“I want you to tell me how you happened to come to Chicago before I ever met you.”
At this request the woman seemed to draw herself together and with a movement of her figure that impressed me as a straightening out process, she began by saying:
“I came to Chicago when I was sixteen. I came to visit my aunt. It was during my last year in high school. I don’t believe I had ever known what love was. I had lost my mother when an infant. My father was a stereotyped business man, with so many affairs to keep his mind employed that he evidently did not have the time nor inclination to take me in his arms and show me any devotion whatever. I had two brothers, both of them several years my senior, and by the time I was old enough to appreciate the brotherly protection and love which their existence might have afforded me they were married. True, I had my school day episodes of note writing and had indulged in the blissful pastime of a few kissing parties, but never the full realization of loving caresses.
“I had been in the city three days when I met a young man. I was quick to listen to his avowal of love. It seemed to bring to me new joys; it directed my feet into newer and brighter paths of life and all wound up with an elopement and a marriage, after which I wrote to my father for his blessing and, as I have since learned through the influence of my step-mother, received his curse. His cold letter informing me that if I wished to return to the old home and continue in my studies as I had suggested, that he would certainly offer no objection, as I was now mistress of my own affairs, and if I chose to continue in school he could see no reason why I should not do so, as the school house still remained. Of course, I didn’t go. I fell ill and this necessitated the absence of my husband from his duties for such a long time that he lost his position.
“When I regained my health I set out to find employment, and met with partial success. That is, I could have the position on conditions, one of them being that I was not married and that I would not marry while in their employ. I was compelled to sign an affidavit to that effect.
“The position which I obtained seemed to me of little importance. I was reception lady in the office of a coterie of physicians, who announced themselves on gayly printed circulars as the medical staff of a certain institution, each one being a specialist in treating different afflictions. My duties required me to report at the office at 10 in the morning and remain there until 4 in the afternoon. I went along in the even tenor of my way for six months, during which time my husband was searching for employment. He came to me one day, the first time that he had been in the office since my entrance there, to tell me that he had a position offered him, but that he must acknowledge that he was married, as the gentleman who wished to employ him could not engage a single man.
“Our work was to consist of caring for an invalid who was kept in a beautiful cottage in the outskirts of the city.
“We fully considered the conditions, terms, etc., and decided to accept the trust. I gave notice to my employers that I should leave, but agreed to remain one week through courtesy. Three days before I was to leave a gentleman of middle age, one who often came to the office and held long consultations with one or two members of the staff and frequently went away with them, came out of the private office of one of the physicians and approached me, saying: ‘Much to my regret, I have just learned that you are about to leave the establishment. I have a little gift here which I wish to give you in consideration of your kind treatment of me during my many calls.’”
As the girl’s voice fell and ended in a soft monotone she drew from her bosom a little chamois pouch and took from that a ring set with a beautiful diamond.
“And this,” she said, as she touched it with her lips, while the tears which gleamed in her eyes outshone the gem itself, “this I have kept.”