A STORY FOR GIRLS BY ROSA NOUCHETTE CAREY. 46 TEOR OF "NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS," AUNT DIANA," ETC. NEW YORK: PUBLISHERS, ESTHER CHAPTER I. THE LAST DAY AT REDMAYNE HOUSE WHAT trifles vex one! I was always sorry that my name was Esther; not that i found fault with the name itself, but it was too grave, too full of meaning for such an insignificant person. Some one who was learned in such matters-I think it was Allan-told me once that it meant a star, or good fortune. It may be so, but the real meaning lay for me in the marginal note of my Bible; Esther, fair of form and good in countenance, that Hadassah, who was brought to the palace of Shushan, the beautiful Jewish queen who loved and succored her suffering people; truly a bright particular star amongst them. Girls, even the best of them, have their whims and fancies, and I never looked at myself in the glass on high days and holidays, when a festive garb was desirable, without a scornful -protest, dumbly uttered, against so shining a name. There was such a choice, and I would rather have been Deborah or Leah, or even plain Susan, or Molly; anything homely, that would have suited my dark, low-browed face. Tall and angu lar, and hard-featured-what business had I with such a name : My dear, beauty is only skin-deep, and common sense is worth its weight in gold; and you are my good sensible Esther," my mother said once, when I had hinted rather too strongly at my plainness. Dear soul, she was anxious to appease the pangs of injured vanity, and was full of such sweet balmy speeches; but girls in the ugly duckling stage are not alive to moral compliments; and, well-perhaps I hoped my mother might find contradiction possible. 66 Well, I am older and wiser now, less troublesomely introIspective, and by no means so addicted to taking my internal structure to pieces, to find out how the motives and feelings work; but all the same, I hold strongly to diversity of gifts. I 3666.* 4 (RECAP) 33 3 |