Red Pottage

us les hom

iés et leu

URG

majority of men on such devotion might be summed up in the words, "Occupy till I come." It does occupy till they do come. And if they don't come the

ill young when life is waning, which man's love and motherhood cannot displace nor death annihilate; a friendship which is not the solitary affection of

o loved all two and four legged creatures, but who never made them talk to each other as Hester did. And Hester, in blue serge, told Rachel, in crimson velvet, as they walked hand in hand in front of their nursery-maids, what the London sparrows said to each other in the gutters, and how they considered the gravel path in the square was a deep river suitable to bathe in. And when the spring was coming, and the prince had rescued the princess so often from th

had never met the rich iron-master's wife in this world, and would probably be equally exclusive in the next, was about to refuse, when Hester, who up to that moment had apparently taken no interest in the matter, suddenly cast herself on the floor in a paroxysm of despair and beat her head against the carpet.

iselle, went to tea in the magnificent house on the other side of the square, and saw Rachel's round head without a feathered hat on it, and both children were consumed by shyness until the two mademo

mouse in Po

usan had felt unable (notwithstanding the marked advances of Mrs. West, possibly because of them) to enlarge her visiting-list, in spite of

chel's parents died, her mother first, and then-by accident-her father, leaving behind him

e essayed to teach, and failed. She had no real education. She made desperate struggles for independence, and learned how others failed besides herself. She left her relations and their bitter bread and came to London, and struggled with those who struggled, and saw how Temptation spreads her net for bleeding feet. Be

y which her clergyman brother, who had never seen it, pronounced to be frivolous, worldly, profane, but which no one has called dull. There were many facets in Hester's character, and Lady Susan had managed to place her where they caught the light. Was she witty? Was she attra

h, was becoming a personage. "What will she become?" people said. And in the meanwhile Hester did nothing beyond

of her hands among those poor as herself. Gradually she had lost sight of all her acquaintances. She had been out of the school-room for too short a time to make friends. And, alas!

ent happened which changed the bias of her character, as a geranium t

she had thought once or twice, with momentary bitterness, that, like the rest, he had not cared to find out what had become of her. She greeted him with shy but evident pleasure. She took for granted he had come to see her, and he allowed her to remain under that delusion. In re

's proud, tender heart struggled, and then gave way before this radiant first love blossoming in the midst of her lonel

came and laid upon earth's bridal veil a white shroud. Every cup of May blossom, every petal of hawthorn, bent beneath its burden of snow. And so it was in the full spring-tide of Rachel's heart. The snow came down upon it. She discovered at las

her vainly with its love. Rachel's poor neighbors grew accustomed to see the tall, handsome, waiting figure which always returned and returned, but whi

re Rachel still lived. It was a miserable day. The streets and bare trees looked as if they had been drawn in in ink, and the whole car

manuscript to be transcribed. A woman waiting for her on the endle

, shaking her fist at her, "and now he gives it all

d spare, the calculation did not take

hich she could barely live, fell like lead into Rachel's heart. She looked out dumbly over the wilderness of roofs. The suffering

paper I wrote on-all these, and everything I touched, from my soap to my match-box, especially my match-box, was the result of sweated labor, I should not have believed it, I should have laughed. But yet it is so. If I had not been rich once myself I should think as all these people do, that the rich are devils incarnate to let such things go on. They have the power to help

ool wherein youth and beauty and innocence go down quick day by day. The wilderness of leaden roofs turned suddenly before he

her a large parcel. It was a fur-lined cloak. Hester spread it mutely before her friend, and looked

ow you can't afford it. I should not mind if you were rich, at least, I would try not, but-if you would only give me some of your

into Rachel's hair. "The bes

it be kind

d, and then bu

"Look, Hester! I have got it on. How deliciously warm! a

el sat down by her on the floor in the

, a violent contrast to each other? Why do the obvious and the subtle forget their

The one was calm, patient, practical, equable

he one had lived the unprotected life, and showed it in her bearing. The other had l

hat is all it cost. It is only frieze, that common red frieze, and the lining is only rabbit." A last tear fell at the word rabbit. "I wanted to get you a velvet one, just

Hester was evide

ce to her friend. "He said that we are always so placed that we can only look on. And I told him that could not be t

little window. There was just room for t

's brougham was p

h money can't buy. And those are the things"-Rachel's voice shook-"which you have always given me, and which I can't do without. You feel my poverty more tha

s a long

might have married me. I feel nearly sure he would have married me. In that case I lost my

with a sense of thankfulness that for once she, who was

d long together ch

ness was followed by a lightning flash of self-revelation. She saw, as in a dream, terrible, beautiful, inaccessible, but distinct, where her power lay, of which restless bewildering hints had so often mocked her. She h

chel gently, remembering La

Love has many keys besides that of her own dwelling. Some who know her slightly affirm that she can only open her own cheap patent padlock with a secre

and her acquaintances-not her friends-were still wondering how she came to know so much of a life of which they decided she

thful tin kettle, which had always been a cheerful boiler. And she washed her seven coarse handkerchiefs, and put them in the washhandstand drawer. And then she raked out the fire and cleaned the grate, and set the room in order. It was quickly done. She took up her hat, which lay beside a bundle on the bed. Her hands trembled as she put it on.

shall come back," she said to the

s from the cheap blouse which she was finishing, which kept so well the g

ping on t

dle. She had seen many flittings. She should buy the kettle when R

ere's a-many as 'ull miss you. Good-bye, and g

e felt like a thief. For she was rich. The man who had led her father into the speculati