Year: 1874

"Not quite; there seems to be some one
asleep in the other bed"


eyes, she sleeps fast enough, and she
won't trouble us with her dreams; it's
the only kind of sleep worth having
She died while the Matron was down
stairs"


"For mercy's sake let me go and tel
herp ] said, Mortified at her careless
manner.


" II Is for mercy's sake to the living
that | have sent for you. Never mind
the dead"


The woman was not in the least wild
in her manner, and paused only to cough
at intervals.


81 am Madeleine Deioux, seamstress
who worked three months once for Mrs
John Deane, making up the wardrobe for
one of her babies. / think il was the sec
ond boy. used to see you, Miss Denni
son, every day, and you have changed
very little. But l was handsome then
with a brilliant, Spanish sort of beauty
you would not suppose it, to see me
nOw?"


81 have given no thought TO the matter
at ALL" said little sharply, recognizing
her at last as one whom / had formerly
disliked, and suspecting that she was
about TO confess the theft of Isabel's gold
thimble, or somthing of the sort.


~ suppose not, but you must give both
thought and understanding to the rest OF
what have to say. Mr.. Deane and his
wife, as possibly you have noticed, were
the most perfectly happy married people
that ever saw. Being so long under
their roof, had every opportunity to OBJ
serve it. always sewed in little room
adjoining their bed-chamber, which Mrs
Deane used as a nursery; indeed, she usu.
ally sat there with the only child she had
then.


"She treated me kindly, after fashion
but somehow she seemed to make no diff.
ference between me and the servants in
the house. l was just the person who
served her purpose, and she wanted no
more to do with me l had been taught
that my good looks were to be my fortune,
and she never noticed them at all.


"She was a plain-looking woman al
times when she had no color; but if she
had been full-hedged angel, Mr.. Deane
could not have been more convinced of
her beauty. He fairly worshiped the
ground she walked on, and when could
hear them billing and cooling over their
boy, would grind my teeth with sheer
envy of her happiness.


81 tried in every way to attract Mr..
Deane's attention, even to lacing his wifes
boots after she found it difficult to stoop
but he had eyes only for her foot, and
never saw the scarlet flower in my hair.
held his boy till my arms ached, and
tried to magnetic him with my touch
but might as we'll have been so much
empty air; for him, there was but one
woman in the world.


1t is not safe occupation for a young
girl to try such experiments. l had not
been in the house two months before |
loved him with all my heart, and he
habit of reading aloud to his wife for an
which they were much interested, was
James Greenwood's Seven Curses of
London Mrs. Deane pretended great
sympathy with the poor wretches that it
described, and talked very lovingly of the
fallen ones of her own sex; of course,
Mr.. Deane loved her for it more than ever,
if that were possible.


"They gave it up, however, after read
ing few chapters, because she said in
her mawkish way that it was too painful





this time that because things are painful
they are all the more likely to be true. l
got the book out of the library again as
soon as they returned it, and finished it
myself. If you have read it land if you
have not, / recommend it to you and all
other starched-up women, who have seen
nothing but the whited side of this sep
ulchre of world)-I say, if you have
read it, you cannot fail to remember GER
tain chapter which, after describing many
forms Of villainy in the way of anony-
nous letters, goes on to detail very in
genious method of getting money out of
widows and orphans, called the 'dead-
lurk'


"After man dies somebody writes q
very familiar letter purpOrting to come
from his mistress, or an accOmplice in
some piece of wickedness, asking for
money according TO promise, as if they
had not heard of his death. The odds
are that the poor woman, hoping to pre-
serve her husbands name from the stain
and disgrace of an investigation, will send
the money. Women are so credulous that
they will believe one story as soon as
another. l admired the talent and acute
ness of such trick; il was 10 me the
cream of the book, and 1 did not think it
too painful to be true.


about month afterward Mrs. Deane
happened to hear me use vulgar word
before her little boy, who repeated it at
once. 1t was slip Of the tongue not
worth noticing; but she could not make
fuss enough about it, and sent me away
directly. She was too self-righteous 10
give me any recommendation to her
friends, and I had to 60 into strange
place, with very little money and no GER
tificate of character. But never mind
that now, she las had her rewardl


81 soon found people enough to look at
my black eyes and the flowers in my hair,
and l came to grief of course. You have
been looking all along as if you expected
it. l came to grief without delay, as /
said, but got some pleas sure on the way,
perhaps as much as my betters in the
long run. / got on well enough till a
slight cold turned to cough, and be-
gan to grow sick and poor equally fast
had one child to supports he was then
about five years old, the only creature
who ever loved me. But see you are
not interested in him; nobody was ever
interested in him except his mother.


"I had no prospect before me but lin
gering death in the pOor-house, while my
lovely, blue-eyed boy would be cuffed
about some orphan asylum until he was
old enough to work. In this evil case,
when was in sorest extremity, saw the
death of John Deane in a newspaper, and
all my old wrongs at his wife's hands
rushed over me like flood at the same
moment remembered the Seven Curses
of London and the trick that l had ad-
mired so much. don't pretend to make
any defense (you are too hard d-hearted to
admit it, if did), but was desperate,
and could not see my boy starve.


with the utmost care and deliberation
/ put together a letter addressed to Mr..
Deane, which would have carried convic-
tion, even to your mind, that had been
near and dear to him. 1t was long and
affectionate, and signed by my own name.
1t referred to those first days when he
had spoken kindly to me in the sewing
room, and TO my meeting him more and
more often afterward away from home,
and how wiser than a serpent he had
been in never letting his wife suspect it.
1t spoke of our blueeyed Johnny-how
proud he would be TO show papa, on his
n