The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-08-04
she knew:

lege is not doing justice to his sensations.
There is no denying that Rush was a
very attractive fellow. He was q gentle
man by birth and instinct; he was bright,
and could be very amusing. He was so
much younger than Helen that Aunt Re
becca regarded him as perfectly safe"
and Helen never thought of him as any
thing more than an agreeable boy-en-
thusiastic, and enough of q musician to
be sympathetic.
His ear for music was quite remark
able OF notes he knew little, but he
could catch an air and play it on the
piano after a few hearings. Helen
Knowlton, whose outward life was ne
cessarily more or less artificial and con-
strained, found this young fellow pleas
ant change from the men of fashion and
of the stage, by whom she was usually
surrounded. By the people of the stage
she was surrounded only at the opera
house, to be sure, but she saw enough of
them to have pretty poor opinion of
their manhood, the tenor's in particular.
Indeed, she quite shared the opinion of
big voiced basso I once knew, who, on
being asked if he didn't think certain
tenor was pretty good fellow, replied:
Eyes, as good fellow as a man can be
who sings in that cleft" No, the average
tenor is not very noble animal. He is
as whimsical as a woman, and a very
whimsical woman at that, and vain be-
yond words. don't say that there are
no exceptions to this rule, but, if there
are, they have not come under my OBJ
servation.
lam sorry to say that Rush occasion
ally dropped into song, but he sang very
unprofessionally, and his voice was
barytone. He was on such friendly re-
lations with Helen and her aunt that one
evening, when he wanted to show them
how certain Creole song went which
he had picked up from young Louisi-
anian at college, he played the strange
accompaniment on the piano and sang
the song. Helen was delighted with his
voice as well as with the song, and she
thought his style, uncultivated IS it was,
very fascinating. She complimented
him so judiciously that he was led on to
sing often, and she offered to teach him
some Scandinavian love songs she had
brought home from Europe with her.
So it will be seen that their evenings
were passed very pleasantly.
Aunt Rebecca did not like her niece to
be dragged too deep into the social whirl-
pool; she thought that her professional
life was exciting enough, and, unless
Helen had some invitation she could
not well refuse, she liked her to
pass a quiet evening at home. She
looked upon Rush as godsend, for
he was interesting enough to keep
Helen from being bored by herself, and
as he was so young and without fortune
he did not come into line with possible
suitors for her niece's hand. Rush was
very well satisfied with this arrange
ment, for itput him upon a very friendly
footing. Helen would see him when she
would not see men whom she regarded
with more favor in certain way, for
she did not feel that she had to put her
self out to entertain him. When West
Hastings referred to Rush's rather init
mate footing IN the family, she replied
that he was ''only boy" and seemed to
be very much amused that this man Of
the world should regard him with the
slightest feeling of jealousy.
"Boys are often more dangerous than
they seem to be-" he replied, with
slight scowl; for nothing annoyed him
more than to be laughed at, no matter
how gentle the laugh.
As for Helen, she soon forgot the con-
versation. She liked Rush as a COM
panion-"a nice young brother, was the
way she put it. Rush did not regard
Helen with so Platonic an affection. He
fell more deeply in love with her every
time he met her, and he was very much
afraid that he would betray himself.
Such thing as that, he knew, would be
fatal So he waited as patiently as he
could.
Constant dropping wears away a
stone" he said to himself. 81 shall hang
on and keep up my spirits as best I may.
In the meantime shall work for money
and position as no man ever worked be-
fore, and my time will come" Archie
Tillinghast, who could not but notice
Rush's devotion to Helen said to him