The Great Falls leader. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1888-1890, 1888-09-15
LOVE AND SCIENCE.


ton and disappointment. A half sigh
rose to her lips, and, with slight con
traction Of her brow that was in reality
Indicative of impatience, she drew the
curtain across the large square pane and
walked abstractedly away.
Agatha West was peculiar in some
ways. For year and half she had
been on intimate terms with John Ros-
wick, and in all that time never once had
he been in her presence without feeling q
deep sense of his own inferiority and de-
pendence. Not that she was strong
minded. No one would more quickly re-
sent such an insinuation than she. True,
she wore rimless eyeglasses, and at times
affected q severe simplicity of dress that
was decidedly becoming to her plump,
brunette beauty. Nor was Roswick an
effeminate creature. He was, however, a
man that easily lost confidence in himself
when in the presence Of the opposite sex,
and at such times was liable to become as
awkward and helpless as a badly jointed
automaton endowed with only mono
syllable power Of speech.
wealth. and possessed strong love for
years, had been spent in an elaborate
workshop fitted out in the upper part of
his house on Dousey street, where, day
after day and night after night, he ham
mered and filed and filed and hammered
at some product Of his handiwork. His
great hobby was electricity, and with the
advent of the telephone, electric lighting
and kindred inventions he became SO in
fatuated with his chosen work that he
scarcely took time to eat and sleep.
It was through this devotion to his
studies that he became acquainted with
Agatha West. Just how this was brought
about need not be detailed here, but suf-
fee 1t to say that before the summer was
gone his work began to be neglected, and
his affections were, in part, transferred to
the more complex and hopelessly confus-
ing study of womankind.
Agatha was consumed by mighty as
pirations when she left Wellesley. Her
horizon was boundless. In the valedictory,
which it was her honor to deliver, she ad-
vanced the customary platitudes regard
ing the dawning life, adown whose
shadowy vista we are now about to make
tracks, or words to similar purport. In
common with the multitude Of ladies who
each year blossom simultaneously with
the June roses into "the stern realities of
life" as they are pleased to term it,
Agatha was filed with the vague idea
that she had mission" that hence
forth this old world, largely through her
influence, was to run on different prin-
ciples. With each succeeding year, how
ever, this inner consciousness slowly died
the death of inanition, until now, at
twenty-six, little remained but mild in
terest in the arts and sciences fostered
BY her intimate associations with John
Roswick.
TO tell the truth, that evening was the
third consecutive time that Roswick had
called on Miss West with the premeditated
intention OF declaring his affection and
asking her to be his wife. For the third
time he had failed ignominiously. How
ne had managed finally to bid her good
night he had not the remotest idea A
dozen times during the evening had the
al important declaration of love risen to
MS lips, and a dozen times had that
Dreadful choking embarrassment effect
ualiy silenced his intended utterance. On
commonplace topics he had managed to
acqqit himself fairly well, but with an air
u abstraction that necessitated frequent
ap01og1es to the object of his blind worship
ln1s, then, was the reason Agatha
watched his retreating form with an air
ol vexation, and left the shadow Of the
curtain with something dangerously near
lrown on her mobile features His in.
.a1uatlon was no secret to her. To what
woman is her admirers mind as sealed
. oook! And the feeling she entertained
aoward him, long ago self acknowledged,
~ Ivy tended to make her less tolerant Of
MS prolonged silence.
20 say that John Boswick was discour.
hseo and vexed with himself would be
~ mud statement Of facts. On his
nomeward walk that night he ragged in.
wy "atuy every step Of the way, and it was
ho1 until 9 week later that his mental
T,1 TTa,lometer had risen to its normal altitude.
49, ne 3tuesoay evening following his last
;%o4p!y emphasized fasco Roswick, secure
~ .ue privacy of his own inner workshop,
bS;opped his tools for moment and gave
-sel1 MI up to profound meditation.
o,., I'm fool, and I know it!' he ex-
s.mea S;sa aloud, giving the work bench
,aeS;s ,SI!ous thqmp as he set down curious
AuK ~ machine upon which he had been
;tw ~ "ofK. whats more, Agatha knows
o,;hia ei ae continued. He called her Agatha
sy enough when unembarrassed by
;na presence. Indeed, this habit of think
s4sna s aloud had become. through circum.
1.saces, nssa, fixed one. and, as on several
a. r.es!ous occasions, he recounted the
''e9ts ~ OF their last meeting.
c,..a. can't stand this any longerl" he ex.
stamed, suddenly. 'Ill see her to.mor.
wv ~" night and have it all settled in some
ny :, lhls foolishness must be stopped.
tne-! !oeai Afraid Of . woman! And I
iites t-at least, I'm quite sure-she-sho
mns;na' me- Let me see." he continued.
iac+s "Aow can introduce the sub.
Ser S aKnow!" he ejaculated, with sud-
thsra aspiration. ''1uask her II she thinks
NJ. 49, ,ov ~ my y aanger Of sewer gas in my