Interrupted

if I could, give you a detailed a

per? Yet some people need practice of this sort to enab

rds which had become hateful to you, "For sale;" hiding away some special treasure in haste, lest the unexpected sight of it might break a heart that was just now bearing all it could. Has such experience ever been yours? Then you know all about it, and can in imagination follow Claire Benedict from attic to basement of

vidual griefs of the world? How long would our poor bodies be in breaking under the str

racter for self-reliance and systematic energy. She stood between her mother and the world. She interviewed carmen, and port

he packing of delicate glasses and vases, after they h

to see how long it had been in use, when the very bringing of it into the home had marked an

made, it is true, in the main, by those who were willing, but incompetent; but Claire was in the mood to decline all

purchase, possibly, certainly to see, and to ask. "There are a hundred things they want to know that only mamma or I can tell them. It shall never be mamma, and I would rather face them an

tried to help, realized this after the first day. "I don't know, really; I will ask Miss Benedict," was the most frequent answer to the endless questions. Dora's pitiful attempts to help bear the burden seemed to give her sister more pain than anything else. And one day, when to the persistent questioning of a woman in a cotton velvet sack, about the first value of a Persian ru

n that she did not mean to hurt poor Dora's feelings, she was answered quietly, even gently, that no harm had been done, that Dora was but a child. When the woman was gone, without the Persian rug-the price having been too gre

uses and be occasionally subject to the miseries of moving. Claire Benedict had never moved but once, which was when her father changed from his handsome house on one avenue to his far handsomer one on a grander avenue, which experience was full of delight to the energetic young girl. Very different was this moving to be.

been carefully cleaned and brightened to the best of the determined young girl's ability. Two carpets had been saved from the wreck for mother's room and the general sitting-room; and a pitiful, not to say painful, effort had been made to throw something like

hands, had been a constant and tender

ld not be comforted. She had leaned on Claire, it is true, but not in a way that seemed like an added burden; it was rather a balm to th

tly, when Claire made her plea, "I will not try to help in that direction; I know that I should hinder rather than help. You can

t wools, and silks and velvets of fancy work, such as the restless young schoolgirl was too nervous to care for, and the energetic elder daught

ther mothers," Dora would

ereafter, her needle, though busy, took the stitches that the discharged seamstress had been wont to take. Claire found her one day patiently darning a rent in a fast breaki

to sting us! Some way we make ours

minds about the matter for a moment. Everything must go; the creditors must be satisfied to the uttermost farthing, if possible. That, as a matter of course. Never mind what the law allowe

editor and have more furniture left than they knew what to do with, besides a sum of money; so small, indeed, that at first poor Claire,

e thing that she had always hated, it was to do nothing. She was almost glad that it was not possible for her to do this. The absurd little sum set to their credit in the First National Bank, of which her father had for so many years been a par

oor woman on her list. She thought of them now only with shivers. Ex

there chance not to be enough therein, trip lightly up the great, granite steps of the all-powerful bank, ask to see "papa" a minute, and come out re

f it several times with a little feeling of assurance. Everybody knew that her mu

two months ago had been given to curling her lip just a little over the thought that Christian young men and women had to be paid for contributing with their voices to the worship of God on the Sabbath day. The Claire Benedict o

need? More than once had representatives of fashionable churches said wistfully to Claire: "If we could only have your voice in our choir!" Now, a littl

e been a small fortune to her in her present need; but she could not wors

There was a specious hint that true worship

rine on which I rest my hope fo

d replied, promptly: "Of course not, daughter." And even Dora, who was at the questioning age, inclined to toss her head a little bit at isms and cr

two months ago, golden opportunities would have awaited her; but just now every vacancy was satisfactorily filled. Why should those giving satisfacti

ght of the possibility of ever being willing