St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-15
THE ''LoNG RUN"

1t would be an injustice to the readers of
the GLOBE, if not to the readers of Miss
Rose Elizabeth Cleveland's summer novel,
the Long Rum" not to give the plot of
her story as nearly as possible in her own
words.
Rufus Grosbeck is writing letter"
When it is finished he throws it. ''unsealed
and unaddressed' upon the table and leaves
Their room. 1t is, perhaps. four hours be-
fore he re-enters, picks up the letter. still
unsealed and unaddreSsed"-Miss Cleve-
land is precise-it might have sealed and
addressed itself-"and puts it in his pock-
et" Then he throws on his head the hat
that lies near and walks out of the house."
Soon she is lost to the village and the vii
lage is lost to him. His path stretches be-
fore him into wide rural loneliness" In
this wide rural loneliness 'gleams the
white and green of little manse.' In the
manSe dwell the rector and his wife. one
babe, one maid, and just now, one visitor"
The visitor at the manse is Miss Long
worth from the city. she, individually,
has done nothing to make herself notorious.
except to be born and bear her name,
which latter is the notoriety, it being that
OF wealthy and aristOcratic family time
out of mind" ''She is now woman in
her thirtieS and somewhat settled in her
ways" Miss LOngworth'S visits were in
teresting to the Browns at the manse, to
the Slycombs-''for had not Miss Long
worth already had Salle to visit her at her
own home in the city and had not Sallie re-
turned thence with a certain delightful
veneer of SAVIOR faire over all her rustic
fibre, which reflected rosewood lustre on
the whole family?" and even to the poor,
miserable Woolwiches." 1t was only
Rufus Grosbeck whose interest had
been circulating about the zero
point until ten days ago. al
though it is more than year now since
Miss Longworth has been periodical visitor
at Stonewall." Singular Rufus! ''Gros-
beck himself is thinking it all over now, as,
with the letters in his pocket, he is pacing
slowly up and down the leaf-strewn path"
Unhappy Rufus! with that trick which
besets every man when conscience draws all
consciousness to the fiery focus of one time,
with it electric light of Then and There, he
is cropping up and down the lenghthened
radii, back and forth, inspecting with
needless, fruitless nicely, trying to divert
the light from that focus and so dilute its
Intensity" Rufus is having hard time
of it.
IL ID llCCCSStll w gu UdCh Will RuluS
GroSbeck lone year and some months, to
the summer of Miss Longworth's advent to
StOnewall." 1.-THE occasion is no less than
that of the annual church picnic, regular as
the summer solstice, which at this return is
graced by the presence of the guest of the
rect0r's wife" Miss Cleveland herself de-
clares that mo occasion could be contrived
on which the graceful and gracious de-.
meanor of so fine lady could find more
generous scope among the Brown and Sly
comb constituency, not emitting the miser-
able WOolwiches." The supreme moment
was at hand. ''The generous tables pre-
sent now but the lacerated remains of
prodigalitv of refreshment." Fed to reple-
ton are the Sunday school children, lone
and all."-even the miserable Wool
wiches-''and. out of their misery
for the time being. gathered laZily about
the church melodeon, which has been
cautiously removed to the grove for the
purpose of accompanying the rendition of
gospel hymns after refreshments" With
commendable sense of the fitness of things,
Miss Cleveland's publishers print the
word nursery" for ''misery'' in the fore
going sentence. The supreme moment has
arrived. ''Oh, my! here comes Mr.. Gros-
beck" cries Mrs. Brown, ''as an elderly
lady and younger man are seen to ap-
proach." Mrs. Grosbeck lis the widow of
the last rector but one and is so different
from the Stonewall people," Mr.. Gros-
beck sis her son, and so very talented and
odd" Miss Longworth at first was not in
terested in Mr.. Grosbeck. His very best
clothes never relieved him from an air of
seedy peculiarly in dress, and his efforts
at small talk were at best but a coun-
forf a;t o. 1oIi~ ,ia6
her, and although ''she seemed 10 him fee
agreeable enough to the senses of sight
and hearing" and ''there was nothing
about her to hold his attention" he could
not fail to see THAT he did not hold hers"
Eat the instant of discovery that he was
boring her with what he supposed was the
most savory pabulum that could be offered
her. his curiosity was family aroused to see
what sort of talk would interest her."
When his mother and Mrs. Brown
afforded him an opportunity to be alone
with Miss Longworth, Rufus lied the way
to little eminence where ferns waved I'M
trodden, and seated Emeline at the base of
beech tree, throwing himself down near
her," ut was not after the Longworth
lady style to go off by themselves with
strange men. and she was never seen to sit
with her back against anything"
Il am devoured with curiosity to know
how you get through the days Rufus said,
after while.
"'Ah. you have touched sore spot
there, Mr. Grosbeck,' answered Emeline,
with a sudden responsive earnestness."
After he had talked a great deal and said
nothing Grosbeck added kindly: 'sBut you
certainly cannot do any harm"
1T occurred to him that this was very
true, as he studied the aspect of this gentle
woman sitting there so easily and stroking
characterlessly and gently tie ferns which
he had been laying in her lap as they
talked. He, like all men of his nature and
habits, had no conception of the self-control
and self-reserve that goes to make up this
aspect of characterlessness. the pillow by
which the woman of the world softens all
contact with others and smothers herself"
Miss Longworth was dissatisfied with
her world. ''She had seen people who
were -bodies-in- particular, but no one
of them ever seemed to see her." She was
wearied with the consciousness of being
neutrality-suspicious. to herself or an ybody
else!n She longed to escape. 1.-The inanty
of Longworthdom had tortured her so
long" But spite of comparison, her
antenn8 are ever cropping for the wild, the
unhindered. the Free!"
Il see. Miss Longworth. But can moth
ing be done about it?" Rufus said. He did
not wait for reply, but fired Goethe at her
and then Schiller. I'VE must forge our
liberty from our letters themselves-you
and II Grosbeck was nothing if not didactic
and at home anywhere except in the COM
monplace."
Miss Emeline was pleased. ''She exult-
ingly felt sense of having at last been
recognized as woman in distinction from
Longworth." That ''you and I" grew
very big to her. ''And SO a certain con-
creteness ran already through this Unusual
Abstract, and left vague but constant i'm
preston upon her mind that between her
and this Olympian there was an under
standing, kind OF ethical tutoiment. She
was transformed. Even after Mrs. Gros-
beck claimed the attention of her son home,
she was amiable to all, never so radiant,