Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1881-09-22
A MAN-HATER.

THAT girl?'
Leslie Morgan turned to his compan-
ion with a prolonged stare Of incrednli-
ty.
II tell you it is true" persisted his
informer. "Wilna Barrinton is known
as man-hater; to have heart imper-
vious to all offers of hand and for
tune; dosent look like it, does she ?"
with musing glance in the direction
Indicated "she is not the child she
seems, though look at her, Leslie;
how old do you take her for2"
Leslie Murdoch looked.
He saw little, rounded, babyish
figure, petite to childness, robed in a
creamy white lace falling over a short,
white satin petticoat, two tiny slipper
ed feet, the full, perfect, pearl-white
arms, the supple, dainty. dimpled
hands were decorated with an ornament
of no sort, and the face as coldly white
as the face of the sleeping dead, was
lighted by pair of scornful, vel
yety, pansy purple eyes that never
smiled. The straight, decisive lips
were ripe with scarlet sweetness, but a
world of hooking sarcasm fingered
about them that contradicted the child
ish face and form; the bronze, waving
hair. in whose cleaning threads so
many lives lay tangled, curled softly
about the blue veined temples aud
broad and white forehead. and was
knotted in heavy braids at the back of
the graceful head with translucent
pearl arrow.
Leslie Murdoch drew quick breath,
with his very heart on his lips.
Eighteen, perhaps" he said, at last,
possibly twenty
"Sne is twentyseven, said Ralph
Henderson, land she hates the whole
race of man with desperate tierceness.
She never smiles; no one ever provokes
CLEAN OF sunshine in her perfect face;
no one knows her story, but it is guessed
that some one long since broke her
heart"
Course him Leslie ground his teeth
Us he breathed the words, and Ralph
Henderson looked at him in astonish-
ment.
"You, too?" he questioned, the least
trihe sarcastically.
''No, no." Leslie Murdoch was him
self again, easy, gracious, self-posessed;
"but Ralph, it makes my blood boil to
see such injustice as is revealed to me
each day, as l penetrate society Sc
Irets.
GOOD Prince Greatheart," said
Ralph, smiling, I'm glad some one
cares. Shall l present you to the
princess p and with more interest than
he was wont to show, this world-weary
man of thirty-five, upon whose brow
and upon whose heart sorrow had laid
the chilly fingers, and threaded the lux
uriant black curls about the temples
with silver, followed him.
wilma Barrinton rose with the per-
feet grace and courtesy of which she
was mistress without glow of conscl-
uousness that she was receiving the de-
ferential sautation of the lion of the
evening, q man widely known IN the
outer world, and whose arrival had Gre
ated no little sensation.
Apparently she had not the slightest
conception Of his greatness, but there
was no pique or constraint IN Leslie
Murdock's manner. His was a nature
so grand and true, so broad and sunny,
so warm and tender, that all the Hattery
and sophistry of an admiring world
had failed to sway his majestic intellect
or turn from its perfect poise his manly
makeup.
He felt an interest for which he could
not account In this strange, girlish WON
an, whose beautiful eyes met his with
steadines and keenness that almos
disconnected him; whose conversation
sparkled with little CLEANS of wound
ing wit and cutting sarcasm; whose SLOW
velvety voice held an under-tone O
knocking sadness, and whose breadth
Gnd power of intellect amazed and en-
ehanted him.
1t was new, and Leslie Murdoch like
it. He had grown amusedly weary o
women who fluttered under his slight
est word and tone. He noticed, in
panied way, that no smile ever curved
the set, decisive lips, even during he
most brilliant repartee, and sunny
ganclng mirth. Evidently she talke'
because she was society's queen, and i
demanded obedience and Difference Il
itS edlcts, and Leslie Murdock's heart
which all these years of contact with tn
world had failed to make aught but ten
aer 10 the sufferings of its weary ones
ached for her.
lhe sudden resolve to be her frien,
spfang up within him. "If she will lie
me, be told himself, for there wa
nothing in the icy dem eanor to indicat
mat she was friendless.
The summer days fitted by like sun
beams, each more perfect than the pre-
ceding.
Leslie saw wilma Barrinton daily