The South was impoverished, and while a remunerative trade might be built up from it, patient and exceedingly aggressive labor would be required to secure such a result.  It is the curse of opium, however, to paralyze energy, and to render all effort fitful and uncertain.  He should have written scores of letters daily, and attended to each commission with the utmost promptness and care, but there were times when the writing of a single letter was a burden, and too often it was vague and pointless like the condition of his mind when it was written.  Mildred did not dream of this, and his employers felt that they must give him time before expecting very much return for his effort.  Since he attended to routine duties fairly well there was no cause for complaint, although something in his manner often puzzled them a little.  It was Mildred’s belief that renewed prosperity would soon enable them to live in a way entitling them to recognition in the society to which Arnold belonged.  If thus much could be accomplished she felt that he own and her lover’s faithfulness would accomplish the rest.  They were both young, and could afford to wait.

“The world brings changes for the better sometimes,” she thought, as she plied her needle, “as well as for the worse; and no matter what his proud mother thinks, I’m sure I could take better care of him than she can.  Whether they know it or not, the course of his family toward him is one of cold-blooded cruelty and repression.  If he could live in a genial, sunny atmosphere of freedom, affection, and respect, his manhood would assert itself, he would grow stronger, and might do as much in his way as Roger Atwood ever can in his.  He has a fine mind and a brilliant imagination; but he is chilled, imbittered, and fettered by being constantly reminded of his weakness and dependence; and now positive unhappiness is added to his other misfortunes, although I think my little note will do him no harm”—­she dreamed that it might be carried next to his heart instead of mouldering where the faithless Jotham had dropped it.  “I shall not punish him for his family’s harsh pride, from which he suffers even more than I do.  Turn, turn, fortune’s wheel!  We are down now, but that only proves that we must soon come up again.  Being poor and living in a tenement isn’t so dreadful as I feared, and we can stand it for a while.  As stout Mrs. Wheaton says, ’There’s vorse troubles hin the vorld.’  Now that we know and have faced the worst we can turn our hopes and thoughts toward the best.”

Poor child!  It was well the future was veiled.

The mode of Belle’s activity was a problem, but that incipient young woman practically decided it herself.  She was outspoken in her preference.

“I don’t want to work cooped up at home,” she said.  “I’d go wild if I had to sit and stitch all day.  School half killed me, although there was always some excitement to be had in breaking the rules.”