Part 21 (1/2)

This will introduce my friend, Mother Roberts. She is all O. K. Hoping you will have a pleasant time together,

Yours as ever, ---- ----

This I presented with my card at Miss Loraine's door at exactly five o'clock. A j.a.panese page dressed in uniform ushered me into a conventional but well-furnished reception-room. There sat a young woman in a handsome silk negligee, who invited me to be seated, remarking that Miss Loraine was out, but would soon return, and that she was to entertain me in the interval. In a few minutes there came up the steps and then entered the room three splendid-looking young women, richly attired. The one in black silk, Miss Loraine, received me with all the manners of a lady of birth and good breeding, and soon asked me if I would come with her to her private quarters, so that we could converse undisturbed. I followed her up-stairs into a Dresden-draped bedroom, where ensued the following conversation:

”Mrs. Roberts, I feel I owe you an apology for not sooner receiving you. To be candid with you, my door is closed to all who have not made previous engagements; then, too, I shrink from the embarra.s.sment of meeting any ladies from the better walks of life,” etc.

Whilst endeavoring to rea.s.sure her, I happened to look at a silver-framed photograph of a handsome, white-haired old gentleman.

Quickly remarking this, she reverently handed it to me, saying:

”I notice you are attracted to this. Would you think there was anything out of the common in any of these features?”

Upon my replying in the negative, she added:

”This is the photograph of my dearly loved father. He is stone blind.”

I expressed my astonishment, for there was no indication in the picture.

After a pause she said, ”Mrs. Roberts, will you please do me a favor?”

”If it lies in my power,” I replied.

”It does,” was her rejoinder. ”Will you honor me by dining with me this evening, half an hour hence?”

For one second I hesitated, but on interpreting her expression I instantly replied, ”With pleasure,” for like a flash came a mental vision of the King of kings dining with Simon the leper (Mark 11:3-9).

Then she absented herself for a few minutes, doubtless to make necessary arrangements.

”I feel disposed, if you care to listen.” she said on her return, ”to give you a synopsis of my life.”

I a.s.sured her of a great desire to hear it and, if possible, to prove more than simply a hearer. Briefly, it was this:

She was an only child of rich parents. She was reared in a luxurious home, where card-playing, theater-going, dancing, and all other high society amus.e.m.e.nts were continually indulged in. When she was entering her teens and most needed a mother's care, her mother died, and her father placed her in a fas.h.i.+onable boarding-school. She remained there until she was seventeen, when he sent her, under the chaperonage of friends, on a trip to Europe.

Whilst she was in Rome, she received from her father a cable message reading, ”Come home on next steamer.” Upon arriving in New York, she soon learned from her father's lips of his total failure in business (he was a stock broker) and also of the fast approaching affliction--blindness. Property of every description was swept away.

She soon secured a position as nursery governess, but erelong she realized that she was unqualified, never having been coached for any but high social life.

The gentleman (?) whom she had expected to marry some day proved untrue as soon as her riches fled.

Just at a time when her employer had gently informed her of her inability to fill her position of governess satisfactorily and of her (the employer's) intention of dismissing her, the tempter, in the form of an unprincipled but well-to-do man about to make a trip to the Pacific Coast, crossed her path and ensnared her. Under promise of marriage, she agreed to go with him. After telling her now blind father, who was being provided for out of her earnings, that she had secured a position for better pay, but that it would take her away from New York for a time, she bade him a tearful farewell.

Before long the rich reprobate deserted her, but he was merciful enough not to leave her penniless. With a considerable sum at her disposal, and for advisers one or two whose morals were at a low ebb, she came North and furnished the house in which I was now sitting.

She was in constant correspondence with her father, who supposed that she was married and that the fifty dollars or more (never less) which he monthly received came from his wealthy son-in-law. And now hear her own words:

”Mrs. Roberts, I believe you will give me an honest answer to my earnest question. Would it be possible for me to secure any honorable position whereby I might continue to send my dear father fifty dollars a month, as well as live respectably myself?”

Reader, what answer would you, had you been in my place, have made? I was in an awkward position--in the presence of one who had never attended any but a fas.h.i.+onable church and hence--who knew little or nothing of G.o.d and his Son, one who had never been taught anything which in the event of accidents or business failures would prove practical. She was indeed and in truth to be pitied. My reply was a question: