Lady of the Decoration

Lady of the Decoration

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Title: Lady of the Decoration
Author: Frances Little
Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7523] [This file was first
posted on May 13, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LADY OF
THE DECORATION ***

THE LADY OF THE DECORATION
By
FRANCES LITTLE

TO ALL GOOD SISTERS, AND TO MINE IN PARTICULAR

The Lady of the Decoration

SAN FRANCISCO, July 30, 1901.
My dearest Mate:
Behold a soldier on the eve of battle! I am writing this in a stuffy little
hotel room and I don't dare stop whistling for a minute. You could
cover my courage with a postage stamp. In the morning I sail for the
Flowery Kingdom, and if the roses are waiting to strew my path it is
more than they have done here for the past few years. When the train
pulled out from home and I saw that crowd of loving, tearful faces
fading away, I believe that for a few moments I realized the actual
bitterness of death! I was leaving everything that was dear to me on
earth, and going out into the dark unknown, alone.
Of course it's for the best, the disagreeable always is. You are
responsible, my beloved cousin, and the consequences be on your head.
You thought my salvation lay in leaving Kentucky and seeking my
fortune in strange lands. Your tender sensibilities shrank from having
me exposed to the world as a young widow who is not sorry. So you
"shipped me some-wheres East of Suez" and tied me up with a four
years' contract.
But, honor bright, Mate, I don't believe in your heart you can blame me
for not being sorry! I stuck it out to the last,--faced neglect,
humiliations, and days and nights of anguish, almost losing my
self-respect in my effort to fulfil my duty. But when death suddenly put
an end to it all, God alone knows what a relief it was! And how

curiously it has all turned out! First my taking the Kindergarten course
just to please you, and to keep my mind off things that ought not to
have been. Then my sudden release from bondage, and the dreadful
manner of it, my awkward position, my dependence,--and in the midst
of it all this sudden offer to go to Japan and teach in a Mission school!
Isn't it ridiculous, Mate? Was there ever anything so absurd as my lot
being cast with a band of missionaries? I, who have never missed a
Kentucky Derby since I was old enough to know a bay from a sorrel! I
guess old Sister Fate doesn't want me to be a one part star. For eighteen
years I played pure comedy, then tragedy for seven, and now I am cast
for a character part.
Nobody will ever know what it cost me to come! All of them were so
terribly opposed to it, but it seems to me that I have spent my entire life
going against the wishes of my family. Yet I would lay down my life
for any one of them. How they have stood by me and loved me through
all my blind blunders. I'd back my mistakes against anybody else's in
the world!
Then Mate there was Jack. You know how it has always been with Jack.
When I was a little girl, on up to the time I was married, after that he
never even looked it, but just stood by me and helped me like a brick. If
it hadn't been for you and for him I should have put an end to myself
long ago. But now that I am free, Jack has begun right where he left off
seven years ago. It is all worse than useless; I am everlastingly through
with love