STOEM-DEIVEN. 
 
 MARY HEALY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " LAEEVILLE," "A SUMMER S ROMANCE," "OUT 
 OF THE WORLD," ETC. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 
 
 1876. 
 
 [All rights reserved.] 
 
LONDON : 
 
 GILBERT AND RIVING ION, PRINTERS, 
 ST. JOHN S SQUARE. 
 
CONTENTS TO VOLUME I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE BELLE OF THE EVENING ... 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE REYEESE OF THE MEDAL . . .31 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 ORPHANS 51 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE TEMPLE DISASTEII .... 66 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE RICHARDS FAMILY ... 80 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SOME FLOWERS . . 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 WOKK . . . . . . .125 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 A LITEEARY VENTURE ..... 142 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 FAILTJEE . 171 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 MRS. Cox . 189 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD . . 210 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 OUT IN THE BIG WORLD . . . . 224 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 ON BOARD 237 
 
STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BELLE OF THE EVENING. 
 
 MRS. Cox was entertaining her friends, one 
 cold winter night. When Mrs. Cox gave 
 a ball, it was an event in Lakeville. No 
 wonder, for her balls were not like other 
 balls, neither was her house like the houses 
 of ordinary mortals ; neither, for that 
 matter, was she like the women about her. 
 Her acquaintances, when they received, 
 threw open the two parlours, and perhaps 
 a library as well, and the guests went to 
 
 VOL. I. B 
 
2 STORM-DEI YEN. 
 
 the dining-room below, for supper. Mrs. 
 Cox had a suite of drawing-rooms, she 
 never said " parlour ; " Mrs. Brown or 
 Mrs. Smith might boast of a strip of hot 
 house by way of luxury : Mrs. Cox had, 
 opening from her private boudoir, a con 
 servatory filled with the rarest flowers, and 
 beyond this, a marvel of a winter garden, 
 high enough to admit of a superb palm in 
 the centre, large enough to allow of intri 
 cate paths crossing each other in every 
 direction among the tropical plants. The 
 whole was visible in a mysterious half-light. 
 At one end there was a fountain, with water 
 trickling from a rocky background, where 
 played a couple of vividly- coloured Japa 
 nese ducks ; and in another corner was an 
 immense cage filled with strange, beautiful 
 birds. 
 
 The mistress of the house moved among 
 
THE EELLE OF THE EVENING. 3 
 
 her guests, bestowing on one a smile, on 
 another a word; followed wherever she 
 went by her own particular set of admirers, 
 composed in general of notabilities. She 
 had been at various European courts, and 
 had conscientiously studied the attitudes 
 and gestures of the different sovereigns, 
 just as an actress studies the minutia3 of 
 her part, and she had really not lost her 
 time. She was nearly a head taller than 
 the generality of women, and carried her 
 unusual height well. Her beauty was not 
 above criticism perhaps, but it was of a 
 striking kind ; dark hair against a white 
 skin, features regular enough, and the 
 whole so carefully restored by art, as to 
 give still an illusion of youth ; so skilfully 
 enhanced too by her peculiar and inimitable 
 style of dress, that the pretensions, which 
 in another woman would have been simply 
 B 2 
 
4 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 ridiculous, with her seemed almost justified. 
 Then, what perhaps most helped her to 
 carry out her chosen part, was that, on her 
 bare neck, and in her dark hair, shone and 
 glittered diamonds, which a royal princess 
 need not have disdained. This put her at 
 once on a different footing from her neigh 
 bours, who mostly had not been rich long 
 enough to possess more than a few of those 
 glittering baubles. 
 
 It was no wonder that, while Mrs. Cox 
 slowly advanced with her studied smile, and 
 her graceful bend of the neck, there should 
 mingle with the admiration she excited, 
 much hatred, malice, and uncharitableness. 
 She was quite as well aware of the envy as 
 of the admiration, and enjoyed one perhaps 
 as much as the other. 
 
 The couples wandering from the ball 
 room passed slowly to and fro ; they were 
 
THE BELLE OP THE EVENING. 5 
 
 mostly young, for married people in Lake- 
 ville were at a discount ; so that the proces 
 sion was a pretty one to watch. Young 
 girls, fresh and bright-eyed, brushed past 
 the sweet-smelling flowers with which the 
 rooms were lavishly decorated ; rich 
 oriental hangings formed a gorgeous back 
 ground to the young beauties. The music, 
 softly subdued, followed them with caress 
 ing modulations, and unconsciously they 
 measured their steps to the time- 
 beats. 
 
 Outside, the snow lay crisp and hard; 
 belated passengers hurried on, shivering, 
 just glancing at the broad stretches of 
 light from the many windows, which made 
 the dark solemn tree-trunks visible, and 
 lighted up the broad gravelled walks of the 
 frozen garden. 
 
 " "What a handsome couple ! " exclaimed 
 
6 STOEM-DRIVEN. 
 
 one of a group of wallflowers. " Who are 
 they?" 
 
 " A foolish girl playing at being in love, 
 &nd a young man helping her in the game " 
 this, from a sharp-eyed woman more 
 plainly dressed than her friends. 
 
 " Do you know them ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! the girl is Lil Temple." 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 " Well ? why nothing more. Lil is but 
 a blank page as yet ; in a few years we 
 shall see what she will turn out to be. She 
 is merely expectant now. Men like blank 
 pages." 
 
 " Because they can best write their 
 names on such. J 
 
 " Precisely. There are girls who write 
 down something of their own accord, but 
 those never c succeed in society/ as it is 
 called ; take her sister Martha for instance, 
 
THE BELLE OF THE EVENING. 7 
 
 who is worth ten of Lil, and who, at a 
 party, acts wallflower almost as much as 
 though she were married like ourselves 
 or my Issy, who is clever, and knows it ! 
 Men do not like clever girls " 
 
 " And who is he ? " 
 
 "By profession a handsome man; by 
 accident the nephew of an eccentric old 
 fellow who allows him ten thousand dol 
 lars a-year, and who, as likely as not, will 
 not leave him a cent when he dies. Ame 
 rica is not good enough for Mr. Leigh 
 Ward as a usual thing, and I am of opi 
 nion that he is not good enough for Ame 
 rica. We do not want fine idlers among 
 us, there is no place for them. He makes 
 verses, he is a musician, sings not too 
 badly, composes too, and if by chance he 
 had to depend on any one of his accom 
 plishments for his daily bread, he would risk 
 
8 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 greatly to die of hunger. His poet-nature 
 despises shops and offices, and the low 
 creatures who therein resort. He is always 
 in love, and always with the belle of the 
 place and moment; it is Lil s turn now " 
 
 " You are hard on Mr. Ward/ said an 
 other lady who had not yet spoken, " he is 
 a very charming young man." 
 
 " Of course he is, otherwise Mrs. Cox 
 would not have given him a place of honour 
 in her court or menagerie, as she herself 
 calls it." 
 
 "Oh, indeed, is ?" and the ques 
 tioner stopped discreetly. 
 
 "My dear, you are evidently a new 
 comer ; no, certainly not ! no one has a 
 right to question Ann Cox s reputation ; 
 she went into partnership with virtue 
 when she married, and the firm has pros 
 pered. Excellent business woman ! supe- 
 
THE BELLE OP THE EVENING. 9 
 
 rior business woman ! She always places 
 her capital at the very highest and surest in 
 terest. Old Cox, whom honest men shrank 
 from shaking by the hand, was tenderly 
 proud of his wife s untainted reputation ; 
 he proved it by leaving her every cent of his 
 enormous and ill-gotten wealth." 
 
 "But now?" 
 
 " Now ? . . . . Once a habit taken, you 
 know, it is all smooth sailing enough ; be 
 sides, she laughs at sentiment ; love seems 
 to her a comical delusion ; she was born 
 with a bag of gold in the place of a heart, 
 and there is wisdom in her prudence. Some 
 day when she finds a very big title, and a 
 name of fine-sounding syllables, she will 
 marry again, to make people forget that 
 she was ever called by one spelled with but 
 three letters." 
 
 At that moment the hostess passed by 
 
10 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 with her slow stately step ; she stopped 
 before the group of gossiping women, and 
 found something pleasant to say to each. 
 There was not one who did not respond 
 gladly to her advance, not one who was 
 not flattered by the attention bestowed. 
 
 " They had been tearing me to pieces, * 
 said Mrs. Cox, with a good-natured laugh, 
 as she passed on, leaning on the arm of a 
 tall handsome man ; " and will begin again 
 in a moment I saw it on their faces," and 
 she laughed again, it really amused her. 
 
 The prediction was fully realized. 
 
 " I suppose it s her diamonds," groaned 
 Mrs. Richards, her black bead eyes gleam 
 ing with comical despair ; " no woman can 
 resist their glitter, and we all naturally 
 bow down before their lucky possessor ; 
 even I I who knew Ann when she and T 
 were poor girls together, she poorer than I 
 
THE BELLE OF THE EVENING. 11 
 
 then, for we are just of an age yes ! you 
 do not believe it, but it is true. I used to 
 patronize her; now she crushes me, she 
 annihilates me with her patronage, and I 
 submit to it, and all because she is rich, 
 whereas I am poor. Mr. Richards has no 
 luck, he never had." 
 
 " Not even, on his wedding-day ? " 
 
 " Not even then, dear ! . . . . Here, 
 John, come and find my self-respect for me ; 
 I lost it just now in the crowd." 
 
 The young man she familiarly called 
 " John," advanced, and took a chair by her 
 side. He was not as Mrs. Eichards had 
 said of another " by profession a handsome 
 man;" there was nothing but the expres 
 sion of his fine deep-set eyes to redeem his 
 face from positive plainness. 
 
 " How did you come to lose that very 
 useful article?" asked he, smiling; the 
 
12 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 women about him decided that his was not 
 an ordinary smile, and they were right. 
 
 " By licking the dust before the queen s 
 feet I ! the very perfection of democracy ! 
 But let us speak of something else. I 
 hear you are getting to be a favourite in 
 our world; fine ladies go to your painting- 
 room, and vow that you are charming when 
 there are not too many people near. Your 
 timidity is a sham ! you have taken me 
 in" 
 
 " I think not. If you knew how out of 
 place I feel here to-night ; how well I know 
 that I am not one of these fine idlers ; 
 how delightful my shabby studio seems to 
 me, in comparison with these gorgeous 
 
 rooms " 
 
 " Then why do you stay ? " 
 For an instant the young man was un 
 able to find an answer. A slight flush 
 
THE BELLE OF THE EVENING. 13 
 
 passed over his face. Then quickly he 
 said. 
 
 " Because I was waiting for an oppor 
 tunity to speak to you." 
 
 " You are making decided progress, my 
 dear young friend. I might tell you that I 
 have been here in my corner all the even 
 ing, not having been overwhelmed with 
 attentions but I won t. Why do you not 
 come and see us? Issy has finished se 
 veral drawings, and made some sketches 
 which she wishes to show you." 
 
 " I have been very busy; I am preparing 
 to return to Paris, but I will certainly call. 
 Tell Miss Issy whatever she does, never to 
 work, except from nature." 
 
 Even while he spoke his eyes wandered 
 from group to group uneasily. Mrs. 
 Richards, whom nothing escaped, said, 
 
 " Not that way. She must be in the 
 
14 STOBM-DRIVEN. 
 
 conservatory, I should guess, with Leigli 
 Ward." 
 
 Once more the slight flush passed over 
 his face, and after a few more words he 
 sauntered away, not in the direction of the 
 conservatory. 
 
 Mrs. Richards had spoken of John Bruce s 
 growing popularity ; but as the young man 
 moved about, almost unnoticed in the crowd, 
 that popularity was certainly not very ap 
 parent. The truth was that, in Mrs. Cox s 
 circle, he was still almost unknown ; the 
 fashionable world accepts reputations al 
 ready made, but it has no time to seek out 
 obscure talent. Yet, there was a certain 
 interest attaching to John s history an 
 interest which a man of less simple nature 
 would have turned to good account. 
 
 Some eighteen years before, when Lake- 
 ville was still a straggling, ill-kept, pros- 
 
THE BELLE OF THE EVENING. 15 
 
 perous, and vastly ambitious young town, 
 a physician, Dr. Bruce, had arrived from 
 the East, with his wife and two young chil 
 dren, determined to make his fortune. He 
 took a very tall, very ill-built, but very 
 showy frame-house, at a high rent, caused 
 a very big brass plate to be fastened to his 
 front door, and confidently awaited the 
 crowds of patients which should have 
 hastened to him. Perhaps the Lakevillites 
 had no time to be ill ; perhaps they were 
 satisfied with their own doctors ; perhaps 
 they were displeased at the supercilious 
 ness with which the Boston man looked at 
 all things appertaining to the West; at 
 any rate, Dr. Bruce waited in vain for the 
 crowds that were to make his fortune. 
 Some land speculations, which were to 
 have made a rich man of the doctor, proved 
 disastrous; debts became pressing, and, 
 
16 STORM-DEI VEX. 
 
 when things were beginning to look very 
 very black indeed, the unfortunate man 
 suddenly died, leaving nothing but debts 
 behind him. 
 
 Mrs. Bruce had no time to mourn over 
 the death of her husband, of whom she had 
 been passionately fond ; she had her chil 
 dren s bread to earn. She had studied 
 medicine a little with the poor doctor, and 
 she went out as nurse. John, who was 
 but a little fellow at the time, understood 
 with the precocity which poverty gives to 
 children, that he also must earn money. 
 One evening he came home with a handful 
 of coppers, which he poured in his mother s 
 lap; he had become a news-boy, and 
 shouted " Tribune, sir ? Here s your Even 
 ing Post ! " with hearty good- will and pro 
 portionate success. But at night, and 
 during all the leisure moments which he 
 
THE BELLE OF THE EVENING. 17 
 
 could secure, lie would draw, make heads, 
 animals, compose little scenes ; this had 
 been a passion with him ever since his 
 earliest childhood a passion which his 
 father, proud of his son s real talent, had 
 encouraged, but which now caused his 
 mother to shake her head. "What could it 
 lead to ? Perhaps her reasoning, and the 
 hard necessities of life, would at last have 
 triumphed, and John might have become a 
 counter-jumper, had not, by good luck, a 
 famous painter from Boston a man as full 
 of kindliness as of talent paid a long visit 
 to Lakeville. John, then almost a young 
 man, went, with beating heart and flushed 
 cheeks, to the artist, and begged him to 
 look at his sketches. "Where did you 
 learn to draw like that ?" asked the painter, 
 greatly interested; and when John had 
 told his story, had spoken of the obstacles 
 VOL. i. c 
 
18 STORM-DEI YEN. 
 
 in his way, he grew still more interested. 
 The result was, that a few months later, 
 John was on his way to Paris ; a number 
 of rich men, Mr. Temple at their head, had 
 clubbed together, and secured to him the 
 means of studying for five years in peace. 
 He had not lost his time, and already those 
 who had leisure to think about such things, 
 were beginning to be proud of the Lake- 
 ville painter. 
 
 Mr. Leigh Ward, in his travels, had seen 
 many beautiful women, of widely differing 
 types ; but as he looked at the young girl 
 by his side, his artistic nature was satisfied, 
 even when he compared her with those 
 other women. Yet Lil was not strictly 
 beautiful ; she was merely pretty, very 
 fresh, and her movements were perfectly 
 graceful; she had a peculiarity which 
 arrested attention ; her eyes were very 
 
THE BELLE OF THE EVENING. 19 
 
 blue, while the eyelashes which shaded 
 them were black, and the heavy hair quite 
 dark. She was usually too pale, as is often 
 the case with her fair countrywomen, and 
 her delicately cut features were wanting a 
 little in individuality; still, Mr. Ward, 
 who was a connoisseur, was satisfied. He 
 listened, well pleased, to her talk, which 
 was not very original perhaps ; but then 
 her voice was unusually low and sweet 
 refreshingly so in a land where the prettiest 
 women often destroy the charm they ought 
 to exert, by their shrill, loud talk. He was 
 not in. love with this charming girl ; but 
 then, playing at being in love is not a 
 disagreeable game; his imagination was 
 roused pleasantly, and imagination on 
 certain occasions is a very good substitute 
 for the heart. 
 
 The two were slowly making their way 
 c 2 
 
20 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 among the graceful plants of the winter 
 garden, Lil s white dress brushing against 
 the big deep green leaves. There were 
 but few wanderers here, and these kept 
 discreetly at a distance. 
 
 " But you who have been every where, " 
 Lil was saying, " in the East, in Italy, in 
 France, must find Lakeville very tame, and 
 Lakeville people very provincial." 
 
 " I do not think that anywhere could be 
 found a paradise more lovely than this, or 
 boasting so fair an Eve." 
 
 "I wish you would not pay me compli 
 ments," said Lil, looking at him with her 
 frank innocent eyes. 
 
 "Why not?" he answered, smiling at 
 her earnestness. " Would you rather have 
 me say, with brutish frankness, Ton my 
 word, Miss Temple, you re a devilish pretty 
 girl ? What you call compliments is but 
 
THE BELLE OF THE EVENING. 21 
 
 a way of dressing up what one wishes to 
 say ; mere courtesy, which is the ornament 
 of life, necessary to it, just as a gilt frame 
 is necessary to enhance the value of a pic 
 ture. I confess it honestly, I would care 
 much less for the picture without its frame. 
 Would you not ? Do you not think this 
 pretty dress of yours is more becoming 
 than the cotton gown of your kitchen-girl ? 
 Do you believe that beauty unadorned is 
 adorned the most ? I don t. Do you 
 believe in love in a cottage ? I don t." 
 
 " I do not know what I believe ; I have 
 never thought it out," said Lil, who was 
 scrupulously honest. "What I know is, 
 that I pity all girls who cannot go to balls 
 like this one who cannot stand where we 
 are standing, and enjoy what we are enjoy 
 ing. I am afraid I should make a very 
 mediocre poor girl. I do not like work ; I 
 
22 STOEM-DKIVEN. 
 
 do not like the cold. I should always like 
 to be petted and made much of by those 
 about me." 
 
 " And you always will be. It is im 
 possible to come near you without submit 
 ting to the charm you exert without 
 wishing to make you happy. Flowers are 
 made for sunshine, and sunshine for flowers. 
 There is not one of the men you have 
 danced with this evening, who is not, or 
 who does not fancy himself, in love with 
 you. J / 
 
 " Not one ? " said Lil, with a child-like 
 coquetry which made the man of the world 
 smile again. Then she added quickly, 
 "But if I had come in a plain muslin 
 dress, made by myself if I had been 
 the daughter of a poor man, a little 
 nobody, would it have been the same 
 thing?" 
 
THE BELLE OP THE EVENING. 23 
 
 " No, certainly not ; the picture would 
 have been frameless." 
 
 Lil shivered a little. She glanced at 
 the snow outside; the moon was looking 
 at them coldly, through a network of bare 
 black branches ; it was very cheerless out 
 there, and Lil hurried on. 
 
 " I am very glad that I am not a poor 
 girl. I feel sorry for those who have not 
 all the good things of life, but I would not 
 give my place to another. All that is not 
 very noble, I know. I am not heroic ; per 
 haps not even of average goodness 
 
 I wonder what life holds in store for me ? 
 How strange not to know ! how dreadful 
 that there should be a great black curtain 
 before the future a curtain one cannot 
 lift ! " 
 
 " I will lift it for you, if you like. 5) 
 
 Lil started ; she was a little nervous that 
 
24 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 evening. What was he going to say ? his 
 looks, and his attitude were those of a lover, 
 even though his words had not yet gone 
 beyond what is admissible in a flirtation. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I had an old negro nurse, something of 
 a witch I think, and she taught me to tell 
 fortunes. Shall I tell yours ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Lil. 
 
 He led her to a seat half-hidden among 
 tall shrubs, just by the fountain, where the 
 Japanese ducks, fancying it was daytime, 
 pursued each other, half flying, half swim 
 ming. Mr. Ward was going to unbutton 
 Lil s glove, but quickly and a little 
 nervously she bared her hand herself. 
 Such a pretty dainty hand ! No wonder 
 the young man, pretending to study the soft 
 pinky palm, kept it long in his. He wanted 
 terribly to kiss it, but this he did not do. 
 
THE BELLE OF THE EVENING. 25 
 
 "Well?" questioned Lil. 
 
 " I see many things here." 
 
 But what those things were, Lil was not 
 then to know. Yet surely it was a pity to 
 lose the result of such deep study. He 
 was bending over the hand, occasionally 
 looking up at her eyes, that sought his ; 
 eyes in which hovered some faith in the 
 mysterious art he professed. 
 
 They were interrupted, and considerably 
 startled by a laugh sounding close to them ; 
 Mrs. Cox stood looking on, with evident 
 amusement. 
 
 " It is really too bad of me, is it not ? 
 but there are signs of a revolt in the ball 
 room. Lil s disappointed partners are all 
 clamouring for her. You see, my love, if 
 belle ship has its delights, it has its duties 
 too. Come ! " and with a sort of imperious- 
 ness she took the young girl by the hand 
 
26 STOBM- DRIVEN. 
 
 and forced her to rise. As they were 
 entering the boudoir she whispered, "Take 
 care, my pet ! Leigh Ward is not a marry 
 ing man." Lil walked on by her friend s 
 side. She saw no one, nor did she 
 notice that many glances followed her as 
 she passed on. 
 
 Mrs. Richards and her friends were 
 whispering together more eagerly than 
 ever ; they had been joined by Mr. Richards, 
 who bore traces of his ill luck on his meek, 
 cowed face. His hair was not frankly grey, 
 but of so peculiar a colour that it made one 
 think that life to him had been a perpetual 
 Ash "Wednesday. At that moment, how 
 ever, he was not being snubbed; on the 
 contrary, he had become a person of 
 ephemeral but real importance ; he had 
 brought with him a piece of news, and it 
 was that piece of news over which the 
 
THE BELLE OF THE EVENING. 27 
 
 ladies were whispering, casting many 
 glances at Lil and at Leigh "Ward, who 
 was following in her wake. 
 
 It is such a pleasant thing to be queen 
 of a ball, when one is nineteen, fresh and 
 pretty ! Lil, as she danced, as she merrily 
 answered the pretty speeches addressed to 
 her, forgot the ill-omened whisper of her 
 hostess, forgot everything, save that she 
 was happy and admired, that Mr. Ward fol 
 lowed her with his eyes, and smiled when 
 she looked at him. 
 
 There was another young man who also 
 followed her with his eyes. John Bruce 
 had not yet left the ball ; he had caught 
 the whisper which now ran from group to 
 group, and he tried once to approach the 
 young girl : but she was so surrounded 
 that it was difficult. She saw him, how 
 ever, and nodded with a pleasant smile. 
 
28 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 " Give me just five minutes. Miss Tem 
 ple/ lie said. 
 
 " I cannot. I am so very sorry ! why did 
 you not ask me before ?" 
 
 He hesitated a little, then he added in a 
 lower voice, "It is late later than you 
 think, you will wear yourself out." 
 
 She looked at him astonished. John 
 Bruce presuming to give her advice ! Then 
 suddenly seeing something strange in his 
 face, she said quickly, " Mother is worse!" 
 
 " Oh ! no, no !" and he turned away, 
 angry with himself for his want of tact. 
 What must she think of him ? 
 
 She did not think anything at all about 
 him, for at that moment Leigh Ward 
 claimed a promised waltz. There was 
 something intoxicating in the music, in the 
 smell of the flowers, in the heat, in the 
 sight of other whirling couples : she aban- 
 
THE BELLE OF THE EVENING. 29 
 
 doned herself to the guidance of her partner, 
 with half-closed eyes, feeling that she could 
 go on dancing thus for ever, supported by 
 his encircling arms. 
 
 " Shall I tell you what I saw in your 
 hand?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " I saw that love is near to you, that the 
 unconsciousness of your girlhood is about 
 to be dispelled, as the summer mists are 
 dispersed by the sun. Are you sorry that 
 it should be so ? are you afraid ? " 
 
 They were still dancing, but more slowly ; 
 it was a softly cadenced movement. 
 
 " Why do you ask ? " she murmured, 
 just above her breath. 
 
 " Because I long for your answer be 
 cause it seems to me that I am a different 
 man since I looked at that bewitching criss 
 cross in your hand say are you afraid ? " 
 
30 STOBM-DRIVEN. 
 
 Then suddenly she remembered Mrs, 
 Cox s warning; she woke as from a half- 
 trance, and said, " If you care really to 
 know, I will tell you to-morrow." 
 
 The ball was drawing to a close ; wax 
 candles were dying among the flowers, the 
 older women looked fagged and haggard, 
 but Lil, as she took leave of her hostess, 
 was as fresh as ever, only there was an un 
 usual flush in her cheeks which was singu 
 larly becoming. Less than ever did she 
 notice the looks of those about her, and 
 the whispering which went on, as the 
 women threw their wrappings over their 
 crushed dresses. 
 
31 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE KEVERSE OF THE MEDAL. 
 
 " COME here, daughter ! " said Mrs. Temple, 
 in her feeble invalid s voice; she was a 
 Southerner, and had retained the quaint 
 Southern speech. She had been a beautiful 
 woman, but now her thin, white face was 
 pitiful to see ; the doctors said that it was 
 only Martha s constant care that kept her 
 mother alive. 
 
 " What is it, mother ? " and Martha bent 
 over the sick woman tenderly, her plain, in 
 telligent, sensible face softened by a great 
 pity. 
 
32 STOEM-DRIVEN. 
 
 " How did Lil look this evening ? 
 pretty?" 
 
 " I think Miss Lillian was not dissatisfied 
 with her personal appearance ; but I do 
 not know which she most approved of, her 
 face or her new dress." 
 
 " She might have come to show herself," 
 said the mother, with an invalid s 
 fretfulness. 
 
 "You were sleeping, dear," and she 
 kissed her, as she would have kissed a sick 
 child. "Do you feel worse ?" she added, 
 as Mrs. Temple moaned wearily. 
 
 " I don t know it is such hard work to 
 breathe ; in the daytime the air seems less 
 heavy " there was a pause, during which 
 Martha went lightly here and there, putting 
 things to rights. The room was a marvel 
 of comfort and elegance. Mrs. Temple 
 liked pretty things, and her husband never 
 
THE REVERSE OP THE MEDAL. 33 
 
 came back from his constant journeyings 
 without bringing some beautiful object or 
 other ; that was his way of showing his 
 affection, it was an easy way, and it satis 
 fied his conscience. He was accustomed 
 rather to be adored than to adore ; his wife 
 looked upon him as the handsomest, the 
 most generous, dashing, and chivalrous of 
 men, and Lil shared her mother s enthu 
 siasm. Presently Mrs. Temple awoke from 
 a half-sleep, and asked, " "What o clock is 
 it?" 
 
 " Just midnight, mother dear, time to 
 go to sleep." 
 
 " Is there still no news from your 
 father?" 
 
 " No ; since the two despatches last 
 Wednesday, there has been nothing. The 
 telegraph is a convenient thing certainly, 
 but I think old-fashioned letter-writing 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
34 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 must have been more satisfactory, some 
 how/ 
 
 "He has no time to write;" then, as 
 Martha did not answer, she went on in a 
 hurt tone, " You are always judging him, 
 Martha ; in those old-fashioned times you 
 speak of, children were more respectful 
 than they are now, they understood that 
 there were certain duties which they owed 
 their parents." 
 
 " They understand it still, mother, but 
 they understand also that there are certain 
 duties which parents owe their children." 
 
 " Is there anywhere a father more 
 generous, more affectionate ? " 
 
 " He is both, to Lil. Oh ! I do not com 
 plain, dearest, papa likes everything about 
 him to be pleasant to look at, and pliable ; 
 I am neither ; I cannot help reasoning about 
 things, and I am not handsome. I do not 
 
THE REVERSE OF THE MEDAL. 35 
 
 think it right for a man to treat the women 
 of his family like children, that are to be 
 petted and made much of at certain 
 moments, and to be sent to the nursery 
 when the serious business of life is to be 
 discussed. We know nothing of papa s 
 affairs nothing ! It was by chance, two 
 years ago, that I discovered that we had 
 been living in the most foolish extrava 
 gance, at a moment when absolute ruin 
 was imminent. But I am wrong to speak 
 of such things," she exclaimed, full of re 
 morse as her mother moved uneasily on 
 her pillow. " I have an unfortunate habit 
 of bursting out with whatever comes upper 
 most in my mind." She stroked and 
 caressed the invalid till she made her smile. 
 " You are a good girl, Martha." 
 " Which, in this world, is the next best 
 thing to being a pretty girl, is it not, 
 D 2 
 
36 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 mother? Own that you are mortified at 
 having a plain daughter you, who were 
 the beauty of Baltimore ?" 
 
 "My dear daughter !" and she took the 
 girl s face between her hands lovingly. " If 
 it were not for the nose/* she added, very 
 seriously, " you would not be ill-looking." 
 
 Martha laughed ; her looks troubled her 
 but little. 
 
 Before long, Mrs. Temple fell asleep, and 
 Martha slipped quietly away, after giving 
 many and full directions to the night-nurse. 
 
 As she was preparing to enter her own 
 room, Martha met a sleepy servant, holding 
 a telegraphic despatch ; it was directed to 
 Miss Temple. She wondered a little, for 
 usually her father sent the telegrams to 
 his wife ; she hesitated an instant, delibe 
 rating whether she should not take it at 
 once to her mother, on the chance of find- 
 
THE REVERSE OF THE MEDAL. 37 
 
 ing her awake again, but remembering that 
 her sleep had seemed tolerably easy, she 
 determined to wait till morning. 
 
 She herself did not open the envelope 
 at once ; she was thinking over her conver 
 sation with her mother, questioning herself, 
 wondering whether she had not been wrong. 
 As she mused, she warmed first one foot 
 then the other before the bright fire. Hers 
 was a comfortable room, without the 
 slightest pretensions to being fine ; the 
 two sisters used it as their private sitting- 
 room, and there were books, papers, and 
 feminine work on the table, a piano in one 
 corner, and a few fine engravings on the 
 walls. Martha was fond of her room; like 
 most people who live very much alone, and 
 with themselves, the place had taken, as it 
 were, something of her physiognomy, of 
 her character. 
 
38 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 Leisurely Martha opened the envelope, 
 and glanced at the telegram ; it ran thus : 
 
 " As morning papers will be full of the 
 sad news, have decided, after consulting 
 with friends, to telegraph at once; your 
 father entirely ruined by gold panic, com 
 mitted suicide at noon ; death so instanta 
 neous that he could not have suffered." 
 
 It was signed by a New Yorker, whom 
 she only knew by name. 
 
 Martha neither screamed nor lost con 
 sciousness ; even at that moment, her first 
 thought was for her mother; she must 
 hear no sound that might rouse her sus 
 picion, so the brave girl clutched at the 
 mantelpiece for support, and by a strong 
 effort kept off the dizzy faintness which 
 had seized her. It was some minutes 
 before she found strength enough to walk 
 to a chair. Once seated she remained 
 
THE REVERSE OF THE MEDAL. 39 
 
 rigidly upright, feeling that if the tension 
 of her muscles were to give way, she would 
 inevitably lose all self-control; that she 
 would then cry out, and sob, and call for 
 help. As it was, a certain numbness came 
 over her, at which she wondered, asking 
 herself whether she were not heartless. 
 She could not make it out ; her intelligence 
 seemed as benumbed as her feelings. 
 
 He was dead, he had killed himself, and 
 they were penniless ! This she repeated to 
 herself over and over again, as though it 
 were a lesson she had to learn. By degrees, 
 the sense of the words did penetrate the 
 brain. She saw it all with horrible vivid 
 ness. The wild excitement, the maniac 
 cries and gestures of the gold speculators, 
 among whom he was ; then the despair 
 everything swept away, no hope left ! She 
 knew her father well enough to follow his 
 
40 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 agony culminating in madness, for he must 
 have been mad to commit such a deed ! so 
 to forget those whom he left behind him 
 ruined, helpless, and with a name tainted 
 by his act ! She tried hard not to judge 
 him, it was horrible to feel anything, at 
 such a moment, but intense pity; yet, 
 unless she admitted his insanity, she could 
 not help judging him, and judging him 
 severely. She then thought of her mother : 
 she shuddered, wondering how she should 
 ever tell her the truth. In such a moment 
 as this, it would have been a great comfort 
 to lean on some one, strong and loving; 
 to weep and moan, and ask for sympathy. 
 But Martha, as she sat there, during those 
 silent hours, with no noise about her save 
 the ticking of the clock and the crackling 
 of the logs, knew that weakness was a 
 luxury forbidden to her. She would have 
 
THE EEVEESE OF TBE MEDAL. 41 
 
 to be the support of her mother and sister, 
 she would have to be brave for all three ; 
 she did not shrink from the task, she 
 accepted it ; but there came back to her at 
 that moment, the memory of girl-dreams, 
 which had come to her, as they come to 
 all ; yearnings, half-understood, and which 
 she had, as best she could, thrust from her, 
 as though instinct had warned her that 
 they were not destined to be realized. Now, 
 at five-and-twenty, when her life stretched 
 before her plainly a life which must be 
 filled with stern duties, with work for the 
 daily bread of those she loved those 
 yearnings came back with tyrannical per 
 severance. 
 
 Suddenly Martha started; a carriage 
 had stopped at the door. Lil was coming 
 home ; she had not thought of this coming 
 home, and was not prepared for it ; yet she 
 
42 SrOEM-DRIVEN. 
 
 knew that Lil would cross her room to go 
 to her own, which was just beyond. By 
 an instinctive movement she passed her 
 hand over her face, as though she could 
 thus wipe away its ghastly pallor, and the 
 intensely fixed look of the eyes. 
 
 It was this movement the first she had 
 made, since she sat there rigidly which 
 caused her to notice the telegram, crumpled 
 in her hand ; she thrust it hastily into her 
 pocket, then lowered the gas-lamp, so as 
 to make a semi-obscurity in the room. 
 
 " She must not know till to-morrow, she 
 must sleep, poor child 1" she said this half - 
 aloud, and then started to hear how hollow 
 her voice sounded. She sat down again, 
 feeling very faint and weary, 
 
 " Why, Martha ! you still up ! " exclaimed 
 Lil, as she rustled in, all her pretty finery 
 making a glimmer of white all about her. 
 

 THE REVERSE OP THE MEDAL. 43 
 
 Martha looked at her, shuddering ; it was 
 not only Lil that stood before her, it was 
 also the incarnation of human happiness. 
 
 What was there in common between this 
 bright young creature and disgrace, death, 
 and ruin ? 
 
 "Is mother worse?" continued Lil, 
 stopping short in sudden alarm, as Martha 
 did not speak. 
 
 "Mother was suffering a good deal during 
 the evening, but she fell asleep an hour 
 after you left. I was wakeful, and so 
 remained up for you." She said this 
 quietly, but her voice was so changed, that 
 she wondered the young girl did not notice 
 it. 
 
 Lil took a stool, she was always fond of 
 low seats, and leaning against her sister, 
 meditatively stirred the fire, till a bright 
 flame shot upward. Martha quickly shaded 
 
44 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 her face. But Lil saw nothing; suspected 
 nothing; she was thinking of her own 
 affairs. 
 
 " Lil, go to bed, dear, you must be tired; 
 it is late." 
 
 "I tired?" and Lil laughed, what had 
 fatigue or weariness to say to her ? and, 
 indeed, there was no sign of either in her 
 young face ; Martha thought with a pang 
 that she had never seen her sister as lovely 
 as at that moment. 
 
 "I do not think one ever feels fatigue 
 when one is very happy," continued Lil, 
 looking fixedly at the blaze she had made. 
 
 " Happy !" exclaimed Martha, the word 
 jarred her unstrung nerves. " You use 
 the expression very lightly, Lil. What ! a 
 fine new dress, dancing, compliments, and 
 such like things can make you happy !" 
 
 "Don t be hard on me, Martha." Lil 
 
THE REVERSE OF THE MEDAL. 45 
 
 was not at all discomposed by her sister s 
 attack ; all she wanted was an occasion to 
 talk and so to find a vent for all the new 
 strange feelings that swayed her. 
 
 " Don t be hard on me, dear ; perhaps I 
 am frivolous, perhaps I do enjoy more than 
 I should, all the good things the fates have 
 bestowed on me ; I do not deny that I am 
 too fond of being admired. But I know as 
 well as you, the real value of these things, 
 and if I am happy to-night, it is not because 
 of these." 
 
 Lil stopped suddenly, and blushed ; she 
 wanted sadly to confess her secret, but 
 words seemed so common and prosaic ; all 
 the joy, and pride, and tender softness that 
 filled her heart, to be translated brutally 
 with " I am in love !" Oh, no ! it was not 
 possible. She rose from her low seat, and 
 walked up and down the room. She turned 
 
46 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 up the gas, as though the half-light accorded 
 ill with her feelings. Presently she stopped 
 by the table, and turned over, in an absent 
 mood, the books and papers with which it 
 was strewn ; then she said abruptly, " You 
 were never in love, were you ?" 
 
 " Are you in love ?" said Martha with 
 sudden sharpness, facing her sister with an 
 expression of such terror and pity that Lil 
 started ; she felt that she was being ill-used, 
 that her confidences, which she would have 
 made to no one else, were not received with 
 enthusiasm, or even with common indul 
 gence. 
 
 " How long is it since you have known 
 Mr. Ward ? not a month, I think ! I have 
 no faith in him," said Martha, in the same 
 hard voice. 
 
 " You are unjust !" exclaimed Lil hotly. 
 
 " Do you think, if you had been a poor 
 
THE BEVERSE OF THE MEDAL. 47 
 
 girl, whom the others did not notice, that 
 he would have made love to you ?" 
 
 Lil did not answer, she remembered 
 having, a few hours before said almost the 
 same thing herself; she began to be uneasy, 
 and the buoyancy of her feelings subsided ; 
 Mrs. Cox s warning also came back to her. 
 She did not answer, but continued playing 
 with the books on the table, then she took 
 up a torn envelope, and absently looked 
 at it, turning it round and round. 
 
 Martha, who was watching her, suddenly 
 felt as though all things in the room were 
 whirling in a mad dance. She must speak, 
 she must take Lil s attention away from 
 that bit of paper at all hazards ; it was the 
 envelope of the fatal telegram. In a few 
 moments she was able to say in the same 
 constrained voice, 
 
 " Did he ask you to be his wife ?" 
 
48 STORM-DRIVEN". 
 
 " Martha !" exclaimed Lil with a little 
 gasp, dropping the envelope. 
 
 " Did he tell you he loved you ?" 
 
 " Not exactly ; but he made me under 
 stand " She did not finish the sentence, 
 but nervously took up the paper once more. 
 
 " Then it is, as yet, a flirtation and 
 nothing more ; you know, Lil, as well as I, 
 that a flirtation means a great deal, or just 
 nothing at all, according to the good will of 
 the parties. A girl may lose her heart, and 
 the next day her gay partner may turn on 
 his heel : it was nothing but a flirtation ! A 
 girl may wreck an honest man s happiness : 
 she was merely amusing herself!" 
 
 "You are not yourself to-night, Martha, 
 something must have happened ; have you 
 had bad news ? By the way, who on earth 
 can have been sending you a despatch?" 
 and she held up the envelope. 
 
THE BEVERSE OE THE MEDAL. 49 
 
 Martha tried to speak but she could not, 
 her power of self-control suddenly deserted 
 her; she could but look at her sister, with 
 wild eyes and a ghastly face. 
 
 "Martha," screamed Lil, and she rushed 
 to her sister s side ; " Martha, what is it ?" 
 
 "My poor child!" murmured Martha, 
 with infinite pity in her dry eyes. 
 
 " Tell me, tell me quickly !" Lil 
 whispered this like a frightened child that 
 she was. 
 
 " Not now ; to-morrow." 
 
 " To-morrow ! you think I can wait till 
 to-morrow ? Tell me ! you will see that I 
 can be brave too. I must know I will 
 know ! I am not a child to be put off. 
 For God s sake, speak! is is mother dead?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Then there is bad news from father; 
 he has lost a great deal, we shall be poor, 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 perhaps ruined, you see, I can talk of it 
 quite sensibly," she waited an instant, and 
 then, as Martha only moaned miserably, 
 she said with sudden violence, " You shall 
 tell me ! do you not see that this is worse 
 than anything?" 
 
 Martha looked at her, and saw that the 
 moment had really come. She tried to 
 find some words to prepare the young girl, 
 but she found none ; the tension all through 
 those dreadful hours had been too great; 
 so she merely took the paper from her 
 pocket, and handed it to her sister. Lil 
 read it, and with a wild cry fell senseless 
 at her sister s feet. 
 
51 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OEPHANS. 
 
 MRS. TEMPLE had had a very restless night, 
 and woke from an uneasy slumber, feverish 
 and ill at ease. Martha always came in at 
 about seven o clock, but this morning she 
 was late. 
 
 "Where is Miss Martha?" asked the 
 invalid plaintively. 
 
 The nurse answered that Miss Martha 
 had been up all night with her sister, who 
 was not quite well, and was now trying to 
 get a little rest. Lil not well ? The nurse 
 found some difficulty in answering all the 
 E 2 
 
52 STORM-DEIVEN. 
 
 questions that followed; but she had her 
 instructions from Martha herself, and 
 carried them out well. 
 
 When Mrs. Temple s morning toilet was 
 completed she felt better, and asked if there 
 were no letters; being answered in the 
 negative, she expressed the wish to see the 
 papers. Miss Martha would bring them 
 in presently ; as she always read the news 
 to her mother, the papers had been taken 
 up to her room. 
 
 Mrs. Temple insisted, and being met 
 with various ingenious excuses, grew 
 suspicious. With the cunning which comes 
 instinctively to the weak, she took advantage 
 of the absence of the nurse to call the maid 
 who was dusting the room, and to send her 
 for a paper. The girl had been recently 
 engaged and did not dare to disobey. 
 
 A few minutes later Martha entered, 
 
OEPHANS. 53 
 
 having done her best to remove the traces 
 of the dreadful mental agony she had 
 undergone, from her pale face ; she even 
 tried to smile. Suddenly she sprang 
 forward her mother held a crumpled 
 newspaper, and looked towards her with a 
 dazed, frightened look. 
 
 " It s it s another Temple, it s not your 
 father." She could say no more, a fit of 
 coughing seized her, and the handkerchief 
 she held to her mouth was soon dyed a deep 
 red. 
 
 She died towards evening, apparently 
 without suffering much, and certainly with 
 out a clear preception of what had happened. 
 Martha was singularly calm; she had no 
 time for weeping. Lil was too ill to leave 
 her bed, delirious at times, so that every 
 thing fell on her, the strong one. The 
 doctor, when all was over, tried to console 
 
54 STORM-DEIVEN. 
 
 her, using the hackneyed words which he 
 had used a thousand times before, on 
 similar occasions; he was a good man, 
 and meant well. But all she answered was 
 this, " It is best so ; she would have missed 
 her luxuries." 
 
 Then came all the horrible details of the 
 funeral; it was she who had to give all 
 necessary orders, she who had to see that 
 everything was properly done ; she did not 
 shrink from the task, but sometimes at 
 night, when there was nothing positively to 
 do, it seemed to her that her strength must 
 give way. 
 
 Lil soon grew better; her youth and 
 elastic constitution threw off the fever that 
 had seized upon her. Then she had to be 
 told of the new misery that had come to 
 them ; she cried bitterly at first, but seeing 
 Martha s haggard looks, her dry feverish 
 
ORPHANS. 55 
 
 eyes, she suddenly stopped in the midst of 
 her sobs, and went over to her sister, say 
 ing, " Let me help you, dear ! " she laid her 
 wet cheek against Martha s caressingly, 
 and then for the first time the elder girl 
 broke down. 
 
 There were crowds at poor Mrs. Temple s 
 funeral; the Lakeville heart was moved, 
 the sad story was so complete, that it could 
 not well have been otherwise. What would 
 those two poor girls do now ? Even in the 
 hushed and darkened room downstairs, 
 where, on the day of the funeral, the more 
 intimate friends gathered, their future 
 prospects were discussed in decent whispers. 
 In the church there was scarcely standing 
 room, for many who had never seen Mr. or 
 Mrs. Temple, crowded to take their part in 
 the last act of the tragedy. 
 
 It is not true that at the first signal of 
 
56 STOEM-DEIVEX. 
 
 distress the world abandons the unfor 
 tunate ones ; the world does things with 
 propriety and decency; it has its rules 
 and forms, and knows how to observe 
 them. After a certain time has elapsed 
 why then . . . that is another thing. 
 
 Thus, during those early days of mourn 
 ing, the tall house on the Avenue, with 
 its closed shutters and deserted look, was 
 literally besieged : friends who insisted 
 on seeing the young ladies but who 
 were not admitted, for Martha refused 
 obstinately to see any one ; friends who 
 came to inquire ; friends who wrote pretty 
 little notes with many exclamation marks, 
 on fashionably-tinted paper, of a fashion 
 ably ugly shape; friends who merely 
 left cards turned down, to show they 
 had called in person .... The procession 
 lasted all day, so that the servants took 
 
ORPHANS. 57 
 
 turns to open the door, and then talked 
 over the cards and notes in the kitchen, 
 before taking them upstairs. Among the 
 cards was one bearing the name of Leigh 
 Ward ; it disappeared somehow from the 
 basket into which it had been thrown with 
 the others. 
 
 But there were some visitors that Martha 
 could not refuse to receive, visitors who 
 would take no denial, who sat obstinately 
 in the hall, till she would admit them. . . . 
 These were tradesmen with their unpaid 
 bills. That her father had always given 
 orders recklessly here and there, she 
 knew, but that he should have left so 
 many debts behind him, seemed scarcely 
 credible. Once, several of these men came 
 together, one of them was a jeweller 
 whose account was a terribly long one; 
 among the objects not paid for, was a 
 
58 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 pretty locket with Lil s initials in diamonds 
 and turquoises ; he had given her this 
 costly trifle on her nineteenth birthday. 
 Martha felt very bitterly at that moment, 
 and it was not till she had bent some time 
 over the account that she raised her head, 
 and faced the men who were all watching 
 her in silence. Then she said, 
 
 " You shall be paid ; we will sell every 
 thing, even to our clothes, but for God s 
 sake leave us a few days in peace !" 
 
 There was something in her voice which 
 forced respect. The creditors bowed and 
 passed out in silence. 
 
 The house was unutterably dreary 
 during this time ; the showy furniture of 
 the reception-rooms, Mr. Temple had 
 always liked what was showy appeared 
 like a doleful mockery in the half-light 
 admitted through the closed blinds; the 
 
ORPHANS. 59 
 
 pictures on the walls, the bright colours 
 of the carpets were in contradiction with 
 the hushed silence of the place. Lil 
 sometimes left her room to wander among 
 these lower apartments, which already 
 began to have the shut-up odour, and the 
 sense of desolateness, peculiar to deserted 
 houses. What she sought among the 
 fine yellow chairs and sofas, by the shut- 
 up piano, was the memory of her happy and 
 careless girlhood; here, she sat one 
 evening listening to Leigh "Ward as he 
 sang and played to her; in that window 
 recess they were having a warm discussion 
 when the door opened, and a visitor was 
 announced ; she smiled even in the midst 
 of her sadness, as she remembered his 
 look of comical despair. It was all such 
 trifles so precious to her, which she sought, 
 as she moved softly from place to place. 
 
60 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 But during the long sad days, she tried 
 her best to help Martha ; there was much 
 to do, fortunately so, for constant occu 
 pation is on such occasions the greatest 
 possible boon. There were many letters 
 to answer, business letters telling mostly 
 of heavy debts ; and there were others 
 also, one from an aunt in Boston whom 
 the girls scarcely knew, who offered shelter 
 and protection to her brother s children ; 
 but the letter was so measured in its 
 expressions of sympathy, so patronizing, 
 so full of sentences that might have 
 figured in her favourite clergyman s best 
 sermon, that when they had read it, the 
 sisters looked at each other without speak 
 ing ; at last Martha said, 
 
 "Shall we accept it, or stay here and work 
 for our living ? I vote for the work even 
 should it be that of cook or housemaid." 
 
ORPHANS. 61 
 
 " I vote for it, too," said Lil, but a 
 little faintly ; for if she shrank from the 
 idea of dependence, she shrank also from 
 the thought of hard work, especially of 
 work that was not ladylike. 
 
 Then there were accounts to be made 
 
 out, servants to be dismissed and paid ; 
 
 one only remained until the sale should 
 
 be over for there was to be a sale ; it 
 
 was already announced in the papers. 
 
 But Lil, notwithstanding her excellent 
 
 resolutions, was not of much use to her 
 
 sister ; she was not clever at casting up 
 
 long rows of figures, nor did she find the 
 
 occupation an interesting one ; she would 
 
 often stop and stare at the additions and 
 
 subtractions through a blinding mist of 
 
 tears. Once when she was so occupied, 
 
 and that Martha happened not to be in 
 
 the room, she heard the clatter of a 
 
62 STORM-DBIVEN. 
 
 horse s hoofs; she went quickly to the 
 window and peeped out. ^ 
 
 By the merest chance, as the maid 
 opened the door to receive a card which 
 Mr. Ward was about to leave, Lil came 
 slowly downstairs, and the young man 
 seeing her, bowed seriously. The servant, 
 who knew him to have been a frequent 
 visitor, discreetly withdrew. 
 
 "Miss Temple, how can I express to 
 you the sympathy " 
 
 "Is it not dreadful?" said poor Lil, 
 the tears welling up , she so wanted to be 
 pitied, and especially to be pitied by him ; 
 " to think that while I was dancing the 
 other evening, poor papa " she could not 
 go on. 
 
 He stood there, hat in hand, a little 
 embarrassed perhaps, but everything in 
 his attitude expressing respectful con- 
 
ORPHANS. 63 
 
 dolence ; the very shade of his gloves, 
 and the severity of his clothes were in 
 accordance with the proper degree of 
 sympathy which he meant to express. 
 But between that degree of sympathy and 
 gushing demonstrativeness there was a 
 wide step, and that step he was in no 
 mood to take. Lil did not, or would not 
 see this ; her hand was on the handle 
 of the drawing-room door, as she con 
 tinued, looking up at him through her 
 tears, 
 
 " You cannot imagine how dreadful this 
 great, silent house is now ! I go about 
 softly, and am afraid to speak above my 
 breath, and all night I lie awake trembling, 
 quite unable to sleep, I am so afraid." 
 
 " I can readily imagine that that such 
 a complication of disasters " 
 
 Again he did not finish his sentence. 
 
64 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 There came a curious look in Lil s eyes, 
 and quietly she took her hand from the 
 door-handle. During this time he had 
 been saying to himself, in a moralizing 
 mood, that beauty was after all but a 
 fortunate combination of circumstances ; 
 that an unbecoming mass of dead black, 
 a pale face, and red swollen eyes could 
 make of the prettiest girl possible, a very 
 insignificant-looking person. 
 
 " You are very kind, Mr. Ward, my 
 sister and myself are most grateful to all 
 our friends and acquaintances, for their 
 remembrance of us at this time. I am 
 glad of this chance opportunity of saying 
 so," then, with a slight bend of the head, 
 she gave him to understand that the 
 " chance " interview was at an end. Mrs. 
 Cox herself, need not have disclaimed 
 that bend of the head. He held out his 
 
ORPHANS . 65 
 
 hand with something more of feeling than 
 he had yet shown. 
 
 " You believe me when I say that I am 
 very, very sorry for you ?" 
 
 " Oh certainly ! why not ?" 
 
 Then when he had gone, she slipped 
 into the deserted drawing-room, and hiding 
 herself behind the yellow satin curtains, 
 sobbed as though her heart would break. 
 
 "What is it, dear?" asked Martha, as 
 her sister, in the dim twilight, crept up to 
 her side, and wearily laid her head against 
 her. 
 
 " I think I am not quite well." 
 
 In the night, the fever that had already 
 attacked her made its appearance once 
 more; not with great violence it is true, 
 but sufficiently so to condemn the young 
 girl to her bed. 
 
 VOL. I. P 
 
66 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE TEMPLE DISASTER. 
 
 No, certainly; Lakeville society had not for 
 many a long day had so interesting a sub 
 ject of conversation as the " Temple disas 
 ter," as it was called. There was a flavour 
 of the horrible in it, furnished by the suicide; 
 a touch of real pathos, given by the death of 
 poor Mrs. Temple, who was known to have 
 always adored her husband. Then the 
 probable fate of the two orphan girls gave 
 rise to numberless discussions, which were 
 of a truly interesting character. There 
 were many really kind-hearted people 
 
THE TEMPLE DISASTER. 67 
 
 among the gossips, as there are every 
 where ; and more than one exclamation of 
 " Poor things ! " was uttered with great 
 sincerity. Only these good-hearted people 
 had a thousand duties, cares, or pleasures 
 which, after a short time, caused them 
 to forget the " poor things, and the pity 
 they felt was thus of no very fruitful 
 kind. 
 
 Nowhere were the affairs of the Temple 
 girls more thoroughly or more warmly dis 
 cussed than in Mrs. Richards circle. 
 This energetic lady was at the head of 
 sewing circles, of Church assemblies, of 
 women s meetings, &c. ; she looked upon 
 her mission in life as a talking mission, 
 and it must be owned that she fulfilled it 
 unflinchingly. 
 
 One Wednesday afternoon Wednesday 
 afternoons were devoted to the fabrication 
 
68 STOKM-DRIVEN. 
 
 of flannel petticoats and coarse shirts, 
 mostly of an inconvenient cut Mrs. 
 Richards sat in the midst of a bevy of 
 ladies of varying ages, giving out work 
 and superintending inexperienced sewers. 
 Naturally, as the needles were plied, the 
 tongues kept time, and naturally, also, 
 the late sad events formed the principal 
 topic of conversation. 
 
 " Mrs. Cox is very fond of Lil Temple ; 
 she cried when she heard the news," said a 
 stout, comfortable matron. 
 
 " Mrs. Cox s tears," retorted Mrs. 
 Richards, " are always near her eyes. 
 One of her accomplishments is to cry with 
 out sniffling, or making her eyes and nose 
 red ; crying, under those circumstances, 
 becomes a graceful feminine art. Besides, 
 we all know how very acute Mrs. Cox s 
 feelings are ; the fear of making herself ill 
 
THE TEMPLE DISASTER. 69 
 
 from over-sensitiveness has prevented her 
 from going to see her pet." 
 
 "But she wrote to offer money to the 
 girls." 
 
 "Very delicate and considerate on her 
 part. Charity is easy enough when one 
 has more money than one can possibly 
 spend ; if she had thought the matter over 
 a little, she would have understood that 
 what the Temple girls need, is not charity, 
 but help to set them to work." 
 
 " It seems they will have nothing," said 
 another lady, rolling out the word " no 
 thing" with a sort of lugubrious pleasure. 
 " Absolutely nothing ! " re-echoed a 
 number of voices, and then came quite a 
 solemn little silence ; a silence broken sud 
 denly by Issy, otherwise Isabella Richards, 
 a girl of sixteen, who sat outside the 
 circle, at work, in the window corner. 
 
70 STOEM-DEIVEN. 
 
 " Is it not comfortable to talk over other 
 people s troubles ! " 
 
 Issy liugged herself tight, as she said 
 this, and looked around with an expression 
 of childlike innocence on her whimsical 
 face. 
 
 " Issy ! " exclaimed her mother severely. 
 Mrs. Richards looked upon sharp speeches 
 as her especial province, and resented any 
 encroachment on her domain. Issy re 
 sumed her sewing demurely ; but every 
 now and then her quick black eyes glanced 
 from one to the other of the workers, 
 showing that she judged them all with the 
 relentless severity of youth. 
 
 "What the girls would do, could do, 
 ought to do, furnished endless variations 
 to the favourite theme. 
 
 "We shall now see which of the two 
 sisters is really up to the circumstances," 
 
THE TEMPLE DISASTER. 71 
 
 said Mrs. Richards, feeling sure that poor 
 Lil would be found sadly wanting. 
 
 " I guess/ said a young lady of un 
 certain age, who rejoiced in a strong 
 Yankee accent, " I guess Lil Temple won t 
 see much of her fine lover now." 
 
 " And Lil Temple once out of the field," 
 observed the irrepressible Issy from her 
 corner, " there may be some chance for 
 other and older competitors." 
 
 " Issy ! go and finish your seam in your 
 
 own room. 3 
 
 " Certainly, ma am ; with great pleasure," 
 answered Issy cheerfully, and smiling 
 blandly on the company, the young lady 
 took her departure. 
 
 "When her daughter had left, Mrs. 
 Richards put down her work and said, 
 " It is all very well to talk about this sad 
 affair ; but the principal thing is to know 
 
STOEM-DBIVEN. 
 
 what we can do to help those girls." By 
 which it will be seen that Mrs. Richards, 
 if she possessed a tongue, possessed also a 
 heart. The only answer to this remark 
 was rather a blank silence. 
 
 The lady s sharp eyes danced ; she knew 
 human nature, and had expected this 
 silence; it rather pleased her to see how 
 well founded were her expectations. She 
 went on, however, quite undaunted, 
 
 " As for me, I am poor, as you all 
 know; but I will do what I can. There 
 is to be a sale at their house in a few days, 
 and they will then find themselves home 
 less. I mean to take them in, till they 
 have found some means of earning their 
 bread." 
 
 There was a little murmur of appro 
 bation among the sewers, which was not 
 unpleasant to the ears of Mrs. Richards ; 
 
THE TEMPLE DISASTER. 73 
 
 but after this, the awkward silence once 
 more fell on the assembly. 
 
 " Well/ 5 said the stout matron who had 
 begun the discussion, and who felt that it 
 was incumbent on some one to say some 
 thing. " Well, the Temple girls are well 
 educated; it seems they talk French like 
 natives. I might send my daughters to 
 them if they got up a school, Miss Glover 
 is sadly incompetent ; and then, as be 
 ginners, the Temples of course would not 
 charge high prices." 
 
 " Yery generous of you, certainly," said 
 Mrs. Richards drily, and then she turned 
 to the other ladies, not being a woman 
 whom it was easy to discourage. Each 
 replied according to her nature, and it 
 must be confessed that the prospects of 
 the two orphans did not appear very 
 brilliant afc the close of the discussion. 
 
74 STOEM-DEIVEN. 
 
 Meanwhile the preparations for the sale 
 went on. The fine satin furniture was 
 piled in lots; the carpets torn up, the 
 pictures placed in corners; bronzes, marble 
 statuettes, pretty and useless things which 
 had been scattered here and there on 
 etageres, on side-tables and brackets ; all 
 these things, which had been familiar to 
 the members of the household, and dear to 
 them, as a part of their lives, were now 
 handled by rough men. The same rough 
 men invaded poor Mrs. Temple s room, 
 that room which for so long a time had 
 been a sort of sanctuary to her daughters ; 
 the bed was undone, her favourite books and 
 all the pretty trifles she had so valued, 
 partly because of their prettiness, partly 
 because of him who had given them to her, 
 were arranged on the table. This was 
 very hard to bear, and again it was Martha 
 
THE TEMPLE DISASTER. 75 
 
 on whom the burden fell. Lil was very 
 weak and pale; the doctor would not 
 allow her to leave her lounge, and the 
 room where she lay was kept sacred from 
 the men, whom she heard tramping heavily 
 up and down stairs. 
 
 There were other steps besides those of 
 the men, who were there simply to do 
 their duty ; steps lighter and more furtive. 
 Friends, on one pretext or another, came 
 to look at the lots ; dear friends who had 
 more than once admired certain objects, 
 and who meant to bid for them, should 
 they go cheap. It was all dreadfully sad, 
 of course; but then why should they not 
 profit by the occasion which presented 
 itself, as well as strangers ? At sales, 
 things sometimes went for a mere song, 
 and what feminine nature, however tender, 
 can resist a good bargain ? So that, if 
 
STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 fewer cards and notes were left now than 
 during the first days, the house was not at 
 any rate without its visitors. 
 
 When the more important objects had 
 all been arranged, ready for the auction, 
 Martha began the inventory of her par 
 ticular belongings, and those of her sister. 
 One day, she said rather abruptly, 
 
 "Lil, where is your jewel-box?" 
 
 Lil started ; she knew vaguely that they 
 were ruined, and that everything must be 
 sold; but she had not thought that the 
 " everything " included her trinkets. She, 
 like her mother, was very fond of pretty 
 things. 
 
 " In the bureau drawer ; must they go 
 too? 
 
 " Certainly they must." 
 
 Lil did not dare remonstrate ; but when 
 the casket was brought to her, she opened it 
 
THE TEMPLE DISASTER. 77 
 
 unwillingly, and held each pretty trifle long 
 in her hand. She sighed as she looked at 
 Martha, who was quietly making out the 
 list. There was not a ring, not so much 
 as a slight gold chain with its modest 
 cross, that had not its dear memories 
 clinging to it. They were all presents: 
 some from schoolmates to whom she had 
 vowed eternal friendship and fidelity, and 
 whose names she now scarcely remem 
 bered ; from her mother ; from " poor 
 papa," especially. This bracelet she had 
 worn at her first ball ; she remembered it 
 all so well ! it was three years ago, she 
 was still a school-girl, and ought not to 
 have gone at all, but her father had taken 
 her. She remembered her violent heart 
 beats, her anticipations of " something " 
 which was to happen, and did not; she 
 remembered, too, her surprise the next day 
 
78 STOBM-DEIVEN. 
 
 at finding that she was still just what she 
 had been before, with only a headache 
 added, and a little half -acknowledged 
 sense of disappointment. The bracelet 
 went with the rest, for Martha was in 
 flexible. But when the turn of her pretty 
 locket with the turquoises and diamonds 
 came her last gift, she held it firmly in 
 both hands. 
 
 " Not this, Martha, I must just keep this 
 one locket ! " 
 
 Martha looked up from her writing, and 
 a hard look came into her eyes, as she 
 recognized the trinket. 
 
 " How long is it since papa killed him 
 self, and since poor mother died?" 
 
 "Oh, Martha !" 
 
 " And you can cry over the loss of a 
 trinket." 
 
 " It s so short a time since poor dear 
 
THE TEMPLE DISASTER. 79 
 
 papa gave it to me it is as a souvenir 
 that I want it." 
 
 " It is impossible, dear," said her sister 
 more gently ; " the jeweller consents to 
 take it back, as he thinks he can dispose 
 of it. It was never paid for." 
 
 Lil said no more; she guessed a good 
 deal from the tone in which the last words 
 were uttered, but she cried silently, fearing 
 to ask for farther information. She had 
 been her father s pet, spoiled and humoured 
 by him ; she wanted always to think of 
 him as the handsome, gay, and prosperous 
 man, who seemed incapable of growing 
 old; she shrank from judging him, as she felt 
 that Martha judged him, and could only feel 
 a tender pity for his dreadful end. It was in 
 silence, that having kissed the locket, she 
 put it with her other trinkets. Martha 
 did not even look up from her work. 
 
80 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 THE EICHAEDS FAMILY. 
 
 MRS. RJCHAKDS was a woman who, when 
 she said a thing, meant it. If, in her de 
 termination to help the Temple girls, there 
 lurked something besides pure charity ; if it 
 gave her a malicious pleasure to prove once 
 more, that it is the poor who feel most for 
 the poor, who shall blame her ? She called 
 several times without being admitted ; 
 Martha felt during those early days, that a 
 word of pity would break down that firm 
 ness of which she stood in such need. But 
 at last Mrs. Richards refused to be sent 
 
THE EICHABDS FAMILY. 81 
 
 away, and Martha wearily consented to see 
 her. 
 
 " My dear girl," said the lady, who did 
 not believe in useless and wordy prepara 
 tion. " I have come to take you and Lil 
 home with me. The sale is to-morrow, you 
 cannot of course remain here, and besides, 
 you must have some little rest, before you 
 look round for work." 
 
 At first Martha resisted, but Mrs. 
 Richards with her plain common sense, 
 showed her, that to go at once to some 
 boarding-house, and become the objects of 
 vulgar curiosity, would be dreadful. " As 
 to your fine friends, my dear, do not count 
 on them; unhappiness jars on their fine 
 nerves, and tears tarnish the gilding of 
 their existence ; there is no gilding in my ex 
 istence, therefore I can offer you a welcome 
 and a shelter, for a week or two ; it s not 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
82 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 much, certainly, but it s better than nothing. 
 I was fond of your mother, and I like you, 
 so I dare say there is not much merit in 
 what I do ;" she said all this very heartily, 
 and Martha took her hand gratefully as she 
 accepted the proffered kindness. 
 
 The sale took place ; fine ladies, un 
 daunted by the crush, by the noise, by the 
 vulgar bustle always attending such 
 auctions, made splendid bargains, of which 
 they were as proud as though the main 
 object of a rich woman s life had been to 
 get things cheap. 
 
 During this time, the sisters were for 
 tunately safely sheltered in Mrs. Richards 
 c; spare room." The going away from the 
 house had been very painful, especially to 
 Lil, who was still very weak. She lay, pale 
 and motionless, in the strange bed, looking 
 vacantly around the barely-furnished room, 
 
THE RICHARDS FAMILY. 83 
 
 which had that appearance of cold, stiff pro 
 priety which distinguishes apartments rarely 
 used; she was unable to think much, but was 
 oppressed with a blank feeling of utter 
 misery. She felt that Mrs. Richards secretly 
 despised her for her want of strength, 
 physical and mental, but she had not energy 
 enough to care much, even for that. 
 
 Meanwhile, Martha summoned up courage 
 enough to begin, as Mrs. Richards ex 
 pressed it, to " look about her." From the 
 proceeds of the t sale of house, furniture, 
 and other valuables, there remained, when 
 all the creditors were paid, a small sum. Mrs. 
 Richards, in her own name, had bought some 
 of the plainer furniture ; that paid for, 
 there still remained about a hundred dollars, 
 to start with. 
 
 "Now, dear Mrs. Richards," said Martha, 
 as she sat near her hostess, and helped 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 her with her stocking-darning, "how 
 had I best set about looking for work ?" 
 
 " What sort of work do you mean to look 
 for ?" 
 
 " That for which I am best fitted." 
 
 " Which is " 
 
 " Teaching, I suppose." 
 
 " Teaching, naturally. It is genteel ; all 
 girls in your station of life, who have to 
 work, think of that first, as a matter of 
 course. A cook has to learn her business, 
 so has a dressmaker, so has a factory-girl ; 
 whereas the art of teaching, which is 
 certainly more difficult than cooking or 
 sewing, is supposed to come by instinct." 
 
 " If I am not fitted for that, I am, per 
 haps, still less fitted to be cook or dress 
 maker, or even factory-girl. Yet, somehow 
 or other, Lil and I must earn our own 
 bread." 
 
THE RICHARDS FAMILY. 85 
 
 " Of course you must, and if you had 
 been brought up, as I would have all girls 
 brought up, to learn some profession, or 
 trade, something by which money could 
 be earned, just as boys are brought up, 
 nothing would be simpler. If, instead of 
 your convent education (why you were sent 
 to a convent has always been a mystery to 
 me !), you had gone through the Normal 
 School in Boston, for instance, teaching 
 would be your right." 
 
 "But I have not been through the 
 Normal School, and, nevertheless, I think 
 I could teach as well as most of the Lake- 
 ville school-mistresses or governesses. " 
 
 " Perhaps you could, my dear, which, by 
 the way, is no very high compliment to pay 
 you. It seems you speak French with a 
 tolerable accent, and generally put your 
 participles correctly when you write it, 
 
86 STOEM-DE1VEN. 
 
 that will tell in your favour with - some of 
 our fine ladies, more than sound English 
 grammar. Lil plays prettily enough on 
 the piano, and has a pleasing voice ; these 
 useless accomplishments will be paid her, I 
 suppose, at a higher rate than mathematics, 
 of which I am sure she is profoundly 
 ignorant." 
 
 Mrs. Richards was not very encouraging, 
 but, in spite of this, Martha, who was not 
 apt to let herself be guided by the ideas or 
 prejudices of others, steadily began her 
 search for pupils. 
 
 Still the younger sister, though she was 
 able to get up, remained principally in her 
 own room; when she saw Martha come 
 home each day from her weary round of 
 visits to rich acquaintances, looking fagged 
 and disheartened, Lil would make real 
 efforts to shake off her lethargy. 
 
THE RICHARDS FAMILY. 87 
 
 " Martha, to-morrow I will go out with 
 you." 
 
 " My poor Lil, you have scarcely strength 
 to go downstairs to dinner, and sit out Mr. 
 Richards complaints, and his wife s sharp 
 sayings ; how could you then stand the pity 
 of old friends, pity which is half vulgar 
 curiosity, and half contempt for poverty. 
 You see we were all very well, as acquaint 
 ances ; they invited us to their balls, but 
 they do not want us as teachers for their 
 children. " They are so sorry, is there 
 nothing else they could do? No, Lil, get 
 strong, that is all I want of you for the 
 present ; and when you are quite well, you 
 shall have work enough, be sure of that." 
 
 Lil felt that all this was true, but she 
 longed greatly to be of some use to her 
 over-taxed sister. 
 
 The other inmates of the house were less 
 
88 STOBM-DBIVEN. 
 
 patient with the young girl than Martha 
 proved ; they looked on her pale face as a 
 proof of moral weakness, and in that family 
 weakness of any kind was held to be worse 
 than crime. 
 
 One afternoon there came a knock at the 
 door, and before Lil could say " Come in," 
 Issy Richards entered. 
 
 " Mother said I was to rouse you up a 
 bit." 
 
 Lil started nervously; she had been 
 crying, but she hastily wiped her eyes, and 
 tried to look very brave. 
 
 " Why on earth do you stay in this 
 dreary old room, when it s so jolly warm 
 down in the parlour?" continued Issy, 
 looking round with decided disfavour on 
 the maternal spare room ; and in very 
 truth it was not inviting. The white and 
 blue cottage furniture looked shiveringly 
 
THE EICHAEDS FAMILY. 89 
 
 cold this winter weather ; there was no 
 fireplace, and the heat of the furnace was 
 mostly spent on the lower rooms, so that 
 only occasional puffs of ill-smelling hot air 
 came from the register. Near this register 
 Lil sat disconsolately, wrapped in a shawl. 
 
 "Will you not sit down?" she said, 
 without replying to the girl s question, and 
 trying not to look as though the " rousing 
 up " were some inevitable surgical opera 
 tion, which it needed much courage and 
 nerve to bear. 
 
 " Thank you ; I don t like those stiff 
 chairs;" and she seated herself on the 
 edge of the table. She was an odd-looking 
 little figure, as she sat on her perch, with 
 her feet swinging to and fro. Her hair 
 was naturally so rough, that it made a curly 
 halo about her funny little face. She was 
 more like some old wise child, or malicious 
 
90 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 sprite, than like a modern sixteen-year-old 
 maiden. 
 
 She remained silent for some moments, 
 looking alternately at her own feet, and at 
 Lil, who certainly, on her part, did nothing 
 to further the conversation. 
 
 " How old are you ? " she said presently, 
 with that abruptness which characterized 
 her usual mode of address. 
 
 " Nineteen," answered Lil meekly, won 
 dering whether her age would tell against 
 her in the judgment of her visitor. 
 
 " Three years older than I. I mean to 
 do more with the next three years, than 
 you have done with the three just past." 
 
 " Very likely," answeredLil despondingly ; 
 " I have never done much good in my 
 life." 
 
 " Of course you have not," comfortably 
 asserted Issy, rather mollified by her vie- 
 
THE RICHARDS FAMILY. 91 
 
 tim s humility. " It is not exactly your 
 fault, I suppose. You started in life as a 
 fine lady ; and I will tell you what such a 
 woman s life means. As a girl, to look as 
 pretty as circumstances will permit ; pay 
 visits, and dance, and flirt; then marry, have 
 children generally; pay visits again, and 
 gossip instead of flirting ; grow each year 
 less nice to look at; expand into fulness, 
 r>r shrivel to skin and bones, according to 
 the nature, then die. ~No one has been tha 
 better for such a life no one is worse off, 
 when it is over. I mean to make some 
 thing more of my womanhood than that. 
 Now there s you, for instance; you do not 
 see it, I suppose, but in reality you ought 
 to be grateful that something more is 
 expected of you now, than was expected a 
 month ago ; work may make something of 
 you yet. I am not quite sure that it will, 
 
92 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 but it may ; you are not too old, after all, 
 to take a new start." 
 
 " Thank you," said Lil, smiling in spite 
 of herself. 
 
 " Oh ! I am not quite sure, because, you 
 see, you have begun all wrong. Moping 
 takes all life and energy out of a body, and 
 you do nothing but mope. I suppose it is 
 dreadful to lose one s father and mother, 
 and one s fortune at the same time; but 
 your sister has lost them as well as you ; 
 and you let her do all the nasty work, all 
 the seeking for help from people who find 
 it much more convenient to shut their eyes 
 to the unhappiness about them, than to try 
 and alleviate it. She plans and worries all 
 alone." 
 
 " I have been ill," Lil ventured to say, 
 while the tears came to her eyes. 
 
 " I know ; and what is more, you were 
 
THE RICHARDS FAMILY. 93 
 
 not sorry to be ill. Sickness gives one a 
 good excuse for all sorts of things for 
 keeping away from us for instance. Father s 
 long stories bore you, especially when he 
 tries to be witty and imitate mother. His 
 witticisms are a failure ; I know it as well as 
 you do. Then you are afraid of mother, and 
 you cannot bear me. Jessie you rather take 
 to, because she is gentle and sickly. I dare 
 say you know, that we are not a very charm 
 ing family, but at any rate we are the only 
 people who offered to take you in." 
 
 " I am not ungrateful, Issy ! " exclaimed 
 Lil indignantly. " What a dreadful child 
 you are ! 
 
 " Am I not ? " answered Issy cheerfully. 
 " I have been told that often. I have come 
 to the conclusion that it is only dreadful 
 children who have any backbone, and who, 
 later, make men and women of some ac- 
 
94 STOKH-DBIVEN. 
 
 count in the world. Shall I tell you what 
 I mean to make of myself ? " 
 
 "Do." Lil gave a little sigh of relief ; 
 the delight of talking about herself, she 
 thought, might divert her tormentor s 
 attention from her own shortcomings. 
 
 " I mean to be a painter. You know 
 that, if I am a c dreadful child/ I am at 
 any rate the result of mother s theories. 
 As soon as I showed talent for drawing 
 and I have real talent she told me it was 
 to be my profession. If I could not be 
 come a real artist, at least I was to find 
 some way of earning money by my pencil. 
 I earn some now not much, but there is a 
 beginning to all things. I paint box-covers, 
 valentines, everything that the shopkeepers 
 ask me to do. Not long ago I made a 
 flower-piece, a real little picture ; it was 
 not very good, but it had a certain look 
 
THE BICHARDS FAMILY. 95 
 
 about it, and I sold it for ten dollars. I 
 snail not keep to flowers, however ; I mean 
 to go in for high art." 
 
 " Indeed/ said Lil, feeling that she was 
 expected to answer. There was something 
 very comical in the appearance of this 
 votary of high art, as she sat on the table, 
 hugging herself and swinging her feet. 
 The votary herself, however, had no idea 
 that there was anything ridiculous about 
 her ; she was so in earnest, that she even 
 forgot to draw the parallel between her 
 own aspirations and Lil s uselessness. 
 
 " I shall go to Paris or Rome, as soon as 
 I have scraped enough money together. I 
 suppose that will not be till lam much older, 
 but the time will come, sooner or later." 
 
 " You would leave your family ? go off 
 alone ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! why not ? I should not be 
 
96 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 much missed. I am a living theory to 
 mother not much besides ; she is incon 
 sistent, like all the rest of the world ; for 
 there is Jessie, who is delicate, and affec 
 tionate, and feminine, and all the rest of it; 
 who never will earn a cent for herself; 
 who will fall in love, be sure of it, and 
 marry, and be dependent all her life. Well ! 
 mother cares more for Jessie s little finger 
 than for my entire person. Father s a 
 little afraid of me I suppose because I am 
 so like mother. Oh, no ! I should not be 
 missed much. They will all be proud of 
 my success ; for I mean to have success. 
 They will talk of Issy who has a studio, 
 Issy who exhibited a picture, Issy who gets 
 good prices for what she does, and that s 
 all." 
 
 " How can you say such horrible 
 things ! " 
 
THE EICHAEDS FAMILY. 97 
 
 "Because it is the truth. People are 
 usually afraid of the truth ; they coyer 
 it up decently, go round about it, shut 
 their eyes ; but that s not my way. I look 
 things in the face, without shrinking." 
 
 " But do you never long for a little real 
 affection ? " 
 
 Issy remained silent a moment, and 
 stopped the swinging of her feet. 
 
 " I should like to say c No, 5 but it would 
 not be absolutely true. Sometimes I want 
 to cry, because of the want of affection 
 of those nearest to me ; but as I should 
 despise myself if I yielded, I swallow my 
 tears. The truth is that I do not often 
 think about it as seldom as possible; 
 when the fit comes on me, I work and 
 work, until I wear myself out ; that always 
 
 cures me." 
 
 " But what about the future ? " Lil ven- 
 YOL. i. H 
 
98 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 tured to say ; for she was as romantic as 
 most girls of her age. " Do you never 
 fancy that the life you propose to yourself 
 will be very cold and hard ? " 
 
 "You mean by that," answered Issy 
 composedly, " that when I arrive at the 
 age when girls usually marry, I too shall 
 want a husband ? Not I ! I read lots of 
 novels, I like to read them, they seem to 
 fill a part of my nature which needs to be 
 filled ; but as to putting any romance into 
 my life no, no! I shall cut my hair 
 short, and dress quite out of the fashion. 
 Be sure that, were I a very treasure of 
 sensibility, of gentleness, of devotion, of 
 intelligence, short hair and an ugly dress 
 would suffice to keep the whole male sex at 
 a respectful distance." 
 
 Issy did not often secure so good a 
 listener. She talked on and on with her 
 
THE KICHARDS FAMILY. 99 
 
 reckless frankness, but with her scrupulous 
 truthfulness as well. It did Lil good. 
 When at length her witch-like visitor was 
 called away, she remained for some time 
 lost in thought; the " rousing" was pro 
 ducing its effect. At last she got up, put 
 on her black hat, with its long crape veil; 
 she shivered under the sombre, dismal 
 folds ; she forced herself to look steadily 
 in the glass ; then quietly she went down 
 stairs and left the house. She was still 
 very weak, and walked with difficulty; 
 everything about her appeared changed 
 since she had walked along these very 
 streets, so short a time before, gay and 
 prettily dressed. Now, through her veil, 
 the town had a sad and solemn look, as 
 though it also were in mourning ; and the 
 people who passed by, laughing and talk 
 ing, seemed to her as irreverent as unbe- 
 H 2 
 
100 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 lievers laughing in holy places. More than 
 once she was tempted to go back ; but she 
 had taken her resolution, and she persisted. 
 That evening, at the tea-table, she said 
 quietly, 
 
 "Mrs. Games has engaged me to go every 
 afternoon to teach her children their school- 
 lessons, and to begin the piano to the two 
 youngest. I remembered hearing her com 
 plain that she had no time to overlook her 
 children herself, so as I offered to do it for 
 very little, she said that I might try." 
 
 Every one looked up surprised, and there 
 was triumph in Martha s eyes, very pleasant 
 to see. 
 
 " That s right, my dear ! " said Mrs. 
 Richards heartily ; " the sooner you begin, 
 the better." 
 
 " That s my doing," whispered Issy to 
 her mother with great complacency. 
 
101 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SOME FLOWERS. 
 
 GRIEF, in the midst of luxury, expending 
 itself in a warm, well-curtained, darkened 
 room, where sympathizing friends come on 
 tip-toe, and speak in softened voices, 
 differs essentially from grief, which has to 
 look some of the sternest of life s facts in 
 the face. Blow after blow had fallen on the 
 sisters, one of which alone would have suf 
 ficed to make life seem blank and dreary ; 
 yet they had to think and act in the midst 
 of it all, keeping their wits about them, and 
 only indulging occasionally in the abandon- 
 
102 STOEM-DBIVEN. 
 
 ment to their sorrow. After the first step 
 had been taken, Lil kept bravely at her 
 sister s side, taking her share of the worries 
 and annoyances of their new position. She 
 won thereby the somewhat grudging appro 
 bation of Mrs. Richards, and the patroniz 
 ing regard of Issy, who looked upon the 
 sudden change in their young guest as her 
 own especial work. 
 
 People were not wanting, who found it 
 extraordinary that the two girls, so short a 
 time after their misfortunes, should be able 
 to go quietly about their affairs; discuss 
 practical questions with calm faces, and 
 even listen to commonplace attempts at 
 consolation, with only an occasional half- 
 stifled sob. 
 
 "I guess they have not much feeling," 
 would say Mrs. Brown, the stout matron, 
 who at Mrs. Richards sewing-circle had 
 
SOME FLOWERS. 103 
 
 volunteered to have her children taught at 
 reduced prices by the beginners. " When 
 I lost my poor father, I let no one see me 
 for well-nigh a month, and even then I 
 always had my handkerchief up to my 
 eyes. As to that Martha Temple, a little 
 more, and she would actually have laughed 
 the other day, when I tried to explain to 
 her my ideas on education ! There was a 
 twinkle in her eyes, my word on it ! and I 
 am sure there was nothing to laugh at in 
 what I said. But some people have not 
 much heart ; the Temples don t even seem 
 to understand the disgrace of the thing 
 for suicide does leave a stain on the me 
 mory ! " added the lady, drawing herself 
 up with the consciousness of using very fine 
 language. " They do not even seem grate 
 ful to us for not making them feel that." 
 Others besides Mrs. Brown looked with 
 
104 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 disfavour on the conduct of Martha and 
 Lil. Of course it was known in a general 
 way, that they would have to work for their 
 living, and certainly, if instead of seeking 
 that work, they had yielded to their natural 
 grief, the criticism would not have been less 
 universal or less severe. But to these fine 
 people, who belonged to a world in which 
 the wheels of life are so well oiled, that 
 they go on smoothly without a shock to 
 the most sensitive nerves, there seemed a 
 sort of indecency in the fact that the sisters 
 should be met in the streets, and seen to 
 ring at many doors. Those, whose days 
 melt easily and quickly one into another, do 
 not reflect that grief lengthens out time 
 greatly; that sleepless nights and harrassed 
 days are very long to pass. 
 
 There still were cards and messages left ; 
 a few friendly visits paid also ; but each 
 
SOME FLOWERS. 105 
 
 day these grew rarer. It could not be 
 otherwise ; at the time, the catastrophe had 
 been so terrible that public interest was 
 arrested ; the papers had discussed it with 
 the frankness which characterizes those 
 publications ; fashionable ministers had im 
 proved the occasion, by preaching on the 
 unstableness of human happiness ; and in 
 every house it had been discussed. But 
 soon other subjects of startling interest had 
 arisen ; a fire eating up half a city ; a 
 divorce case of palpitating interest ; a dis 
 puted election .... in short, life went 
 on, and with it the world. It has always 
 been so, and so it will always be. 
 
 To Lil this was a hard lesson to learn. 
 She had been all her short life so guarded, 
 so petted, so surrounded, that she at first 
 would not believe that those who had made 
 much of her when she was rich and happy, 
 
106 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 could forsake or forget her now when she 
 most needed consolation. One day she 
 received the following note from Mrs. 
 Cox: 
 
 " MY DEAR LlL, 
 
 " I so want to see you, my pet ! but I 
 dare not ; I am so soft-hearted that I should 
 cry, which would be an odd way of cheer 
 ing you ; besides, I must tell you that the 
 suffering of those I love always affects me 
 so exquisitely, that I am forced by order 
 of my doctor to avoid exposing myself to 
 any such emotion. I leave to-morrow for 
 New York, and Washington ; I suppose I 
 shall be very gay there, as my friends 
 always make such a fuss with me, but be 
 lieve, dear girl, that I shall often think of 
 you. . . . All black must be sadly unbe 
 coming to you ! . . . I am told that you 
 
SOME FLOWEES. 107 
 
 will be quite poor ; I wanted to help you, 
 but your sister would not hear of it; she 
 is, I suppose, too proud to accept anything, 
 but if you, my love, want a new dress or 
 anything of the sort, let roe know, for I 
 wish you always to look upon me 
 
 " As your very affectionate friend, 
 
 " ANN Cox. 
 
 "P.S. Leigh Ward is going East also 
 before long." 
 
 "When she had read this note, Lil sat very 
 still for some time. Mrs. Cox s postscript 
 was doing its work, as probably she had 
 intended it should. She started at last, 
 hearing a knock at the door ; Mrs. Richards 
 one servant came in, a broad grin on her 
 good-natured Irish face, and in her hands 
 the most exquisite basket of flowers that 
 Lil had ever seen. 
 
108 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 " Them s for you, miss." 
 
 "For me? who sent them?" and the 
 colour rushed to her pale face. 
 
 " I can t tell, miss ; I guess it must be 
 some beau or other. It was a boy from the 
 place brought em, and he said as how the 
 gentleman had left no card." 
 
 "Very well," said Lil, taking her 
 flowers, and trying not to let the girl see 
 that she was trembling with pleasure. 
 
 He had not forgotten her, after all; 
 she had judged him too hastily ; in their 
 short interview he had been embarrassed 
 nothing more ; if, since then, he had kept 
 away, it had been out of delicacy ; he 
 had left the task of reassuring her to 
 these beautiful flowers. Doubtless he had 
 arranged them himself; he had such ex 
 quisite taste. He was by nature an 
 artist, a poet, he, who loved music so 
 
SOME FLOWERS. 109 
 
 fervently, had with the sweet harmony of 
 colours, composed a symphony of beauty, 
 all for her. 
 
 Usually, after the evening meal, the 
 seven o clock tea, or " supper " as it was 
 called in the family, Lil would slip upstairs 
 to her room, on the plea of fatigue a 
 plea her pale face and languid move 
 ments fully justified; but this evening 
 she followed the others into the sitting- 
 room. This sitting-room was certainly 
 not luxurious ; to Lil it seemed very bare 
 and ugly ; yet there was a certain feeling 
 of comfort about the place, it was large and 
 well-warmed, the horsehair-covered furni 
 ture was ugly enough certainly, but it had 
 been so worn, so played upon by children, 
 that it had lost all the stiff, slippery look 
 which usually distinguishes that kind of 
 furniture ; there was a sort of jolly 
 
110 STORM-DEIVEX. 
 
 shabbiness about it, and about the carpet, 
 too. As with Mrs. Eicliards herself, there 
 was no shame-faced poverty in the look 
 of the room ; it cheerfully made the best 
 of things. Mrs. Richards had a feeling 
 of comfortable superiority over her rich 
 neighbours, as being more thoroughly re 
 publican and American, because of her 
 hard life. When she turned a dress, or 
 made her own puddings, she was buoyed 
 up by a cheerful sense of virtue ; she felt 
 like certain mothers of a dozen children, 
 that she deserved well of her country. 
 But she did more than sew or bake ; she 
 was an indefatigable reader, she laid all 
 her friends under contribution for books 
 which she was too poor to buy ; every 
 thing was welcome; translations of Ger 
 man philosophy, or of French socialistic 
 works ; novels, poems, treatises on political 
 
SOME FLOWERS. Ill 
 
 economy nothing came amiss to her : she 
 had, to an eminent degree, the national 
 thirst for knowledge ; what she thus read 
 with wonderful rapidity, could not all be 
 perfectly digested certainly, but there re 
 mained enough of all this matter in her 
 mind, to enable her to dash headlong into 
 any discussion, however abstract. There 
 are many Mrs. Richards s in America; they 
 form an element which, better trained, 
 with a more thorough discipline in youth, 
 a little less of intellectual pride, and a 
 little more of charity, would do as much 
 good to their country, as the frivolous 
 lovers of luxury, the women who make 
 of fashion and dress the idols of their 
 lives, are doing harm to it. Something 
 of all this, excepting the last reflection 
 however, passed through Lil s mind as 
 she watched her hostess ; the good reso- 
 
112 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 lution which had induced her to spend 
 the evening with the family, did not 
 extend to the joining in the family talk; 
 she sat at the table, pretending to look 
 over the books and papers which covered 
 it; little Jessie Richards, a fair delicate 
 child stood at her side, but so that Lil 
 stroked her soft hair she did not require 
 either to entertain or be entertained. 
 Issy only spoke occasionally, in disjointed 
 sentences; she was busy arranging her 
 drawings for the inspection of Mr. Bruce, 
 who had promised to look over them that 
 evening. As to Mr. Richards, he was 
 blandly sleeping on the sofa, while his 
 energetic spouse discoursed volubly with 
 Martha. Lil was much engrossed in her 
 own thoughts, but she nevertheless caught 
 part of that conversation. 
 
 " I used to think that working for one s 
 
SOME FLOWERS. 113 
 
 living was a very simple thing indeed; 
 that it only required energy, perseverance, 
 and hearty good-will, whereas " 
 
 " Whereas my dear, these qualities alone 
 are entirely insufficient," retorted Mrs. 
 Eichards, cheerfully conscious that Martha 
 was beginning to be really discouraged. 
 " You must understand that you are not 
 the only women who have need of genteel 
 work, for that kind, the supply is always 
 far greater than the demand. Intelligent 
 young women in want of money swarm ; 
 and it is those who have most assurance, 
 who know best how to put a bold face on 
 things, who succeed; and by no means 
 those who are most worthy and most 
 conscientious. You have too much con 
 science by half." 
 
 " I own that the idea of having a 
 regular school, even a small school, 
 
 VOL. i. I 
 
114 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 frightens me. I could easily, I know, 
 teach certain things give French lessons, 
 for instance but pretend to teach every 
 thing, that is a very different matter ! 
 Suppose a pupil were to ask me a ques 
 tion, and that I should be unable to 
 answer?" 
 
 "Answer all the same, boldly, calmly; 
 neither the child nor its parents, most 
 likely, would find out your ignorance, 
 whereas if you hesitate you are lost ! As 
 to the sort of governessing you speak of, 
 that is out of the question. "What we 
 ask for in this country is school a good 
 place to send one s children, so as to have 
 some hours of quiet. Children, as long as 
 they are in the house, are a constant 
 worry; schools were invented for the 
 relief of mothers, far more than for the 
 education of children; it is from that 
 
SOME FLOWERS. 115 
 
 point of view that you must look at the 
 matter." 
 
 " But there will be the rent, and the 
 various expenses of such an establish 
 ment." 
 
 "My dear Martha, I have found you 
 the very thing you need ; you and Lil are 
 shocked at my idea, but you will end by 
 adopting it." 
 
 The " very thing " which Mrs. Eichards 
 had found, was as eccentric as the finder 
 herself. This was it : a great, unfinished, 
 five-story building; that dreariest of 
 things a new ruin, with gaping frarneless 
 windows, and bare un plastered beams ; a 
 speculation left unfinished for want of 
 funds. On the ground-floor of this deso 
 late place were two large rooms which 
 the speculator had intended for his private 
 offices, and which were about habitable 
 i 2 
 
116 STORM-DKIVEN. 
 
 the flooring laid and the walls whitewashed. 
 Until some adventurous spirit could be 
 found to finish the building, these two 
 rooms could be hired at a reasonable price ; 
 the warehouse was situated in a fashionable 
 avenue which business had threatened to 
 invade, but business had soon thought 
 better of the matter, and the adventurous 
 spirit was not likely to be found imme 
 diately. Lil, though she did not often 
 interfere, had expressed her utter disap 
 proval of the plan ; it was odd, it was 
 ridiculous, and she dreaded ridicule above 
 all things. How would it be possible for 
 Leigh Ward for instance, ever to call at 
 such a place? Martha herself was not 
 quite in favour of it, and went everywhere 
 trying to find something better; what she 
 did find was so exorbitant in price that 
 she shrank back frightened, and regretted 
 
SOME FLOWEES. 117 
 
 more and more that governessing should 
 not be possible. 
 
 In the midst of the discussion which 
 grew so animated that Issy was actually 
 tempted to leave her drawings, so as to 
 give her sage opinion with that frankness 
 peculiar to Americans of her sex and age 
 the door opened, and John Bruce entered ; 
 Issy immediately left her mother s side 
 and took possession of the young man, as 
 though he had been her especial property. 
 She was less sharp, less dogmatic with 
 him than with any one else ; she recognized 
 his superiority as artist, and also perhaps 
 she felt the influence of his nature, at once 
 strong and gentle, simple, yet with a 
 certain unconscious dignity, which earnest 
 work and a high purpose always bestow. 
 
 This was the first time John Bruce had 
 seen Lil since the ball ; he had been quite 
 
118 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 often to the house of late, having appa 
 rently taken Mrs. Richards reproaches to 
 heart, but Lil had never before been pre 
 sent. He freed himself from Issy s im 
 portunities, and went up to where the 
 young girl sat apart ; he wanted to tell 
 her of all his pity, but he could not, he 
 only wrung her hand, looking at her with 
 his eyes full of earnest sympathy. 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Bruce," said Lil ; she 
 felt very grateful to him ; indeed, she was 
 in a mood that evening to be easily 
 touched. 
 
 " This is what I wanted to show you, 
 Mr. Bruce !" exclaimed Issy, in her sharp, 
 shrill voice; he went to her, and they 
 were soon both deeply engrossed. Issy 
 was an apt pupil, she was never destined 
 to make a great artist, for the sympathy 
 with what is beautiful and elevated was 
 
SOME FLOWERS. 119 
 
 wanting in her; but she had a power of 
 imitation which was remarkable ; without 
 knowing it, she already belonged to that 
 realistic school of art which has in our 
 days so exaggerated a number of admirers. 
 
 " Oh ! if I could only go to Paris with 
 you ! " she exclaimed, with such eager 
 enthusiasm that it was impossible even to 
 smile at the oddness of the proposition. 
 
 " I am afraid your mother might object 
 to such a plan." 
 
 " Object ? why should she ? Oh ! because 
 I am a girl and you are a man. "What 
 nonsense ! I would dress like a boy, and 
 no one would ever know the difference ; I 
 would be your pupil, or if you did not want 
 to be bothered with me, I could enter the 
 studio where you were, and work with the 
 other students. What keeps me back is 
 not at all that I am a girl, but that I have 
 
120 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 no money for the journey ; and to think 
 that there are rich women who spend 
 thousands and thousands of dollars on 
 dress and such rubbish ! " 
 
 "You do not know exactly what a 
 painter s atelier in Paris is like/ said John 
 quietly ; " if you were my sister you should 
 never enter one." 
 
 " Because you, as a man, are bound to 
 have narrow prejudices ; you do not know 
 me, I am afraid of nothing; besides, I should 
 be so absolutely absorbed in my work, that 
 I should hear, see, notice nothing beyond 
 that." John looked at her a little curiously; 
 there was no doubting her entire sincerity; 
 she was quite capable, he thought, of doing 
 as she said. Presently she added, " When 
 do you leave ?" 
 
 " Next week, that is if all can be ready 
 in time you know I do not go alone." 
 
SOME FLOWERS. 121 
 
 " Indeed," said Lil, looking up suddenly 
 with a half-smile. " Are you going to take 
 a wife with you?" 
 
 John blushed slightly, and then there 
 was something of displeasure, almost of 
 reproach in his eyes, as he looked at her ; 
 she was interested, as all women instinc 
 tively are, at the idea of love and marriage, 
 and he seemed by no means grateful for 
 that interest. 
 
 " No, Miss Temple, 1 am not going to 
 be married, yet awhile at least ; my sister 
 is going over with me." 
 
 " Not yet awhile, or ever, I hope," Issy 
 exclaimed, " I should never forgive you if 
 you married ; what have you, an artist, to 
 do with matrimony?" 
 
 " I hope to have something to do with it 
 some day ; artists more perhaps than other 
 men need affection and sympathy." 
 
122 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 He said this rather shortly, and imme 
 diately resumed his criticism of the 
 drawings. 
 
 " Oh ! what shall I do when you are 
 gone?" sighed Issy. 
 
 " What you must do, is to sketch a great 
 deal, all the time, sketch rather than 
 attempt finished drawings ; whenever you 
 see any object, animate or inanimate, which 
 strikes your fancy, jot it down ; try and do 
 this with as few strokes as possible, catch 
 the attitude, the movement of a figure, 
 for instance pray Miss Temple, keep that 
 position a minute or two," and putting his 
 own theory in practice, he rapidly sketched 
 the young girl, whose pensive attitude had 
 struck him as peculiarly graceful. 
 
 " Yes, I see," said Issy, eagerly following 
 each stroke, " how like it is, though there 
 is but a bit of the cheek to be seen ; give it 
 
SOME FLOWEES. 123 
 
 to me, Mr. Bruce, it will serve me as 
 model. 5 
 
 " No ; you need no such model," and he 
 put the scrap of paper in his pocket-book. 
 " Now, see what you can do ; while I talk 
 to Miss Temple, you sketch both of us." 
 
 But once seated by Lil, he seemed quite 
 unable to enter with any animation into 
 the announced conversation; he played 
 with a paper-knife, and only found short, 
 commonplace phrases. 
 
 " Time must hang heavily on your hands, 
 Miss Temple," he said, when he had dis 
 cussed the weather. 
 
 " Yes ; even when I am busy, for I am 
 busy. I have begun to work for my living ; 
 I used to hear a great deal about the delight 
 of independence, the pride of earning one s 
 bread, but I find no delight or pride in it 
 at all. I ought to feel my nature elevated 
 
124 STOKM-DEIVEN. 
 
 I suppose, when I have spent an hour in 
 trying to teach her notes to a child of five, 
 or hearing French verbs from one of ten, 
 but I do not. 
 
 " All will come easier to you before long," 
 said John, who wanted sadly to be eloquent, 
 and who felt deeply humiliated at his con 
 tinued failure. " When I come back from 
 Paris, I shall find you successful, and very- 
 proud of your success. I shall think of 
 you, and of your sister, very often." 
 
 " There ! I have finished my drawing," 
 exclaimed Issy. " Look, mother ! does it 
 not look sentimental ? just as though they 
 were a pair of lovers." 
 
 "Exactly," said Mrs. Richards drily. 
 
125 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 WOEK. 
 
 MAETHA had hoped to begin her little 
 school with about twenty pupils; that 
 number had been half-promised to her; 
 this had not been accomplished without 
 much difficulty, without many humiliating 
 refusals or hesitations ; but finally, thanks 
 to Mrs. Richards energetic help, and to 
 her own tact and good sense, her prospects 
 seemed tolerably fair. On the strength of 
 these prospects, since it was quite evident 
 that nothing better could be found, the 
 "very thing" discovered by Mrs. Eichards 
 
126 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 was hired; small desks, chairs, maps, and 
 other indispensable articles bought with 
 the remaining dollars, and the day for the 
 opening of the school fixed. 
 
 But at the last moment, several of the 
 parents retracted ; it was such a queer sort 
 of school for their children to go to; it 
 was not damp, it was larger and more airy 
 than many of the other private schools, but 
 then it certainly was queer. Besides there 
 was another thing which told greatly 
 against the Temple girls, they were Papists; 
 as long as they had been rich, this eccen- 
 
 
 
 tricity was forgiven them, barely forgiven 
 it is true, as the eccentricities of the rich 
 are forgiven by the world. 
 
 Mrs. Temple had belonged to one of the 
 old Baltimore Catholic families, but as 
 often happens, when the parents are of 
 different religions, the children had at first 
 
WORK. 127 
 
 been left to grow up with no well-defined 
 faith ; at the convent, however, where they 
 had been sent for their education, things 
 changed at once, and their Catholicity grew 
 firm and distinct. 
 
 It was as "queer" to be Papists, as to open 
 a school in an unfinished warehouse ; well- 
 bred people disapproved of the one as much 
 as of the other; besides, the low religion 
 had made alarming progress of late, and 
 prudent clergymen advised mothers of 
 families not to place their children under 
 such dangerous influences. In a few days, 
 the twenty pupils dwindled down to twelve; 
 it required all Martha s energy and deter 
 mination not to be entirely discouraged. 
 Mrs. Richards, who was a staunch Presby 
 terian, did not fail to improve the occasion 
 by making her understand that her religion 
 was the great cause of her failure, and 
 
* 
 
 128 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 that her failure was after all quite de 
 served. 
 
 But if Mrs. Richards lost no opportunity 
 of preaching the superiority of Protes 
 tantism, she continued to prove herself as 
 helpful and as good a friend as ever. 
 
 "When the time came for the sisters to 
 take possession of their new abode, she, 
 her daughter Issy, and John who had 
 grown to be quite one of the family all 
 went cheerfully to work to put things to 
 rights. John proved to have a perfect 
 genius for hanging up maps, driving in 
 nails, and making doors move easily on 
 their hinges. His talents did not stop here : 
 in the other room, which was to serve both 
 as sitting and bed-room, he contrived to 
 take away all air of stiffness ; he draped 
 the curtains, disposed the furniture to the 
 best possible advantage, and decorated the 
 
WORK. 129 
 
 bare walls with, a number of sketches 
 
 and studies, which he had had nicely 
 
 framed. 
 
 "I am going away; it would be very 
 
 kind of you to keep them till my return," 
 
 he said, in his off-hand way. 
 
 It was a day of bustle, of hard work, 
 and of great cheerfulness to most of these 
 busy people; a sort of picnic lunch was 
 eaten in the schoolroom; several small 
 desks placed side by side formed a tolerable 
 table. But when everything was in order, 
 and Mrs. Richards had gone away with 
 Issy, John Bruce lingered yet a little ; he 
 was to leave the next day, and certainly he 
 had many things still to do things which 
 he had neglected, so as to help the sisters 
 yet he lingered. 
 
 " How shall I hear about you, and about 
 the success of your undertaking?" he 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
1 30 STOEM-DEIVEN. 
 
 said, as at last he took leave. " Mrs. 
 Richards has promised to write to me." 
 
 " And we will send you messages in 
 every letter, be sure of that, John, 55 said 
 Martha heartily; she called him John, for 
 she had known him when he was quite a 
 boy, when Lil was yet at school. 
 
 " Thanks." He would have liked to ask 
 to be written to directly, but that he had 
 not the courage to do. " Good-bye ! do 
 not forget me quite. 55 
 
 " Good-bye ! Mr. Bruce ; we are very 
 grateful to you for your kindness ; and we 
 understand your delicate attentions better 
 perhaps than you think, 55 said Lil gently ; 
 she felt very kindly towards this young 
 man, who had not abandoned them in their 
 misfortunes as others had done. 
 
 When he had gone, Lil looked discon 
 solately about her ; it was already dark, and 
 
WORK. 131 
 
 as no gas-pipes had been laid on in the 
 unfinished building, the improvised school 
 room was lighted by a couple of candles. 
 It looked dreary enough ; the corners of the 
 big room were in complete darkness, and 
 the rows of new black desks appeared 
 funereal in the extreme. Lil had always 
 disapproved of the place, and she looked 
 forward to their life in this odd refuge with 
 great misgivings. 
 
 " Why should not new ruins be haunted 
 as well as old ruins ? " she said, as she 
 listened to the ominous sound of the wind 
 careering among the rafters of the window- 
 less upper stories. 
 
 " Ghosts are far too aristocratic to think 
 of taking possession of such a place," 
 answered Martha, laughing. 
 
 " I know I shall die of fright," continued 
 Lil shivering. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 "Well, before that sad event takes place, 
 do come and help me with these books," 
 said the e]der sister, who sensibly con 
 cluded that all Lil needed to chase away 
 her nervous fears, was a little occupation. 
 
 As to herself, it was with positive relish 
 that she prepared to begin life in earnest. 
 Like many another intelligent, active- 1 
 minded young woman, Martha had often 
 felt the need of some serious interest, some 
 real work ; her girlhood, spent in luxury, 
 in pleasures which had scarcely been plea 
 sures to her, had always seemed to her 
 very empty ; when her mother had fallen 
 ill, she had devoted herself to her entirely, 
 refusing absolutely ever to leave her side 
 for any society duties, or pleasures. But 
 even this had left many hours on her 
 hands ; she was fond of reading, but there 
 had been no one to direct her studies, none 
 
WORK. 133 
 
 with whom she could discuss her half- 
 formed ideas, the unsolved problems which 
 arose in her mind. Now, everything had 
 changed, her life s duty had taken a prac 
 tical shape; she had to earn her bread, 
 and help Lil to earn hers; she was tho 
 roughly in earnest and if hard work, and 
 an eager desire to do her best, could make 
 of her little school a model school, these 
 should not be wanting. She would have 
 nothing to do with long lessons learned 
 parrot-like ; as far as she knew how, she 
 would teach on the German system. 
 She talked of her plans and hopes to her 
 sister, eagerly, enthusiastically, until Lil, 
 really interested, forgot all her fears of 
 ghosts and burglars. 
 
 Unfortunately Martha made the mistake 
 at starting, of treating her pupils, who 
 were for the most part children of ten or 
 
134 STOEM-DRIVEN. 
 
 twelve, like reasonable beings, capable of 
 following and understanding her explana 
 tions. It was she who was to do the 
 work ; she put aside all grammars, all geo 
 graphies ; she talked unceasingly, until her 
 throat ached, she endeavoured to mix the 
 agreeable with the useful, to fix an his 
 torical fact by an anecdote, a grammatical 
 rule, by many and varied examples. She 
 made no regular division of classes, gave 
 no long and tedious lessons to learn by 
 heart, so that the children s former notions 
 of the meaning of school, were entirely 
 overturned. A few, bright and quick, as 
 American children often are, took readily 
 to this new method of learning, and by 
 their questions interested Martha greatly. 
 But these were the exceptions, and not 
 unnaturally Martha, almost unconsciously, 
 gave them all her attention, greatly neglect- 
 
WORK. 135 
 
 ing the others : these, finding they were 
 not closely watched, spent their time in 
 throwing paper balls at each other. 
 
 Among these last were Mrs. Brown s 
 two daughters. The first day their mother 
 questioned them about their new school, 
 asked to see their books and the lessons 
 they were to learn for the next morning. 
 When she heard that there were none to be 
 learned, and that Miss Temple had spent all 
 the class-time talking about all sorts of 
 things to Mary and Kate Irving, Mrs. 
 Brown s indignation knew no bounds ; she 
 felt that she was being cheated ; that even 
 the reduced price which she had consented 
 to pay was not being honestly earned. In 
 a round of visits she made, the new school 
 formed the principal subject of her talk. 
 Thus, from the very beginning, Martha, in 
 spite of her earnest desire to do her best, 
 
136 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 because of that desire indeed, had taken the 
 first step towards failure. " Miss Temple 
 has theories," was repeated from one to 
 another, the accusation was a vague one, 
 but not the less terrible for that ; people 
 who have no particular ideas of their own, 
 do not pardon others for having brains 
 otherwise constituted. 
 
 LiPs share of work in the school was 
 insignificant; indeed Martha really did 
 not need her help at all. Her conscience 
 was at rest however, for every afternoon 
 she went to her own unruly little pupils, 
 and did her best to keep them in order, 
 and even to win their affections. But each 
 day this life of drudgery grew harder to 
 bear; she had not Martha s energy and 
 natural love of work to keep her up ; to 
 her, drudgery was drudgery, and nothing 
 else. She loved what was beautiful, and 
 
WORK. 137 
 
 their schoolroom was hideous ; she craved 
 the happiness which had for so many years 
 seemed to be her rightful portion, and her 
 present life was very dreary ; she wondered 
 at her sister s cheerfulness. Comparing 
 her own listlessness to it, she judged her 
 self even more harshly than others judged 
 her and that was not saying little. At 
 least, she imposed silence to her repinings, 
 she did her best, poor child ! to interest 
 herself in the school, in the German 
 method; to answer Martha s eager talk; 
 to smile, even when her eyes were full of 
 tears ; but she did all this with such ap 
 parent effort, that it was more painful to 
 witness, than if she had frankly given way 
 to her feelings. 
 
 John Bruce had not deserted them, he 
 had held out a friendly hand to them ; 
 why was he the only one to have done 
 
138 STOEM-DRIVEN. 
 
 this? This thought would intrude itself 
 on her, over and over again ; she turned 
 from it, and it pursued her; she despised her 
 self for not conquering it, but her contempt 
 helped but to make her more unhappy. 
 
 Had Mr. Ward left the city ? She did 
 not know. No one ever mentioned him ; 
 the few visitors who found them out in 
 their poor refuge were, for the most part, 
 not his friends; those who did know him 
 never even mentioned his name. 
 
 Did those people fancy she was in love 
 with Leigh Ward ? and did they pity her 
 because she was abandoned ? Her pride 
 revolted at this, and made her seem cold 
 and stiff, so that the visits were not 
 repeated. Even the thought of the beau 
 tiful flowers could not now console her. 
 
 One afternoon towards the latter part of 
 February, Lil was returning from her daily 
 
WOKK. 139 
 
 work, more tired and dispirited even than 
 usual. There had been a sudden thaw; 
 the snow which had fallen heavily a few 
 days before, was now in that stage of melt 
 ing which makes walking a most disagree 
 able operation. Lil usually chose out-of-the- 
 way streets, so as to avoid meetings which 
 were always distressing to her ; but on this 
 particular day she went along a fashion 
 able avenue where the walking was a little 
 less atrocious than elsewhere ; it was not 
 a day, she thought, which fine people would 
 choose for either walking or driving. She 
 trudged along as best she could, a parcel of 
 books and music under her arm, an um 
 brella in her hand, and a waterproof cloak 
 covering her dress in that ungraceful way 
 proper to waterproofs. 
 
 Suddenly she stopped quite still; as she 
 lifted her eyes, which till then she had kept 
 
140 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 fixed on the dirty ground, she saw Leigh 
 Ward on horseback, talking to some ladies 
 in a carriage. It was the sound of his 
 laugh which had caused her to look up ; at 
 that moment their eyes met ; the young 
 rnan changed colour, looked embarrassed, 
 then lifted his hat, and quickly bent down 
 to resume his conversation. Lil did not 
 return his salute ; her principal feeling was 
 anger with herself for having stopped, and 
 in that way having attracted his attention. 
 Then, after the first moment, there came a 
 great bitterness ; what was there in com 
 mon between her, the poor little daily 
 governess, ill-dressed, mud-stained, and 
 that fine gentleman on his well-groomed 
 horse ? She now belonged to a world 
 which was not his ; she said to herself that 
 henceforth she would take her place honestly 
 and frankly in that world ; among the 
 
WORK. 141 
 
 workers, whose chief aim in life is to earn 
 their daily bread. She entered the school 
 room with a firm step, and head proudly 
 erect ; but Martha had gone out, and it is 
 difficult to keep up the heroic mood very 
 long when one is quite alone ; besides, Lil, 
 in spite of her resolutions had an aching 
 longing to cry. This she did not allow 
 herself to do, but she went to her room, 
 took off her hated waterproof, and then 
 sat down in front of her toilet-mirror. She 
 looked at herself long and attentively ; at 
 last she said half -aloud, 
 
 " Mrs. Cox was right, all black is hor 
 ribly unbecoming to me ! " 
 
142 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A LITERARY VENTURE. 
 
 " LESS zeal, my dear!" Mrs. Richards would 
 say to Martha, as it became more and more 
 evident that success shunned the humble 
 schoolroom. "You are wearing yourself 
 out for nothing, worse than nothing. Re 
 member that as a rule, what people like best 
 is mediocrity; a good honest plodding 
 mediocrity. They do not like to eat their 
 porridge too hot. If Mrs. Brown and her 
 friends read poetry which they never do, 
 they would prefer Southey to Shak- 
 speare ; if they could tell one picture from 
 
A LITEEAEY VENTURE. 143 
 
 another which of course they cannot they 
 would go into ecstasies over Carlo Dolci 
 and turn their backs on Michael Angelo." 
 
 " But, dear Mrs. Kichards," answered 
 Martha, laughing; "I find no likeness 
 whatever between myself, and my method 
 of teaching, and either Shakspeare or 
 Michael Angelo. I am simply an honest 
 girl, trying honestly to do her best." 
 
 " Precisely ! the thing is, not to do your 
 best, because your best is too good for 
 those who employ you. After all, your 
 purpose is to earn your livelihood, not to 
 reform the world. Study the weaknesses of 
 those whom you need, and play on them. 
 You look shocked at my plain speaking ; 
 when I was your age, I also started in life 
 with the idea of doing my best, of putting 
 my shoulder to the wheel; the only result 
 I obtained was, that my shoulder was 
 
144 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 bruised and the wheel never stirred an 
 inch ; so now I let things pass. I rebel 
 sometimes, but more often I laugh. That 
 is what you must do. Try a little honest 
 mediocrity, and you will see its good effects 
 at once." 
 
 But Martha was not willing to try it ; 
 she not only worked hard in class -hours, 
 but when the children had left, she read and 
 studied, doing her best to fill up the defi 
 ciencies in her own education, of which she 
 was sensitively conscious. All this earnest 
 ness and good- will could not but bear some 
 fruit; the more intelligent among her 
 pupils made rapid progress, and these 
 would battle for their teacher with all 
 the enthusiasm of that age; they grew 
 very fond of her, and their parents natu 
 rally also took up her cause warmly ; so 
 before long, the little school, like many 
 
A LITERARY VENTURE. 145 
 
 another more important assembly, was di 
 vided into two camps the Conformists and 
 the Nonconformists : the disputes between 
 these two camps were sometimes so warm, 
 that Martha had great difficulty in main 
 taining anything like discipline. This life 
 was wearing her out, and besides, she was 
 too clear-sighted not to see that all her 
 efforts would not suffice to insure ultimate 
 success ; the malcontents were in decided 
 majority. 
 
 On one occasion Susie Brown, the oldest 
 and most unruly of the children, asked her 
 the date of the battle of Agincourt. Martha 
 had a bad memory for dates, and confessed 
 that she had forgotten this one ; promising, 
 however, to read up all the details of the 
 battle for her next day s class. 
 
 " Some people had better go to school 
 again themselves, before attempting to 
 
 VOL i. L 
 
146 STORM-DKIVEN. 
 
 teach others," was the comment of Mrs. 
 Brown. 
 
 Miss Temple s real inefficiency from that 
 day became an undoubted fact, and people 
 shook their heads, saying that it was very 
 well to try and help needy young women ; 
 but that really the education of children 
 was too serious a thing to be trifled with, 
 and that charity began at home. 
 
 " That is all the attention you paid to 
 my preaching on that very subject ! " ex 
 claimed Mrs. Richards, who heard the 
 rumours, and immediately hurried off to 
 see Martha. " Why, if Susie Brown had 
 asked me who was king of the moon 
 at the present moment, I should have 
 answered Lunatic the XXIX. without a 
 moment s hesitation ! " 
 
 Martha would willingly have kept all 
 her anxieties, her fears for the future, to 
 
A LITERARY VENTURE. 147 
 
 herself, but there had come a change in 
 Lil. All her listlessness was gone ; a fever 
 of work had come in its place. There was 
 not much for her to do in the schoolroom, 
 so she turned her new activity to reforms 
 which had, in very truth, grown urgent; she 
 forced Martha to explain to her the exact 
 state of their finances, an investigation 
 which proved to be far from reassuring. 
 The sisters looked at each other rather 
 blankly, for quarter-day was coming fast on 
 them, and there was not money enough to 
 pay the rent. They must retrench, they 
 must live more poorly still. It was Lil 
 who took the initiative in this. Martha 
 had for a long time past felt the necessity 
 of extreme economy, but habits of extra 
 vagance are not conquered in a day, nor in 
 three months either, and besides, she had 
 shrunk from imposing privations on her 
 L 2 
 
148 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 sister privations which she herself would 
 have borne with cheerful philosophy ; she 
 was therefore as much pleased as surprised 
 at Lil s attitude. They had till then had a 
 woman a few hours a-day to clean the 
 rooms and cook their dinner. Lil insisted 
 that this work, light enough certainly, was 
 to be her department; she took to sweep 
 ing, dusting, and cooking with stern reso 
 lution. Martha smiled at the clouds of 
 dust she raised, and at the mutton-chops 
 she burnt in her attempts at cooking. 
 
 " My poor Lil ! " she would say, " when 
 we used to play duetts together, you al 
 ways would begin the crescendo three mea 
 sures before it was marked; you never 
 could understand that a composer should 
 ever wish for a moderato do try the 
 moderate now, you will find that it will 
 
 answer." 
 
A LITEEAET VENTURE. 149 
 
 If Martha understood what was the 
 secret motive of her sister s excess of zeal, 
 she never alluded to it, she made light of 
 her repeated culinary mishaps, and only 
 laughed at her eccentric notions of 
 enonomy ; it took the young housekeeper 
 no little time to discover that new green 
 peas were luxuries, and that bought pastry 
 was not the least expensive of desserts. 
 When she at last made that important 
 discovery, she reduced the daily meals to 
 the simplest possible form, alternating 
 mutton-chops and beefsteaks with mathe 
 matical precision, and adding to these 
 delicacies a few potatoes nothing more. 
 Her economy grew to be a virtue of the 
 Roman type ; sometimes Martha had laugh 
 ingly to plead for a portion just a trifle 
 larger. But these reforms did not satisfy 
 Lil s new energy. She felt that it was Martha 
 
1 50 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 who really bore the heaviness of the burden 
 on her own shoulders, and that was not just. 
 She thought over all her accomplishments, 
 wondering which of them could be turned 
 to some practical account. 
 
 Suddenly an inspiration came to her ! at 
 school, she had manifested a certain taste 
 for writing; indeed, she had always been 
 looked upon, by her companions, as some 
 thing of a genius. She had a facility which 
 enabled her to do a little of everything ; she 
 could versify with alarming ease, and 
 turned to prose with equal readiness. She 
 once began a poem in blank- verse, which, 
 however, never got much beyond the invo 
 cation to the muses ; this great and solemn 
 work was broken in upon by the composi 
 tion of a farce innocently facetious, which 
 was acted with great success in the school- 
 hall. Since leaving the convent, it is true, 
 she had never thought of pursuing her 
 
A LITERARY VENTURE. 151 
 
 literary career, but now the time had come 
 to utilize her talent. Her dreams of 
 ambition did not take too high a flight, 
 what she sought was not so much fame as 
 profit ; she had heard of women who earned 
 a very comfortable living by writing ; she 
 had read their effusions, and had judged 
 them to be, what indeed they really were, 
 rather inferior productions. She had no 
 very exalted idea of her own ability, but 
 thought she at least I can write as well 
 as they ; so, full of courage, she resolved to 
 try. 
 
 But in order to write, one must have 
 something to write about. For some days 
 Lil hunted after an idea. 
 
 For a magazine she could write neither 
 an imitation of" Paradise Lost, nor a farce ; 
 at last she determined to write a legend a 
 legend of the Rhine. It is true that she 
 had never seen the Rhine, and that her life 
 
152 STOEM-DBJVEN. 
 
 had not been such as to develope in her any 
 vivid notion of what constituted the weird 
 or mysterious. But one cannot always 
 choose one s subject ; an inspiration rejected 
 does not always engender another inspira 
 tion, and after all, if she had never been in 
 Germany, she had at least read a book on 
 German folk-lore. Besides, the subject 
 tempted her; like most young writers 
 afflicted with facility, images crowded her 
 prose, and hyperboles cantered between the 
 lines. Her teacher, who believed in an 
 ornate and florid style, as being most 
 calculated to give brilliancy to school-com 
 positions, had encouraged this propensity, 
 and surely a highly-coloured style must 
 suit a subject like the proposed legend of 
 the Rhine ? Mrs. Richards, if she had been 
 consulted, would have advised the young 
 writer to choose instead the baldest subject 
 
A LITEEAEY VENTURE. 153 
 
 she could find in real life, to strip it of all 
 the romance (which in real life will intrude 
 itself even in the baldest incidents), treat it 
 in a style nearly allied to that of a ledger, 
 put in it as many figures as possible, and 
 then send it to the editor of a first-class 
 magazine ; such a story might have some 
 chance of being accepted. As to imagina 
 tion, it was out of fashion ; no one wanted 
 it. But Lil did not consult Mrs. Richards ; 
 she was shy of her new project, she did not 
 speak of it even to Martha, until the story 
 was nearly finished. Martha, indeed, 
 suspected something of the kind from the 
 unusual quantity of foolscap-paper which 
 disappeared, but she said nothing. When 
 at last, Lil, a little nervously, confessed her 
 authorship, she was all enthusiasm, and 
 listened with great interest to the reading 
 of the story. Martha herself had never 
 
1 54 STOBM-DRIVEN. 
 
 been brilliant as a writer, and honestly 
 admired her sister s talent; she heartily 
 congratulated her, as Lil dropped her voice 
 mysteriously at the close of the last 
 paragraph, which paragraph was indeed a 
 very remarkable climax of choice horrors. 
 Then the two sisters fell to talking com 
 fortably over Lil s golden dreams. 
 
 " You really think it is not too bad?" 
 " Bad indeed ! I should like to see 
 Miss Tompkins who writes for the ( Oceanic 
 do half as well!" 
 
 "Oh!" said Lil, with an immense sigh 
 of satisfaction ; " and Miss Tompkins, they 
 say, makes quite a good income, with her 
 stories and novels. Perhaps I shall write 
 novels too some day ; it is not difficult to 
 be an author, I assure you, Martha. You 
 just have to get an idea, and then let your pen 
 run on. The important thing, they say, is 
 
A LITERARY VENTURE. 155 
 
 to get a good publisher; I shall be very 
 careful in my choice of one. I have heard 
 that some of the greatest firms behave 
 very shabbily to authors, especially to 
 beginners." 
 
 " I suppose one does not earn much at 
 first/ said Martha, feeling that it would 
 not do to let Lil count too much on 
 immediate success. 
 
 " I suppose not," replied Lil; " to begin 
 with, I shall accept anything, of course; 
 but when I get well started, we will leave 
 this horrid place, and have nothing more 
 to do with Mrs. Brown; we will hire a 
 nice little house, with a large room in it : 
 there you can have a class of French, 
 nothing but French, for big girls who just 
 want practice; you can have them in the 
 evening too, once a-week, say, for conver 
 sation. A sort of party, you know, with 
 
156 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 tea and cake, it would be sure to be popular, 
 especially if you allow a little dancing to 
 end up with. That, and my writing would 
 make us quite rich ; in time we should build 
 a house for ourselves, and " 
 
 There is no telling how far Lil s ambitious 
 ideas would have carried her, had not 
 Martha broken in upon her golden dreams 
 with a hearty laugh. 
 
 " Have you forgotten," she said, as soon 
 as she could speak, "a certain fable, 
 called " Perrette et le pot au lait "? 
 
 But Lil was not to be laughed out of 
 her pleasant dream ; she clung to it, she 
 felt that in it there was a refuge from 
 other day-dreams which she was trying her 
 best to banish. 
 
 She worked hard, correcting, pruning, 
 adding to her little story, until she looked 
 upon it, not as a work of genius, for Lil 
 
A LITERARY VENTURE. 157 
 
 was a sensible girl, but certainly as not 
 inferior to the mass of stories published 
 every month in the magazines in which 
 she was not far wrong. At last, 
 mysteriously, with a beating heart, looking 
 nervously about her, for fear of being 
 surprised in the act, she dropped her 
 manuscript, duly addressed and stamped, 
 in the letter-box of the big post-office. 
 She stood still an instant, wondering that 
 the neat bundle which contained so many 
 of her hopes and fears, should slip in as 
 easily as though it had been a mere 
 business letter. 
 
 " I suppose I ought not to expect an 
 answer for two weeks perhaps, indeed, for 
 three." 
 
 " I suppose not," answered Martha, 
 looking at her sister s face, with the com 
 passion of superior experience. 
 
158 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 Once started, Lil was too truly American, 
 too spirited, to rest. She immediately 
 began another story, intending to bestow it 
 on another first-class publication. She 
 never dreamed of course of writing for any 
 but first-class publications. This time she 
 left the regions of weirdness and mystery, 
 to enter those of history and grand dramatic 
 passions. She chose an episode of the 
 French Revolution, in which, as it may not 
 be difficult to imagine, a daughter of the 
 people loves and saves a youth of the very 
 highest nobility. She knew, it is true, as 
 little of France as she did of Germany ; her 
 notion of the revolution was taken from the 
 mildest of histories, which solved the vexed 
 and perplexed questions of that period by 
 the simplest of means, that is, by the 
 placing of all virtues, graces, and nobility 
 of sentiment on the side of the victims; and 
 
A LITERARY VENTURE. 159 
 
 all manner of horrible wickedness and evil 
 intentions, on the side of the conquerors. 
 
 One afternoon, Lil was alone in the 
 schoolroom; it was a half-holida}^ and 
 Martha had gone out. The young autho 
 ress was greatly excited over her writing ; 
 she was in the midst of the volcanic loves 
 of Octave and Marie, and she had so 
 thoroughly identified herself with her 
 heroine that she was, at that moment, as far 
 away from Lakeville as though in reality 
 she had been transported to the time and 
 place about which she was writing. She 
 was suddenly brought back to real life, 
 by a knock at the door ; she hesitated an 
 instant, then with a little shrug of the 
 shoulder, learned probably from her 
 French heroine, she resumed her work. If 
 the intruder had come on some important 
 errand, the knock would be repeated; if 
 
160 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 not, why then she could go on scribbling 
 with a light conscience. The knock was 
 repeated ; this time Lil called out, " Come 
 in," with no very inviting inflection of the 
 voice, and at the same time she hastily 
 stowed away her manuscript in her desk. 
 
 " Better late than never ! " exclaimed a 
 high young voice, as the door was flung 
 wide open. The intruder was a young 
 lady rejoicing in the poetic Christian name 
 of Lydia, and the unpoetical family name 
 of Briggs. She was showily dressed in a 
 light spring suit; her beauty for she was 
 considered a beauty was also of a showy 
 kind : there was nothing subdued about 
 her, either in manner or voice ; there was 
 even something aggressive in the sharp click 
 of her high heels. She was just Lil s age, 
 and they had known each other since 
 childhood, without ever becoming friends. 
 
A LITEKAftY VENTURE. 161 
 
 Miss Lydia was queen of one set, while Lil 
 had been the centre of another ; there had 
 always been rivalry and mistrust between 
 the two. On Lil s part, the rivalry had 
 never taken an active form ; but it was not 
 so with Miss Lydia, for hers was a com 
 bative nature. When Mr. Ward had for 
 the first time made his appearance in Lake- 
 ville society, creating therein a great stir, 
 she had marked him out for herself; but 
 he was a man of tastes too refined to care 
 much for the somewhat vulgar charms of 
 the belle; he disapproved of the pearl- 
 powder she used with great lavishness, he 
 disapproved of her flashy taste in dress, 
 of her familiarity with yourig men, of her 
 metallic voice most of all ; he found in her 
 a type he had met too often " doing 
 Europe," and he resented the impression 
 produced by such girls on Europeans, who, 
 VOL. i. M 
 
162 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 taking them as specimens, judged the 
 rest of the nation accordingly. 
 
 Miss Briggs never forgave Lil for 
 having, without effort, obtained what she, 
 in spite of very open flirting, had failed to 
 win. She, like many others, had watched 
 Mr. Ward closely after the " Temple dis 
 aster, * and she had not been able to hide 
 the satisfaction she felt at his evident 
 desertion. 
 
 Lil rose to meet her unexpected and un 
 welcome visitor ; instinctively she nerved 
 herself for a conflict, and resolved not to 
 give the enemy the satisfaction of seeing 
 the slightest sign of emotion or vexation. 
 
 " What an odd place ! " exclaimed Miss 
 Briggs, with that frankness of which she 
 boasted as of a virtue. 
 
 " Do you think so ?" inquired Lil with 
 grave surprise, looking about her as 
 
A LITEEAET VENTURE. 163 
 
 though the idea had never presented itself 
 to her mind. "But then, as I presume 
 you do not intend to come to school to 
 
 us " 
 
 " Supposing I did mean something of 
 the sort ?" Miss Lydia laughed as though 
 she had proved herself to be very witty ; 
 she was in the best spirits, too much so to 
 take offence at what might have seemed 
 an allusion to her known contempt for 
 what she called " book-learning. JJ 
 
 " I do not quite understand," said Lil, 
 still quite grave. 
 
 The young lady explained that she was 
 to spend the following winter in Washing 
 ton, where she expected to be very much 
 in the diplomatic circle. It had happened 
 that once, she had found herself in the 
 society of several foreigners, and that she 
 had innocently shown the most entire 
 M 2 
 
164 STORM-DEI YEN. 
 
 ignorance of the history and literature of 
 their respective countries. 
 
 " You see, I never had time to do much 
 reading ; then, between ourselves, reading 
 is a bore even novels. But after all, one 
 must not appear ignorant when such things 
 are talked about. What I want you to do 
 is, to look over the boxes of books I have 
 just had sent me from New York, and to 
 tell me in a few words what they are about ; 
 what I must admire, and what I must pre 
 tend not to have read, for propriety s sake, 
 you know. Then you must tell me about 
 the authors, teach me their names and 
 something about them; make that a real 
 lesson you understand ? " Then, as Lil, 
 who could not help smiling at the proposi 
 tion, hesitated, she added, " Of course I 
 should pay you well." 
 
 " Thanks," answered Lil coldly; " I am 
 
A LITEEAEY VENTUEE. 165 
 
 not at all the person you need. Besides, 
 among those books which you have ordered 
 by wholesale, there are probably many 
 which it would be very unpleasant for me 
 to read." 
 
 " Oh ! as to that, teachers are bound to 
 know lots of things which girls in society 
 are supposed never to have heard about." 
 
 Lil had promised herself to be very calm, 
 and she succeeded. After all, the imperti 
 nence of a Lydia Briggs mattered but little. 
 The young lady herself appeared quite un 
 conscious that her frankness might be dis 
 pleasing ; she continued chattering with 
 perfect cheerfulness. 
 
 " If you will not, why, there s an end of 
 it. I am sorry; I should have liked to 
 have done something for you. Then it 
 would have been nice to see you regularly ; 
 we might have talked over old times com- 
 
166 STORM -DRIVEN. 
 
 fortably. Why do you not ask me about 
 people ? Are you not interested in know 
 ing who is engaged, or who has flirted, and 
 who is married, among the girls ? 
 
 " I am as little interested in my old 
 acquaintances, as they in me." 
 
 " I expected something of this sort. 
 They say that people who have reverses of 
 fortune are always cross and bitter. After 
 all, you know, one has no time to run after 
 those who are no longer of one s set. I, 
 for instance, have wanted a hundred times 
 to come and see you, but " 
 
 " So as to describe our c odd place to 
 your friends ? Thank you." 
 
 " If you usually receive people like this, 
 it is no wonder they do not return. For 
 tunately, I am the best-natured girl in the 
 world ! I meant to have a good chat with 
 you, and I mean to have it still. By the 
 
A LITERACY VENTURE. 167 
 
 way, what a dreadful flirt your old admirer 
 Leigh Ward is ! " 
 
 " Indeed ! " retorted Lil, looking so 
 composed that her friend was actually 
 provoked. 
 
 " That he is 1 He left town two days 
 ago ; did he come and say good-bye ? He 
 was to have gone earlier, but he found 
 Lakeville very attractive. Between our 
 selves, though he certainly is very hand 
 some and fascinating, no sensible girl 
 would ever trust her happiness to him ! 
 They say you have heard the report, I am 
 sure that that he proposed to me, and 
 was refused. I am not quite sure that 
 there is not some truth in the report." 
 
 " I am," said Lil quickly. The two 
 girls looked at each other, and it was 
 Lydia who lowered her eyes first. She 
 was very angry, and immediately after 
 
168 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 took her leave. When she had gone, Lil 
 tried to resume her writing, but the loves of 
 Octave and Marie, which had so interested 
 her an hour before, now seemed tame and 
 unreal. The next day, however, she went 
 to work, with even more energy than 
 before. 
 
 The two weeks passed; then the third 
 slowly wore itself away, and there was no 
 answer from the famous New York editor. 
 
 " Very likely he could not read it imme 
 diately," said Lil, trying to look cheerful ; 
 but she no longer spoke of building a house 
 with the products of her pen. She finished 
 her French story, however, and it was so 
 full of thrilling incidents that Lil felt not 
 a little proud of her work ; and confident 
 that this at least would receive prompt and 
 respectful attention from the editor of the 
 Boston periodical for which it was destined. 
 
A LITERARY VENTURE. 169 
 
 This also she dropped mysteriously, and 
 with a beating heart, in the letter-box, 
 but her eyes were a little less bright than 
 the first time, and her step, as she turned 
 away, a little less proudly elastic. 
 
 The weeks passed by ; no answer came 
 from New York ; none either from Boston. 
 Lil s hopes sank lower and lower. She had 
 not the heart to begin a third story, but 
 watched the postman with anxious eyes. 
 At last, one day, there was something for 
 her; it was a yellow businesslike letter, 
 with the name of the well-known Boston 
 publishing house printed on the envelope. 
 
 "Oh, Martha!" said Lil, trembling, 
 " you open it ; I cannot." 
 
 Martha took the letter and read it aloud. 
 It was a refusal of the stereotyped kind. 
 The editor politely said that, notwithstand 
 ing the decided merit of Miss Temple s 
 
170 
 
 STOBM-D RIVEN. 
 
 story, it was of a nature which would not 
 suit their purpose. They would have the 
 honour of forwarding the manuscript to 
 the author if she desired it. 
 
 Lil did not cry, but she held fast to 
 Martha s hand, feeling very desolate indeed. 
 There was not much brightness in the 
 prospects of the two sisters at that time, 
 and they clung to each other, finding their 
 one comfort in their strong undemonstrative 
 love for each other. 
 
 " I am so glad no one knows of it but 
 you, Martha," said poor Lil; "I shall 
 never try again." 
 
171 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FAILURE. 
 
 THE time wore on slowly and painfully 
 after this. At first, there had been a kind 
 of excitement in the novelty of the situa 
 tion, but now there was nothing to relieve 
 the dull routine of each day. With the 
 inexperience of those to whom all things 
 had been easy, Martha and Lil had looked 
 upon earning their bread as an operation 
 which merely needed a little good-will and 
 energy. Neither of these qualities had 
 been wanting, yet it grew more and more 
 evident that Mrs. Richards was right, and 
 that these alone were not sufficient. When 
 
172 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 quarter-day came, the sisters paid half of 
 what they owed, and were obliged to ask 
 for time in order to pay the rest. This 
 was a dreadful mortification, but there was 
 no alternative. It was no longer like 
 "playing at being poor" it was stern 
 reality. Lil learned what it was to examine 
 her half-worn boots with tender anxiety, 
 and to trudge through all sorts of weather, 
 rather than spend a few cents for horse-car 
 fare. Each day these things were harder 
 to bear. She hated poverty; she hated 
 the bare ugliness of it, and rebelled secretly 
 against her fate. She tried not to let 
 Martha see that she rebelled, but her pale 
 face and dispirited air spoke for her. Poor 
 Lil was no heroine ; she had found courage 
 and energy enough to make real efforts, but 
 she could not find resolution enough to con 
 tinue, when she found that those efforts had 
 
FAILUEE. 173 
 
 met with nothing but failure. During this 
 time she was often bitter ; it seemed as 
 though her life were too hard to be endured. 
 Active suffering would have found her 
 brave enough, but the dulness of poverty, 
 the sameness of each day s worries and 
 humiliations irritated her, and took all the 
 freshness of youth from her face. 
 
 In this way summer came, and with it 
 the long holidays. It was with a sigh of 
 relief that the sisters sat down in the 
 schoolroom, when the door had closed on 
 the pupils a sigh of relief, even though 
 they did not know what was to become of 
 them. The little school, in spite of the 
 staunch championship of the best scholars, 
 was a failure ; these were but three or four 
 in number, and to think of struggling on 
 would have been sheer folly. And now, 
 what was to be done ? 
 
1 74 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 The problem was the same as it had 
 been six months before, only there was this 
 difference ; a first venture had failed, and 
 there was now less help to be expected 
 from friends than ever. Their 5 s was an 
 old story ; they had ceased to be the 
 interest of the moment. Other catas 
 trophes had caused their misfortunes to be 
 partly forgotten; but their need was as 
 great as it had been greater indeed, for 
 they were in debt. By dint of extreme 
 economy, the first quarter had, by small 
 instalments, been paid ; but a second was 
 now due, and the small sum which was laid 
 aside, and which was necessary for the 
 daily wants, could not suffice to pay 
 it. Besides this, Mrs. Richards, who had 
 been so staunch a friend, was absent. 
 Jessie had been ill, and her mother had 
 taken her into the country. Martha and 
 
FAILURE. 175 
 
 Lil had therefore but themselves to look 
 to. They had but few relatives in the 
 world, and these were almost unknown to 
 the sisters ; besides, their refusal to accept 
 the protection of the Boston aunt had 
 given the impression to the other members 
 of the family that they were independent- 
 minded young women, quite able to take 
 care of themselves. We all know that 
 such a conviction is very soothing to the 
 consciences of those who otherwise might 
 feel bound to do something for their poor 
 relations. Independence of character is a 
 highly-esteemed virtue, and it would be a 
 shame not to give that virtue every oppor 
 tunity of exercising itself. 
 
 " Let us leave Lakeville, and go no 
 matter where," Lil would say now and 
 then ; but even while she said it, she knew 
 that this could not be. If they had not 
 
1 76 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 succeeded in a place where, after all, they 
 had received some help and encouragement, 
 what would become of them in some 
 strange city, where no one knew them ? 
 But the mortification of remaining in a 
 town where she had been rich and pros 
 perous, of meeting people whom she had 
 formerly known as equals, was becoming 
 each day more insupportable to the young 
 girl. She wanted to go away, to hide her 
 self in a place where she would not so 
 much mind being shabbily dressed, wearing 
 boots that had been mended, and soiled 
 gloves. All these things were petty an 
 noyances, things she should not have 
 minded ; but she did mind them. After all, 
 life is made up of small things. 
 
 Martha did her best to rouse her sister, 
 to instil some of her own brave spirit into 
 her. 
 
FAILURE. 177 
 
 " It is not because we have failed once, 
 that we should fail a second time, "she said, 
 as they sat by the open window, one soft 
 summer evening. 
 
 "We have even less chance of success 
 than ever," said Lil despondingly. 
 
 " Not at all ; for we shall begin this 
 time as we ought to have begun at first 
 by putting our gentility in our pockets." 
 
 Lil winced ; she did not want to put her 
 gentility in her pocket. 
 
 " You foolish child ! you fancy that be 
 cause you do what you think ladylike 
 work, you have not gone down in the social 
 scale. If you think it over a little, you 
 will understand that the hand which gives 
 money, and the hand which receives it, 
 never clasp in real equality. People still 
 speak to us, do they not? But for my 
 part, I do not feel much elated by such 
 
 VOL. i. N 
 
178 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 condescension ; it does not feed me, nor 
 clothe me ; neither does it, that I can see, 
 give me any society advantages. By and 
 by, perhaps, when the time of mourning 
 is over, one or two stray invitations may 
 find their way to us; because, after all, 
 teachers are received. If by ill luck, 
 tempted by the memory of former triumphs, 
 you accepted such invitations, you would 
 come back to me, you poor child, crushed 
 and wounded ! You would have discovered 
 that the pretended equality accorded to 
 you was no equality at all. I, for my part, 
 do not think such gentility is worth the 
 price we should pay for it." 
 
 " What do you mean that we should do ? 
 go out as servants ? I am afraid I should 
 not get very high wages as cook," said Lil, 
 smiling faintly at the remembrance of her 
 numerous culinary mishaps. 
 
EAILUEE. 179 
 
 " No, not that as yet, at any rate. If 
 only we had a little capital to start with, I 
 should propose to open a small millinery 
 establishment. I have an idea that my 
 taste for bonnet-making you know I 
 always took my hats to pieces, so as to 
 have the pleasure of doing them up again 
 would be of far greater use than all my 
 French and other accomplishments. People 
 pay far more, in proportion, to have the 
 outside of the head decorated than the 
 inside filled." 
 
 " Keep a shop ! " exclaimed Lil. It 
 seemed to her very dreadful indeed. She 
 wondered whether Martha did not guess 
 the secret reason which made her dread 
 any irretrievable going down of the social 
 ladder. She herself would not always ac 
 knowledge this secret reason, but, in spite 
 of her best efforts, it remained firmly fixed 
 N 2 
 
180 STOEM-DEIVEN. 
 
 in its hidden corner. Martha had never 
 alluded to Leigh Ward since the dreadful 
 night after the ball ; according to her, he 
 had disappeared from their lives as com 
 pletely as the yellow satin chairs, the jewels, 
 the fine dresses. Often Lil was grateful for 
 this delicate reticence, but sometimes, on 
 the contrary, it irritated her. How could 
 Martha, who did not know what she was 
 suffering, understand that adversity had a 
 double meaning to her, which made her 
 worthy of all pity ? But Martha did un 
 derstand this quite well ; she had forgotten 
 nothing, and if she maintained an unbroken 
 silence on the subject, it was because she 
 thought silence and patient waiting the 
 only remedies for such ills. 
 
 This was a difficult time for both sisters ; 
 ordinary occupations were interrupted ; the 
 long warm days passed heavily by, and 
 
FAILURE. 181 
 
 each of these days brought their resources 
 more inevitably near their end. It was the 
 dead season, and work of any sort was 
 almost impossible to be found. It was 
 hard to be cheerful under such circum 
 stances; there were long silences, for the 
 two could not look at things from the 
 same point of view. In spite of her best 
 efforts, it was evident that Lil considered 
 her sister s resolution to take work where- 
 ever she found it, as being among the 
 greatest misfortunes which had fallen upon 
 them. 
 
 At last Martha came home one day with 
 a bright flush on her cheeks, and a look in 
 her eyes which Lil understood perfectly. 
 She shrank from questioning her sister, but 
 yet her curiosity was strongly aroused ; at 
 last, unable to contain herself any longer, 
 ehe said, 
 
182 STOBM-DRIVEN. 
 
 " Well, Martha, you had better tell me 
 at once is it general house-work, or are we 
 to take in washing ? " 
 
 " Not quite so bad as that," answered 
 Martha, laughing. " "When I told you that 
 my taste for millinery would serve me 
 better than any of my accomplishments, I 
 was not far wrong ; only my first idea was 
 too ambitious : first ideas always are. Mrs. 
 Taylor, our old milliner, has promised to 
 take me on trial, as a sort of overseer in her 
 work-room, and also as clerk ; she has a 
 great deal of French correspondence which 
 is embarrassing to her." Lil turned a little 
 pale. So the step had been taken ; their 
 place for the future was to be among small 
 tradespeople, lower still, in fact. But 
 Martha did not, or would not see this ; she 
 went on cheerfully, " I am to begin to 
 morrow, without pay at first ; I have to go 
 
FAILURE. 
 
 183 
 
 through a sort of apprenticeship. I do not 
 really enter until September; then she is 
 to give me seven dollars a-week, and to 
 raise the salary if I suit." 
 
 " And I ? am I to sit with my hands 
 folded ? may I not wait on her customers, 
 or sweep the shop ? She might give me a 
 dollar or two a-week for that ! I don t 
 think I am worth more." 
 
 " No, Lil," answered Martha, quite seri 
 ously, " the work I take on myself, is not 
 work for you ; you shall never be a shop 
 girl. In the first place, you are too pretty." 
 
 Lil opened her eyes wide. 
 
 " Pretty people have hands, feet, and 
 brains like the others, I suppose ! Besides, 
 I am not pretty now " and she looked at 
 herself disconsolately in the small mirror. 
 
 " I have thought of something for you. 
 You write a very good legible hand, and I 
 
184 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 mean to ask Judge Sparks he used to be 
 a good friend of mine to get you work as 
 a copying clerk. It is nice quiet work, you 
 would have a little room to yourself, and 
 the pay, though not exorbitant, is sufficient 
 to keep soul and body together which is 
 about all one can say of women s work, at 
 the best." 
 
 " Very well," answered Lil ; and then, 
 in imagination she saw her sister and her 
 self through a long vista of years, plodding 
 wearily all day long, living silent, forgotten, 
 unnoticed lives ; earning just enough, not 
 to starve ; growing grey and faded and old ; 
 then dying, without leaving so much as a 
 regret behind them the story, as she said 
 to herself, of many old maids before them. 
 
 The first day, Martha came back with a 
 look of triumph in her bright, honest eyes. 
 
 " Think of it, Lil ! Mrs. Taylor, to try 
 
FAILUKE. 185 
 
 me, set me at once to copying a Paris 
 bonnet, and the copy was such a success 
 that the worthy lady had to make a real 
 effort not to look too much pleased, for fear 
 I should immediately strike for higher 
 wages. It is true the inside was not as 
 neat as it ought to have been, stitches 
 showed where they should not, but there 
 was an undeniable style about the thing ; 
 and a lady who happened to come in 
 looked at it with decided favour. I shall 
 become a first-class milliner yet, depend 
 upon it !" 
 
 Lil tried to look interested, but the 
 effort was manifest Martha noticed it. 
 
 " What is it, Lil ? something has 
 happened." 
 
 " I have received a letter." 
 
 "A letter!" exclaimed Martha with 
 sudden alarm. 
 
186 STORM-DEIVEN. 
 
 "From Mrs. Cox," added Lil hastily, 
 understanding the cause of her sister s 
 alarm, and blushing to find that she under 
 stood it. " She only reached town a day 
 or two ago, and she immediately thought 
 of me." 
 
 Martha took the note, with its immense 
 monogram, its faint perfume, and its 
 scrawly, ugly handwriting. It ran thus : 
 
 "MY PRETTY LILY, 
 
 " I have just come home, and I want to 
 see you. I have met no girl, all this long 
 time, who pleases me as much as you. 
 You must not fancy that I forgot you, 
 though I had no time to write. I have 
 something very particular to talk to you 
 about, something which I trust will give 
 you pleasure. I shall be at home to-mor 
 row after three, and shall expect to see you, 
 
FAILURE. 187 
 
 and to prove to you that I am now as 
 
 ever, 
 
 " Your friend, 
 
 " ANNE Cox." 
 
 " I wish she still had no time to notice 
 you," said Martha. 
 
 " You are unjust; you never liked her." 
 " No ; I never did. You will say that it 
 is because she always ignored me, as she 
 ignores all that is not pretty or bright, or 
 useful to her. But that is not the reason ; I 
 do not say that she is heartless, but she has 
 such an adoration for her own dear self, she 
 is so entirely deity and high-priest, all in 
 one, that the rest of humanity is only to be 
 prized in proportion to its usefulness to her. 
 If you happened to be in her way, Lil, she 
 would step over you, with the same sweet 
 smile with which she now holds out her 
 hand to you. "What does she want with 
 
188 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 you?" she added, with sudden and fierce 
 jealousy. 
 
 " What can she want, except to prove to 
 me that I misjudged her when I thought 
 myself abandoned ? Why not believe that 
 she really was fond of me, and is so still?" 
 
J89 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 \ 
 
 MRS. COX. 
 
 SINCE the night of the ball, Lil had not even 
 been in the vicinity of Mrs. Cox s house. 
 Her occupations had all been on the other 
 side of the river, and from fear of meeting 
 her old associates she had always avoided 
 going out at all, save when she was forced 
 to do so. It was now with a beating 
 heart that she swung back the gate, and 
 walked along the gravelled drive towards 
 the house. There was a pleasant lull and 
 rest there, under the shade of the big trees, 
 now in all their summer glory of deep green 
 
190 STORiVl-DBIVEN. 
 
 foliage; a feeling of peace and repose, 
 strange to be found in the midst of a busy, 
 noisy city. This quiet soothed her nervous 
 excitement, she tried to gather all her self- 
 respect, and all possible composure ; tried 
 to forget that her mourning was rusty and 
 worn, that she was going to step into a 
 world that was no longer her world : she 
 repeated over and over again to herself 
 that it was Mrs. Cox who had sought her, 
 and not she who had sought Mrs. Cox. 
 Still she was not quite calm, as she rang 
 the bell. A man-servant, in plain clothes, 
 opened the door ; men-servants were rari 
 ties in Lakeville, but Mrs. Cox, who chose 
 to impose fashions and not to follow them, 
 was served by footmen ; she had attempted 
 to put them in liveries, but that was so 
 anti-republican, so un-American, that a 
 perfect storm of indignation was roused ; 
 
MRS. COX. 191 
 
 Mrs. Cox found that there was a limit to 
 what Lakeville would endure, even from 
 her, and that liveries were beyond that 
 limit ; she, being a wise woman, yielded. 
 
 When Lil entered the principal drawing- 
 room, that very room where, not many 
 months before she had stood, the queen 
 of the evening, she saw Mrs. Cox seated 
 quite at the other end; she was sur 
 rounded by three ladies, dressed in the 
 very extreme of fashion. 
 
 " Come here, Lil, my darling," she ex 
 claimed as Lil stood, half-hesitating ; she 
 had hoped to find Mrs. Cox alone. "Come 
 here ! " she did not rise from her chair, 
 but simply bent forward a little. The 
 ladies with her understood from this im 
 mediately the social footing of the new 
 comer, and stared at her accordingly. 
 
 " This," continued Mrs. Cox, drawing 
 
192 STORM-DEIVEN. 
 
 Lil towards her, and kissing her affectio 
 nately; " is a great pet of mine. Sit down, 
 dear !" and she pointed to a low chair not 
 far from herself, but a little out of the 
 immediate circle; then bestowing on her 
 "pet" one of her very best smiles, she 
 continued the conversation with her visitors, 
 as though that conversation had received 
 no interruption. 
 
 Lil felt put aside ; and the glow of plea 
 sure which had come over her at her 
 warm reception, gradually faded away. 
 The talk, to which half-absently she 
 listened, was no longer the talk of her 
 world. It was the usual jargon about 
 balls and theatres, engagements and flirta 
 tions, the fashionable preacher of the day, 
 and the last divorce case. It was talk in 
 which she was not expected to join, in 
 which, indeed, she could not have joined, 
 
MRS. COX. 193 
 
 for society had gone on its way since she 
 had ceased to belong to it, and it was 
 already a strange world to her. Having 
 nothing better to do, she examined the 
 young girl of the party, who talked faster 
 and louder than the others ; her dress 
 was of the last fashion, so fashionable 
 indeed that sitting was a matter of 
 singular difficulty, only to be accomplished 
 by skilful side- way manoeuvres. 
 
 "At last!" said Mrs. Cox, when the 
 door closed on the three ladies ; " I 
 thought they would never go ! and I so 
 wanted to talk to you, darling!" She 
 drew Lil to her, made her sit close to her, 
 then took the young face between her 
 hands and examined it critically. 
 
 "My poor child!" she exclaimed, while 
 tears, real tears stood in her eyes ; " how 
 these cruel months have changed you ! " 
 
 VOL. i. o 
 
194 STORM-DEIVEN. 
 
 "I have suffered," said Lil, frying to 
 speak calmly. 
 
 " Of course, of course ! I might have 
 guessed it. What a dreadful life I lead, 
 my dear; I have no time, positively no 
 time to think of what is not actually 
 before my eyes. I did not forget you, of 
 course ; indeed, I cried over your misfor 
 tunes more than once, and meant to write 
 to you, but how was it possible to find a 
 moment? If you knew how I am run 
 after, persecuted dear, absolutely perse 
 cuted ! It is my money, of course ; I am 
 not blind, and I know quite well what 
 makes me so irresistibly charming and 
 beautiful. But whatever the cause may 
 be, the effect is undoubted; so Lil, you 
 must pity and not blame me you did 
 blame me, I saw it in your face as you 
 came in now confess it !" 
 
MRS. COX. 195 
 
 " I felfc myself deserted," said Lil, not 
 feeling in her heart the pity which this 
 victim of circumstances demanded of her. 
 
 " I knew it ! and naturally your sister, 
 who does not like me, improved the occa 
 sion to preach to you of the heartlessness 
 of the rich, and to point out, that all virtues 
 are on the side of the poor. But it is not 
 true. What is true, is this : people, rich 
 or poor, bear in mind those whom they 
 meet, those who move in the same circle 
 as they do, who have the same interests, 
 the same vices, the same virtues ; but life 
 is so crowded, so feverish, that it is not 
 to be expected that those who have every 
 moment of their time taken up, every 
 affection of which they are capable kept 
 in constant play, should go out of their 
 beaten track to find yet more occupation 
 for their time, and for their affections ! 
 o 2 
 
196 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 You and your sister dropped out of our 
 circle; fell, through circumstances for 
 which no one was responsible, into another 
 sphere, another world ; people after a 
 while became accustomed not to see you 
 any more. At first they talked over your 
 misfortunes, they felt for you, they really 
 did ! they took what means they had, to 
 express their sympathy " 
 
 "Yes!" interrupted Lil, " for the first 
 three weeks, we had a great many cards 
 left at our door. It was pasteboard con 
 solation," 
 
 "People do what they can, dear," con 
 tinued Mrs. Cox, patting Lil s hand; she 
 really was a little fond of this pretty girl ; 
 " some did more." 
 
 " That is true, I never before had the 
 opportunity of thanking you for your pro 
 posed generosity," 
 
MRS. COX. 197 
 
 " Do not speak of that," said Mrs. Cox, 
 a little hastily ; " considering your sister s 
 peculiar disposition, that was a blunder on 
 my part ; I am always willing to acknow 
 ledge my mistakes. I wish to be more 
 successful in my second attempt to help 
 you." 
 
 " Thanks, dear Mrs. Cox, it is very 
 kind of you; but we really do not need 
 help now. It is true our first venture, 
 our little school, has proved a failure, but 
 we could not expect to succeed at once. 
 Martha will soon earn seven dollars a- 
 week as milliner, and I well, perhaps I 
 may find some house-work to do ; I can 
 make a bed now, and even cook a beef 
 steak. You might perhaps recommend 
 me " then suddenly the girl s courage 
 gave way ; the magnetism of the soft 
 patting which still continued, the atmo- 
 
198 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 sphere of luxury in that flower- scented 
 room, intoxicated her; she rebelled pas 
 sionately against her dull, coarse fate; 
 her pleasure-loving nature called out loudly 
 within her, and in spite of her best efforts, 
 she burst into a paroxysm of sobs and 
 tears. 
 
 Mrs. Cox soothed her, scolded her, 
 laughed at her ; and at last Lil controlled 
 herself. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Mrs. Cox, I ought 
 to have remembered that the doctors for 
 bade any rousing of your sensibilities. I 
 will go, and believe me, I am not un 
 grateful to you for having remembered 
 me. At the same time, as my sphere is 
 destined to be so entirely separated from 
 yours, I had best say good-bye a real 
 good-bye. I shall never forget that you 
 were once a little fond of me." 
 
MES. COX. 199 
 
 u You shall not go : you are a little 
 bitter now, but that is natural. I mean 
 to keep you all the evening, for I have 
 something to propose to you something 
 which need not offend your independence 
 or even that of your sister ; there is no 
 question here of almsgiving, I shall pay 
 for what I receive ; no more. I mean to 
 take you to Europe this autumn, as my 
 companion. 55 
 
 Lil grew suddenly quite pale; it was 
 her way of showing great emotion. In 
 an instant, she saw all the promises held 
 in that little sentence ; she would get 
 away from the scene of her humiliations 
 and struggles ; there would be no more 
 mortifying contrasts, no condescending 
 nods from former acquaintances. A new 
 world would be opened to her, a world 
 which it had always been her dream as 
 
200 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 it is the dream of every American girl to 
 visit. But Martha .... she would not 
 stop at that thought. She raised her eyes 
 to her friend s, and said in a low trembling 
 voice, 
 
 " You are very good to me." 
 
 Mrs. Cox was satisfied with the effect 
 she had produced. She was a woman who 
 liked to procure for herself all manner of 
 pleasant sensations, and playing fairy god 
 mother to this pretty girl was decidedly 
 pleasant. 
 
 When Lil had recovered from the first 
 shock of her surprise, Mrs. Cox said, 
 
 " Now, my dear, let us talk the matter 
 over quietly and sensibly. When I told 
 you that you should be laid under no obli 
 gation to me, it was the truth ; of course 
 my first motive in what I propose is to be 
 agreeable to you, I like you and I feel for 
 
MES. COX. 201 
 
 you ; I know that your life here is wretched, 
 that your pride is being constantly wounded; 
 I want to take you away from all this. You 
 will have other things to bear, no doubt ; for 
 poverty is hard under any circumstances 
 I ought to know it but at least you will 
 be beyond the reach of patronage from 
 girls who in that way revenge themselves 
 on you for your past belle-ship. Mind ! I 
 do not blame those girls, they but follow 
 their nature. What I want to say to you 
 frankly is this : I by no means intend to 
 take you travelling with me in the character 
 of a young lady to whom I am expected to 
 act as chaperon. When I offer to engage 
 you as companion, I mean you to be really 
 such, paid by me to perform certain clearly 
 defined duties." 
 
 " I understand," said Lil proudly. " I 
 would not have it otherwise." 
 
202 STOBM-DRIVEN. 
 
 " That is right. To explain what will 
 be expected of you, I must say a few words 
 about myself. You know if I have one virtue 
 it is frankness ; I have always said fearlessly 
 what I thought, and on the whole I do not 
 believe it to be the worst policy. When I 
 married Mr. Cox, I never pretended that it 
 was for anything but the position and the 
 wealth that marriage brought me. I hated 
 poverty as you hate it, Lil ; it seemed to 
 me then, as it seems to you now, the one 
 irremediable, dreadful evil. Other women 
 think this ; other women sell themselves as 
 I did, you see I am very plain-spoken 
 only they cover over their act with a plau 
 sible hypocrisy which deceives no one. But 
 I can afford to ride roughshod over the 
 petty deceits of ordinary women. Im 
 mense wealth gives immense power, but it 
 also creates duties and responsibilities. In 
 
MRS. COX. 203 
 
 the first place, it causes me to be the ob 
 ject of all fortune-hunters, from dukes 
 downwards; it also excites the envy and 
 malice of nearly every woman I meet. If 
 by any chance I gave the slightest hold on 
 me, scandal-mongers would destroy my 
 reputation with real delight ; I like liberty, 
 I like adulation, I must have my court, I 
 never mean to be without one if I can help 
 it; to have all this, and yet to escape 
 calumny, I must not travel alone. Last 
 year, I had a sheep-dog in the shape of a 
 good creature, a clergyman s widow, the 
 quintessence of respectability ; but she was 
 ugly, and she had a disastrous predilection 
 for brown, a colour I detest : I stood it as 
 long as I could, but human patience has 
 limits, and at last I sent her away." 
 
 " And you have thought of me as sheep 
 dog number two," said Lil, half-laughing ; 
 
204 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 " I fear my bark is not formidable enough 
 to keep the wolves away." 
 
 " You will answer the purpose very well ; 
 I must be known to have a companion, that 
 is all." 
 
 " And what would be my duties ? " asked 
 Lil very soberly. 
 
 "You must be a sort of private secre 
 tary ; you write a pretty, clear hand ; you 
 will have to answer, or to destroy scores of 
 letters every day, principally begging-let 
 ters; they must be classed; you have 
 intelligence enough to distinguish between 
 those that are unimportant and those that 
 are not ; every morning you will give me a 
 brief statement of the correspondence. 
 Then you must have an alms account- 
 book, which I shall overlook every month. 
 I put aside a certain sum every year for 
 my charities ; I always spend it, and never 
 
MRS. COX. 205 
 
 go beyond. A person in my position is 
 bound to be charitable; I take great plea 
 sure in giving, as long as I can do so 
 without inconvenience to myself. Then 
 it has its uses; I know a lady who, in 
 Rome, got into the highest circles by send 
 ing a five-hundred lire bill to a Roman 
 princess who was getting up a charity. 
 You must be my almoner, you must exa 
 mine the different cases and report to me. 
 Do you understand ? " 
 
 " Perfectly. What else ? " 
 
 " I shall expect you to be always on 
 hand when I want you ; never in the way, 
 when I wish to be alone; you have natural 
 tact, that is a quality which I recommend 
 you to cultivate to the highest possible 
 degree. You see," she added, smiling, 
 " you see, my pet, what I offer you is no 
 
 sinecure." 
 
206 STORM-DKIVEN. 
 
 "No, it is not," answered Lil can- 
 didly. 
 
 " Yet you will accept," and again Mrs. 
 Cox, looking down on the young girl, en 
 veloped her, so to speak, in her smile : she 
 was a fascinating woman when she chose, 
 and at that moment she chose to be very 
 fascinating. 
 
 " And Martha?" whispered Lil ; she had 
 til] then resolutely kept the thought of her 
 sister away. 
 
 " She is fond of you after her fashion, 
 and it would be unpardonable selfishness 
 in her to prevent your acceptance of 
 my offer. What can she give you in 
 exchange ? " 
 
 Mrs. Cox said much more to the same 
 purpose, kept Lil to dinner, and during 
 the evening talked much and well about 
 herself. Indeed she rarely had any other 
 
MRS. COX. 207 
 
 theme of conversation ; she had so thought 
 about herself, so studied her own nature, 
 her weak points and her strong points, she 
 so worshipped herself, respected herself, 
 turned and adapted all things in life to her 
 personal advancement or pleasure, that she 
 had had no time to direct her intelligence else 
 where. The general interests of humanity 
 at large left her cold ; the great problems 
 of society did not interest her; she did not 
 care to read, unless in some novel she hap 
 pened to find a case bearing some analogy 
 to her own, and even then the heroine did 
 not interest her long. She turned from the 
 book to her eternal self-contemplation. She 
 had never thought of blaming herself for 
 any of her acts ; indeed, a delicate sense of 
 right and wrong was absolutely wanting in 
 her. She did not believe in love, in heroism, 
 in self-sacrifice, simply because she knew 
 
208 STORM-DEIVEN. 
 
 herself incapable of experiencing anything 
 of the kind. 
 
 When Mrs. Cox at length allowed Lil to 
 go, she felt a delightful glow of self-gratu- 
 lation ; at that moment she was really fond 
 of the young girl, of whom she had not 
 
 thought a dozen times in as many months, 
 
 
 
 and the conviction that she had done for 
 her what none of her other rich friends had 
 done, gave her a comfortable satisfaction 
 which was exceedingly agreeable. 
 
 Martha was waiting for her sister, feeling 
 anxious and uneasy; she listened in silence 
 to Lil s excited and rather incoherent 
 account of what happened, then she said 
 with a sharp ring in her voice, 
 
 " But you will refuse you will surely not 
 go with her ? " 
 
 " Oh ! Martha, I have promised." 
 
 The elder sister said nothing ; but she 
 
MES. COX. 209 
 
 who had been so brave through all her 
 troubles, now utterly broke down. She 
 was so fond of her young sister, so proud of 
 her, so very loath to lose her. The tears 
 came fast, and Lil, as she tried to console 
 her, almost declared that she would retreat 
 her promise to Mrs. Cox ; yet in her heart 
 she knew that she would not do this. 
 
 VOL. i. 
 
210 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. 
 
 EVEN had Lil seriously meditated yielding 
 to her sister s wish, and allowed Mrs. Cox 
 to start for Europe without her, circum 
 stances would have rendered the putting 
 her resolution into execution, very difficult. 
 Mrs. Cox, who was not a woman to hide her 
 light under a bushel, told her friends and 
 their name was legion, of her benevolent in 
 tention with regard to her pet, Lil Temple. 
 " Poor child ! I positively cried when I 
 saw her, she is so changed ! it is hard to 
 see a sweet pretty creature like that fade 
 
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. 211 
 
 away in tlie mustiness of a schoolroom ; 
 she needs change of air and scene ; the 
 trip to Paris will do her a world of good, 
 and it will not be my fault, if she does not 
 come back to America the wife of some 
 rich man or other ! I am so fond of her." 
 
 " How good of you how kind how 
 generous ! " was echoed on every side, and 
 Lil Temple s good luck became the theme 
 of gossip almost as much as her misfor 
 tunes had been, some months before. 
 
 Still under the influence of Martha s grief, 
 Lil went to Mrs. Cox, half- determined to 
 break the engagement she had made ; but 
 at the first word, her friend laughed 
 merrily, 
 
 "My dear girl, do you think I know 
 human nature so little as not to have 
 expected this, and to have taken my mea 
 sures accordingly ? Do you fancy that I 
 p 2 
 
212 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 do not know just what passed between 
 your sister and yourself ? You are a very 
 nice girl, Lil ; but weak, decidedly weak ; 
 you yield to the influence of the moment ; 
 Martha and I, just now are conflicting 
 powers ; but as I have on my side many 
 advantages, which fortunately you value as 
 they deserve to be valued, I have not 
 much to fear from my antagonist. Your 
 berth is taken ; I telegraphed to have it 
 retained, as soon as you left me the other 
 evening. A dressmaker is coming to-day 
 to take your measure, for naturally I must 
 renew your wardrobe. Sit down, and let 
 us talk over that important question of 
 dresses and bonnets." 
 
 This was a question which was not with 
 out interest. Lil therefore sat down, and 
 after a few qualms of conscience, yielded to 
 the wishes of her imperious benefactress. 
 
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. 213 
 
 Visitors came and interrupted the discussion; 
 but Mrs. Cox kept her by her side, and to 
 Lil, it almost seemed as if old times had 
 come back again. She was spoken to, treated 
 as though she had suddenly stepped once 
 more into the magic circle called Society ; 
 several ladies vowed that they had ima 
 gined that Martha and she had left the 
 city long since, otherwise, how delighted 
 they would have been to see her often at 
 their houses ! Lil was not much deceived by 
 these advances, still they were not unplea 
 sant to her ; Martha s dreadful resolution of 
 becoming a milliner, was not yet universally 
 known; and she, as Mrs. Cox s protegee, was 
 almost a person of importance once more. 
 
 After this, Lil spent most of her time 
 at the big house; she grew quickly at 
 home among its luxuries; she seemed to 
 expand like a flower in sunshine; no 
 
214 STORM-DBIVEN. 
 
 one could accuse her of being faded 
 now, her eyes were bright, and she was 
 prettier than ever. Mrs. Cox took pos 
 session of her, she became her latest 
 plaything, a plaything of which she was 
 proud. Lil as yet was submissive to all 
 her whims ; the harmony between them 
 would not have lasted long had it been 
 otherwise. Once only Lil showed signs 
 of rebellion; it was when she was told 
 that she was to leave off her mourn 
 ing. 
 
 " My dear, I hate black almost as much 
 as brown; I hate everything that is sad 
 and ugly ! I only want to look at pleasant 
 objects, to think of pleasant things ; black^ 
 is a perpetual memento mori and I want 
 no such memento. Death has to come of 
 course, we all know that ; but in the mean 
 time, the less we think of it, the better for 
 
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. 215 
 
 our health and spirits ; I want no skeleton 
 at my feast ! " 
 
 Lil pleaded, but pleaded in vain ; all she 
 could obtain was to keep her black dress 
 until they left Lakeville. She was begin 
 ning to feel the iron hand in the silk glove : a 
 sudden terror came upon her; she wondered 
 whether the present freak of affection 
 which had come so suddenly, would pass 
 away as suddenly; even now Mrs. Cox s 
 fancy for her looked fearfully like tyranny. 
 But Lil was fascinated, even less by the 
 luxury and elegance which surrounded this 
 woman, than by the woman herself. She 
 chose to dazzle Lil, and she succeeded ; 
 during this time, while she was still merely 
 a friend, not a paid attendant, her patroness 
 was so charming, talked so freely, and with 
 such delightful frankness, that the young 
 girl would have needed to make a very 
 
216 STOEM-DRI YEN. 
 
 strong effort to break through the charm ; 
 and that effort she did not even attempt to 
 make. 
 
 Still, Mrs. Cox being a wise woman, did 
 not forget the business part of the affair ; 
 she fixed the salary Lil was to receive ; it 
 was not a large one, for, as she quietly 
 observed, she incurred many expenses 
 which, with an ordinary companion, she 
 would certainly not have done. First of 
 all there was the wardrobe ; she did not 
 forget what it cost her, even though she 
 experienced much pleasure in superintend 
 ing it. This was more of an art than may 
 be supposed at first : she had decided that 
 Lil should not be taken for a young lady 
 on her travels, she ought, therefore, to be 
 dressed according to the part she was to 
 play ; everything was pretty and in perfect 
 taste, but there was an air of retiring 
 
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. 217 
 
 deference in the soft, dark colours, and 
 dependence reigned among the modest 
 trimmings the hats themselves were full 
 of proud humility and reserve. Lil saw 
 all this, and understood it perfectly. 
 
 " Young girls in Europe dress far more 
 modestly than they do in America, 5 said 
 Mrs. Cox one day; this was the only 
 allusion she made to the simplicity of the 
 pretty dresses. 
 
 Sometimes Lil asked herself what was 
 the secret of this fine lady s undoubted 
 influence, which was, in spite of what all 
 the Mrs. Richards s in the world might say, 
 quite distinct from the effect produced by 
 her immense wealth. She was a clever 
 woman certainly in many ways, but she 
 was neither highly educated, nor irre 
 proachably refined; she held books, pic 
 tures, music, as things which belong to 
 
218 STORM-DEIVEN. 
 
 the world of the rich, just as silk hang 
 ings, Turkey carpets, and beautiful bronzes 
 belong to it ; she would speak about these, 
 as she occasionally spoke of politics, just 
 enough to show that she was not entirely 
 ignorant of them. But with her, these 
 were not favourite themes, she much 
 preferred to talk about herself and her 
 neighbours. Here she was perfectly at 
 her ease ; her clear, cold mind was well 
 stored with observations of human nature ; 
 she saw the hidden motives of acts with 
 marvellous quickness; fine words never 
 deceived her, she believed in evil rather 
 than in good ; but with her, this cynicism 
 was of the most genial kind; she was 
 never angry with people for being selfish, 
 or ungenerous, or ambitious ; she calmly 
 observed the working of these springs of 
 action, and thought it all very natural ; 
 
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. 219 
 
 she was by no means sure that in their 
 place she would have acted otherwise. 
 One day she was talking about her lovers 
 a favourite subject ; she would sometimes 
 laugh at herself, when she had indulged in 
 this feminine weakness a little more than 
 usual. 
 
 " After all, I have a real right to talk 
 about it, for I suppose few women have 
 had more offers than I ; when I was your 
 age, and I may say with truth, beautiful, 
 my lovers were not numerous. It was not 
 so much because I was poor that after all 
 in the United States is not an obstacle 
 but because my position was not a good 
 one ; I was not in what is called Society, 
 and it was thanks to my cleverness that I 
 married as I did. No ! when I speak of 
 lovers, I mean the men who for the last 
 ten years have wanted to marry me. Men 
 
220 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 of the highest rank : American politicians, 
 French dukes, English lords; wherever I 
 go I am pursued. It is very amusing, I 
 assure you. For a long time I vowed I 
 would never marry again; I had had 
 enough of conjugal bliss, and I thoroughly 
 enjoyed my liberty and my millions ; but 
 now I begin to hesitate." 
 
 " Are you in love ?" asked Lil. 
 
 "In love?" and Mrs. Cox laughed her 
 merriest laugh. " You silly child, is there 
 such a thing as love ? There is passion, 
 there is the attraction of beauty, there are 
 feelings which it is not necessary to 
 examine too closely ; but love, what poets 
 and novelists call love does it really 
 exist ? I think not, at any rate I never felt 
 it ; yet I believe there is not a more con 
 tented woman on the face of the earth 
 than I am." 
 
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. 221 
 
 " I would not change places with you," 
 exclaimed Lil. 
 
 " Who knows ? you will perhaps do as I 
 have done, become what I have become. 
 But to return to my suitors ; you must not 
 think that it is my money alone which 
 attracts them," continued Mrs. Cox more 
 seriously ; " at least they do not acknow 
 ledge to themselves that it is. Great 
 wealth sheds about it a certain atmosphere 
 of fascination which is made up of many 
 and various elements; one does not see 
 the dollar, but one enjoys the refinements 
 and luxuries which the dollar gives. You, 
 at this present moment, feel that fascina 
 tion even while you fancy that you are 
 above the worship of mere wealth ; of all 
 the natures I know, yours is perhaps the 
 most accessible to such influences influ 
 ences half-poetical, half-sensuous. Well, 
 
222 STOEM-DEIVEN. 
 
 my suitors some of whom have enough 
 money of their own, not to run after other 
 people s feel that same influence, and 
 yield to it with a facility which amuses 
 me. Then there is the excitement which 
 such competition gives ; there are so many 
 who want me, that the winner will feel a 
 positive triumph at having distanced the 
 others." 
 
 "And will there be a winner?" asked 
 Lil curiously. 
 
 " Ah 1 that is the question. I shall pro 
 bably make up my mind this coming winter. 
 If I were a Livingstone or a Carrol, or 
 other nice-sounding name, I should pro 
 bably keep my dear liberty, but Mrs. Cox ! 
 it is out of harmony with my wealth, 
 with my face and my figure ; I have what 
 people call a queenlike presence : the name 
 of Cox suggests ridiculous memories of a 
 
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. 223 
 
 certain celebrated farce. If ever I do 
 marry, I shall have a name that rolls out 
 superbly like golden coins from an over-full 
 bag. It was really not fair of Mr. Cox to 
 have such a name!" she said this laugh 
 ingly, but Lil knew that she was more than 
 half in earnest. 
 
224 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OUT IN THE BIG WORLD. 
 
 THE parting between the two sisters was a 
 very painful one all the more painful that 
 neither could express all she felt. Martha, 
 when she had seen that Lil was really 
 going, had avoided all remonstrances, but 
 she felt hurt and grieved nevertheless. On 
 her side, Lil disapproved more and more of 
 the step her sister had taken; when it be 
 came known that the elder Miss Temple 
 had turned milliner, Lil felt that the society 
 temperature about her had suddenly gone 
 down many degrees. Democracy is all 
 
OUT IN THE BIG WORLD. 225 
 
 very well in theory, but as to putting it 
 into practice by remaining on terms of 
 equality with one s milliner or dressmaker, 
 why, that was another thing ! Yet, if Lil 
 disapproved of what Martha had done, she 
 did not allow others to disapprove of it in 
 her presence, or to speak of her, save with 
 great respect. On the eve of their depar 
 ture, Mrs. Cox said carelessly, 
 
 ".By the way, Lil, say good-bye to your 
 sister for me." 
 
 " No, I will not," answered Lil abruptly, 
 while her eyes flashed. 
 
 " And why not, pray ? " 
 
 "Because you are unjust to Martha; 
 you always were so ; even when wo met on 
 equal terms, you used barely to nod over 
 your shoulder at her, or you slipped your 
 gloved hand through her fingers, as if you 
 would say, " Dear me ! how extraordinary 
 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
226 STOHM-DEIVEN. 
 
 that I should remember who you are ! " 
 simply because you felt that you could have 
 no hold on her sensible, honest nature; 
 you cannot endure equals or superiors, you 
 must be always surrounded by impression 
 able foolish creatures like me, who worship 
 or fear you, as the case may be. Now that 
 she has chosen to earn her living as best 
 she could without consulting society 
 prejudices, you ignore her altogether, 
 why you should suddenly remember her 
 existence, I cannot imagine. No, Mrs. Cox, 
 I will not take your message to my sister ! " 
 
 Mrs. Cox looked at her with intense 
 enjoyment. 
 
 " My dear child, you are charming ! 
 There is nothing of the tame dependent 
 about you, thank goodness ! " and then 
 laughing, she turned away. 
 
 It required all the delightful bustle and 
 
OUT IN THE BIG WORLD. 227 
 
 excitement of the journey to bring back 
 Lil s bright spirits; she had travelled but 
 very little in her life, and everything she 
 saw amused and interested her. 
 
 From the time Lil fairly entered upon 
 her new life, there came a slight, a very 
 slight change, in the relations between her 
 self and her patroness. She was the com 
 panion, she had her duties, she was paid to 
 perform them; she was an inferior. Mrs. 
 Cox still talked to her petted her even at 
 times but she rigidly exacted the services 
 for which she gave out her dollars. There 
 was another reason for this change. In 
 Lakeville, during the late summer weeks, 
 most of her friends were absent; her court 
 was incomplete, and she had many unoc 
 cupied moments which it had not been un 
 pleasant to spend in forming her new com 
 panion ; she needed to be constantly amused, 
 Q 2 
 
228 STOBM-DRIVEN. 
 
 and Lil had amused her. Once out of 
 Lakeville, things had altered. They arrived 
 at New York some time before the sailing 
 of the vessel, which was to take them direct 
 to Havre. Here, Mrs. Cox was immediately 
 surrounded; she had friends everywhere 
 friends who had beautiful country-places 
 on the Hudson friends who had returned 
 to town, and all visited her; all courted and 
 admired her. She was extraordinarily po 
 pular so popular, indeed, that her wealth 
 alone could hot have explained it satisfac 
 torily. " She is so thoroughly good-natured, 
 so ready to be pleased, so clever, her smile 
 is so fascinating and so lavishly bestowed," 
 all this, her friends repeated continually ; 
 and it was all quite true. 
 
 In the midst of the bustle and turmoil 
 which this great popularity engendered, Lil 
 was left a little on one side; sometimes she 
 
OUT IN THE BIG WORLD. 229 
 
 accompanied Mrs. Cox, sometimes she was 
 left alone at the hotel, with as she would 
 say to herself with some bitterness the 
 other servants ; she began plainly to under 
 stand her position, and she proudly accepted 
 it ; she was paid for her services, and those 
 services she would give to the best of her 
 ability, asking for nothing but what was 
 her due; she was intelligent and quick, 
 proved to be an excellent secretary, and 
 won occasional praise for her tact, neat 
 handiness, and rapid comprehension. Mrs. 
 Cox had perhaps expected a scene or two 
 from her spirited companion, and was 
 grateful to be spared such; she congratu 
 lated herself on the way she had moulded 
 her young friend, and rewarded her by 
 taking her to the theatre, or for very plea 
 sant drives. 
 
 The weather was still beautiful when 
 
230 STOEM-DEIVEN. 
 
 they went on board the steamer. As she 
 stood on deck, looking out on the beautiful 
 bay with its sun-lit waves, the grand sweep 
 of shore and the huge spire-tipped city 
 looming in the distance, she felt like those 
 children in the fairy tales who " go out in 
 the big world to seek their fortunes." She 
 was full of hope and courage; there was all 
 the buoyancy of youth about her, no fear 
 of the future dimmed the enjoyment of the 
 present, the mere joy of living was upon 
 her, and that seemed enough. 
 
 But the joy of living did not suffice 
 during that time for Mrs. Cox; she was 
 always dolefully sea-sick on the ocean, she 
 never went on deck, was never seen at 
 table during the ten or twelve days of the 
 passage ; it was not that she was really ill 
 all that time, but it was a principle of hers 
 never to allow herself to be seen at a dis- 
 
OUT IN THE BIG WOULD. 231 
 
 advantage; she chose never to descend 
 from her queenship, and sea-sickness even 
 in its mildest form is not compatible with 
 queenship. She needed much waiting upon, 
 much amusing during the voyage; it is 
 true that the hardest work fell on her maid. 
 Lil was never allowed to enter the state 
 room till the toilet was completed; that 
 important act once accomplished, Therese 
 was replaced by Lil. A little of the lightest 
 possible literature was skimmed over, but 
 usually Mrs. Cox would say, " Put down 
 that stupid book, and talk to me. Tell me 
 about the people on board." 
 
 No detail was too trivial; everything 
 was acceptable which could bring forgetful- 
 ness of her sickness. Fortunately, Lil was 
 quick at observing little details, and man 
 aged to make the gossip amusing enough. 
 People crowded together in a small space 
 
232 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 inevitably show their follies and foibles to 
 each other. There -was, of course, the 
 belle, who received the attentions of half-a- 
 dozen very young men ; there JPRS, besides, 
 a number of other girls, more or less 
 pretty, more or less envious of the belle ; 
 there were the heavy matrons, the loung 
 ing papas, lost without the excitement of 
 the daily papers and the gold-room talk-; 
 there were the children; there was even 
 the necessary prima-donna, going back to 
 France after a triumphant tour in the 
 " States." 
 
 " Mind, Lil, you may look on at the flirt 
 ing as much as you like, but that is a 
 pastime which is absolutely forbidden to 
 you. In your position it would never do. 
 To a rich girl, flirting does no harm ; ifc is 
 a thing received. Whether in reality it is 
 as harmless as we all say it is, I do not stop 
 
OUT IN THE BIG WORLD. 233 
 
 to examine ; but to a poor girl in a de 
 pendent position, it would be the greatest 
 detriment. I warn you very candidly, that 
 at the first sign of it in you, I should send 
 you back to your sister without mercy. I 
 must have perfect respectability, severe 
 respectability, in those about me ; my 
 peculiar position requires it. I never per 
 mitted myself, either as a young girl or a 
 young woman, to flirt, and I will not 
 permit it in you." 
 
 "You need not fear," said Lil, rather 
 coldly. " I should be obtuse indeed if I 
 did not understand the duties of my posi 
 tion. Besides," she added, in another tone, 
 " even if I wished to flirt, I should be much 
 at a loss to carry out my desire. There 
 are not many men on board, and they are 
 all monopolized. I do not suppose they 
 know that I am a little nobody, but one 
 
234 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 must be of the set to be a favourite with 
 Americans. It does not suffice merely 
 to be rich or good-looking, to become 
 popular; one must be one of them. As 
 it is, no one knows me, and I remain in my 
 corner quite undisturbed by masculine ad 
 miration. At table I sit next to an old 
 gentleman with shaggy eyebrows, who 
 grunts when he eats, and is not over 
 scrupulous about his dress. I am not sure 
 that he has ever looked at me ; the dishes 
 interest him far more. On the other side 
 I am well protected by a number of vacant 
 chairs." 
 
 Notwithstanding the light way in which 
 Lil said this, her isolation weighed on her ; 
 she found the cold stare of strangers hard 
 to bear ; she compared herself to the other 
 girls who were surrounded and admired, 
 and she knew that she was as pretty as 
 
OUT IN THE BIG WORLD. 235 
 
 any of them. Once or twice, little advances 
 were made to her, and those she felt obliged 
 to repulse. Evidently these gay young 
 people concluded that she was proud or 
 morose, and the slight advances were not 
 repeated. She was positively grateful to 
 her bushy -browed neighbour when, on the 
 fourth day, he honoured her with a stare, 
 as unexpected courtesy ! he handed her 
 the pickles. There was something in his 
 rough face which was not unpleasant, and 
 she noticed that, when the others addressed 
 him, it was with a certain deference. After 
 the pickle incident, Lil was rather startled 
 to find that she was being honoured with 
 another stare; then he suddenly said, 
 " Your ma } sick all this time ? " 
 If Mrs. Cox could have heard him ! 
 " She is still sick," answered Lil, as 
 soberly as she could ; and then she added a 
 
236 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 with a little effort, " But she is not my 
 mother ; I am travelling with her as com 
 panion." 
 
 "Oh, indeed!" and there came still 
 another look from under the heavy eye 
 brows. It was, however, followed by no 
 farther attempt at conversation. Lil felt 
 that the people opposite who had heard her 
 little speech, were looking at her curiously. 
 She grew painfully embarrassed and 
 ashamed of her embarrassment : for the 
 first time she regretted being a good sailor. 
 
237 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ON BOARD. 
 
 LIL S taciturn neighbour did not seem to 
 think any the less of her on account of her 
 dependent position, differing in that respect, 
 considerably, from the belle, and the belle s 
 mother who sat opposite. On the contrary, 
 he, of the shaggy eyebrows, offered her, at 
 the following meal, not only the pickles, 
 but various other condiments; he performed 
 these little services usually in silence, or 
 accompanied them simply with a grunted 
 monosyllable; evidently he was not a 
 talkative man; the young lady opposite 
 
238 STORM-DEIVEN. 
 
 being shut out from other masculine atten 
 tions by the position of her seat at table, 
 had endeavoured to bring him into the 
 conversation, and had failed signally. 
 
 Lil rather wondered at her persevering 
 efforts, and at the evident ill-humour she 
 felt at her want of success, for the object 
 of her attacks was a man of decidedly 
 shabby appearance. This shabbiness rather 
 attracted Lil ; she considered that his small 
 attentions proceeded from that sympathy 
 which the poor feel for the poor, and she 
 was grateful to him for it. Once or twice 
 as she sat on deck, her knitting lying idly 
 on her lap, he sat down by her, not 
 apparently from any desire of furthering 
 their acquaintance, for his conversation was 
 confined to short remarks on the weather, 
 but rather because there happened to be a 
 vacant seat near her, and because he seemed 
 
ON EOAED. 239 
 
 to avoid with great care the gossiping, 
 laughing, flirting groups scattered here 
 and there. 
 
 Mrs. Cox was much amused at Lil s 
 description of her one acquaintance, whose 
 name she did not know, and graciously 
 permitted her to encourage his attentions ; 
 an old fellow, shabby and poor, was not 
 compromising, and on board there are so 
 few things to talk about ! 
 
 One evening, the deck being almost 
 deserted, Lil, instead of going down early 
 to her cabin as she usually did, remained 
 quietly walking up and down, enjoying the 
 beauty of the night. She was in a 
 peaceful, happy frame of mind; she had 
 always been very accessible to the influence 
 of beauty in nature, and now that sorrow 
 and trouble had begun to deepen her nature, 
 she felt that influence more than ever. It 
 
240 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 was a clear, still night ; an immense calm 
 had come over the usually restless ocean, 
 the waves themselves had a sleepy rocking 
 way of breaking about the ship s sides, and 
 a glorious moonlight made visible the end 
 less expanse of water; one had to look, 
 however, with great attention, to distinguish 
 the horizon, there where the infinity of 
 waters touched the infinity of sky. There 
 was a broad band of dazzling white light on 
 the water, a shining silver pathway, in 
 which the ship threaded its way. Lil 
 presently leaned against the stern of the 
 boat, drawing her shawl closely about her ; 
 she looked out on the glittering moonlight 
 path to her it seemed like the road to a 
 new life, on which she was being hurried. 
 She was so young that it appeared 
 impossible that this new life should be 
 other than one of poetry and happiness. 
 
ON EOAED. 241 
 
 How beautiful ifc all was ! the sky, the 
 moonlight, and the golden waking dreams ! 
 Once she remembered that the railing she 
 leaned on alone separated her from destruc 
 tion, that the beautiful sea, now so peaceful, 
 might become suddenly full of stormy 
 terrors, that the future she pictured to 
 herself as so fair might be full of disen- 
 chantments and dangers. She shivered 
 slightly, and made an effort to change the 
 current of her thoughts. 
 
 "You are cold put this about you." 
 Lil started, she had heard no footsteps 
 approaching her; but she smiled quite 
 reassured when she recognized her table- 
 companion. 
 
 " Thanks ! " she said, and allowed him to 
 wrap a soft shawl about her; he did this 
 seriously, but with a certain fatherliness, 
 which, in another man, might have seemed 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
242 STOEM-DEIVEN. 
 
 almost chivalrous. It was not till site had 
 felt the comforting warmth of the wrap, 
 that she perceived that it belonged to the 
 young lady whose features she had the 
 pleasure of studying every meal-time. Her 
 companion understood her look. 
 
 "Yes," he said coolly, "it is hers, I 
 picked it up there;" and he pointed to a 
 little pile of books and other objects which 
 the careless girl had left at her accustomed 
 place. "You don t suppose I own such 
 an affair as that ? Do not take it off ; it 
 might as well keep you warm as protect 
 her camp-stool from the night air." She 
 had never before heard him utter so many 
 consecutive words ; there was a little autho 
 ritative tone in his voice which made her 
 afraid to disobey him ; though she was in 
 mortal terror lest the rightful owner of the 
 shawl should come and claim her property. 
 
ON BOAED. 243 
 
 Her new protector remained by her side, 
 staring at the moonlight, but quite silent, 
 enjoying his silence apparently, and perhaps 
 also enjoying the young girl s embarrass 
 ment. 
 
 "What were you thinking about just 
 now?" he at last said. 
 
 "I was wondering," answered Lil 
 dreamily, so glad to have some one to talk 
 to, that she did not think of being prudently 
 reticent; "I was wondering what my life 
 would be wondering whether this white 
 path on the water, did not lead to some 
 beautiful fairy-land. I so long for 
 happiness!" she said, in a low passionate 
 tone, quite forgetting to whom she was 
 speaking : there are moments in life when 
 one would pour out one s confidences to a 
 painter s lay-figure, rather than keep them 
 shut up in one s heart. 
 B 2 
 
244 STOEM-DEIVEN. 
 
 "Humph! " grunted the stranger, "that s 
 all very nice and poetical, I suppose ; but 
 I am not a poetical man myself. I suppose, 
 in plain English, it means that you were 
 wondering whether some young fellow, as 
 beautiful as a prince in a fairy tale, and 
 as rich as rich as a Pennsylvania oil-man, 
 would be so good as to fall in love with 
 you, and marry you off-hand." 
 
 Lil laughed a little, but did not answer, 
 she rather wished the shaggy-browed man 
 would go away and leave her to her half- 
 conscious dreams ; after another short 
 silence he pursued, 
 
 "You are not going the right way to 
 find that desirable fellow; why do you 
 not go with the other girls, and flirt as 
 they do ? there are some nice young men 
 on board, ^whose shirts are immaculate, 
 and whose neckties are faultless. Why 
 
ON BOAED. 245 
 
 do you sit by yourself, and look frightened 
 if any one speaks to you ?" 
 
 " Did I look frightened when you offered 
 me the pickles ?" said Lil, with a malicious 
 look : she did not care to answer the first 
 part of his speech. 
 
 "No, but that s different; I am not a 
 well-dressed beau ; you would not think 
 of flirting with me, I presume ?" 
 
 "With you? dear no!" answered 
 Lil, with hearty conviction. 
 
 Her companion glanced at her from 
 under his beetle brows, and seemed to 
 enjoy her sincerity. At that moment, a 
 clear, beautiful voice reached them a rare 
 voice, a little cold, perhaps which har 
 monized marvellously with the moonlight 
 and the cool clear air. 
 
 < Hark I" said Lil, " it is a mermaid ! " 
 
 "It is the singing-woman from New 
 
246 STORM-DKIVEN. 
 
 York, 5 said he, more amused than ever ; 
 he had a very disrespectful way of speak 
 ing of this prima-donna, who had won a 
 world- wide fame, before she went to " do " 
 the States. " Come down in the saloon 
 and hear her ; all the company s there." 
 
 " Oh ! no," said Lil, shrinking back. 
 
 " Do not be afraid, I will take care of 
 you ; no one need see two insignificant 
 beings like us." 
 
 She allowed herself to be persuaded ; 
 she was very fond of music, and her 
 reveries had disposed her to enjoy it more 
 than usual; she followed her guide, and 
 they slipped into reasonably good places 
 without having attracted the least atten 
 tion every one was listening spell-bound 
 to the wonderful singer. Lil, when she 
 was once fairly in her seat, was glad she 
 had allowed herself to be brought down, 
 
ON BOARD. 247 
 
 she had had so few occasions of hearing 
 any music during the past ten months, 
 that her enjoyment was something plea 
 sant to watch ; so at least her companion 
 thought. He himself was much of the 
 opinion that music " is a disagreeable noise 
 which costs very dear," so he directed all 
 his attention to the study of LiPs expres 
 sive face. Her greatest charm was perhaps 
 her unconsciousness ; everything she felt, 
 reflected itself instantly in her face ; she 
 was what she was, in perfect simplicity. 
 
 " So you think that very fine ? " said 
 the stranger to her, when the singing 
 ceased. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " answered Lil with a great 
 sigh of satisfaction ; "it makes me forget 
 all sad and painful things. "When I listen, 
 it seems to me that life is very beautiful, 
 and that there are no harsh or vulgar 
 
248 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 things in it. I wish she could have gone 
 on for ever ! " 
 
 Is life, then, so hard a thing to you ? 
 What can you, at your age, have suf 
 fered ? " 
 
 Lil looked at him indignantly ; it seemed 
 to her that her troubles were greater than 
 any other troubles could be, and surely 
 their mark must be stamped on her face. 
 She said in a low voice, 
 
 ;< I lost my father and mother at two 
 days interval, not a year ago, and we were 
 left penniless, my sister and I." 
 
 " Indeed ! " There was a softening in 
 the gruff voice, as though he were really 
 sorry for her. " Where is your sister ? " 
 
 " She stayed in Lakeville. We first 
 tried keeping school, but that did not 
 succeed, so she turned milliner." Lil was 
 determined not to palliate that dreadful fact. 
 
ON BOARD. 249 
 
 " Brave girl, that ! You preferred going 
 into genteel bondage seeing the world 
 through prison bars, eh ? The shop fright 
 ened you." 
 
 She did not answer; it was taking a 
 liberty so to judge her. She pretended to 
 be much interested in the preparations for 
 a dance which were going on about her. 
 The stranger noticed her little hurt look, 
 and smiled at it. There was a short pause ; 
 indeed the noise of dragging chairs and 
 tables out of the way, the loud talking and 
 laughing of the young people, made it 
 difficult to keep up a conversation. 
 
 The young men chose their partners. 
 The musician who had accompanied the 
 prima-donna, good-naturedly sat down to 
 the piano, and struck the first chords of a 
 spirited waltz. 
 
 Lil remained unnoticed in her corner, 
 
250 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 and she forgot her past indignation in the 
 whirl of memories which came back to her. 
 The last time she had heard that waltz she 
 had been the centre of attraction, the belle 
 of the ball, and Leigh Ward had scarcely 
 left her side. Now 
 
 " I suppose you look forward to seeing 
 Europe ? Being an American girl, it is 
 your bounden duty." 
 
 She quite started as the rough voice 
 once more sounded in her ears her 
 thoughts had been so far from the present. 
 
 "Yes, certainly," she answered, follow 
 ing the whirling couples with her eyes, 
 
 " I wish I did. To me it is a dreadful 
 bore ; what do I know or care about 
 pictures or broken-nosed statues, in long, 
 wearisome galleries; I don t approve of 
 mouldy ruins, it is all waste of capital ; if 
 I had my way I would build nice new 
 
ON BOAKD. 251 
 
 houses on improved models, and sweep 
 away all the Colosseums in the world." 
 
 Lil looked at him in horror; perhaps 
 that was what he wanted, it was not 
 amusing to see her lost in dreams. 
 
 " You may think those things, but you 
 ought not to say them," she answered, 
 with a little tone of superiority, which did 
 not escape him. 
 
 " Oh ! you won t betray me, any more 
 than I will betray you; you see, I never 
 should have come to Europe for my own 
 pleasure ; it is my confounded doctor s 
 doing, he declared that I was killing myself 
 with overwork. I dare say I shall do like 
 all the rest ; you may meet me, guide-book 
 in hand, staring at a Rubens, or yawning 
 over the antique ; I shall do it, because it 
 will be expected of me, because I shall be 
 whirled along with thousands of my coun- 
 
252 STOBM-DBIVEN. 
 
 trymen,who "do" Europe manfully, stifling 
 their natural longings for counting-house 
 or office. I am already pining for my 
 counting-house, it would be refreshing to 
 take up a good thick ledger ; think of what 
 I shall feel in two months ! 0, those 
 doctors, those doctors ! as though one 
 could not be taken care of at home, rather 
 than spend, heaven knows how much, to be 
 bored into health ! " 
 
 "And many really cannot afford it," 
 said Lil, compassionately glancing at the 
 shabby coat of the speaker. " I have heard 
 that travelling in Europe costs horribly ; of 
 course I have not to trouble myself about 
 it." 
 
 " But I have," continued her new friend, 
 " think of my hard-earned dollars wrenched 
 from ine by oily-tongued Frenchmen, or 
 glib Italians ? Strangers are dreadfully 
 
ON BOARD. 253 
 
 fleeced, you know ; if I am very hard up 
 may I apply to you ? you will give me your 
 name and address, I am sure ; and if I am 
 in want of a dinner you will share your 
 earnings with me the poor feel for the 
 poor!" 
 
 " If you depended on me, I should pity 
 you," laughed Lil. " I possess just two 
 dollars at this present moment, but at the 
 end of the month I shall have something. 
 Mind you only apply to me towards the 
 25th of each month." 
 
 " Thanks! I shall remember." 
 At that moment, the waltz having come 
 to an end, quadrilles were being formed; one 
 young man was partnerless; he glanced 
 rapidly around the room, at the three or four 
 girls sitting in wallflower expectancy, then 
 advanced to Lil and asked her to do him 
 the honour. ... Lil blushed ; she wanted 
 
254 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 sadly to dance, but she remembered Mrs. 
 Cox s recommendation, and answered, 
 " Thank you; I do not dance." 
 
 When the young gentleman had bowed 
 himself away, the shaggy-browed man said 
 curtly, 
 
 " You wanted to say Yes. Why did you 
 not?" 
 
 " Because " 
 
 " That s a woman s answer; I expected 
 better things from you ; you have a quality 
 not over-common with your sex frank 
 ness. Why do you not speak openly, as 
 you have done till now ? is it because I 
 offended you by praising your sister s con 
 duct, rather than yours ? " 
 " No." 
 
 " Then be candid with me. Why should 
 you not dance and enjoy yourself ? it be 
 longs to your age, and you are the prettiest 
 
ON BOAED. 255 
 
 girl here, take my word for it." Lil glanced 
 up quickly at him, the rough compliment 
 did not displease her. 
 
 "Why did you refuse that young fel 
 low ? he is good-looking." 
 
 " Because I was afraid of forgetting in 
 the pleasure of dancing for I am very 
 fond of it that which I must not forget." 
 
 "Which is?" 
 
 " That I am not one of these gay people ; 
 that I am a companion, a dependent ; that 
 I have to earn my bread ; if I were to 
 dance and enjoy myself, I should be apt to 
 forget all this." 
 
 " And why should you not forget it when 
 you can ? " 
 
 " Because Mrs. Cox does not wish me too 
 forget it." 
 
 " Mrs. Cox ! Mrs. Cox of Lakeville ? You 
 are her companion ? I did not recognize 
 
256 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 her when she came on board, she was so 
 muffled up." 
 
 " You know her ? " 
 
 "Yes;" then he added after a short 
 silence, " you poor little girl ! " 
 
 " What do you mean ? " said Lil startled ; 
 " Mrs. Cox is very good to me." 
 
 " So much the better; say your best 
 prayers that she may continue so." He 
 said no more, and Lil presently rose to go. 
 
 " Will you not shake hands with me ? " 
 asked her new friend. Lil frankly held out 
 her hand ; he took it and held it in his a 
 moment, then said, " I am a rough fellow, 
 but I mean well. What s your name ? " 
 
 " Lil Temple." 
 
 " Thank you, I shall not forget it." 
 
 Lil did not report the whole of this con 
 versation to Mrs. Cox. 
 
 At last the voyage came to an end. One 
 
ON BOARD. 257 
 
 morning Lil rose to see the city of Havre 
 gleaming in the sun. There was great 
 bustle and flurry ; Mrs. Cox emerged from 
 her long eclipse, as carefully dressed, as 
 perfectly got up, as though she knew her 
 self to be the observed of all observers. 
 She was in good spirits, but required an 
 enormous amount of attention and care 
 from her companion. It was not till they 
 were about to go ashore that Lil saw her 
 dark-browed friend ; she then greeted him 
 with a smile. Mrs. Cox looked up, and 
 exclaimed, 
 
 " Why, Mr. Smith ! you on board ? I 
 did indeed see the name, but " 
 
 "But it is not so uncommon a one that 
 you should recognize any one in particular 
 by it. Good-bye, Miss Temple, remember 
 that if I am particularly hard up, I 
 am to apply to you ! " and so saying, 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
258 STORM-DRIVEN. 
 
 with a nod to the two ladies, he disap 
 peared. 
 
 " So, that is jour friend ! " exclaimed 
 Mrs. Cox, when he was fairly out of hear 
 ing; "I congratulate you, my dear; you 
 have not lost your time, that is Barnard 
 Smith of California; one of the three or 
 four richest men of the United States I 
 doubt whether he himself knows how rich 
 ho is." 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 ST. JOHN S SQUARE.