Two Fortunes [pp. 371-376]

Two FORTUNES.
of course they prefer to give her all the copying
they have; so I'm dismissed."
'"You will have a chance to rest, at any rate,"
the mother said, quick to catch at any gain in a
loss. "The work has been too hard for you all
the while."
"But the money, mamma," her lips trembling
so that she could hardly speak. "I wanted so
much to earn enough to pay for music lessons
with Harrison. You know how often I have
been told that if my voice could but be trained
I might help myself with it. I love music so.
I thought I could have learned in another term
enough to teach beginners, and I hoped-I
hoped "-and gathered into the patient mothler's
arms she cried out her disappointment.
"Are you all here?" a voice said from the
darkness ten minutes later. "I came in without ringing, finding the front door ajar. I want
to make sure of you for our party next week."
Anna Lawrence had crossed the room while
she spoke, and stood now holding Mrs. Ross's
hand and looking at her cousin. Thanks to
the dim light, she could not see her flushed,
tearful face, and she went on in her usual pleasant tones. " It is only a quiet little affair, just
the people I think you will like. We want May
to sing. Mr. Harland is to be there, and we
have told him of your voice, and his judgment
might be of use to you. Please do n't refuse.
It is my party-my birthday, thloughl that fact
is n't published," laughling. "When one gets
past twenty they do n't publish birthdays, do
they, Mlay? Come promise, please."
And hardly knowing how to refuse, the promise was given.
"Can not you stay a few mninutes?"
'Thlanks, no, Bell is waiting outside. Mamma hopes to see you soon, auntie. It seems
an age since you were with us. We have some
new books, Georgie, that would please you.
Come and see them. Good-night," and she
was gone as quickly as she came.
A large room elegantly furnished, velvet beneath, gilding above, handsome and luxurious
furniture; the rose-red fire in the grate gleaming on the softly tinted walls, on bright paintings and rare engravings, on brackets holding
busts and vases, on the white keys of the piano
that, a sheet of music half fallen on them,
looked as though they had but just ceased answering the touch of soft fingers; on books,
papers, all the dainty nothings wealth and refinement make possible in a home. Through
the great doors opened on one side a vision of
greenery, the fall of a tiny fountain, the faint
breath of flowers. In the soft mellowed light,
the mistress of all, Mrs. Lawrence sits, a faded
beauty-a happy woman, if one is to judge by
surroundings, despite the weary look of her
thin, white face. She calls herself an invalid,
and having for some years acted on the opinion
by having half the doctors in the city attend
her, has become one.n reality. A shrewd observer would say idleness, lack of ambition, to
be half the trouble. The lady has no need
either to work or aspire. Fortune has been
kind enough to give her full time to study hlerself, and the result is chronic invalidism. It is
possibly because of her weak health that she
finds her life so hard. Her family is a great
care; society, a heavy burden. Sometimes she
looks at her busy, cheerful sister hlalf-enviously.
Not that she would change places with her.
Our envy of the joys of poverty rarely goes
that far. Mrs. Lawrence only wishes her daughters were a little more useful at home; her sons
a little less disposed to the sowing of those
wild oats for which wealth buys so much seed.
She has wearied herself into a headache this
afternoon over a novel, and is waiting now anxiously for her daughters. Her face lightens as
she hears them coming up the steps into the
hall. She opens the door and calls to them,
and they come in, Bell, the younger, first, a
handsome, haughty girl, her mother's pride and
pet, Anna, the plainer elder sister, following
more slowly.
"Have you had a good time, girls? Were
your calls pleasant?"
'" Pleasant is not my adjective for calls," Anna
said laughingly. "Thley were well enough."''
"All the dull people were at home," Bell
went on, pulliIng off her gloves with such haste
that she tore both of them, "and all the people
I wanted to see were out."
"Only Nellie Graham was out, Bell."
"The very one I most wanted to see. And
Ada Garner might better have been. I've not
had such a call there in a year."
"Her cousin, an heiress from New York, is
there," Anna explained to her mother's questioning look, "and Miss Ada's head is half
turned by the distinction."
"And, mamma, Mattie Bryne has a new set
of cameos, the prettiest things I ever saw. I
must have some before our party."
"You do n't need them in the least, Bell."
"0, mamma!" Anna interrupted; "Lloyd
Allen is home. We met him just as we were
coming from Mr. Garner's."
"And neither of us knew him," Bell interrupted in her turn; "but, as he did us, Anna
must needs stop and be very gracious. But
when he turned to me-it was too absurd!"
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