Lilian’s Business Venture
by
Lilian Mitchell turned into the dry-goods store on Randall Street, just as Esther Miller and Ella Taylor came out. They responded coldly to her greeting and exchanged significant glances as they walked away.
Lilian’s pale face crimsoned. She was a tall, slender girl of about seventeen, and dressed in mourning. These girls had been her close friends once. But that was before the Mitchells had lost their money. Since then Lilian had been cut by many of her old chums and she felt it keenly.
The clerks in the store were busy and Lilian sat down to wait her turn. Near to her two ladies were also waiting and chatting.
“Helen wants me to let her have a birthday party,” Mrs. Saunders was saying wearily. “She has been promised it so long and I hate to disappoint the child, but our girl left last week, and I cannot possibly make all the cakes and things myself. I haven’t the time or strength, so Helen must do without her party.”
“Talking of girls,” said Mrs. Reeves impatiently, “I am almost discouraged. It is so hard to get a good all-round one. The last one I had was so saucy I had to discharge her, and the one I have now cannot make decent bread. I never had good luck with bread myself either.”
“That is Mrs. Porter’s great grievance too. It is no light task to bake bread for all those boarders. Have you made your jelly yet?”
“No. Maria cannot make it, she says, and I detest messing with jelly. But I really must see to it soon.”
At this point a saleswoman came up to Lilian, who made her small purchases and went out.
“There goes Lilian Mitchell,” said Mrs. Reeves in an undertone. “She looks very pale. They say they are dreadfully poor since Henry Mitchell died. His affairs were in a bad condition, I am told.”
“I am sorry for Mrs. Mitchell,” responded Mrs. Saunders. “She is such a sweet woman. Lilian will have to do something, I suppose, and there is so little chance for a girl here.”
Lilian, walking down the street, was wearily turning over in her mind the problems of her young existence. Her father had died the preceding spring. He had been a supposedly prosperous merchant; the Mitchells had always lived well, and Lilian was a petted and only child. Then came the shock of Henry Mitchell’s sudden death and of financial ruin. His affairs were found to be hopelessly involved; when all the debts were paid there was left only the merest pittance–barely enough for house-rent–for Lilian and her mother to live upon. They had moved into a tiny cottage in an unfashionable locality, and during the summer Lilian had tried hard to think of something to do. Mrs. Mitchell was a delicate woman, and the burden of their situation fell on Lilian’s young shoulders.
There seemed to be no place for her. She could not teach and had no particular talent in any line. There was no opening for her in Willington, which was a rather sleepy little place, and Lilian was almost in despair.
“There really doesn’t seem to be any real place in the world for me, Mother,” she said rather dolefully at the supper table. “I’ve no talent at all; it is dreadful to have been born without one. And yet I must do something, and do it soon.”
And Lilian, after she had washed up the tea dishes, went upstairs and had a good cry.
But the darkest hour, so the proverb goes, is just before the dawn, and after Lilian had had her cry out and was sitting at her window in the dusk, watching a thin new moon shining over the trees down the street, her inspiration came to her. A minute later she whirled into the tiny sitting-room where her mother was sewing.
“Mother, our fortune is made! I have an idea!”