Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-12-04
The WIFE OF HERBERT AYMES
PENNOYER.


''What faded, wistful face! Who
is she, Marionp
''She! O.! That is the wife of
Herbert Agnes Pennoyeri"
There was that in the tone of the
far speaker which betrayed good
deal of contempt mingled with an en-
joyable consciousness of having made
an astounding announcement.
Helen was silent moment. "Your
lion of last evening! But I did not
notice the wife"
"You are net at all singular in that
respect. Nobody ever GOES notice her.
But she was not there"
Had she been, should have seen
her," Helen responded, quietly.
"You are SO queer, Aunt Helenl"
smiled Marion indulgently. She
could afford to be indulgent toward
the caprices of her lovely young aunt,
who was not only an helress but was
Marion's senior by only four years.
''Such a PITY Fancy man Of his
talents and possibilities linked to that
lump of animate clayl L gives one
faith in the divorce laws of the coun-
try"
Helen did not reply at once and
they passed on.
Under the ash tree that waved it's
fernlike leaves and scarlet berries
above her head the wife of Herbert
Aymes Pennoyer couched lower on
the dingy green bench. Marion
Chisholm's clear, contemptuous,
penetrating voice cut the hazy air like
a knife-thrust, and sank deep into
Mary Pennoyer's sensitive heart. She
knew well enough that she was faded,
and plain, uninteresting in every
way, but O, the bitterness of hearing
the truth in that girls scorEful incis-
i've tonesl
She sat quite still among the tremul-
Gus greenery of her hazy nook,
through which the rays of an autumn
sun filtered pleasantly. There may
have been many idlers riding, driv-
ing, sauntering in the little park !;
there may have been none. Back
through the vistas of dimly-remem-
bered years, step by step, she CROPPED
her way.
Was it eight years ago or ten-but
no matter-when Herbert had been
only the editor of a little country
weekly with ''patent inside" and an
external area largely devoted to APP
peals, thinly yelled with sportiveness,
to delinquent subscribers? They had
often been glad to take load of wood.
not very we'll seasoned either, ION
account" or bestow So worth of ad-
vertising upon Farmer Perkins for
the consideration of mammoth
pumpkin or a half bushel O. Early
Rose potatoes. But Herbert had al
ways chafed under the CALLING restric-
tions of local paper, ard scorned to
bend the power of his giant intellect
to a description of the new roof of
Widow Johnson's woodshed, or waste
the brilliance OF his mental imagery
in delineating the leading features of
Bivins 81 Sons new delivery wagon.
So he took to writing lies, as bluff
old Father Pennoyer called them
and one day, finding himself, if not
famous, at least in some demand as a
professional prevaricator, flung the
editorial shears and paste pot into the
furthest corner and cut loose forever
vccate, which had never been con-
spicuous in advocating anything I'M
less it was the payment Of past-due
Subscriptions. Then he moved to
A, where his talents might have
room to expand; or, perhaps, it would
be more correct to say, where he could
find better market for the result of
their expansion; but we will not be
particular about little thing like that
Mrs. Pennoyer was not.
Well, his talents had expanded.
That lovely lady in pale, shimmering
silk and lace had called him Lion. .
Mrs. Herbert Ames Pennoyer did not
exactly understand the application,
but she knew her husband was court
ed and fatterea wherever he went,
and that his dress-coat had become
almest fixture upon his back of late.
She knew that the Chisholms, mother
and daughter, were of the best society
and that Herbert was welcome ane
frequent guest at their artistic home.
Mrs. Herbert Ames Pennoyer was
sometimes invited and sometimes not
the former being invariably an occas
ional formal dinner party, which she
soon discovered was attended by 8
nightmare both physical and mental
as an inseparable adjunct. Little re
ceptions, cozy teas and theatre parties
constituted the sometimes not, show
ing plainly that Mrs. Herbert Ayme:
Pennoyer was credited with the pos