Transcriber’s Notes:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.
* * * * *
EAGLE LIBRARY No. 8
Beautiful But Poor
By Julia Edwards
[Illustration: From copyright photo by Aime Dupont, N. Y.]
STREET & SMITH
Publishers -- New York
All stories copyrighted. Cannot be had in any other edition.
* * * * *
_Copyrighted Fiction by the Best Authors_
NEW EAGLE SERIES
Price, 15 Cents :: Issued Weekly
(Trade supplied exclusively by the American News Company and its
branches.)
The books in this line comprise an unrivaled collection of copyrighted
novels by authors who have won fame wherever the English language is
spoken. Foremost among these is Mrs. Georgie Sheldon, whose works
are contained in this line exclusively. Every book in the New Eagle
Series is of generous length, of attractive appearance, and of
undoubted merit. No better literature can be had at any price. Beware
of imitations of the S. & S. novels, which are sold cheap because
their publishers were put to no expense in the matter of purchasing
manuscripts and making plates.
ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT
NOTICE:--If these books are sent by mail, four cents must be added to
the price of each copy to cover postage.
1--Queen Bess By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
2--Ruby’s Reward By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
7--Two Keys By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
12--Edrie’s Legacy By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
44--That Dowdy By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
55--Thrice Wedded By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
66--Witch Hazel By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
77--Tina By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
88--Virgie’s Inheritance By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
99--Audrey’s Recompense By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
111--Faithful Shirley By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
122--Grazia’s Mistake By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
133--Max By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
144--Dorothy’s Jewels By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
155--Nameless Dell By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
166--The Masked Bridal By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
177--A True Aristocrat By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
188--Dorothy Arnold’s Escape By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
199--Geoffrey’s Victory By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
210--Wild Oats By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
219--Lost, A Pearle By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
222--The Lily of Mordaunt By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
233--Nora By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
244--A Hoiden’s Conquest By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
255--The Little Marplot By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
266--The Welfleet Mystery By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
277--Brownie’s Triumph By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
282--The Forsaken Bride By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
288--Sibyl’s Influence By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
291--A Mysterious Wedding Ring By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
299--Little Miss Whirlwind By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
311--Wedded by Fate By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
339--His Heart’s Queen By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
351--The Churchyard Betrothal By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
362--Stella Rosevelt By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
372--A Girl in a Thousand By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
373--A Thorn Among Roses Sequel to
“A Girl in a Thousand.” By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
382--Mona By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
391--Marguerite’s Heritage By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
399--Betsey’s Transformation By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
407--Esther, the Fright By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
415--Trixy By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
419--The Other Woman By Charles Garvice
433--Winifred’s Sacrifice By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
440--Edna’s Secret Marriage By Charles Garvice
451--Helen’s Victory By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
458--When Love Meets Love By Charles Garvice
476--Earle Wayne’s Nobility By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
511--The Golden Key By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
512--A Heritage of Love Sequel to
“The Golden Key.” By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
519--The Magic Cameo By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
520--The Heatherford Fortune Sequel
to “The Magic Cameo.” By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
531--Better Than Life By Charles Garvice
537--A Life’s Mistake By Charles Garvice
542--Once in a Life By Charles Garvice
548--’Twas Love’s Fault By Charles Garvice
553--Queen Kate By Charles Garvice
554--Step By Step By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
555--Put to the Test By Ida Reade Allen
556--With Love’s Aid By Wenona Gilman
557--In Cupid’s Chains By Charles Garvice
558--A Plunge Into the Unknown By Richard Marsh
559--The Love That Was Cursed By Geraldine Fleming
560--The Thorns of Regret By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
561--The Outcast of the Family By Charles Garvice
562--A Forced Promise By Ida Reade Allen
563--The Old Homestead By Denman Thompson
564--Love’s First Kiss By Emma Garrison Jones
565--Just a Girl By Charles Garvice
566--In Love’s Springtime By Laura Jean Libbey
567--Trixie’s Honor By Geraldine Fleming
568--Hearts and Dollars By Ida Reade Allen
569--By Devious Ways By Charles Garvice
570--Her Heart’s Unbidden Guest By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
571--Two Wild Girls By Mrs. Charlotte May Kingsley
572--Amid Scarlet Roses By Emma Garrison Jones
573--Heart for Heart By Charles Garvice
574--The Fugitive Bride By Mary E. Bryan
575--A Blue Grass Heroine By Ida Reade Allen
576--The Yellow Face By Fred M. White
577--The Story of a Passion By Charles Garvice
578--A Lovely Impostor By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
579--The Curse of Beauty By Geraldine Fleming
580--The Great Awakening By E. Phillips Oppenheim
581--A Modern Juliet By Charles Garvice
582--Virgie Talcott’s Mission By Lucy M. Russell
583--His Greatest Sacrifice; or, Manch By Mary E. Bryan
584--Mabel’s Fate By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
585--The Ape and the Diamond By Richard Marsh
586--Nell, of Shorne Mills By Charles Garvice
587--Katherine’s Two Suitors By Geraldine Fleming
588--The Crime of Love By Barbara Howard
589--His Father’s Crime By E. Phillips Oppenheim
590--What Was She to Him? By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
591--A Heritage of Hate By Charles Garvice
592--Ida Chaloner’s Heart By Lucy Randall Comfort
593--Love Will Find the Way By Wenona Gilman
594--A Case of Identity By Richard Marsh
595--The Shadow of Her Life By Charles Garvice
596--Slighted Love By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
597--Her Fatal Gift By Geraldine Fleming
598--His Wife’s Friend By Mary E. Bryan
599--At Love’s Cost By Charles Garvice
600--St. Elmo By Augusta J. Evans
601--The Fate of the Plotter By Louis Tracy
602--Married In Error By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
603--Love and Jealousy By Lucy Randall Comfort
604--Only a Working Girl By Geraldine Fleming
605--Love, the Tyrant By Charles Garvice
606--Mabel’s Sacrifice By Charlotte M. Stanley
607--Sybilla, the Siren By Ida Reade Allen
608--Love is Love Forevermore Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
609--John Elliott’s Flirtation By Lucy May Russell
610--With All Her Heart By Charles Garvice
611--Is Love Worth While? By Geraldine Fleming
612--Her Husband’s Other Wife By Emma Garrison Jones
613--Philip Bennion’s Death By Richard Marsh
614--Little Phillis’ Lover By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
615--Maida By Charles Garvice
616--Strangers to the Grave By Ida Reade Allen
617--As a Man Lives By E. Phillips Oppenheim
618--The Tide of Fate By Wenona Gilman
619--The Cardinal Moth By Fred M. White
620--Marcia Drayton By Charles Garvice
621--Lynette’s Wedding By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
622--His Madcap Sweetheart By Emma Garrison Jones
623--Love at the Loom By Geraldine Fleming
624--A Bachelor Girl By Lucy May Russell
625--Kyra’s Fate By Charles Garvice
626--The Joss By Richard Marsh
627--My Little Love By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
628--A Daughter of the Marionis By E. Phillips Oppenheim
629--The Lady of Beaufort Park By Wenona Gilman
630--The Verdict of the Heart By Charles Garvice
631--A Love Concealed By Emma Garrison Jones
632--Cruelly Divided By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
633--The Strange Disappearance
of Lady Delia By Louis Tracy
634--Love’s Golden Spell By Geraldine Fleming
635--A Coronet of Shame By Charles Garvice
636--Sinned Against By Mary E. Bryan
637--If It Were True! By Wenona Gilman
638--A Golden Barrier By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
639--A Hateful Bondage By Barbara Howard
640--A Girl of Spirit By Charles Garvice
641--Master of Men By E. Phillips Oppenheim
642--A Fair Enchantress By Ida Reade Allen
643--The Power of Love By Geraldine Fleming
644--No Time for Penitence By Wenona Gilman
645--A Jest of Fate By Charles Garvice
646--Her Sister’s Secret By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
647--Bitterly Atoned By Mrs. E. Burke Collins
648--Gertrude Elliott’s Crucible By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
649--The Corner House By Fred M. White
650--Diana’s Destiny By Charles Garvice
651--Love’s Clouded Dawn By Wenona Gilman
652--Little Vixen By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
653--Her Heart’s Challenge By Barbara Howard
654--Vivian’s Love Story By Mrs. E. Burke Collins
655--Linked by Fate By Charles Garvice
656--Hearts of Stone By Geraldine Fleming
657--In the Service of Love By Richard Marsh
To Be Published During January.
658--Love’s Devious Course By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
659--Told In the Twilight By Ida Reade Allen
660--The Mills of the Gods By Wenona Gilman
661--The Man of the Hour By Sir William Magnay
To Be Published During February.
662--A Little Barbarian By Charlotte Kingsley
663--Creatures of Destiny By Charles Garvice
664--A Southern Princess By Emma Garrison Jones
665--Where Love Dwelt By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
To Be Published During March.
666--A Fateful Promise By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
667--The Goddess--A Demon By Richard Marsh
668--From Tears To Smiles By Ida Reade Allen
669--Tempted by Gold By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
670--Better Than Riches By Wenona Gilman
To Be Published During April.
671--When Love Is Young By Charles Garvice
672--Craven Fortune By Fred M. White
673--Her Life’s Burden By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
674--The Heart of Hetta By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
To Be Published During May.
675--The Breath of Slander By Ida Reade Allen
676--The Wooing of Esther Gray By Louis Tracy
677--The Shadow Between Them By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
678--Gold in the Gutter By Charles Garvice
To Be Published During June.
679--Master of Her Fate By Geraldine Fleming
680--In Full Cry By Richard Marsh
681--My Pretty Maid By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
682--An Unhappy Bargain By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
683--True Love Endures By Ida Reade Allen
In order that there may be no confusion, we desire to say that the
books listed above will be issued, during the respective months, in New
York City and vicinity. They may not reach the readers, at a distance,
promptly, on account of delays in transportation.
* * * * *
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ALL TITLES ALWAYS IN PRINT
NOTICE:--If these books are sent by mail, four cents must be added to
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3--The Love of Violet Lee By Julia Edwards
4--For a Woman’s Honor By Bertha M. Clay
5--The Senator’s Favorite By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
6--The Midnight Marriage By A. M. Douglas
8--Beautiful But Poor By Julia Edwards
9--The Virginia Heiress By May Agnes Fleming
10--Little Sunshine By Francis S. Smith
11--The Gipsy’s Daughter By Bertha M. Clay
13--The Little Widow By Julia Edwards
14--Violet Lisle By Bertha M. Clay
15--Dr. Jack By St. George Rathborne
16--The Fatal Card By Haddon Chambers and B. C. Stephenson
17--Leslie’s Loyalty
(His Love So True) By Charles Garvice
18--Dr. Jack’s Wife By St. George Rathborne
19--Mr. Lake of Chicago By Harry DuBois Milman
20--The Senator’s Bride By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
21--A Heart’s Idol By Bertha M. Clay
22--Elaine By Charles Garvice
23--Miss Pauline of New York By St. George Rathborne
24--A Wasted Love
(On Love’s Altar) By Charles Garvice
25--Little Southern Beauty By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
26--Captain Tom By St. George Rathborne
27--Estelle’s Millionaire Lover By Julia Edwards
28--Miss Caprice By St. George Rathborne
29--Theodora By Victorien Sardou
30--Baron Sam By St. George Rathborne
31--A Siren’s Love By Robert Lee Tyler
32--The Blockade Runner By J. Perkins Tracy
33--Mrs. Bob By St. George Rathborne
34--Pretty Geraldine By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
35--The Great Mogul By St. George Rathborne
36--Fedora By Victorien Sardou
37--The Heart of Virginia By J. Perkins Tracy
38--The Nabob of Singapore By St. George Rathborne
39--The Colonel’s Wife By Warren Edwards
40--Monsieur Bob By St. George Rathborne
41--Her Heart’s Desire
(An Innocent Girl) By Charles Garvice
42--Another Woman’s Husband By Bertha M. Clay
43--Little Coquette Bonnie By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
45--A Yale Man By Robert Lee Tyler
46--Off with the Old Love By Mrs. M. V. Victor
47--The Colonel by Brevet By St. George Rathborne
48--Another Man’s Wife By Bertha M. Clay
49--None But the Brave By Robert Lee Tyler
50--Her Ransom (Paid For) By Charles Garvice
51--The Price He Paid By E. Werner
52--Woman Against Woman By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
54--Cleopatra By Victorien Sardou
56--The Dispatch Bearer By Warren Edwards
57--Rosamond By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
58--Major Matterson of Kentucky By St. George Rathborne
59--Gladys Greye By Bertha M. Clay
61--La Tosca By Victorien Sardou
62--Stella Stirling By Julia Edwards
63--Lawyer Bell from Boston By Robert Lee Tyler
64--Dora Tenney By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
65--Won by the Sword By J. Perkins Tracy
67--Gismonda By Victorien Sardou
68--The Little Cuban Rebel By Edna Winfield
69--His Perfect Trust By Bertha M. Clay
70--Sydney
(A Wilful Young Woman.) By Charles Garvice
71--The Spider’s Web By St. George Rathborne
72--Wilful Winnie By Harriet Sherburne
73--The Marquis By Charles Garvice
74--The Cotton King By Sutton Vane
75--Under Fire By T. P. James
76--Mavourneen From the celebrated play
78--The Yankee Champion By Sylvanus Cobb, Jr.
79--Out of the Past
(Marjorie) By Charles Garvice
80--The Fair Maid of Fez By St. George Rathborne
81--Wedded for an Hour By Emma Garrison Jones
82--Captain Impudence By Edwin Milton Royle
83--The Locksmith of Lyons By Prof. Wm. Henry Peck
84--Imogene
(Dumaresq’s Temptation) By Charles Garvice
85--Lorrie; or, Hollow Gold By Charles Garvice
86--A Widowed Bride By Lucy Randall Comfort
87--Shenandoah By J. Perkins Tracy
89--A Gentleman from Gascony By Bicknell Dudley
90--For Fair Virginia By Russ Whytal
91--Sweet Violet By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
92--Humanity By Sutton Vane
93--A Queen of Treachery By Ida Reade Allen
94--Darkest Russia By H. Grattan Donnelly
95--A Wilful Maid
(Philippa) By Charles Garvice
96--The Little Minister By J. M. Barrie
97--The War Reporter By Warren Edwards
98 Claire
(The Mistress of Court Regna) By Charles Garvice
100--Alice Blake By Francis S. Smith
101--A Goddess of Africa By St. George Rathborne
102--Sweet Cymbeline
(Bellmaire) By Charles Garvice
103--The Span of Life By Sutton Vane
104--A Proud Dishonor By Genie Holzmeyer
105--When London Sleeps By Chas. Darrell
106--Lillian, My Lillian By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
107--Carla; or, Married at Sight By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
108--A Son of Mars By St. George Rathborne
109--Signa’s Sweetheart
(Lord Delamere’s Bride) By Charles Garvice
110--Whose Wife Is She? By Annie Lisle
112--The Cattle King By A. D. Hall
113--A Crushed Lily By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
114--Half a Truth By Dora Delmar
115--A Fair Revolutionist By St. George Rathborne
116--The Daughter of the Regiment By Mary A. Denison
117--She Loved Him By Charles Garvice
118--Saved from the Sea By Richard Duffy
119--’Twixt Smile and Tear
(Dulcie) By Charles Garvice
120--The White Squadron By T. C. Harbaugh
121--Cecile’s Marriage By Lucy Randall Comfort
123--Northern Lights By A. D. Hall
124--Prettiest of All By Julia Edwards
125--Devil’s Island By A. D. Hall
126--The Girl from Hong Kong By St. George Rathborne
127--Nobody’s Daughter By Clara Augusta
128--The Scent of the Roses By Dora Delmar
129--In Sight of St. Paul’s By Sutton Vane
130--A Passion Flower
(Madge) By Charles Garvice
131--Nerine’s Second Choice By Adelaide Stirling
* * * * *
Stories for boys must be true to life. If they are not, boys will have
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_THE MEDAL LIBRARY_
contains stories by Horatio Alger, Jr., Oliver Optic, G. A. Henty,
Frank H. Converse, James Otis and a hundred others who are just as
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or had a more generous list to select from than what we are now
offering to you at ten cents per copy in the MEDAL LIBRARY.
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_“The Right Books at the Right Price”_
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_STREET & SMITH, Publishers, New York_
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The Only Book Line Devoted to Buffalo Bill’s Adventures
THE FAR WEST LIBRARY
¶ The days are past when it was unsafe for a man to go alone beyond the
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¶ The Far West Library publishes stories of the West as it was, and no
one who likes vigorous tales of the West can do better at any where
near the price, than these splendid stories.
¶ They were all written by a friend of Mr. Cody who has had many narrow
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¶ Bound in exceptionally attractive covers and printed from good,
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WORTH THE PRICE
The New Romance Library
We have tried hard to make this a line of first-class big books--books
that no reader can possibly hesitate about paying fifteen cents for.
The titles and authors are just as popular as we could make them, and
the books are generous in quantity as well as in quality.
We want you to become acquainted with the New Romance Library for its
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Street & Smith, Publishers, New York
* * * * *
BEAUTIFUL BUT POOR.
BY
JULIA EDWARDS,
AUTHOR OF
“Prettiest of All,” “The Little Widow”, Etc.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK:
STREET & SMITH, Publishers.
* * * * *
Copyright, 1892,
By STREET & SMITH
* * * * *
Publishers Note
Notwithstanding the fact that the sales of magazines have increased
tremendously during the past five or six years, the popularity of a
good paper-covered novel, printed in attractive and convenient form,
remains undiminished.
There are thousands of readers who do not care for magazines because
the stories in them, as a rule, are short and just about the time they
become interested in it, it ends and they are obliged to readjust their
thoughts to a set of entirely different characters.
The S. & S. novel is long and complete and enables the reader to spend
many hours of thorough enjoyment without doing any mental gymnastics.
Our paper-covered books stand pre-eminent among up-to-date fiction.
Every day sees a new copyrighted title added to the S. & S. lines, each
one making them stronger, better and more invincible.
STREET & SMITH, Publishers
79-89 SEVENTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY
* * * * *
BEAUTIFUL BUT POOR.
CHAPTER I. HATTIE’S LETTER.
Fancy a dingy old brick house on B---- street, New York city--dusty
outside and moldy in all its ragged, papered walls inside--a dreary
house with small, poorly ventilated rooms--these rooms wretchedly
furnished, and I have made you at home in “Miss Scrimp’s Boarding-House
for ladies only--no gentlemen boarded, lodged, or admitted.”
For this was the inscription on a faded tin sign nailed over the front
door.
And in this building existed--I will not say lived--most of the
time, between thirty and fifty working girls, attracted there by
the cheapness of board, which enabled them to make ends meet on the
wretched wages due to “hard times,” or hard-hearted employers, or
perhaps to a medium between the two.
Miss Scrimp, a maiden lady, who acknowledged herself to be
forty-five--one of the oldest boarders said that had been her age for
over ten years--only charged four dollars a week for boarders in her
best, lower rooms, and it ran as low as two dollars and a half in the
upper story, and two attic chambers--for this was a four-story house.
She had but two servants--one to cook, wash, and iron, the other a
pitiful, thin little creature, as errand girl, waitress, maid of all
work, and all work it was for her, from early dawn till far into the
night. She did all the sweeping, set out the table, helped to wash and
wipe dishes, carried Miss Scrimp’s market-basket, went to the grocery,
cleaned and lighted lamps--indeed, did almost everything that had to be
done outside of the kitchen, and bore the abuse of Biddy Lanigan, the
cook, and that of her mistress, like a little martyr, as she in truth
was.
Little Jess they called her--her full name was Jessie Albemarle--was
as good as she could be to all around her, no matter how she was
treated, but there was one young girl in that house whom she almost
worshiped--first, because Hattie Butler was very good to her; next,
because Hattie was really the most beautiful creature she had ever seen
on earth.
Though Hattie lodged in the very topmost room of the house, when she
came home weary from her daily toil she would find her room swept
as clean as clean could be, fresh water in her pitcher, and often a
bouquet of flowers, picked up at market or elsewhere, perfuming the
little room. And she knew Little Jess had done all this for the love
there was between them.
Hattie, I said before, was very beautiful. Just seventeen, and entering
on her eighteenth year, her form was full of that slender grace so
peculiar to budding womanhood--just tall enough to pass the medium,
without being an approach to awkwardness. Eyes of a jet, sparkling
black, shaded by long, fringe-like lashes, features of the Grecian
type, complexion rich, but not too brown, the expressiveness of her
face a very marvel.
No one, to look at her white hands, her slim, tapering fingers, her
general appearance, even in her plain dress, would have, at first
glance, taken her for a working girl, though she sewed folios in a
book-bindery down town for ten hours every day sure, and often much
longer when there was overwork to do.
She was a quiet girl, making but few friends, and no intimates, though
when I write of her she had been for nearly two years a boarder with
Miss Scrimp. The latter, for a wonder, liked her, though, as a general
thing, she seemed to hate pretty girls, simply because they were
pretty; while she had most likely kept her state of single wretchedness
because she was more than plain--she was ugly. She had a sharp, hook
nose--a parrot-bill nose, if we dare insult the bird by a comparison.
She was cross-eyed, and her eyes were small and greenish-gray in hue.
Her cheek bones were high, her chin long and sharp. Her thin lips
opened almost from ear to ear, and in her dirty morning gown, slopping
around, her form looked like an old coffee-bag, half filled with paper
scraps, perambulating about over a pair of old slippers--number sevens
if an inch.
But Miss Scrimp really liked Hattie Butler, beautiful as she was, and
this was the reason:
At supper-time, before she ate a mouthful, every Saturday night Hattie
laid her board money, two dollars and a half, down at the head of the
table where Miss Scrimp presided. It had been her habit ever since she
came; it was a good example to others, though all did not follow it.
Again, Hattie ate what was placed before her, and never grumbled. She
never found hairs in the rancid butter; or, if she did, she kept it
to herself. If her bread was dry and hard she soaked it in her tea or
coffee, but did not turn her nose up as others did, and threaten to go
away if Miss Scrimp did not set a better table.
And, best of all, Hattie was a light eater, as Miss Scrimp often said,
in hearing of her other boarders, too sensible to hurt her complexion
by using too much greasy food.
Some of the homelier girls sometimes used the old “gag,” if I may use
a story term, and said “she lived on love;” yet the dozen or more who
worked in the same bindery with her never saw her receive attentions
from any man--never saw any person approach her in a lover-like way.
Her only fault to all who knew her was that there was a mystery about
her.
That she was a born lady, her manners, her quiet, dignified way, her
brief conversation, ever couched in unexceptionable language, told
plainly. But she never told any one about herself. She never spoke of
parents or relatives--never alluded to past fortunes. But Little Jess
used to look in wonder at a shelf of books in Hattie’s room. There
were books in French, German, and Spanish, and on Sundays, when she
sometimes stole up stairs to see her favorite among all the boarders,
she found her reading these books. And she had a large portfolio of
drawings, and at times she added to them with a skillful pencil.
One thing was certain. Hattie was very poor--she had no income beyond
that gained by her daily labor. She washed her own clothes, and, by
permission of Biddy Lanigan, ironed them on Saturday evenings in the
kitchen, for she had even a kind word for Biddy, and kind words are
almost as precious as gold to the poor.
Hattie seldom was able to earn over four dollars a week, as wages ran,
and thus she had but little to use for dress, though she was ever
dressed with exceeding taste, plain though her garments were. These she
cut and made, buying the patterns and goods only.
When she had overwork she made more, and she had been seen with a
bank-book in her hand, so it was evident she had saved something to
help along with should sickness overtake her.
She had been two years and one week boarding at Miss Scrimp’s, when one
Thursday the postman, or mail-carrier, rather, delivered a letter at
the door directed to her.
Hattie was down at the bindery then, and Jessie Albemarle, answering
the bell, got the letter. She would have kept it till Hattie came, but
her mistress demanded to see it, and took charge of it.
Little Jess had seen that it was a large letter, postmarked from
somewhere in California, and that it had a singular seal in wax on the
back. The impression represented two hearts pierced with an arrow.
The address was only the name, street, number, and city.
Miss Scrimp looked at it very closely. Had there been no seal, only gum
as a closing medium, it is possible her examination might have been
closer.
Biddy Lanigan, once when she quarreled with her mistress and employer,
boldly twitted her with having “stamed” letters over her “tay-kettle”
and then opened them.
“This is a man’s handwrite!” muttered Miss Scrimp. “I don’t like my
boarders having men to write to ’em. But this one is away off in
Californy--like as not, rich as all creation. I wish I knew who he is
and what he wants. I’ll hand her the letter afore all the boarders at
supper to-night, and if she opens it, I’ll watch her face, and maybe
I can guess from that what’s up. She’ll never tell no other way. She
has just the closest little mouth I ever did see. But come to think,
she mightn’t open it at the table. She wouldn’t be apt to, for all the
girls would be curious to know if it was a love-letter, and plague her,
maybe. And she is too good a girl to be plagued. I’ll keep it till
after she has had supper and gone to her room, and then I’ll go up,
friendly-like and take a chair--if there’s two in her room, which I’m
not sure of--hand her the letter, and wait till she opens it. And I’ll
ask her if her brother in Californy is well--make as if some one had
told me she had a brother there.”
This plan, talked over to herself, satisfied Miss Scrimp, and she
put the letter in one of her capacious pockets, there to remain till
evening.