News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1903-04-08


house seemed genuinely embarrassed
and looked more interesting than ever
on account of it. "At this rate an
other 100000 gift would put me back
in my teens"
/ She spoke lightly and her blue eyes
filed with wonderful light, so beautiful
in its expression of joy over the new
opportunity to help suffering humanity
that the whole company was affected
by it, and for the first time since COM
| ing to Hope House John Gordon was
asking himself whether Miss Andrews
| had ever had a romance in her life.
The question went without an an
swer; indeed it was not much more
than a vague suggestion prompted by
Miss Andrews appearance during the
evening of that eventful day, and the
next moment Gordon was busy talk
ing over the innumerabIe plans and
projects eagerly discussed at the table
for using to best advantage the Won
derful gift from the old sea captains
widow
st all comes back to parks and play
grounds" was Miss Andrews sum-
ming up when they had all had their
say about the disposal of the money
my heart has ached long enough at
the sight of childhood's misery. We
can lessen its duration even if we can
not remove it's cause. | know some of
you people have got model tenements
on the brain. That's all right and good
enough but it's not the end and aim of
our work entirely. Let us give starved
nature a chance at nature itself. The
first hundred thousand for breathing
spaces, flowers, water, grass trees; the
next for buildings additions to Hope
House-what you will"
So the next day Gordon and Ford,
with Miss Andrews and Miss Ham
mond, who, next to Miss Andrews, had
been the longest at Hope House, sat
down to make definite and positive
plan for tie transformation of the
burned out district into an oasis for
the desert of Bowen street that still
swarmed with wretched and desperate
humanity.
The evening that was marked by
Hope House as a turning in its affairs
large enough to be called a crisis Mrs
Constance Penrose was having a sharp
interview with her nephew, Archie
Penrose.
"You are your own master of course"
Mrs. Penrose was saying to her
nDnhox4- xrrl,o tp,,nrrn1 in,
of the bow windows of the drawing
room, "but at the rate you are going
you will soon exhaust your resources.
You are spendthrift not only of your
money, but of your health, which is
worth more than money"
ooh, that's all right, Aunt Con-
stance" Archie answered, yawning. 81
know when to stop"
Every gambler has said the same
thing"
I'm no gambler. aunt"
"You are. You stake your reputation
and the good name of the family every
time you put your health and money
up against the world, the flesh and the
devil. If you have no respect for your
own name, you ought to have some for
mine"
what have done to catch all this?"
Archie looked annoyed and also lit
tie afraid. There was one person in
the world who had the power to stir
fear in him, and that person was his
Aunt Constance.
"You have never done anything.
What have you ever done, Archie Pen
you bear. To your fathers credit, if
he was money grubber he at least
had business. He actually did some
thing besides hunt for pleasure all the
time. You-you have no business
You waste every energy God gave you
in senseless expenditure of time and
means. And, in addition to all the
rest, you are fool enough to think Luel-
la Marsh will be the wife of the most
useless man in the city"
'If l am fool to think 1t, am l a
fool to wish for itY
Mrs. Penrose stared.
'You don't mean to say you actually
love Luella?"
81 do. love her with all my SOUL"
THAT'S not saying much. Your soul
has been reduced to the smallest com.
mon denomination"
aunt Constance!' The young man
came out from the bow window and
stood in front of her, his hands
clinched and his eyes angrily blazing.
what right have you to talk so to
me? How big is your own soul? What
do you ever do for anybody but your
self2 When 1t comes to wasting ener-
gy, who wastes more than you in what
you call senseless ways? may be
useless and all that, but I don't toady
to lot of good for nothings like the
Journeys and the Carlisles and the
Cranstons just to get into Washington
circles next season." He was treading
on dangerous ground now, for he had
touched his aunt's real weakness as
society woman, and she was in the
mood to be deeply angered at what he
said. But he went on recklessly, and
before he finished Mrs Penrose had
settled back again into the easy, care
less attitude habitual with her.
81 know what you invited the Four
neys here for the other night when
that ass Emory and Gordon got off