Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-05-09
EACh>pterc EY1 Three

LN AIAT SC R ! "ET seemed somehow impossible, mt
 going to be cook there all my \ days" So writes Sophy at latel date in regard to her life at Morp ingham hall To many of us In oul youth it has seemed impossible tha we should pass all our days in the hum drum occupations and the mediocre DO sitions in which we have in fact spent them. Young ambitions are chronicled only when they have been fulfilled unless where a born autobiographei makes fame out of his failures. But Sophy had q double portion of original restlessness. This much the records of Morpingham years, scanty as they are render plain.
 The immediate result of this dlsposi tion of hers was unhappy, and it is mol hard to sympathize with the feelings of the Brownlows. Their benevolence was ample, but it was not unconscious Their benefits, which were very great appeared to them exhaustive, not only above what Sophy might expect, but also beyond what she could imagine They had picked her up from the road side and set her on the way to tha, sort of Kingdom with the prospect ol which Basil Williamson had tried tc console her. The squire was an estima ble man, but one of small mind. Ht moved among the l!ttle-the contented lord of pin point of the earth. Mrs Rrownlow was a profoundly pious wo man, to whom content was high duty, to be won by the performance of other duties. If the squire detected in the girl signs of ingratitude to himself his wife laid equal blame on a rebellion against heaven. Sophy knew--if not then, yet on looking back-what they felt. Her references to them are charg- ed with remorse whose playful ex- pression. obstinately touched with scorn as it is, does not hide its sincerity. She soon perceived, anyhow, that she was getting bad character. She. the cook in posse, was at open war with Mrs. Smilker. the cook in esse. though, to be sure, Smilker might have done some thing to reconcile her to Crouch!
 Mrs. Brownlow naturally ranged her self on the side of constituted authori- ty, of the superior rank in the domestic hierarchy. Moreover, it is likely that Mrs. Smilker was right in nine cases out of ten, at all events. Sophy recog- nized that probability in after life. None the less, she allows herself more than once to speak of "that beast of Smilker"
 For the greater part of this time she had no friends outside the hall to turn to. Julia Robins was pursuing her training in acting in London and, later, her profession in the country. Basil Williamson, who amused her, was at Cambridge and afterward at his hos pital. A glimpse of him she may have caught now and then, but they had no further talk. Very probably he sought no opportunity. Sophy had passed AlOLu lhS oNhOOA " AhC bNuAiSAg She hsd grown from a child into big girl. If prudent Basil kept these trans formations in view, none can blame him-he was the son of the rector of the parish-so when bidden to the hall he ate the potatoes Sophy had peeled, but rocked no more of the hand that peeled them. In the main the child was no doubt solitary creature.
 Sr much is what scientific men snf historians call 'reconstruction"-a haz- ardous process, at least when you are dealing with human beings. It has been kept within the strict limits of le- gitimate inference and accordingly yields meager results. The return of Julia Robins enables us to put many more of the stones-or bones. or what. ever they may be called-in their ap- propriate places.
 It Is the summer of 1865. and Julia is very gorgeous. Three years had passed