The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1907-04-03
cinderella
to Date.
By HELEN MAxFIELD.
Copyright. 1905. by May McKeor

pers-if you have time to think abou
anything except yourself-that the
Westheld bank Is wrecked. They have
arrested Mr.. Hartley and Mr.. Manners
but that does not help the rest of us
In short time presume shall be OIL
the county. If you had married Da1
Martin, as wanted you to do should
not be facing this terrible situation
but you always were headstrong, and
my whole life has been sacrificed to the
effort to raise you as your dear dead
mother would have had me. Even
now Dan is willing to forgive your
folly and marry you. He will have
the house all done over. and his sister
be only Dan end you and me-"
The letter covered Ave closely writ
ten pages, and Annabel read it through
twice with firmly set lips and dry
eyes. Then very deliberately she put
on her coat, hat and gloves and went
out for long walk in the snowy park,
where motor cars filled with fur clad
figures few past and laughing children
pelted her with harmless balls Of feath-
cry wilderness. 1t was glorious day,
and when she came back to her dingy
hall room she was smiling, and the
hard lines had faded from her face.
Then she wrote her answer:
My Dear Aunt Molly-I am SO grieved
to hear of the bank wreck. I had not
read Of 1t in the papers, because we have
been enjoying the privilege of some spe-
cial instruction under Professor - of
New York and I have hoon
the academy night and day. Perhaps the
bank receivers may save something, and
In the meantime you must not worry. /
will have the store decided to you, and
the rent will more than keep your house
going, and each week I will send you
money order for SIS that happen to
have in hand. Have Mr.. Gregory ar
range the transfer Of the store property.
AS to Mr.. Martin. please do not urge that
upon me again. I still feel that I have
some right to happiness. and know 1t
will never come to me through Dan Mar
tin.
Not one word Of reproach, no re-
minders of a dun eolored childhood
and a dreary girlhood, spent under
nagging of the most trying sort; no
reference to the fact that her own
patrimony had gone under with her
aunt's small fortune in the bank
wreck; no intimation that she had
sent almost her last dollar in the
money order and must now drop her
art studies and seek position In the
workaday world. She smiled grimly as
she mailed the letter. Her aunt would
accept the sacrifice and wall to Dan
Martin over AnnabePs lack of appre-
citation.
Dan Martin! How she hated every
inch of his understood person. his
small beady eyes. his perpetual smile.
his weak, receding chin! She mailed
the letter with a strange feeling Of
independence achieved, for now she
had paid to her own satisfaction the
debt Of gratitude imposed by her aunt,
which had hung over her young life
like pail. She was free now to work
out her own happiness.
But for the next week happiness
seemed to move farther and farther
away. In later years she never
thought Of those days without shud
dering.
The holidays were over. Nobody
wanted to hire clerks or buy illuminat-
ed cards or telephone records or any
of the pretty things she painted. The
room rent was again due. She might
sell her few casts and painting outfit.
She set her lips firmly and climbed the
stairs to a fashionable employment
agency. The manager was sitting at
the telephone when Annabel entered.
She hung up the receiver with an i'm
patient frewn.
what do you want-a position as
governess or companion? Nothing like
that In view; a hundred applicants
for every position. Oh, wait a minute!
You look bright. Can you do manicur-
ing and dress hair a bit and mend
laces? II you can do it even halfway,
I wish you'd try this place. I've sent
the customer a dozen girls, and they
always part after a terrible scene.
The womRn's crank, but you look as
II you had tact"
The upshot was that Annabel, with
25 cents in her purse and a notice of
rent due nnder the door of her hall
room, went to see Mrs. Cartwright
Brown, and that highly strung person
age said with dissatisfaction and sus-
Dicion In her voice that she would give
the girl trial.
The Cartwright Browns were newly
rich. The father had made an enor-
nous fortune through his own efforts
and was proud Of it. The mother was
10 bnrdened by 1t that she was on the
verge OF nervous prostration. Annabel
saw 1t was nerves and not temper and
took heart Later she learned that
there were a son and daughter away
1t college who were just little
Of their new riches.
Nobody, Annabel least Of all, knew
virtual head of the Cartwright Brown
Mrs. Brown vowed that
'he could hire a visiting manicurist
Ind hairdresser, but no one could stand
her and domestic and social |
worries as Annabel could
1t was Annabel who recognized the |
Itaff Of servants and installed q COM |
Oetent hOusekeeper. 1t was Annabel |
Who had the conseryatories brought up |
genial dinner lists. Annabel who con-
erred with Mrs Browns modiste and |
dr. Browns tailor. Annabel who ship /
'ed smart. suita BILE clothing and room
furnishings to two colleges.
Annabel's position IN the household
vas Ter lliar. She was neither house
,eeper nor private secretary-1ust
Miss Annabel." She did not receive
With Mrs. Brown on Wednesday after
oons, but she did join the family &C.
ionally at the theater or in viewing
TT exhibitions. And 1t was after one
I these rare occasions that she real
led the full extent of her happiness.
he had been hunting congenial work,
OF an art career. She knew now
hat her small talent for drawing had
fered her only an excuse for fleeing
q unhappy home life, but that she
ever would have become a great art
II while aho wao q oouapotouk man IL