The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1905-01-10

row. Is there anything 1 can do for
you? Some salts
Nothing, thank you," said Miss
Whelan, with a smile
She wished she might have been
more obliging. The invitation had
come from one of the most popular
women in the hotel, popular, but mid
die aged, and Anna Whelan was not
ready to be middle aged Alone again,
she dropped back in her chair, leaned
her head against the high wicker back
and closed her eyes. And for this-to
be left alone on the piazza-she had
saved part of her salary all winter,
had invested part of her savings in
the quaintest of summer fnery, had
counted the days until her vacation
began.
She recalled the enthusiasm with
which she had heard the other girls
plan for the stay at Wisconset. There
were six of them in all who lived in
bachelor maids apartment in town,
and for a month or more the one topic
of conversation had been the sailing
parties, the daily bath in the sea, the
clambakes and the nightly hops for
which Wisconset was famous. The
girls had insisted that Miss Whelan
come with them, and she now realized
that they had done everything to make
her one of them since their arrival at
the shore. They had always dragged
her into their merrymaking plans. She
was with them, yet not of them, and
she knew wherein lay the fault. 1t
was in her years.
Her cheeks somehow had retained
the delicate pink flush of girlhood, but
the soft gray hair waved above her
forehead told the bald truth of her
years. Her pretty frocks were more
dainty, more costly, than those worn
by the girls around her, but Miss Whe-
lan's taste in dress had always been
good, and with advancing years she
had adopted the more subdued color
ings and simpler styles. Her summer
wardrobe was that of chaperon rath-
er than that Of a debutante. Yet at
\
as young and took as keen an interest
in youthful pleasures as any eighteen
year-old girl Sitting there in the moon
light, she realized that, once robbed of
youth, a woman could not buy the lost
treasure back at any price.
Her childhood had been narrow, pen
ned In by poverty and an invalid moth
er pettish and exacting. Death had
carried away one burden, that of un-
appreciated nursing, only to lay upon
her shoulders another, that Of part
housekeeper, part breadwinner. She
had gone into a shop as cash girl and
had attended to the household duties
night and morning. When she was
sixteen years old she sat up until near
ly daybreak three nights in succession
to set stitches In her sisters confrma-
ton dress. The sister went through
the high school, as did the younger
brother, and while they studied Anna
was steadily advancing in the store.
When she became buyer for her de
partment and took her first trip abroad
it brought back the pink In her cheeks
that fed before her tenth birthday, but
Anna was now three times ten.
On her return from Europe she found
that the same disease which had wreck
ed her childhood and carried away her
mother had again entered her home
This time it carried away In quick sue
cession brother and sister. Anna found
herself alone and lonesome. She fed
10 the bachelor maids apartments for
companionship and was made well
come by these girls ten years or more
her junior. With them she had grown
young again. She had almost forgot
ten the gray hair 1t had taken the
thoughtless boys in blue serge and
heart They were nice to her because
they knew that the girls would not for
give them If they were otherwise. But
that was not youth and the right TO be
young and joyous and silly. Anna sat
up very straight She had become pos
sessed Of sudden desire to giggle, yet
many time and oft she had reproach-
ed the little cash girls in her own de-
partment for giggling.
Laughter and music hoated across
the lawn. They hurt. She rose abrupt
ly and fed to her room. The headache
now was real. She tore Off her pretty
gown and flung it heedlessly across the
bed and slipped into an easy flowing
kimono. Then she sat down by the
window, thinking bitterly that fate had
cheated her out Of the greatest thing,
the joy of being young. Suddenly,
as she sat in the quiet, the sound of
a sob reached her ear Something very
like a patter Of bare feet came to her
from the hall. She sprang up and threw
open her door. A small figure huddlet
against it fell in toward her
"Oh, please, I'm so frightened al
alone! May 1 come ini"
You surely may" said Anna as sh.
drew the shivering, weeping child int
the room.
She recognized her now. 1t was tn,
serious faced little girl who had room
two doors beyond. She had often seer
her on the sand and on the porch Will
her nurse. 1t did not take Anna very
long to learn that the child was moth
erless, in the care of young and heed
less aunt and an ignorant nursegirl
The former was absorbed in the socia
affairs at the inn and the latter In tn,
gatherings in the servants hall. hittl,
Grace had been left quite alone In he
room, and strong draft had blown
out the lamp, so that between the dark
ness and an ugly dream she had wax
ened up in terror.
That was the beginning of a new hol
iday for Anna Whelan. The nurse an(
young aunt had little to do from tina
time on save to provide for Grace
physical wants Anna was her constan
companion. She seemed determined t
give this shy. ten-year-old girl all tn,
companionship, the sympathy, the sim
pie, unaffected pleasures which haC
been denied her own childhood. Sh,
did not dream that in the moment
when they were not together Grace il
her stiff, Uniformed writing was send
ing daily chronicle of their compan
ionship to her father. Nor could sh,
know of the resentment which filed hi
soul against the well paid and Needles
carerakers of his child and the curiosi
ty regarding the girl with the gray hal
and pink cheeks who was motherin,
his wee BARN, for Grace assured hin
In every way that Miss Whelan wa