brandy and vinegar and
water and chafing poor Miss Mary's wrists.
Miss Mary slowly opened her mild eyes. Anna sent the weeping little
Jane out of the room. She herself managed to get Miss Mary quiet on
the couch.
There was never a word more said about blue dressings.
Anna had conquered, and a few days later little Jane gave her a green
parrot to make peace.
For six more years little Jane and Anna lived in the same house. They
were careful and respectful to each other to the end.
Anna liked the parrot very well. She was fond of cats too and of
horses, but best of all animals she loved the dog and best of all
dogs, little Baby, the first gift from her friend, the widow Mrs.
Lehntman.
The widow Mrs. Lehntman was the romance in Anna's life.
Anna met her first at the house of her half brother, the baker, who
had known the late Mr. Lehntman, a small grocer, very well.
Mrs. Lehntman had been for many years a midwife. Since her husband's
death she had herself and two young children to support.
Mrs. Lehntman was a good looking woman. She had a plump well rounded
body, clear olive skin, bright dark eyes and crisp black curling
hair. She was pleasant, magnetic, efficient and good. She was very
attractive, very generous and very amiable.
She was a few years older than our good Anna, who was soon entirely
subdued by her magnetic, sympathetic charm.
Mrs. Lehntman in her work loved best to deliver young girls who were
in trouble. She would take these into her own house and care for them
in secret, till they could guiltlessly go home or back to work, and
then slowly pay her the money for their care. And so through this new
friend Anna led a wider and more entertaining life, and often she used
up her savings in helping Mrs. Lehntman through those times when she
was giving very much more than she got.
It was through Mrs. Lehntman that Anna met Dr. Shonjen who employed
her when at last it had to be that she must go away from her Miss Mary
Wadsmith.
During the last years with her Miss Mary, Anna's health was very bad,
as indeed it always was from that time on until the end of her strong
life.
Anna was a medium sized, thin, hard working, worrying woman.
She had always had bad headaches and now they came more often and more
wearing.
Her face grew thin, more bony and more worn, her skin stained itself
pale yellow, as it does with working sickly women, and the clear blue
of her eyes went pale.
Her back
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