Ethel Lynn Beers

“ Mrs. Austin was a pale, wan-faced woman, with great eyes and a quantity of black hair, hardly tinged with gray, coiled at the back of a well-shaped head. A strange-looking woman, wild yet touchingly sad. She spoke very little, and then in a hurried, nervous way, while her hand shook the cup which she handed me until it rattled. She had a glancing, fearful look, and seemed ill at ease. Nervous, I suppose, as that is the solution of all puzzling matters in regard to women.
"I haven't seen your little girl yet," I remarked, at breakfast-time. ”

“ I hear John Austin's heavy step go to and fro on the gravel-walk for two long hours, and then the girl's light step is falling there, too.
What is the sorrow of this household? What shadow is in the depth of Oolie's great solemn, beautiful eyes? What trouble bows this strong man so? ”

“ The old, tattered pocket-book that John Austin took out I shall never forget, nor the small store from which he took a bill, putting it in the girl's hand, saying all the while,
"Yes, yes, little girl, you must have a new frock—you have waited a long while for it; a good girl, my little Oolie. I wish father could hire help and dress you like a lady. Poor Oolie!" ”