THE LITTLE OLD WOMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2426, 12 September 1900, Page 64

THE LITTLE OLD WOMEN.

(Condensed from the Speaker.)

They abound chiefly in great cities, the tottering .shapes of pestilence and desolation ; in the hives where youth and loveliness swarm, or else in regions sombre and solitary as themselves. They walk abroad in gloom, frightening all lonely wanderers on dark suburban highways, chilling the heart of the late passenger, in rainy streets. Clothed in formless and sodden rags, bent and crippled with miserable years, full of sliriekings and blasphemies and smouldering, relentless fires, these desperate hags, the little sisters of Satan, who retain nothing of life but a poisonous breath, of humanity but the skeleton., of sex but a bitterer impotence, are more grievous to contemplate than hovels which were palaces, than faiths decayed, or love consuming slowly with the course of days. I have met them iaauy_ times; pacing them, ah

I hurried home, long hearing their obscene

lnutterings grow gradually feebler behind me ; for not men alone are their foes : the elements are leagued against them, and their curses go forth unceasingly -whether ony hear or no. I have seen them often followed by mocking children, and watched the little throng disperse in terror when the victim turned to bay. The sight has recalled othex ages and creatures not unlike, once drowned and burned for witchcraft. But there is no mystery in their wretchedness. These were the slaves of pleasure, and are the starvelings of involuntary freedom. Their youth was entombed still living, and they grew old in graves. So now in squalid cerements they hover, cruel as vampires, near the careless similitudes of their remembered prime, and hiss their doom, with imprecations in the ears of youth ! One such abominable form I have especi-* ally in mind, the centre of -a scene which, after many years, <=till sometimes haunts my nights. It was summer ; on a glaring afternoon we were walking, not a score of miles from London, in an unfrequented wood — two friends, a very young man and a aid even younger, arrived at that crisis in a swift friendship of shy sympathy and groping confidences when inexperience first becomes self-conscious, and asks continually — is this love? She was happy, candid, and enchanting. . . . The fierceness of the sun at the opening of the glade had checked our walk : we .=at down on a green bank to rest, and both fell presently asleep. It cannot have been long — i know 1 dreamed. ... I started, aud &aw my friend ;;ai ake and staving whh frightened eyes at a horrible object that bent over her. It wps the figure, infinitely hideoi's, of a -w omai — of a woman almo&t shrunk to a child's stature. She said borne words which I did not distinguish. 7 believe I had no doubt she meant to beg. Startled fioni sleep, suddenly confronted with 'rins sinister apparition, and unnerved by the dismay of my companion, I cried to her threateningly to bsgone. The hag shrank back a .step, and seemed as if «he would creep a^ ay. Then, changing her minrl, she came nearer, and turned on us Lei verminous countenance. She cursed our youth, and all the glory and the promise of our youth — the unclouded sky, the unbounded view, the leaping heart. She cursed our eagerness, our strength, and our good fortune. She addressed the beautiful girl at my side, and foretold the intviLible wreck of her charms.

. . . She c iir.se J men, the pitilcs&ness of felicity, the selfish smile, of the unnumbered passer-by. She blasphemed, and execrated the divine justice. .

1 canot tell lioav long I listened in anguish, shuddering and fascinated, afraid to look on the face of my fellow-sufferer. At last the floAv of imprecations ceased, and the hag disappeared among the beeches. I Avas alone ; the girl had fled before the end, and I could not overtake her.

When Aye two, who had been friends, and almost lovers, met again, it Avas as if a loathsome recollection, mutely shared, became a Avail between us. We neA-er spoke

of that scene, but I am sure it was often present in our thought in the rare moments in Avhich Aye Averc afterwards together ; and chiled \is.