Rue and Roses

The lead heroine of this tale is Anna, a German woman, who has large eyes and a placid exterior. She often wears a shawl around her shoulders and sits apart from other girls, forever analyzing herself and her own states of consciousness. Her father's business is perpetually on the down-grade, and his little commercial enterprises invariably fail and leave him worse off than he was before. The mother, of course, is always on the verge of tears, because it is her painful duty to try and make both ends meet—a feat which she is eternally unable to accomplish. From one place they drift to another, and Anna's few friends of childhood are left behind, or if she sees them again they look at her askance, because her father has been in prison. And there is a brother, too, who would be a severe affliction even in the most favorable circumstances.