Winner Stories

Next Winner (88) | Previous Winner (86)

father was ill years ago, and we were at our wit's end for money,
but she got it back again before the end of the year.
Mrs. FaneSmith colored deeply, partly at the idea of her mother's
lace being taken to a pawnbroker's, partly to hear that her brother
and sister had ever been reduced to such straits. She made an
excuse to take Erica away to her room, and there questioned her
more than she had yet done about her home.
I thought your father was so strong, she said. Yet you speak as
if he had had several illnesses.
He has, replied Erica. Twice I can remember the time when they
thought him dying, besides after the riot last year. Yes, he is
strong, but, you see, he has such a hard life. It is bad enough
now, and I doubt if any one knows how fearfully he overworked
himself during the year in America. The other day I had to look
something up in his diary for him, and not till then did I find out
how terribly he must have taxed his strength. On an average he got
one night's rest in the week, on the others he slept as well as he
could in the long cars, which are wretchedly uncomfortable; the
sleeping cars being expensive, he wouldn't go in them.
Mrs. FaneSmith sighed. Her brother was becoming more of a living
reality to her; she thought of him less as a type of wickedness.
The recollection, too, that she had been all her life enjoying the
money which he and her sister Jean had forfeited by their opinions,
made her grieve the more over the little details of poverty and
privation. Old Mr. Raeburn had left all his money to her,
bequeathing to his other daughter and his reprobate son the sum of
one shilling, with the hope that Heaven would bring them to a
better mind. It was some comfort to learn from Erica that at last
the terrible load of debt had been cleared off, and that they were
comparatively free from trouble just at present.
With these thoughts in her mind, Mrs. FaneSmith found herself on
her way to Lady Caroline's; but her developing breadth of view was
destined to receive a severe shock. They were the last guests to
arrive, and at the very moment of their entrance Lady Caroline was
talking in her most vivacious way to Mr. Cuthbert, a young
clergyman, the vicar of one of the Greyshot churches.
I am going to give you a treat, Mr. Cuthbert, she said
laughingly. I know you are artistic, and so I intend you to take
down that charming niece of Mrs. FaneSmith's. I assure you she is
like a BurneJones angel!

Next Winner (88) | Previous Winner (86)

Winner Index