The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1908-12-02

II
compressed lips. She had
opened the windows wide to the fresh
morning breeze, and from it she shook
her dust cloth now and then.
There was no gladness of the morn
ing In Miss Sarahs faded face and
tired eyes. There was only bitter de-
spair She wiped the few specks of
dust from the marble mantel and re-
placed the blue china vases and the
onyx clock. Then she busted the case
of wax flowers that stood ON the cen
ter table, shook the sofa pillows Wig
orously, brushed up the hearth where
she had just laid new fire in the
CRATE, ready for the lighting, and
finally she stood back and surveyed
the results of her labors.
The stuffy little room looked bright
and clean and very homelike in spite
of the hideously Powered carpet and
the peacock blue and red plush chairs
that were stifly disposed n the cor
ners The black and gold frames of
the family portraits formed grateful
squares and oblongs on the crudely
colored wall paper.
Thus the little room had looked on
Wednesday and Sunday afternoons for
twenty-five years when Miss Sarah
prepared it for the coming of Lorenzo
Rider in the evening. Lorenzo had
been coming all these years to see
Sarah Downs, and still he had never
found courage to ask her to become
his wife. And Sarah, who had been
young and pretty, with fair hair and
blue eyes, grew more pinched and fad
ed each year. Her face became more
pointed, and there were streaks Of
gray in the gold of her hair. Lorenzo
had settled into middle aged comeliness,
| with clean shaven, good looking face,
well brushed iron gray hair and port
ly, broad shouldered figure. The years
had brought him success in business
and the fruition Of many hopes They
had brought Sarah nothing unless one
considered a palpitating fear that Lo-
renZo might succumb to the youthful
charms of a younger generation of
| girls who cast fattering glances at his
broad acres and comfortable home.
Next to the fear of losing her lover
Sarah Downs suffered most acutely
from the meagerness of her income.
When her father had died, secure in
the belief that she would soon become
the wife of Lorenzo Rider, he had
made scant provision for his only
daughter. The sons had taken their
inheritances and removed to distant
states, while Sarah was left to exist in
the little homestead upon the proceeds
of an i'll managed investment. Then
the Golden Ledge Mining company
had come to an untimely end, and
Sarah was compelled to mortgage the
place. She existed upon the proceeds
with pinching economy for ten years,
and now that was almost gone, and
Judge Mowbray was pressing her for
the payment of the mortgage with ac-
cumulated interest or foreclosure.
| His curt letter had arrived the night
| before. Sarah had read it with miser-
able eyes and frightened heart. If
Lorenzo did not come to the point this
week, it meant the poorhouse for her.
| There was not a relative or a friend
who could afford to take her in out of
charity. The sale of the household
furniture would bring but a pittance.
There was only one thing that would
save her from disgrace and perjury,
and that was-Lorenzo. And if Loren
20 had not found courage to ask her to