Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-07-11
From Harper's Monthly.
,,Auf Wifdersellell. /"

Janet was walking up the broad oaken
stairs in front of me as L made this re-
mark. She turned laughing in her low
sweet way, and leaned against the wall,
a slight figure clad all in soft dark blue,
from whose dusky lights looked out more
| fower-Iike than ever, the pure face, with
| it's dead-leaf hair and hazel eyes.
"Ought 1? Then you tell it for me,
Sylvie"
"Ah, my infant, all in good time" l
answered, | must find my, or rather
your, Prince Charming first; for what's
story, real or fictitious, without hero?'
"You might manufacture one out OF
your brain, since I am so devoid of low
ers. Couldn't you evolve one from your
inner consciousness as Hillyer says?"
"My dear, impossible. It's strange
and sad fact that since I've promised to
take Hillyer and try him for better or
worse, the divine af1iatus has left me.
Does the little god chase out the muse, |
| wonder?'
"You are very unkind, Sylvie. When
/ look like a story for one brief half
hour of my life, you refuse to utilize me
or immortalize yourself by grasping the
suspicious time. l shall be picture no
| longer"
And so we two happy, careless girls
ran UP the stairs, bright with the last
rays of May sun that streamed in
through the painted window on the land
ing We were keeping house by our
selves for week or two while mamma
was visiting in Boston, /, as q recently
acknowledged engaged girl, being con-
sidered sufficient chaperon for my
pretty friend, Janet Berne.
The little drawing-room lay half in
gloom as we entered it; through the
open windows the spring air waited in a
sense of magnolia bloom; to the west,
above the house opposite, the sun was
setting in the midst of pale pink and
primrose clouds; an organ in the street be-
meath was grinding ont brokenl y the fact
of there being "Silver Threads Among
the Gold;" light laugh or half-caught
scrap of song came in now and then,
thrown out on the gentle air from the
overbubbling of some joyous heart.
The half-ight, the keen scent of the
little pine fire that it was Janet's fancy
to keep lighted on the hearth through
all seasons, because it was so companion
able, the odor of the coffee ready served
for us in dainty .taience cups, the slow
waiting to and fro of the light draperies
at the windows, stand out to me now as
wildly from the fair days that are dead
as they did then when that was present
and this future.
Janet seated herself on the low
window-seat, the primrose sky making a
fine setting for her little head, [, in the
easiest of lounging chairs, slipped my
| coffee and wondered when my lover
would appear
"Some one ought to come in now,
Janet-some one that you have not seen
for years-and be captivated, fascinated
by your pretty face in the gloaming,"
| said [, still harping on the old subject;
for one of my characteristics is the ten
acity with which I cling to an idea or
argument, and ring out the changes
| thereon increasingly.
Janet laughed. " And who should
| come, since | have known no one that
has gone away, except one, and he can
never come back this side the grave.
"Janet, you have story and never
told it to mew I said, severely els
this fair or just, [ ask, since from the
| very smallest beginning of Hillyers and
my romance you have known all?"
cts such morsel of story" she
said, apologetically; and it scarcely
had any real beginning, and can never
have any ending"
'sThen it must be all middle; and as
beginnings and endings are the meanest
of all things, it must be all nice. Let
me hear it, Janet at once"
So sitting with her back to the pale
light, her pretty figure half shaded by
the muslin curtains, my little Janet told
her summer story.
"You remember, dear, last spring,
during the Franco-German war, / went
abroad with George and Dora Well, it
all happened then. We were quite a
large party, for besides our number of
| three there were Maggie and Edith
Griffith, and their two brothers, Jack
and Frank.
| We were to spend the summer abroad,
wandering wherever we liked, dawdling
a day here and day there, altering our
plans as soon as we made them, each
| having Our own pet route, and each
arguing with the other concerning it.
| and all OF us combining to drive George,
our supposed captain, distracted with our
| squabbling; but it was all good-natured
| squabbling, and we got good bit of fun
out of it.
l am sure you know, too, that at that
time Jack chose to consider himself
engaged to me, and [ .taute de mieur, and
becaused he was such dear, jolly boy,
with the kindest heart in the world, let
him keep on thinking SO.
| We went through England, posting as
much as we could, stopping at all the
cathedral towns or villages that had
pretty names and prettier bits of scenery.
In this way we reached London one fine
warm June evening. We had taken the
coach from Virginia Water to please me,
who had never before beheld one, and to
whom it seemed untold bliss to occupy
the box seat shall never forget that
delicious drive. June evenings are
lovely anywhere, but above all so in
England, where every roadside is
crowded with sweet wild flowers. and
every stone wall has back of it a carpet
OF freshest green Swallowed by darker
Foil Il, L.