Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-02-07

says Rebecca, I'm no angel" And her
life proved that for once she spoke
the truth Rebecca was not favorite
at school, all the world used her i'll she
safd--"The world" says Thackeray.
'eis a looking gliss and givesba to ev-
--Frown at it and it will in turn look
sourly upon you; laugh at it and with
1t and 1t is a jolly, kind companion"
Rebecca's father was an artist and her
mother "a French opera girl; her life
previous to entering Miss Pinkerton's
school had been passed in the company
of her dissi-ated father and his wild
artist friends. She had learned young
to know the world-and the laws of
heredity are traceable through her
whole career. From her mother she
learned ito speak perfect French with
Partisan accent, and as she rose in life
her mothers calling was entirely for
gotten. so that she was frequently
heard to boast of her descent from a
noble family of Gascony.
RebIbeca at once commenced husband
hunting and indolent. nartly Mr.. Jos.
eph Sedley becomes her victim. To be
sure he is so afraid of the ladies that at
sight of one he bushes and runs away,
but Rebecca's songs and Rebecca's 5
wiles almost win the day, when that
unlucky evening at Vauxlhall, where
Mr. Joseph, overcome by too much
rack punch, so far forgot himself to
call her his "diddle-diddle-darli -
became the undoing of all her efforts,
and Mr.. JoseJh, ashamed of his con-
duct, ingloriously fled without making
the hoped for proposal.
1t then seemed best to the entire
Sadley family that Rebecca should de-
part ct once for Crawley, Of Queens
Crawley, where she had engaged as
governess. Amelia was inconsolable-
but the housekeeDer said to the maid:
Il don't trust them governesses, they
give themselves the hairs and hup-
starts of ladies, and their wages is no
better than you nor me-"
Arrived at Queens Crawley, Rebecca
proceeds at once to make the best of
her lot and to ingratiate herself with
the various members of the family.
She plays backgammon with old Sir
Pitt and listens to sermons read by
Pitt Crawley the younger; she wins her
pupils by giving them course of read
ing in Smollett. Fielding and the
French plays to the exclusion of sound
er learning and ends by ignoring Lady
Crawley and becoming the virtual
head of the house. Miss Crawley, the
half-sister of Sir Pitt, the fortuate pos
SCISSOR of 10000, and therefore a per-
son to be looked I'D to, coming with
her nephew, Rawdon Crawley, to the
Hall for a visit, Rebecca proceeds at
once to make herself interesting and
indispensable to them both, so tnat
Miss Crawley will neither dine nor
drive without her-and in this effort to
make trying, situation endurable and
to win friends among the people about
her, was Rebecca altogether to blame? ?
Is it not better to offer fate a smiling
face. than to turn uoon her with
froWnls and tears? And yet let there
not be too much malice and schem-
ing behind this smile as was the case
with Door Rebeccas.
Rebecca even returns to London with
Miss Crawley who is i'll and will have
none other to attend her, where Fir
kin, the maid, thus describes her to
Miss Briggs, the faithful friend OF
twenty three years.
Miss B., they are all INFATUATED
about that young woman. Sir Pitt
wouldn't have let her go, but he didn
refuse Miss Crawley anything. Mrs.
Brite at the Rectory just as bad, never
happy out of her sight. The Capting
quite wild about her. Mr.. CraWley
mortal jealous-since Miss G. wastook
Ill. she won't have nobody near her but
Miss Sharp-I can't tell for where nor
for why; and l think somethink has
bewidged everybody"
AT any rate she so 'Tbewidged" old
Sir Pitt that he proposed to her even
before the funeral of the second Lady
Crawley; she so ''bewidged" Miss
Crawley that for time she thought
she couldn't live without her. al
though, as Thackeray puts it, she may
have remembered that nobody does
anything for nothing" she so "be-
widged" dull Captain Rawdon Crawley
that a clandestine marriage was the
result-of course a marriage with the
hopes of his aunts forgiveness and a
fat legacy of e50,OOO. But all Becky's
Establishments fail her here, neither
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