Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1885-01-08
HIS LIES ONE HOLIDAY.

Huntingdon Wayne was thirty-H FIVE
and had meier yet been in love. He
had worked hard and well and had
made q fortune which even he felt
would enable him TO marry without be-
ing recklesslv imprudent, and he began
TO think it was time to decide upon q
vito who would satisfy his somewhat
fastidious requirements. She must be
of a stately and noble presence-Wayne
had rather an idea of a fine woman not
to- young nor too emotional; Wayne
was q person who hated scenes jim
short, she was TO be a woman made "a
order, and he found it more difficult to
discover her than he had at first u D
posed.
1T was with a feeling Of something as
akin to failure as his well regulated
mind ever INDUCED in that he ordered
his portmanteau packed for a fort.
hight's visit to Newton-on-S Sea, and tore
himself away from the f~ascinations Of
club and office life to pay a long prom
Used visit to his old friend, DIR. Mar,
shall. He had seen nothing of the Mar
shalls for years past, though there was
q tie of old associations between them.
and even something of sadder interest.
Five years ago when Wayna's uncle of.
fered him q berth in the tea business.
of which he was now the head, he ex-
tended a like offer to Huntingdon's
younger brother, Jack; but Jack. al
ways something of a hot-headed fellow.
took offense at some word or deed of
his elders, and refused the offer. Sooi.
after he took some post on the east
coast of Africa, and went out with high
hopes of the fortune ne was 10 bring
back and lay at Hetty Marshall's feet.
Huntingdon heard Of the engagement
with some contempt, for the folly which
possessed two young people without a
penny; but when, three years later,
news came of poor Jacks death out in
Zanzibar, the little bride that was to
have been passed out of his mind, and
it vas only when an invitation came 10
him from the Marshalls, who were Of
Newton-on-Sea for Hetty's health, that
the thought of her existence crossed
him again.
He had not even seer her since she
was a little child in pinafores, and when
lac was brought up. on the evening he
arrived, to the side OF a crimson ham
mock swung between two tall pine trees,
and introduced to a slight, pale girl,
whose great blue eyes were raised ia
his with a pathetic gentleness and
sweetness, a feeling such as in all his
thirty i've years of sensible life he had
never before experienced shot through
him with q thrill Of wonder, and al
most bewIlderment. He took in his
own the small, fragile, white fingers,
and then laid them down almost reyer.
entity OF the soft customs amid which
she lay.
l suppose il any one had asked him
then and there whether he believed IN
love at first sight, he would have an
swered as CONTEMPORARY as ever: and
yet, for all that. he was as deep in love
rs ever man yet fell at one blow. He
told himself 1T was q pity-a pity that
only grew as the days passed by, and
he saw how frail and delicate a creature
her great trouble of two years had left
her, it seemed to him it was his duty to
try and atone to her for all the suffering
and loss she had undergone; as if his
life ought to make up TO her for Jacks
death, somehow. Strange, that duty
had never had sucha zest and a pleasure
in 10 before.
She was a thing so new to his ex.
perience, with her pleading blue eyes
her soft little ways, and the pathos that
hung about all hat she did and said.
Wayne used TO sit and watch her fur.
lively, as if she were a creature of SOM
unknown race.
Three days after that first evening
and the hammock, the ideal "fine WON.
an" had died out OF his mind, never tc
return, and before the week was over,
he had said to himself-he, the practi.
cal, cool headed, Huntingdon Wayne
that life without little Hetty would be-
hardly worth the living, and that he
must have her for his own, or die
Practical common sensical men often
take the hardest form of the disease
called love.
He spoke to DIR. Marshall before The
middle of the second week, and asked
his consent TO win Hetty. The doctor lis
tened with a good deal of surprise, bui
no appearance Of displeasure. and wher
WAYNE had finished, he grasped hin
heartily by the hand.
"My dear fellow" he said with some.
thing between a smile and a sigh, "yor
have my heartiest consent and my best
wishes, il you can get HettJ
to say Yes You are almost 1
part Of poor Jack, and there's nj
n else, I should so gladly call my
son.. OF course it all rests with Het
ty; but l know she does not dislike you
and you must trust to time for the rest
Love such as she gave poor Jack, per
haps the same never gives twice
over; but there's no reason why she
shouldn't love you we'll and make you
good wife. The grief cf twoyears bach
is passing await is more the physical
state left by the shock of that TINA that
wears on her now. Perhaps she viii
never be very robust, but you will take
good care of her I'm certain"
"She shall be strong again, please
God, il l a make her so by my devo'
tion," said Huntingdon, while a vision
of u~nspeakable happiness danced before
his minds eyes-a white yacht
cruising among smiling islands in .
summer sea, seeking health for hei
who was Its queen.
I'm leave the business 10 look after
itself" he thought, with a glow OF rap
ture, "and travel round the world with
her till the color comes back to her pale
face, and the light to her eyes yes
and the happiness to her heart"
So the fortnight wore away, and an.
other was well nigh gone, and YET
Wayne fingered at Newton-on-Sea. He
was never away from Hetty's side; hs
fetched and carried for her Ikea dog
he was a slave to her every wish. DIR
and Mrs. Marshall regarded him will
undisgnised favor. Tom, the enfant
terrible OF the family, voted him me
end jolly" and Hetty-Hetty liked hin
well; her eyes frightened whsn he cams
she missed him when he was away; he
was so thoughtful, so kind, so good, nc
enc could help being fond of him.
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