Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-12-20
CHAPTER vi.
THE AWAKENING.

oil his life of shallow aimiessness stirred
Harry Glcn's bosom us he turned away from
the door which Rachel Bond closed behind
her with a decisive promptness that chorded
well with her resolute composurc during the
interview.
This blow fell much moro heavily than any
that had preceded 1t, because it descended
from the towering height to which he had
raised his expectations Of an ardent greeting
from loving girl, eagerly watching for his
return.
As was to be expected from one of his
nature, he forgot entirely his nominations
upon the ACCESSIBILITY OF discariins her, and
the difficulty he experienced in dcvising q
plan whereby this could be done easily and
gracefully. He only thought OF himself as
the blameless victim of woman's fickleness.
The bitter things he had read and heard of
the sex's Inconsistency rose in his mind, as
acrid bile sometimes ascenls in ones throat
Here he said to himself, SIS an instance
of feminine periidy equal to anything
that Byron ever sneered at This girl
who was SO proud to receive my at
tentions a little while ago, and who so
gladly accepted me for her promised hus-
band, now turns away at the slightest cloud
of disapproval falling upon me- And to
think, too, how | have given her all my
heart, and layished upon her love as deep
and true as ever a man gave woman
He stopped for moment and gazed at the
old apple tree, under which they had stood
when
Their spirits rushed together at the meeting OF
their lips.
But its raiment of odorous blossoms was
gone. Instead, it bore a load OF shapeless.
sour, unripened fruit. Instead of the freshly
springing grass at its foot was now coarse
stubble. Instead of the delicately sweet
breath of violets and fruit blooms scenting
the evening dir came the heavy, persistent
perfume of tube roses, and the mawkish scent
of gaudy poppies
Bah, it smells like funeral he said. and
he turned away and walked slowly down the
hill. aAnd it is one. Ny heart and all INV
hopes lie buried at the foot of that old apple
tree
1t had been suggested that much of the
sympathy we lavish upon martyrs is wanton
waste, because to many minds, il not in fact
to all, there is positive pleasure i'm consider
ones self a martyr. More absolute truth is
contained in this than appears at the first
blush. There are very few who do not roll
u
lief that their superior goodness or generos-
ity has brought them trouble and affection
from envious and wicked interiors.
So the honey that mingled with the gall
and hyssop of Harry Glen's humiliation was
the martyr feeling that his hottest affections
had been ruthlessly trampled upon by a cold
hearted woman. His desultory readings Of
Byron furnished his imagination with all the
woeful suits and trappings necessary to trick
himself out Us melancholy hero
On his way home he had to pass the prin-
cipal hotel in the place, the front of which,
ON summer evenings, was the Sardis forum
for the discussion of national politics and
local gossip. As he approached quietly along
the grassy walk, he overheard his own name
used. He stepped back into the shadow of a
large maple and listened.
"Yes, / seen him as he got off the train,n
said Nels Hathaway, big, fat, lazy, and the
most inveterate male gossip in the village.
And be is looking mighty weli-yes, mighty
well. l said to Tim Botkins, here, what a
wonderful constitution Harry Glen has, to be
sure, to stand the hardships of the field so
well'n
The sarcasm was SO evident that Harry,s
blood secthed. The Tim Botkins alluded to
10,
cynic and wit of the village, "apt apprecia-
TONS artful aid" Red-haired, soft-eyed.
moon-faced, round of belly and Emphatic OF
temperament, his principal occupation in life
was to play a fiddle in the Sardis string band,
and i'll the intervals of professional engage
ments at dances and picnics to fill one of the
large splint- bottomcd chairs in front of the
hotel with his PUPPY form, and receive the
smart or hitfpr snyipuc of tho loupua,. tl,a~,,
with laugh that began before any one elses
and lasted after tine others had gotten through.
His laugh alone was as good as that of all the
rest of the crowd. 1t was not a hearty. reso-
nant laugh, like that from the mouth of a
strong-lunged, wholesome natured man, which
has the mellow roundness of a solo on a
French horn. 1t was slovenly, greasy, con-
victionless laugh, with uncertain tones and
ill-dened edges. Its effect was due to its
volume, readiness and long continuance.
Swelling up of the puffy form, and reddening
ripples of the broad face heralded it; it began
with contagious cackle, 1T deepened into a
fabby guffaw, and after all the others round
about had finished their cachinnatory tribute
it wound up with what was between roar
and the lazy drone of bagpipe.
1t now rewarded Ncls Hathaway's irony,
and the rest of the loungers joined in En-
couraged, Nels continued, as its last echoes
died away:
"fes, he's just as spry and peart as any
body. He seems to have recovered entirely
from all his wounds; none of 'em have dis
figgered him any, and his nerves have got
over their terrible strain"
Tim ran promptly through all the notes in
his diapason, and the rest joined in on the
middle register.
I'D give six bits" Hathaway said, ito
know how the meeting between him and
Rachel Bond passes off. He's gone up to the
house. The boys seen him. all dressed ND in
his best. But his finery and his perfumed
handkerchief won't count anything with her
l can tell You. She comes of fighting stock.
If ever woman did The Bonds and Har-
ringtons-her mothers people--arc game
breeds, both Of em, and stand right on their
record every time. She'll have precious lit
tie traffic with white feathered fellow. /
think she's been preparing for him the coolest
shoulder any young Teller in Sardis has got
for many long day.
There was nothing very funny in this
speech, but a good deal of risible matter had
accumulated in Tins diaphragm during its
delivery which he had to get rid Of, and be
did
Harry had heard enough While Tins
laugh yet resounded he walked away UNI
noticed, and tnking n roundabout course
gained his room. There he remained a week
hardly coming down 10 his meals. 1t was a
terrible week to him, for every waking hour
of it he walked through the valley of humil-
iation, and drank the bitter waters of shame
The joints of his hitherto impenetrable
nrmor OF self-conceit had been so pierced by
the fine rapicr thrusts of Rachei's scorn that
it fell from him under the coarse pounding of
the village loungers and left him naked and
defenseless to their blows Every nerve and
sense achcd with acute pain. He now felt all
of his fathers humiliation, all his mothers
querulous sorrow, all his betrothed's an
guish and ahasement
Thoughts of suicide, and of flying to some
psrt of the country where he was entirely
unknown, crowded upon him necessarily.
But with that perversity that nature SEEM
ingly delights in, there had arisen in his heart
since he had lost her such a love for Rachel
Bond as made life without her, or without
her esteem even, seem valueless. To go into
a strange part of the country and begin life
anew would be to give her up forever, and
this he could not do. It would be much pref
cradle to die demonstrating that be was in
some degree worthy of her And latent
manly pride awakened and came to his assist
ance. He could not be the son of his proud,
iron-willed father without some transmission
of that sire's courageous qualities. He formed
his resolution: He would stay in Sardis and
recover his honor where he had lost it,
At the end of tho week be heard the drums
beat, the cannon fire, and the people cheer.
The couipany had come home and was
marching proudly down the street to vel