Jewel Weed

ir short journey, the very way in which Miss Elton took possession of those awe-inspiring objects, and the respectful curiosity of the loungers at the country sta

ed to forget, as they were whirled down the road with its fringe of straight-li

hospitable effusiveness, but Lena's

your bag up for yo

a flushed and thought: "They both notic

h Madeline, and Lena followed in embarrassed silence at the

d Mrs. Lenox, smiling kindly at her, "so that you nee

me forward to help Lena off with her coat which, with a sudd

u bag?" said the l

the nakedness of the land. Yet when the little maid said, "Vary well, ma'am," and walked into the next room, Lena wondered if she ha

you do,

As thar anything

shing after the dusty train, and the gown I want

go down stairs. She solved the first question to the best of her ability and sat down on the edge of a very clean beflo

to come out an

d order-destroying vermin, but in rel

d with enchanting precision, and allowing her skirts to be worried by a small puppy, whose business in life was to bite anything hard that lay on the floor or that wiggled. Mrs. Lenox and Miss Elton sat down on the floor to towsle and to be towsled amid laughter and hair-pulling and frantic yelps from the pu

t of grandeur would have done. She felt as one might who should catch the Venus of Melos cutting capers. T

nes all the pleasures of the chase with the requirements of the exact sciences, Miss Quincy. Now let's

pretty and becoming, though inexpensive; and as for conversation, that to Lena'

r tea?" said Mrs. Lenox, with ha

r tasted it before and now thought it very nasty indeed. T

he wished she had, like Madeline, picked out a very easy chair instead of the stiff one she had selected, but she felt too shy to move until Mrs. Lenox suggested it, a

g the pages of a magazin

lustrations. Aren

isn't art; it's a fad. The trouble with most of this modern work is that it

othes nothing," Madeline retorted. "After all, I rather like the modern way.

eauty. Do you know, it gives me the shivers to think of the Sleeping Beauty, lying there for ages, with dust

listic, Vera-a person

st shown a truly v

gination to build up a wor

things as they really are. I don't want to slip out from under reality and s

ed a knock-down blow to all your arguments?" Mrs. Lenox suddenly pulled herself together and

t your mother is an

't go about much. It seem

with me once in a while?" A scarlet flush passed over Lena's face at the very idea of her mother's que

h the dominion of externals, and believed with all her heart that the life was more than raiment; but a momentary doubt assailed her as to whether, after all, it might not be easier to conquer things when one owned them, rather than when one had to do

bearing of burdens. This stiff back and this silence were but the tribute of shyness to new surroundings. So ran Mrs. Lenox's swi

tting through Madeline's brain, fo

felt a little envy of you ever s

exclaimed, moved t

ining, which looks as though it should prepare me to do something, and then-then I don't do anything. It makes me f

ake the girl feel the dignity of dr

; "rubbing it into me that she doe

arp answer, but remembered h

o pleasant when you'

and get a view of it as a whole," Mrs. Lenox put in. "Even love-sometime

about my 'work', but nobody thinks that it is worth while. I'd like to earn a

nuine surprise. "Do you really f

in return; and each looked a

feel degraded by every dirty five-dollar bill I get by being a slavey

t works, except, perhaps, people whose opinion you can well afford to despise." This was a shaft that struck so near home that Lena could hardly hold back the tears. "I

his girl, because Dick had asked her to, and here, at the very beginning, she had stumbled, a

ook at her and sprang

relief. "Come in, boy, and have some tea and fire

bright, I'm af

a privilege to look at him, big, clean, with that mingling of alertness with power which is the characteristic of the American business man. It was an experience of absorbing interest to see the half underhand caress he gave his wife in passing, and to find herself actually shaking hands with him. He seemed imposing and friendly and yet quite like other people, as he looked

, my dear, but a mad desire to get away from Harris, who cornered me and o

and dallying with heresy and injustice again," Madeline exclaimed. She looked flushed and vigorous

ou must hold all your opinions violently. And you haven't b

ighter than ever, "you're not really a renegade yourself, are

it grow slowly instead of insisting that it shall all be immediately as good and wise as I am. I'm learning to respect

as contracted a habit of taking the opp

s successfully withstood the ravages

thusiasms corrupted by a worldly-wise father and husband. But I dare say that Miss Quincy,

remembered that her shoes were shabby and she had meant to keep them hidden under her skirts. This memory destroyed her new-foun

d Mr. Lenox. "I fled from town to av

rld," said Mrs. Lenox, leaning forward wit

cuts me to the heart to see how the young girls of our generation stuff on little cakes. If they'd only take example by these sam

doubtful as to whether she ought to take another of the little cakes, but they were very good, and she was young enough to love goodies, without many chances at anyt

th cake, another cup of tea, Vera; and then, if you would complete my

flower from a vase and

," she said, and she put her fingers in

manuscripts somewhere near Thebes, and he cables that they belong to the first century after Christ, that he expects them to illuminate most of the dark recesses of the time, and that I am privileged to share the glory by making an ample contribution. Doesn't that stir your young blood?

rls were made to be talked to. Lena thought so too, yet all she sai

e question or made some manifest effort to include her in topics introduced for her benefit. These attempts were only too apparent to her and rasped her soul the more. These people had such a perplexing way of saying w

sent he seems to be composed of two simple but diverse elements, a stomach and a sense of humor." At th

d, and he looked so good-tempered when he returned and gave Lena his arm that her spirits were aga

me that for two years he had dined on bread and milk. And then I felt that I was a favorite of

nt that she saw in Mr. Lenox's eyes as

rld darkened on one side by the servant question and o

t from any hitherto met in her brief experience of life. Her internal summing up was,

Nolan's unfrilled conversation, of his clumsy, rather inane compliments, of his primitive am?ba-like type of humor. She saw the whole course of her life of mean shifts and wranglings with her mother; and though its moral niggardliness was unappreciated, its physical meagerness sickened her in contrast to the ease and beauty of these newer scenes. She must climb out of that life, somehow, by hook or crook; if this were the alternative, she must grow to its likeness, no matter how the birth-pangs hurt. She would face it. She would even rejoice in the oppor

d things of life. She hated with a hate that tingled her spine and shook her small body. The tragedy of l

of things a little, and I'll show her!" Miss Quincy was conscious that though she as

w and here the very rugs and chairs and soft lights, the pictures of unrecognized subjects, the unfamiliar delicacies before her at

th the concrete, and there entered into her soul and took possession of its empty chambers and began to mold her to her own purposes the demon of so

militude, even to chatter a little, helped chiefly by a certain persistent light-weight on the part of Mr. Lenox; but the life was hard and the rewards meag