New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-04-04
a Plain Little TRAGEDY.
A SHORT STORY. BY KATE A. LYNCH

Through the soaked streets she went. unmindful
Of the hurrying crowds and haunted by some words
Of an old song:
He turned him right upon Irish shore
evermore!'.
1t was, indeed. "adieu' forever. Her late come
lover had an hour ago asked her and she had
fused him. and all
Her thoughts went achinsly the past. Twenty
years ago. when she a girl OF eighteen. she had
come here TO Liverpool from her Manx home. In
the narrow life of the island there had been
chance for her to earn the help toward the family
support that imperativeIy needed Seven
brothers and sisters all younger than herself the
shiftless father-half farmer half sailor. and max
ing little by either occupation-the anxious. tidy.
overworked NOTWITHSTANDING, managing. complain
ins-it was all woful weight on the spirits OF
girl setting out. solitary and friendless TO shape
career in a great, strange city.
At school Anne Quayle had given Indications Of
what had been considered literary gifts. The girl
herself knew that there something in her that
II she could but give expression to would be worth
Inc men nearing But with the elamorous demand from
nome for help forever In her ears. there was no
leisure TO think of anything but the devising OF
Manx hills. How well Anne remembeTed the first
weeks OF anxious searching for employment-it was
quickly under that disillusioning experience her
at last share her Iandadys labor of taiIorfn for
one of the big city firms 1t savish. i'll paid
work, and Anne meant when the immediate pressure
genial and satisfying to her ambition but fate that
with to pelt another. kept rgidly at the coat
t DIotn5r were crowned and the second lad fell
into a lingering consumption The next-who might
heard Of. The two girls next In age Anne had
been brought to Liverpool by her. She had hope
OF making with them a home for the mother and
younger ones away from the grinding. protIess life
nous tailoring and no charm in the prospect Of
a home merely for their peevish mother and them
they could to homes Of their own To anne a f vas as
strange and somewhat appalling-the absence in
them OF all sense OF responsibility as regarded their
mother and the little Their individual inter-
both were toieraby We'll married thew never osrs6
to take Anne out OF her dreary lodgings TO make
Well, work is plentiful now" Anne said to her
seI' ana Dy keeping strenuously at It can man
the children and myself
But behold. when. after years close toiling and
the bending OF every energy to the accomplishment
Of her purpose she had succeeded In laying by
70 leave the old home. 1t would break her heart
from the hearing Of the Sunday bells of st. Johns
and Crosby. To keep on in the WORKOUT farm.
than ever. but there alternative, and so she
sent them the money she had meant to use for so
and sending Until the two youn g girls foun5
openings in life for themselves and left the mother
alone. She old woman by this her ac-
tivity subdued by years and aches and the still
flock had left her There are some women whose
maternal instinct only reaches far the baby
fancy is Irresistible. but who can regard their
grownup daughters with the hard judging eye OF
a critical stranger. When Mrs. Quayle with the
sum OF money that the sale OF her interest IN the
farm had left her took her leave OF the Crosby
bells and Sleuhelon. 1t not to Anne she turned
but 10 one OF her married daughters. It would be
untrue 10 say that the eldest did not feel this
keenly but in her sad life she had learned TO try
look at thinFs from others point Of view-to be
charitable in her construction OF others dOiugS.
The loneliness OF the fOrsaken house Is in her
heart she said 10 herself. and II is natural
enough that she should Ike TO live within the
sound Of childrens cheerful voices again"
The move. at any rate, lifted the burden OF none
tary pressure of Anne. and left her free for the
first time take up the that she had lOnged
vainy for all those years But. alasi the days
of freedom may be overlong delayed. Thirty-thres
and eighteen are different-the eyes with which
Anne looked back the fifteen years interval OF
grefs and straining anx1eties and bafed hopes
almost a strangers eyes Had the wished for come
too later Anne would not listen 20 the words Of
despair but set bravely TO work putting into her
task the concentrated thought and pent Up feeling
OF ell the lost years