Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-08-26
CHAPTER XVI.
CUTHBERT.
CO1HbEhI.
Bronzed by the sun and thin in the face


Bronzed by the sun and thin in the face.
But emaciation was the only change in
him.
And it was a change to mar nothing Of his
beauty, which, because of the ingrained ex-
preston of pensive thought, such as q man
might wear in whose heart sorrow lancuishes
but will not die, was of a nobler and truer
type than what it had been in the lighter
months before.
When man lives bitter lifetime in a
short while his face will be a mirror to re-
fleet the violent compression of experience.
By the earnest, plaintive gaze of the eve.
by the habitual fxity of the mouth, by the
unsevere resolution of feature Cuthbert ex-
planned to the shallowest sight the harshness
OF his ordeal, though its nature remained his
secret.
But to this distinctive expression which
his face had taken--stamped there by lonely
contemplation, by unutterable longings. by
helpless chafing by many fits of mental
agony, by hope fallen sick and spiritless, by
such things which do really and truly of this
life make a hell without participation of
conscience, as there are sufferers to swear
was superadded, at this time as he walked
through busy thoroughfares, a painful anx-
iety so acute as to fix upon his heart the
shadow of physical torment
With quick steps he pressed forward
glancing on his passage at every clock, until
he had crossed Blackfriars bridge. and
arrived at the famous hosiery which, in
those days, was the starting point for the
coaches to that part of the coast where
Greystone lay
Here was the coach drawn up, and pas
sengers clambering to their places, and an
other five minutes OF fog had lost the re-
turned hero night
There was room and to spare, happily; but
no time for tho hot drink which the rest
of the travellers had slowed under their
small clothes.
Vapor was still in the sky to darken it and
leaden dullness on the massive city, but
when the horses heads were down and the
wheels spinning the sky grew light and fold
after fold of fog peeled off until the blue
heaven foated clear, and then the tune of the
wind grew merry.
This coach was the Rather and famous
for good runs. At every stage did it halt
as punctually as trains at stations do now,
and for careless heart the passage was
glorious journey to make November's yell
low light upon the land, upon the hilltops a
full toned coloring that kept distant the blue
of the sky, between the ridges masses of
shadow, the brown Of loan and the dwelling
of sunshine ON green.
At eight of the evening the coach swung
through the streets of a halfway city of the
road, where some relinquished the roof for
an inn fire and bed. But Cuthbert kept
his place, so that faithfully at the hour of
twelve, by the deep voiced city clock. the
coach arrived at that ancient place whence
diverged the road to Greystone and here
Cuthbert quilted the vehicle
The suggestion of bed seemed like land
lords hooking of a restless spirit, yet TO q
bed in the Old Bell inn he betook himself,
laying urgent commands upon the host that
a postchaise should be ready for him by six.
Even an hours sleep could do him no injury,
and this he got, which relieved the veins of
his head from the fullness of the blood
poured into them by intense mental anxiety,