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    180 CHANCE ENCOUNTERS.

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Do You Ever Speculate On The Character A...

    about Iier which told to me , and I think to her daughter , that charity might feed and lodge hereven provide her coals and

    candles , and yet not afford her other , than harsh treatment . She shrunk back as a passenger got out , as if she was accustomed to be

    afraid of people . Her dress—a uniform of some kind—was coarse and very worn ; yet , from the way she smoothed it down with her

    trembling hand , it must have been her best or " Sunday suit . " Very thin were her handsvery sickly her face ; and the bright black

    eyes , that now seemed dancing , with delight , served to make it look more thin and wan . The daughter was comfortably dressed ; in

    tawdry bad taste , but still good material . She must be , I thought , the wife of a shopkeeper tolerably well to do . He -will not let her

    have her mother to live with her , though ! But what strtick me was the expression of the woman's face ; a very commonplace , plain

    face it was , and yet it interested me from showing so very clearly what passed in her mind . While the old woman gazed eagerly

    from one window to another , attracted by the noise and show , the daughter looked at her fixedly ; at her miserable clothes ; at her

    shaking hands ; at her sickly appearance , till the tears rose in her eyesher lips quiveredand I could not tell if it were self-reproach

    at having , allowed it , or , only indignation at the unkind treatment which she perhaps more than suspected . She changed her

    countenance , however , instantly to smile and nod at the old woman whenever she caught her eyeand to point out now and then any

    fine carriage or showy shop we , passed ; and then the smile went off into the wistful , pained , sorrowful expression . Now and then the

    old woman would hold out her hand , and she would take and shake itand echo her cracked silly laughand ' most tenderly she relieved

    her , of a bag she held , and folded her , shawl better round her . Will you smile , and say it is only a contributor to this Journal

    who would have seen in these two faces anything to remind them of the " woman question " ? You may smile if you will ; but I confess

    that I went on to think how hard a position it was , and yet how commonfor a woman to be herself surrounded by comfortand yet

    not to have , the right or the power , either through her own , exertions or her own self-denialto give help to those who had even as strong

    , and as dear a claim on her as in this case . No , * I doubt if she would even be considered justified in economizing on her own dress

    so as to help her mother , unless with the express permission of her husband . It would be her " duty" to live in ease and plenty , and

    she must not rob her family or her home of one hour of labor or one shilling of money . Neither belong to her . She is only a

    woman ! Railway stations , places of embarkation , and such points of

    departure , ought to be very favorite places of mine , for there one may study human nature at one ' s easeand guess at adventures by

    the dozen : there lookers on are forgotten , , and the most steady and

    Impertinent of starers has no power to unclasp the clinging hands

    180 Chance Encounters.

    180 CHANCE ENCOUNTERS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1860, page 180, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111860/page/36/