The Lady moved to the house where she had passed many of her prosperous years.It had been occupied by a rich family who had taken it nearly as it stood, and as the pictures had been dusted regularly, and the books had never been handled, she found everything in many respects as she had left it, and in some points improved, for the rich people did not know what else to do, and so they spent money without stint on their house and its adornments, by all of which she could not help profiting.I do not choose to give the street and number of the house where she lives, but a-great many poor people know very well where it is, and as a matter of course the rich ones roll up to her door in their carriages by the dozen every fine Monday while anybody is in town.
It is whispered that our two young folks are to be married before another season, and that the Lady has asked them to come and stay with her for a while.Our Scheherezade is to write no more stories.
It is astonishing to see what a change for the better in her aspect a few weeks of brain-rest and heart's ease have wrought in her.Idoubt very much whether she ever returns to literary labor.The work itself was almost heart-breaking, but the effect upon her of the sneers and cynical insolences of the literary rough who came at her in mask and brass knuckles was to give her what I fear will be a lifelong disgust against any writing for the public, especially in any of the periodicals.I am not sorry that she should stop writing, but I am sorry that she should have been silenced in such a rude way.
I doubt, too, whether the Young Astronomer will pass the rest of his life in hunting for comets and planets.I think he has found an attraction that will call him down from the celestial luminaries to a light not less pure and far less remote.And I am inclined to believe that the best answer to many of those questions which have haunted him and found expression in his verse will be reached by a very different channel from that of lonely contemplation, the duties, the cares, the responsible realities of a life drawn out of itself by the power of newly awakened instincts and affections.The double star was prophetic,--I thought it would be.
The Register of Deeds is understood to have been very handsomely treated by the boarder who owes her good fortune to his sagacity and activity.He has engaged apartments at a very genteel boarding-house not far from the one where we have all been living.The Salesman found it a simple matter to transfer himself to an establishment over the way; he had very little to move, and required very small accommodations.
The Capitalist, however, seems to have felt it impossible to move without ridding himself of a part at--least of his encumbrances.The community was startled by the announcement that a citizen who did not wish his name to be known had made a free gift of a large sum of money--it was in tens of thousands--to an institution of long standing and high character in the city of which he was a quiet resident.The source of such a gift could not long be kept secret.
It, was our economical, not to say parsimonious Capitalist who had done this noble act, and the poor man had to skulk through back streets and keep out of sight, as if he were a show character in a travelling caravan, to avoid the acknowledgments of his liberality, which met him on every hand and put him fairly out of countenance.
That Boy has gone, in virtue of a special invitation, to make a visit of indefinite length at the house of the father of the older boy, whom we know by the name of Johnny.Of course he is having a good time, for Johnny's father is full of fun, and tells first-rate stories, and if neither of the boys gets his brains kicked out by the pony, or blows himself up with gunpowder, or breaks through the ice and gets drowned, they will have a fine time of it this winter.
The Scarabee could not bear to remove his collections, and the old Master was equally unwilling to disturb his books.It was arranged, therefore, that they should keep their apartments until the new tenant should come into the house, when, if they were satisfied with her management, they would continue as her boarders.
