teacher, albeit her ex-
pressed opinion of ''ze Males Americaine, -
required the coadjution of myriad of
shrugs and invariably began with mon
Dieul' and ended with ''affreuse, even
she made an exception of Clara as one
possessing charm irresistible. And so,
one December afternoon, when Madame
had Il commission down street at one OF
the Shops she asked this one agreeable
pupil to accompany her.
1t was early in the holiday vacation, and
Clara was dull Besides, time was drag
ging from impatient anticipation. In two
days her parents would arrive from the
West and receive from the architects, the
builders, the upholsters the great mansion
by the Park as complete as if from the
rubbing of Aladdin lamp. In two days
she would close dry and musty tones, and
open the book of life at its most interest
ing chapter. In two days she would cease
to be school girl and would become a
young lady. And so she was well content
to accept this mild ripple of the pool of ostag-
nation
1t was pretty sight to see teacher and
scholar on their way The one was so as
siduous in attentions to the other, and the
other was so much better adapted than the
one to bestow them The Madame was
tiny and firm, a manikin in fact composed
of evual portions of nutmeg and silk, while
Clara was finely formed, well set up, and
vigorous with health, and she swung along
with certain innate breeziness which
score of instructors for half score of years
had been unable to eradicate. Naturally,
then, she should have guided her nervous
and easily bewildered companion. But
she didn't; on the contrary, in shop and
on the street, she kept the poor woman
vacilating between gasp and giggle,
both of which states were peculiarly dis
tressing to one who placed department two
steps above cleanliness
The afternoon was cold and sullen, and
the air heavy with mists soon to become