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Kerry's sister
When
Caroline
Meeber
boarded
the
afternoon
train
for
Chicago
,
her
total
outfit
consisted
of
a
small
trunk
,
a
cheap
imitation
alligator
-
skin
satchel
,
a
small
lunch
in
a
paper
box
,
and
a
yellow
leather
snap
purse
,
containing
her
ticket
,
a
scrap
of
paper
with
her
sister
’
s
address
in
Van
Buren
Street
,
and
four
dollars
in
money
.
It
was
in
August
,
1889
.
She
was
eighteen
years
of
age
,
bright
,
timid
,
and
full
of
the
illusions
of
ignorance
and
youth
.
Whatever
touch
of
regret
at
parting
characterised
her
thoughts
,
it
was
certainly
not
for
advantages
now
being
given
up
.
A
gush
of
tears
at
her
mother
’
s
farewell
kiss
,
a
touch
in
her
throat
when
the
cars
clacked
by
the
flour
mill
where
her
father
worked
by
the
day
,
a
pathetic
sigh
as
the
familiar
green
environs
of
the
village
passed
in
review
,
and
the
threads
which
bound
her
so
lightly
to
girlhood
and
home
were
irretrievably
broken
.
To
be
sure
there
was
always
the
next
station
,
where
one
might
descend
and
return
.
There
was
the
great
city
,
bound
more
closely
by
these
very
trains
which
came
up
daily
.
Columbia
City
was
not
so
very
far
away
,
even
once
she
was
in
Chicago
.
What
,
pray
,
is
a
few
hours
—
a
few
hundred
miles
?
She
looked
at
the
little
slip
bearing
her
sister
’
s
address
and
wondered
.
She
gazed
at
the
green
landscape
,
now
passing
in
swift
review
,
until
her
swifter
thoughts
replaced
its
impression
with
vague
conjectures
of
what
Chicago
might
be
.
When
a
girl
leaves
her
home
at
eighteen
,
she
does
one
of
two
things
.
Either
she
falls
into
saving
hands
and
becomes
better
,
or
she
rapidly
assumes
the
cosmopolitan
standard
of
virtue
and
becomes
worse
.
Of
an
intermediate
balance
,
under
the
circumstances
,
there
is
no
possibility
.
The
city
has
its
cunning
wiles
,
no
less
than
the
infinitely
smaller
and
more
human
tempter
.
There
are
large
forces
which
allure
with
all
the
soulfulness
of
expression
possible
in
the
most
cultured
human
.
The
gleam
of
a
thousand
lights
is
often
as
effective
as
the
persuasive
light
in
a
wooing
and
fascinating
eye
.
Half
the
undoing
of
the
unsophisticated
and
natural
mind
is
accomplished
by
forces
wholly
superhuman
.
A
blare
of
sound
,
a
roar
of
life
,
a
vast
array
of
human
hives
,
appeal
to
the
astonished
senses
in
equivocal
terms
.
Without
a
counsellor
at
hand
to
whisper
cautious
interpretations
,
what
falsehoods
may
not
these
things
breathe
into
the
unguarded
ear
!
Unrecognised
for
what
they
are
,
their
beauty
,
like
music
,
too
often
relaxes
,
then
weakens
,
then
perverts
the
simpler
human
perceptions
.
Caroline
,
or
Sister
Carrie
,
as
she
had
been
half
affectionately
termed
by
the
family
,
was
possessed
of
a
mind
rudimentary
in
its
power
of
observation
and
analysis
.
Self
-
interest
with
her
was
high
,
but
not
strong
.
It
was
,
nevertheless
,
her
guiding
characteristic
.
Warm
with
the
fancies
of
youth
,
pretty
with
the
insipid
prettiness
of
the
formative
period
,
possessed
of
a
figure
promising
eventual
shapeliness
and
an
eye
alight
with
certain
native
intelligence
,
she
was
a
fair
example
of
the
middle
American
class
—
two
generations
removed
from
the
emigrant
.
Books
were
beyond
her
interest
—
knowledge
a
sealed
book
.
In
the
intuitive
graces
she
was
still
crude
.
She
could
scarcely
toss
her
head
gracefully
.
Her
hands
were
almost
ineffectual
.
The
feet
,
though
small
,
were
set
flatly
.
And
yet
she
was
interested
in
her
charms
,
quick
to
understand
the
keener
pleasures
of
life
,
ambitious
to
gain
in
material
things
.
A
half
-
equipped
little
knight
she
was
,
venturing
to
reconnoitre
the
mysterious
city
and
dreaming
wild
dreams
of
some
vague
,
far
-
off
supremacy
,
which
should
make
it
prey
and
subject
—
the
proper
penitent
,
grovelling
at
a
woman
’
s
slipper
.
“
That
,
”
said
a
voice
in
her
ear
,
“
is
one
of
the
prettiest
little
resorts
in
Wisconsin
.
”
“
Is
it
?
”
she
answered
nervously
.
The
train
was
just
pulling
out
of
Waukesha
.
For
some
time
she
had
been
conscious
of
a
man
behind
.
She
felt
him
observing
her
mass
of
hair
.
He
had
been
fidgetting
,
and
with
natural
intuition
she
felt
a
certain
interest
growing
in
that
quarter
.
Her
maidenly
reserve
,
and
a
certain
sense
of
what
was
conventional
under
the
circumstances
,
called
her
to
forestall
and
deny
this
familiarity
,
but
the
daring
and
magnetism
of
the
individual
,
born
of
past
experiences
and
triumphs
,
prevailed
.
She
answered
.
