Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 17, No. 099, March, 1876

men in this: her church-going dress was sober-suited; like a little gray nun, almost, she came down to me that morning. Her dress, of

eremonials of the high altar. But there was something in this quiet toilet, so fresh and simple and girl-like, that struck me as the one touch of grace that

bout her, not a touch. Whatever her bodily sufferings may have been-and Bessie dimly hinted that they were severe to agony at times-they were resolutely shut within her chamber

of painstaking duty on the one side, and on the other the habit of a

sie Stewart, was in nowise dependent on her, not even for a home. "This cottage we rent in common. It was her father's desire that her property should not accumulate, and that she should hav

r young thing that had brightened all her household

attery of household ledgers and ways and means. Some idea, too, of making me feel easy about taking Bessie away from her, I think, inclined her to this business-like manner. I tried to show

ve us an argumentative sermon that morning, until my argument came floating in at the door like a

ancing and champing, and group after group of city folk came rustling along the aisles. It

. I felt that Bessie and I were being mentally discussed and ticketed. And as it was our first appearance at church since-well, since-perhaps there was just a little consciousn

his applauding comment. But I was lost in a dream of a near heaven, and could not follow the spoken word. It was just a quiet little opportunity

. I was standing stock-still beside her, not listening to the words at all, but with a pleasant sense of everything being very comfortable, and an old-fashioned swell of harmony on the air,

at her surprised. Her face was flushed, indignant, I thought, and instantly my

ndeed her whole attitude was one of excitement, defiance. Why did she look so hot and s

t churchyard, and we vanished through it, leaving Mrs. Sloman far behind. Over into the Lebanon road was but a step, and the little porch was waiting with its cool honeysuckle

rry!" she said, hastening along up t

I rejoiced that Bessie, so flushed and excited at the start, grew calmer as we went; and when, the summit r

u think, Charlie?" she said sud

, what have I done

myself and at everybody else. Did it flas

singer, a desire to pass eternity in singing hymns of joy and praise-an impatience for the time to come, a

tonished at her earnestness, "that I d

ew bonnets, and the diamonds, and the footmen in the pews up stairs, and I thought, What lies they are all saying! Nobody wants to go to heaven at all until they are a hundred years old, and too deaf and b

d-out folks like that little dressmaker that leaned against the wall?" For Bessie herself had call

e to have to die, and leave their dancing and flirtations and the establishments they hope to have! It wouldn't be much comfo

dressmaker

tell us in a chant how tired and hopeless she is for this world; and we ought to sing to her something that would cheer her, help her, even

wait till next Sunday to br

on my shoulder. I could understand

day, and after, to the patiently victorious, would come the hymns of praise. Earth was very full that morning to her and me; earth was a place for worshipful harmonies; and yet the strong

long that day; and it was with a guilty sense that she was waiting too that we went down the hil

make so soon. I put it by again and again in the short flying hours of that afternoon; and it was not until dusk had fallen in the little porch, as we

and taking her face in both my ha