The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-02-01
IL ~
/ A VACABOND HEROINE ]
~ 2 ANNIE EDWARDS q:
BY ANNIE EDWARDS.


me angel Belinda would have her
mothers fortune to stand between
her and starvation"
And so until she had reached the
age of seven "me angel Belinda" was
| indifferently boarded at the rate of
about forty pounds year and no
holidays in a Cork convent. Then
O'Shea brought his face and lineage
once more to the marriage market, on
this occasion winning no faded scion
of nobility, but the still blooming
widow of well-to-do London law
yer, and Belinda, for the first time
since her birth, had to learn the
meaning -bitterer than sweet, poor
little mortal, in her case-of the
word home.
The second Mrs. O'Shea was wo-
man whom all the ladies of her ac-
quaintance called sweet" you know
the kind of human creature she must
be. A blond skin, the least in the
world inclined to freckle, blond hair,
blond eyelashes, eye of a dove, voice
of a dying zephyr. A sweet little
woman, dear little woman, an adj
mirably well dressed and, what is
more, a we'll conducted little woman;
but-not fond of children.
Belinda's small body nourished on
the accustomed roast mutton and rice
pudding of the English nursery, and
her soul-eager, fervent, hungry lit
tie soul that it was--was left to
starved
With all the might of her ardent,
keenly strung nature, Belinda,
throughout those early years of iso-
lation and neglect, loved her father.
Little enough she saw of him.
O'Shea had come into fortune of
some thirty or forty thousand pounds
by his second marriage, and was
spending it like a man. fLike a
monster Mrs. O'Shea would declare
piteously, when the inevitable day of
reckoning had overtaken them.
Would she ever have consented to
brougham and men servants and Sun
day dinners-Sunday dinners! With
her principlest- she had known
that Major O'Shea was a pauper, not
worth the coat he was married IND
Occasionally, twice in three months
perhaps, the fancy would strike Cor
nelius to lounge, his pipe in his
mouth, into the child's nursery for
a game of romps. Occasionally, after
entertaining some extra fine friends
at dinner, perhaps he would bid the
servants bring Miss O'Shea down to
desserts chiefly it would seem (but
Belinda was happily indiscrimin-
ative) for the opportunity her pres
ence afforded of airing his connec-
ton with the Earl of Liskeard's fam
lily. On few blissful Sundays
throughout the year he would take
her out for walk through the parks.
This was all-the sole approach to
parental love that frightened Belin-
da's lonely child's life, and as years
went on even this scant intercourse
between O'Shea and his daughter les
sened. Difficulties multiplied around
the man; truths of many kinds
dawned upon the poor pink-and-
white fool whose substance he had
wasted. Recrim;1ations, long abb
penditure, falling off of fair-weather
friends, all followed in natural Sc
quence. And then came the crash in
earnest; Belindas pittance their only
certain support for the futurei The
house in May Fair must be exchanged
for one in Bayswater; the house in
Bayswater must give place to lodg-
ings; the lodgings from elegance"
so-called, must sink to responsibility;
responsibility to eighteen shillings a
week, no extras, and dirt and dis
comfort unlimited Belinda, instead
of roast mutton and rice pudding,
must eat whatever cold scraps
CHANGED to be over from yesterdays
meal, and no pudding at all; instead
of yawning over French verbs, or
drumming scales on the piano, must
run errands, mend clothes, crimp
chignons, pleat false tresses, and gem
orally make herself the milliner,
lady's maid, and drudge of her step
mamma, Rose.
Cornelius descended the ladder of
life with philosophic, gentlemanly
grace that added the last drop of bit
terness to Mrs. O'Shea's cup.
Belinda, who could see no evil in
what she loved, thought papa's resig-
nation sublime!
His dress from shabbiness degen-
Grated to something worse. his nose
grew redder, his hours and his gait
alike more uncertain. In Belinda's
eyes he was still the best and dear
est of fathers, the most incomparably
long-suffering of husbands. Rose
must have her chignons crimpeS,
must put ON her pearl powder and
her silk dresses, as if we were rich
STILL" the girl would think with the
blind injustice of her age, while
papa, poor papa, wears his oldest
clothes and broken boots; yes, and
will sing song at times to his little
girl, and be gay and light-hearted
through it ALL"
The truth was this Cornelius
knew that his last trick was made,
Rose that she had the possibility Of
one still in her hand-a certain
Uncle Robert, crusty, vulgar, rich,
living retired" in his own villa at
Brompton. Very different would Be
linda's story have turned out had
uncle CHANGED to be an aunt. Tho
old lady never lived who could resist
the Establishments of Cornelius
O'Shea when he willed to fascinate.
Hmm the coarse tough heart the