As hired help, they
had gained their experience, and by ceaseless industry and careful
economy, had at last come to own the place where they now lived. With
no child of her own, Mrs. Barton took a mother's place in Amy's life
from the first, and was very patient with the girl who had never been
taught to do the simplest household task. Amy returned the loving
kindness full measure, and, determined to be a help to those who so
much helped her, advanced rapidly in the knowledge of her homely duties.
Dressed in the plain working garb of a farm girl, with arms bare and
face flushed by the heat of the kitchen, one would scarcely have
recognized in her the beautiful young woman who moved with Boyd City's
society leaders, or the brilliant novice who stood hesitating at the
entrance to a life of sin in Madam's wine-rooms; and certainly, one
would never have classed the bright eyes, plump cheeks, and well-rounded
figure, with the frightened, starving, haggard thing that roamed about
the streets of Cleveland a few short months before.
But great as was the change in Amy's outward appearance, the change
within was even greater. She was no longer the thoughtless, proud,
pleasure-loving belle that her parents had trained; nor was she the
hard, reckless, hopeless creature that the world had made. But she was
a woman now, with a true woman's interest and purpose in life. The
shallow brilliance of the society girl had given place to thoughtful
earnestness, and the dreary sadness of the outcast had changed to
bright hopefulness.
Pages:
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268