Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-12-06

| Us 8DDfHF n0mEAHs
j for choice along the fine avenues as
far as possible, through dusk
I gemmed with golden lights clustered
| before the porticoes of great hotels
and restaurants, she was tormented
constantly with jealousy She saw,
before eanopied doorways, ladies' de
scending from their carriages, climb
ing the carpeted steps, their long
trains trailing after them like tum-
bling foam. Doors opened to them.
| disclosing the interiors of splendid
houses, and shut While she looked
longingly. Beyond the deserted ter
races of restaurants, she perceived
/ through long windows, by the aid of
candles lit on snowy tables, white
shoulders, flowers, strands Of pearls.
outstretched fingers glitterlng with
rings--vague people moving In an
other world.
She observed also the men who ac-
companied these fortunate women.
From observing them, and from the
perusal OF stories In magazines and
in novels which she borrowed, she
made more dreams--dreams no less
personal, dreams of the sort which
young girls have. From actual per-
ception and from fiction she con-
able prince-handsom debonair, arts
tocratic, always dressed for the eve
ming in glistening hat and pumps and
q fur-lined great-eoat, always, at
the end of the adventures in which
she perceived him, taking her in his
arms
And yet, walking with burning,
hungry eyes in that fair region, cravl
ing intensely all its rare allurements,
into her mind crept stealthily specu-
lative thoughts that she would not, a
year before have tolerated
Each night, as she opened the door
of the fat she knew exactly what
to expect. IN the little kitchen, the
kettle boiled on the stove; the tin
clock licked resonantly on the cup
board shelf; her mother, in a ging-
ham apron, stood there preparing
supper Looking into the "parlor,
she could see the tidy on the table,
the work-basket, the earthenware
shepherdess on the mantel-piece, the
broad brown stain on the ceiling
where the water had leaked through
one day, the foot of the bed looming
in the black aperture OF the little
alcove. Night after night, that scene,
it's insignificant details always the
samei
one evening, the monotony of their
existence was broken in a startling
way. There was a rumble and q
crash ON the staircase, a CHATTER OF
feet, q Woman's screams. Every one
rushed into the halls.
A glass-cutter who lived with his
wife and three small children across
the hall-a great brute of man VINO
spent his money on liquor as he
earned il and every Saturday night
appeared before his family reeling-
had come home drunk, slipped on the
last staircase and fallen down 1t.
The ambulance surgeon, In white
suit, came skipping upstairs and eN-
amined him. The fellows back was
broken The surgeon called up his
driver, who appeared with n stretcher.
And Bertha, with a shock of amaze
ment, recognized In this tall bony.
blue-coated man the youth who, in the
glassware department, used to run
back and forth between tables and
storerooms. He looked up, saw her
standing on the stairs a yard from
him, and CAPPED at her as II petrihed.
"You live here?"
$50 you've left the store!"
"Six months ago. And your
"Still there.
on his way downstairs, holding one
gaping up at her in bewilderment
Three evenings later he met her at
the door of the hat-house, stammer-
ing that it was his might off.
Il thought perhaps you'd go to
show?'
George returned to the fiat on his
next night. out After that he pr
scented himself at every opportunity
lie took Bertha sometimes to the
- 70 n 10 n
table d'hote" There seemed to be
little doubt of his attentions and the
mother from behind her blue specta-
cles watched the progress of his
courtship with suppressed excitement.
Late one NIGHT, when he had brought
Bertha back to her door, in an agi-
tated, half-coherent speech, he asked
her to marry him
II know I'm not good enough for
you'll But ever since | first saw you
in the basement"
Watching him with intent eyes, de-
| liberately she compared him to the
figures in her dreams She thought:
I'VE should never be different. 1t
would always be jnst-thisi" Cling
! Ing to her old visions, her own unreal
/ sona.i hopes, she told him the truth;
/ she id net love him He stood still
! for vi! Q: then his eyes filled with
tears, an,I, turning at last he walked
4 away.
She went upstairs to the window
facing east and stared out over the
/ housetops.
Weeks afterward, when her mother
unable longer to contain herself, ask
ed what had become of George.
Bertha said calmly:
II refused him.
For a moment the mother sat mo-
tionless. Behind her blue spectacles
she seemed disguised. and Bertha,
looking at her. had for the first time
in her life an incomprehensible sensa-
] tion of antagonism. At length. In
a low trembling voice. the mother
exclaimed: $50 that's what you've