surprising! Tatiana, Mrs. Etterich some tea will have. Do you our new quarterrs like? We sleep in a funny little garrett, up so high! We wanted to see how the po-err lif. How do you like it?" "I think it a miserable and dirty tenement," said Mrs. Etheridge, vehemently. "But so ferree!" cried Ekaterina, blithely. The door suddenly swung open, and a tiny, of course dirty, boy, appeared. "Wan' d' lady doctor," he piped. Tatiana sprang up, and the two men after her, protesting that she must not go anywhere alone in that neighborhood. Catching Winship's arm, "Is she a doctor?" the bewildered Mrs. Etheridge demanded. "A one-time medical student," curtly. "She does little services for her poorer neighbors." As he vanished, Mrs. Etheridge turned to Ekaterina. It might more accurately be said that she turned on Ekaterina. "Now," she said, cuttingly, "explain! Explain everything-who you are and what you are! If you are a princess, as the girls at the Home said, or an authoress, or a revolutionist "-Ekaterina, round-eyed, thrice shook her head disclaimingly-"say so. If" -with an emphasis which brought a slight pink to Ekaterina's face-"you are a respectable working-girl, you have no right to live in a hole like this. Least of all," her voice beginning to shake, "have you a right to invite my son-when I have been so kind to you!-and Mr. Winship, your employer, to visit you in this free-and-easy way, and expose them to the designs of that most unbecomingly beautiful adventuress does she or I, that you shoult in this way sultt us?" Ekaterina was crying! 213 in "I hate you. Ole your ole pale girlss in "No, do not come near me," she sobbed. tat Home, whom you so lof as your sweet Elaine, hate you. You can go, Mrs. Etterich. You neet not any more be kind!" "Now you may stop," said Ekaterina. She spoke with composure, yet somehow Mrs. Etheridge did stop, and no sooner had she done so than the composure dissolved ish she found power to analyze them, partaken Had Mrs. Etheridge's sensations, when of anything other than a consciousness of overwhelming outrage, she would have been unworthy of Ekaterina's steel. And at the very moment, as she afterward pathetically ingrate's pleasure. The Russian ambassaobserved to Elaine, she was planning for that dor came to the city next week for a recepand Mrs. Etheridge, who was trying to get tion given in his honor by the Melvales; cards, had mentioned that she had a Russian friend tions," agreed the practical Elaine. nothing could make this easy. The inviMrs. Etheridge was to find, however, that tation list was hopelessly filled. Vainly she plied her cousin's husband in the State Department at Washington. Then, suddenly, three life-giving cards of invitation fluttered down on her from the last imaginable source: an unexpected caller, in the trig blue suit and picture hat of before, but also in a mood of melting penitence. "When I tought how you so much older were, "You forgif?" she cried breathlessly. and meant so goodly, I wass so ashamed! To show you how I am sorry, I bring you tree tickets for my ambassador's reception." "Oh, thank you," faintly. "How did you turnt, you know, and I am staying tere. "Trough Mrs. Hoxton. Tey haf reSuch lofely pipple! Goot-by, I am so glad in a flood of furious words: "What is there to explain? What foolBecause we are working-girlss n you and your Mrs. Wilks are! Institution iss as bad as Rrussia. Did you nized at the reception. In a gala gown of . . At know Mrs. Wilks went trough my trunks and an acute and unusual shade of pink, her detried to read you forgif,—and I am so in a hurry!" ridge, awaiting on the upper landing a chance Her face was the first which Mrs. Etheto descend the crowded stairway, recog leaf tat institution. I haf te right to gif dour, the Russian stood in the hall below, I haf te right to haf beautiful friends. Ta- ton and some strangers. An expression of afternoon tea to men, like your taughter. talking and laughing with Mrs. Horace Hoxtiana iss goot and beautiful beyont you nor unwonted and dazzling joyousness had me. She wished to see the city, and learn witched her fresh face into positive beauty. something of working life and te po-err. She will soon go back to her home. What Ralph,with that dreadful lightness which be "Do you happen to have heard," inquired VOL. XL.-24 trays men to their women-folk, "whether that friend of hers, Miss-er-Tatiana— He suddenly stopped, and with a swift, unchivalrous charge upon the crowded staircase, tore his way over trains and tunneled it around massive shoulders and sharp elbows. Little need to ask whom he had seen. Mrs. Etheridge, looking after him, dropped giddily on a divan and forgot her sweet Elaine's existence. Her boy, her one boy-to save Winship, she herself had deliberately pushed him into the arms of the siren! Anyone but a mother would have known Her punishment was greater than she could bear. Horace Hoxton, passing by, stopped at her side to warmly thank her for her kindness to his young guest. She merely smiled wanly. Her thoughts were upon her only son. 'Such a fascinating little creature, do you not think?" the genial Hoxton continued. "Her people were hospitality itself to me in St. Petersburg. She is the daughter of Domboievsky, the famous astronomer; and, simply as they lived, one really met at their house all Russians worth meeting. And do you know her delightful friend, Princess Velaselsky?" "Princess" pathetically quavered Mrs. Etheridge, following his glance-and her son's impetuous progress-to the doorway of the gold-and-white salon below, through which, by a shifting of the crowd, she saw, stationed beside her host and hostess, the Ambassador, stately, silver-bearded, bestarred and bejewelled; and beside him, a dreamily lovely girl in pale-gold satin, pearls on her creamy neck, priceless diamonds on her ripply hair. "The Ambassador's young sister, you know," went on Hoxton, mercilessly. "She and Ekaterina were fellow-students for a while, and when they met unexpectedly in Washington, where Princess Tatiana was making her brother a little visit, they returned together for what she designated as 'one lark.' These Russian girls are so interesting, are they not?" It was Elaine who firmly piloted her mother downstairs and into the drawingroom to greet the hostess and the lion-but not the princess, who had suddenly disappeared; nor could she find her son Ralph anywhere. "Princess-Princess-Velaselsky!" was running through her stunned brain. Suddenly she came across Ralph, isolated among a group of strangers, at whom he unseeingly glowered with the fierce brow of disappointed masculinity. "Ready to go, are you?" he said, shortly. She had not said so. "That's good." Before such a crowd of witnesses she did not dare to question him. New impressions in too rapid succession had left her mind in a well-nigh gelatinous state. But in the carriage, while the tedious wheels were bringing them home, she found voice and a very deep, indignant voice it was— for the half-incredulous question: "Oh, my boy, she hasn't refused you?" "Oh, no, she hasn't refused me." Ralph's voice broke forlornly. He was still very young. "She's only married already, that's all. Husband in Russia-a councillor or something. I might have known that such a superb creature . . Elaine, don't pat my hand like that!" "It was all my fault, dear," said his mother, in an unwontedly low voice. The void in the place where she had used to keep her complacency hurt her. "I was so afraid she would attract Mr. Winship "Winship!" contemptuously. "Winship, who from the very start of things has been head over ears in love with Ekaterina!" "With-Ekaterina!" It was Elaine who echoed him. Her mother was beyond speech. "Why, yes, head over ears! He says she is the one woman in the world who completely suits him. He's an oddity himself, you know. If you had spoken with him to-night he would surely have told you that they are to be married as soon as they can get the paternal blessing cabled over from Russia, for he's fairly effervescing with the news." Still his stricken mother sat silent. David, suddenly confronted with a spectacle of the seed of the righteous begging his bread, might have worn some such expression. But as there passed before her burning vision a picture of Ekaterina, with her sleek head, her mild blue eyes, her square-shod feet, her wide, confident smile, and her absolute and tranquil invincibility, a brief and bitter defence escaped her: "I have always tried to do right, I am sure! both as a lady manager and amother, and a friend to Mr. Winship. It's none of my doing; and yet, Ralph"-with a sudden descent to a slight sob-"oh, yet, Elaine, it is!" Every word of which was perfectly true. Snow all gone now: ice is out of streams; Up start the green things. Welcome, even weeds! To shift one's mind from ice and snow to dwell on bait and seeds. Anniversaries, Aspects, Weather, 5th Sunday in Lent. ♂ Y C. Expect eggs to Of Interest to Farmers. So and so, you say, is worth five millions! Is he? Or do you only mean he has got five millions? If so, is he worth it? Is he worth what five millions will do the leisure it will give, the consideration it will procure, the service it will command? If he is, he must be a worthy man, valiant in battles worth fighting, faithful in true service. But if it is only that he has got five millions-that is not very significant. He may have robbed somebody. He may have bet on the right horse, or card, or turn of the market. He may have rackrented poor tenants, have sweated sewing women, have over-reached the simple-and the cunning, too, for that matter. And he may have got his money honestly and handsomely and still not be worth it, for that often happens. And sometimes it happens that men are worth five millions and never get the money. That kind usually don't get it. Eli Whitney was worth it, but never got it. Various inventors have been worth it and have got it and more. Divers American generals and statesmen have been worth it, none of them 20 Fr. War with Spain touched off, April 21, 1898. got it, nor did ever a poet get it. 21 Sa. 6 E. 22 S Low Sunday. 29th. Coxey's army invaded 24th. Medium tides. @. Fine in Aph. and warmer. Change N. Y., 1906. flannels 27 Fr. Crapsey heresy trial in Batavia, 2d Sunday after Easter. $30th. Strawberries grow plentiful in No better crop can be raised on a farm than a boy or a girl that is worth five millions and upwards. Whether they get the money is not so important. If they are worth it they will usually get as much of it as they need. Many such have been raised on farms in time past, and there is still abundant virtue left in the soil. For this crop the strongest soil is not too strong, but good results have been had on land not fit for much else. More depends on the quality of the plant than on cultivaRaise according to judgment and tion. perhaps. market early. |