Gratia's Trials — page 159: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

150 GRATIA'S TRIALS. ‘‘We shall know some day,” Gratia solemnly answered, “and in the meanwhile I must bide my time. Good-by, darling!” and she gently put Ida from her. ‘‘ Joanna, come and take your young mistress away. Obey Mrs. Falconer, and do not let her come to me again.” But Ida clung with passionately tender affection to Gratia's neck. ‘* When will you come back, Gratia ?” ‘‘T cannot tell,” Gratia replied. ‘‘ My future seems to have passed entirely away from me. Iam trying to trust in God's providence, but it seems very, very hard. Once more, dearest, good-by !” | She pressed her lips in a long, lingering caress to Ida’s, and the next moment she was alone. The next morning, when Ida came to her friend’s room, Gratia had gone, CHAPTER XXVI. AGAINST WIND AND TIDE. During the next few weeks Gratia Kempfield drank the bitter cup of humiliation to the very dregs. She had succeeded in finding a cheap though respectable lodging at the house of a woman who eked out her income by letting her upper rooms to people who boarded themselves—factory girls, sewing women, and the like, who were absent all day, and only wanted a decent roof to shelter their heads at night. Mrs. Carkley promised to. interest herself in her new lodger’s future, but she had no very promising hopes to hold out. ‘‘Situations is scarce,” said she, ‘‘and wages is low. They Say money is awful tight—seems to me it always is.” Mrs; Carkley was a tall, sallow-faced woman, who wore rusty- , black garments in memory of a husband who had departed this Comicbooks.co m