Lady Jane

The month was July, the weather was intensely hot, and the dusty, ill-ventilated car was closely packed with a motley crowd. Among the travelers were Texas ranchmen, cattle deal...

And now that the end of the journey was so near, the drowsy passengers began to bestir themselves. In order to look a little more presentable, dusty faces and hands were hastily...

Madame Jozain was a creole of mixed French and Spanish ancestry. She was a tall, thin woman with great, soft black eyes, a nose of the hawk type, and lips that made a narrow lin...

For a moment, madame debated on what was best to be done; then, finding herself equal to the emergency, she gently laid the unconscious woman on the bed, unfastened her dress, a...

The next morning, Madame Jozain sent Raste across the river for Dr. Debrot, for the sick woman still lay in a heavy stupor, her dull eyes partly closed, her lips parched and dry...

Every one about that part of Good Children Street knew Pepsie. She had been a cripple from infancy, and her mother, Madelon, or “Bonnie Praline,” as she was called, was also qui...

On the other side of Good Children Street, and almost directly opposite Madelon’s tiny cottage, was a double house of more pretentious appearance than those just around it. It w...

Pepsie could not remove her eyes from the house, so anxious was she to see the child again; but, instead of coming out, as she expected they would after they had looked at the h...

“We must wait,” she said to the eager and impulsive Raste, “to see if she is missed, and advertised for. A person of her position must have friends somewhere, and it would be ra...

When Pepsie first looked at Lady Jane, standing before her holding up the bird, with the light of the sunset on her yellow hair, and her lips parted in a smile that made even th...

Thus Lady Jane’s new life, in the quaint old Rue des Bons Enfants, began under quite pleasant auspices. From the moment that Pepsie, with a silent but not unrecorded vow, consti...

One bright morning in October, while Pepsie and Lady Jane were very busy over their pecans, there was a sudden rattling of wheels and jingling of cans, and Tante Modeste’s milk-...

“I don’t usually,” went on Tante Modeste, ignoring her husband’s little attempt at pleasantry; “but really, papa, this thing is running through my head constantly. It’s about th...

On the next block, above little Gex’s fruit stall, was a small cottage set close to the sidewalk, with two narrow windows covered with batten shutters that no one remembered to...

One morning Lady Jane was rewarded for her patient waiting; as usual, she was lingering on the sidewalk near the green fence, when she heard the key turn in the lock, and sudden...

On the occasion of Lady Jane’s first visit to the d’Hautreve ladies, she had been so interested in Mam’selle Diane’s works of art that she had paid no attention whatever to the...

When Mam’selle Diane joined Lady Jane in the garden, she had gained her mother’s consent to give the child a music lesson once a week. The old lady had been querulous and diffic...

“Vell, vell, my dear leetle lady,” he said, rubbing his small hands delightedly. “Vhy, you are in luck, and no mistake! To have such a teacher for the music as Mam’selle Diane d...

Christmas came and went; and whatever hopes, desires, or regrets filled the loving little heart of Lady Jane, the child kept them to herself, and was outwardly as bright and che...

One morning—it was the day before Mardi-Gras—when Lady Jane entered Pepsie’s room, instead of finding her friend engaged in her usual occupation, the table was cleared of all th...

For some time Lady Jane sat in the doorway, not knowing just what to do. She was very tired, and at first she was inclined to rest, thinking that Tiburce would come back and fin...

It was nearly dark, and the day had been very long to Pepsie, sitting alone at her window, for Madelon must remain all day and until late at night on the Rue Bourbon. A holiday,...

“Just to think,” said Pepsie to her mother, the next morning, “Madame Jozain wasn’t the least anxious last night about Lady. I don’t believe she cares for the child, or she’d ne...

It was somewhere about the time that Paichoux bought the watch when Mam’selle Diane was surprised one morning by a visit from Madame Jozain, who entered the little green gate wi...

About this time, a noticeable change took place in Madame Jozain. She did not seem nearly so self-satisfied, nor so agreeable to her customers. They remarked among themselves th...

The next day after Raste’s sudden departure, Madame Jozain sat in her doorway looking very old and worn; her face was of a settled pallor, and her eyes had a dazed, bewildered e...

Late that same afternoon, Madame Jozain was limping slowly and wearily through a narrow street at the other end of the city, miles away from Good Children Street, when she saw a...

It was Christmas Eve, and very nearly dark, when Mrs. Lanier, driving up St. Charles Avenue in her comfortable carriage quite filled with costly presents for her children, notic...

At last, when she began to feel very tired and sleepy, she came to a place where two streets seemed to run together in a long point, and before her she saw a large building, wit...

When Paichoux read of the death of Madame Jozain in the Charity Hospital, he said decidedly: “Modeste, that woman never left the city. She never went to Texas. She has been hidd...

It was a few days before the following Christmas, and Mrs. Lanier, who had just returned from Washington, was sitting alone one evening in her own pretty little parlor, when a s...

The next morning, when Margaret brought little Jane, Mrs. Lanier sent for them to come to her room, and there she heard the strange story that Paichoux had told Margaret.

There were, besides the little Laniers and Lady Jane, a dozen children or more, who had been invited to see the wonderful Christmas-tree, which Mr. and Mrs. Lanier and Arthur Ma...

In front of the iron railing where Lady Jane clung on that cold Christmas eve, peering into the warmth and light of the Orphans’ Home, there is now a beautiful little park, with...