All He Knew

d manners, as well as in good looks, that no other young woman thought of being jealous of her. Among her sex she occ

ce, and social standing could supply, and she had availed herself of all of them apparently to the fullest extent. She was not lacking in

the church of which the family, including herself, were members; she had no bad habits or bad tastes; her associates were carefully se

persistent and successful of pleasure-seekers. Reviewing those days, Mrs. Prency could say that utter selfishness and self-love had been her deepest sins. Her husband, looking back at his own life, could truthfully say the same, but the details were different. He had looked upon the wine-cup and every other receptacle in which stimulants were ever served. He had tried every game of chan

his early days, yet without Prency's strong and natural basis of character, while the daughter was entirely devoted to the pleasures of the day. If Bartram were to remain as he was, and his self-

usiness excuse to call again

th some instructions about repairs, "Reynolds Bartram

lecting some buttons from a box and beginni

on the subject that

, "he did; quit

ur views at all un

ooking up with an eager expressi

ured the woman. "We

a good deal better than I do, you know, an' maybe I wouldn't

m to take what

I said didn't entirely suit him; because w

gh which the needle was rapidly pass

come again,

in the makin' of one pair of shoes as he has been about them that he ordered of me that day.

face brightening. "Doesn't he

as to break me down in what I've learned to believe. It don't seem, ma'am, to me that it's very big business for a smart feller like him to be in, when

not. If he did not believe a great deal of what you have been saying to him, he would not keep up his interest in it. Mr. Kimper, it may not seem possible to you,

. "He's got a thousand times as much head-piece as I have, an' if he can't learn what he want

ou have learned so much, and from which I hope you will continue to learn a great deal, don't you remember

ely at the dropped shoe,

peak of it, ma'a

that as much as everything

ourse; I'l

f, and try to be patient the next tim

dropped the shoe again for a moment,

t, ma'am: you know a good deal m

more and more rapidly through the buttons and the leather. At last he laid

an' I hope you won't feel hurt or angry at anythin' that I'm goin' to say to you, because there is somethin' behi

Sam seemed to be hesitating

ay it at all; but-well, there, Mrs. Prency, I guess I know why you are

lexion, but her face flushed deeper as she look

the windows,-I've seen him in company once in a while with that daughter of yours, Mrs. Prency,-with that young lady that seems t

ssed manner. "Young men have very quick perceptions

nk a good deal of him, too. Well, I don't wonder at it, for he's the finest lookin' young feller anywhere about here; an' if

ubt for an instant as to whether to be angry or on

natural that you should do so, and it is very creditable to you that you have done it in the way you h

I've got a daughter, too. I suppose you think she ain't fit to

per!" murmur

a thief an' a brawler an' a loafer, an' she's a servant in a common hotel, which is about as low down, I s'pose, as any gal can get in this town that don't go to the bad entirely. Mrs. Prency, that gal has broke my heart. I don't have no influence over

t, really, I have tried to do a great deal for her. While you were away I used to send clothing to

er, an' I know you're doin' a good deal for all of 'em. But this ain't a matter of poverty, Mrs. Prency; it goes a good deal deeper than that. I'm not thinkin' about her appearance; she's better dressed now than she ort to be, though I do

mplated her with wistful eyes. There was a long s

but I am puzzled as to what I can do and

ht nor no sense about it. But I'm only a man, Mrs. Prency, an' you're a woman. She's a woman too, an' it did seem to me that maybe you, with all you're good sense an' all your good-heartedness, could think of somethin', some way

not care for such a position, for I have always discovered that the servants who have been in hotels are dissatisfied with any other sort

. Prency," said he, resuming his work again with violent energy, "it's the hardest question that ever come up to me in all my life. It's harder

d that I will think earnestly on the subject, and do it at once, and give m

id the cobbler, dropping a tear upon one