You need n't
say anything about what I told you, but the fact is I was desperate poor
before I began to support myself taking boarders, and a lone woman
without her--her--
The sentence plunged into the gulf of her great remembered sorrow, and
was lost to the records of humanity.
--Presently she continued in answer to my questions: The Lady was not
very sociable; kept mostly to herself. The Young Girl (our Scheherezade)
used to visit her sometimes, and they seemed to like each other, but the
Young Girl had not many spare hours for visiting. The Lady never found
fault, but she was very nice in her tastes, and kept everything about her
looking as neat and pleasant as she could.
---What did she do?--Why, she read, and she drew pictures, and she did
needlework patterns, and played on an old harp she had; the gilt was
mostly off, but it sounded very sweet, and she sung to it sometimes,
those old songs that used to be in fashion twenty or thirty years ago,
with words to 'em that folks could understand.
Did she do anything to help support herself?--The Landlady couldn't say
she did, but she thought there was rich people enough that ought to buy
the flowers and things she worked and painted.
All this points to the fact that she was bred to be an ornamental rather
than what is called a useful member of society.
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