Lizzy Glenn; Or, The Trials of a Seamstress Part 14

"I don't believe a word of it. Here I you go off up-stairs,"

speaking sharply, and with a threatening look to the child. "I'd like to know what business he has to come here, meddling in affairs that don't concern him."

Henry, thus spoken to, let go of the counter, by which he was sustaining himself, and attempted to move toward the door. As he did so, his face grew deadly pale. He staggered across the shop, fell against the wall, and then sank down upon the floor. Mrs. Sharp sprang toward him, not with any humane intention, we are sorry to say; but, ere she had grasped the boy's arm, and given him the purposed jerk, the sight of his ashen, lifeless face prevented the outrage. Exhausted nature could bear nothing more, and protected herself in a temporary suspension of her power. Henry had fainted, and it was well that it was so. The fact was a stronger argument in his favor than any external exhibition of suffering that could have been given.

The hatter and his wife were both alarmed at an event so unexpected by either of them. Henry was quickly removed to a chamber, and every effort made to restore him. It was not a very long time before the machinery of life was again in motion; its action, however, was feeble, as even his oppressors could see. Self-interest, and fear of consequences, if not humanity, prompted more consideration for the boy, and secured for him a few days respite. After that, the oppressed and his oppressors a.s.sumed their old relations.

CHAPTER IX.

LIZZY GLENN FINDS IN MRS. GASTON AN OLD FRIEND.

"I DON'T think I've seen any thing of Lizzy Glenn for a week,"

remarked Berlaps to his man Michael one day during the latter part of December. "Has she any thing out?"

"Yes. She has four of our finest s.h.i.+rts."

"How long since she took them away?"

"It's over a week--nearly ten days."

"Indeed! Then she ought to be looked after. It certainly hasn't taken her all this time to make four s.h.i.+rts."

"Well, I don't know. She gets along, somehow, poorly enough,"

replied Michael. "She's often been a whole week making four of them."

While this conversation was going on, the subject of it entered. She came in with a slow, feeble step, and leaned against the counter as she laid down the bundle of work she had brought with her. Her half-withdrawn vail showed her face to be very pale, and her eyes much sunken. A deep, jarring cough convulsed her frame for a moment or two, causing her to place her hand almost involuntarily upon her breast, as if she suffered pain there.

"It's a good while since you took these s.h.i.+rts out, Lizzy," said Berlaps, in a tone meant to reprove her for the slowness with which she worked.

"Yes, it is," she replied, in a low, sad tone. "I can't get along very fast. I have a constant pain in my side. And there are other reasons."

The last sentence was spoken only half aloud, but sufficiently distinct for Berlaps to hear it.

"I don't expect my workwomen," he said a little sharply, "to have any reasons for not finis.h.i.+ng my work in good season, and bringing it in promptly. Ten days to four s.h.i.+rts is unpardonable. You can't earn your salt at that."

The young woman made no reply to this, but stood with her eyes drooping to the floor, and her hands leaning hard upon the counter to support herself.

Berlaps then commenced examining the s.h.i.+rts. The result of this examination seemed to soften him a little. No wonder; they were made fully equal to those for which regular s.h.i.+rt-makers receive from seventy-five cents to a dollar a piece.

"Don't you think you can make five such as these in a week--or even six?" he asked, in a somewhat changed tone.

"I'm afraid not," was the reply. "There's a good day's work on each one of them, and I cannot possibly sit longer than a few hours at a time. And, besides, there are two or three hours of every day that I must attend to other duties."

"Well, if you can't I suppose you can't," said the tailor, in a disappointed, half-offended tone, and turned away from the counter and walked back to his desk, from which he called out to his salesman, after he had stood there for about a minute--

"Pay her for them, Michael, and if you have any more ready give her another lot."

Since the sharp rebuke given by Mr. Perkins, Michael had treated Lizzy with less vulgar a.s.surance. Sometimes he would endeavor to sport a light word with her, but she never replied, nor seemed to notice his freedom in the least. This uniform, dignified reserve, so different from the demeanor of most of the girls who worked for them, coupled with the manner of Perkins's interference for her, inspired in his mind a feeling of respect for the stranger, which became her protection from his impertinences. On this occasion, he merely asked her how many she would have, and on receiving her answer, handed her the number of s.h.i.+rts she desired.

As she turned to go out, Mrs. Gaston, who had just entered, stood near, with her eyes fixed upon her. She started as she looked into her face. Indeed, both looked surprised, excited, then confused, and let their eyes fall to the floor. They seemed for a moment to have identified each other, and then to have become instantly conscious that they were nothing but strangers--that such an identification was impossible. An audible sigh escaped Lizzy Glenn, as she pa.s.sed slowly out and left the store. As she reached the pavement, she turned and looked back at Mrs. Gaston. Their eyes again met for an instant.

"Who is that young woman?" asked Mrs. Gaston.

"Her name is Lizzy Glenn," replied Michael.

"Do you know any thing about her?"

"Nothing--only that she's a proud, stiff kind of a creature; though what she has to be proud of, is more than I can tell."

"How long has she been working for you?"

"A couple of months or so, if I recollect rightly."

"Where does she live?" was Mrs. Gaston's next question.

"Michael gave her the direction, and then their intercourse had entire reference to business."

After the subject of this brief conversation between Mrs. Gaston and Michael left the store of Mr. Berlaps, she walked slowly in the direction of her temporary home, which was, as has before been mentioned, in an obscure street at the north end. It consisted of a small room, in an old brick house, which had been made by running a rough part.i.tion through the centre of the front room in the second story, and then intersecting this part.i.tion on one side by another part.i.tion, so as to make three small rooms out of one large one.

These part.i.tions did not reach more than two-thirds of the distance to the ceiling, thus leaving a free circulation of air in the upper and un.o.bstructed portion of the room. As the house stood upon a corner, and contained windows both in front and on the end, each room had a window. The whole were heated by one large stove. For the little room that Lizzy Glenn occupied including fire, she paid seventy-five cents a week. But, as the house was old, the windows open, and the room that had been cut up into smaller ones a large one; and, moreover, as the person who let them and supplied fuel for the stove took good care to see that an undue quant.i.ty of this fuel was not burned she rarely found the temperature of her apartment high enough to be comfortable. Those who occupied the other two rooms, in each of which, like her own, was a bed, a couple of chairs, and a table, with a small looking-gla.s.s, were seamstresses, who were compelled, as she was, to earn a scanty subsistence by working for the slop-shops. But they could work many more hours than she could, and consequently earned more money than she was able to do. Her food--the small portion she consumed--she provided herself, and prepared it at the stove, which was common property.

On returning from the tailor's, as has been seen, she laid her bundle of work upon the bed, and seated herself with a thoughtful air, resting her head upon her hand. The more she thought, the more she seemed disturbed; and finally arose, and commenced walking the floor slowly. Suddenly pausing, at length she sighed heavily, and went to the bed upon which lay her work, took it up, unrolled the bundle, and seating herself by the table, entered once more upon her daily toil. But her mind was too much disturbed, from some cause, to permit her to pursue her work steadily. In a little while she laid aside the garment upon which she had begun to sew, and, leaning forward, rested her head upon the table, sighing heavily as she did so, and pressing one hand hard against her side, as if to relieve pain. A tap at the door aroused her from this state of abstraction.

As she turned, the door was quietly opened, and the woman she had seen at the tailor's a short time before, entered. She started to her feet at this unexpected apparition, and gazed, with a look of surprise, inquiry, and hope, upon her visitor.

"Can it be Mrs. Gaston? But no! no!" and the young creature shook her head mournfully.

"Eugenia!" exclaimed Mrs. Gaston, springing forward, and instantly the two were locked in each other's arms, and clinging together with convulsive eagerness.

"But no, no! It cannot be my own Eugenia," said Mrs. Gaston, slowly disengaging herself, and holding the young woman from her, while she read over every feature of her pale, thin face. "Surely I am in a strange dream!"

"Yes, I am your own Eugenia Ballantine! my more than mother! Or, the wreck of her, which a wave of life's ever restless ocean has heaved upon the sh.o.r.e."

"Eugenia Ballantine! How can it be! Lost years ago at sea, how can she be in this room, and in this condition! It is impossible! And yet you are, you must be, my own dear Eugenia."

"I am! I am!" sobbed the maiden, leaning her head upon the bosom of Mrs. Gaston, and weeping until tears fell in large drops upon the floor.

"But the sea gives not up its dead," said Mrs. Gaston, in a doubting, bewildered tone.

"True--but the sea never claimed me as a victim."

"And your father?"

The maiden's face flushed a moment, while a shade of anguish pa.s.sed over it.

"At another time, I will tell you all. My mind is now too much agitated and confused. But why do I find you here? And more than all, why as a poor seamstress, toiling for little more than a crust of bread and a cup of water? Where is your husband? Where are your children?"

"Three years ago," replied Mrs. Gaston, "we removed to this city. My husband entered into business, and was unsuccessful. He lost every thing, and about a year ago died, leaving me dest.i.tute. I have struggled on, since then, the best I could, but to little purpose.