Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-08-28
From all the Year Round.
CHANCE OR FATE.

Cumn afternoon.
The railway station at one of our most
popular watering places was not so
crowded but that the noisy mirth of a
group of Yachting men, assembled to
take leave of one of.their number, at
tracted considerable attention among
the passengers, porters and loiterers
collected on the platform.
In one instance this notice was who'll
iy of a condemnatory kind.
Opposite the spot where the young
men stood a gentleman sat alone in a
first class compartment, from the win
dow of which he cast frequent glances
of contempt and disapproyal at the loud
voiced men outside.
These last were typical Englishmen;
four tall, weli-built young fellows, with
fair skins burnt red or copper-color,
gathered round a fifth, still taller than
haired giant, with a fine figure that was
beginning to tend toward stoutness, a
good-looking, red face, and a manner
that WAS at once genial, didactlc and
seif-assertive.
Whether from instinct, or from the
fact that he was Numerically opposed
in type to this particular individual, the
solitary traveller before referred to took
an especial dislike to this ponderous iair
man.
"Great bumptious brute ~ he said to
himself. Fancy being married to such
a man !"
With this second reflection, the blood
rushed to his sensitive, dark face.
He was rather under than over the
middle height, with a slight boyish-
looking figure, a face rather interesting
than handsome, and delicate, restless
hands, with which he necessarily
stroked his mustache. His nerves
were strained to their utmost tension;
doubt, uncertainty, pity and passionate
love were blended in his mind with
great desire for solitude; and in this
phase of nerve tension. the noisy laugh
ter Of those four bronzed yachting men,
and the self-complacent platitudes Of
the fifth, irritated our traveller almost
beyond endurance.
Suddenly the door Of his compart-
ment was burst open. The yellow
haired man jumped IN, directed por-
ter where to place his portmanteau, in
deep bass voice, suitable to his large
frame, tossed the man sixpence with an
air Of princely patronage, then ratified
down the window, and leaned out for
few valedictory words to his friends.
81 shan't go northWard until to-mor-
row." he observed.
at which there was laughing chorus
of:
Tomorrow, Teddy?"
We'll, they don't expect me yet" he
went on, smiling with radiant, superb
or calm. 81 say, boys, we really have
had most excellent time together"
''Pity you didn't keep up that diary
Might have interested them at home,"
suggested one OF the four.
You might compile an amended
edition IN your spare time in London,
Gilpin p put in another.
81 can't make You boys believe it; but
/ shall only stay IN town long enough to
see my lawyer"
to the bosom Of your family. We know
G;lpin."
And, afterWard," the big man went
on. lmperturbably, 81 shall perma-
nently settle down in the North and put
together my experiences into book
1orm."
The train was moving off by this time
The tour yachting men ran alongside Of
it, waving noisy good-byes until it
steamed more quickly out of the sta
ton; and the fair man, after repeatedly
nodding to his friends, sank heavily in
TO a seat and gazed around him with an
air OF patronlzing benevolence.
He evidently wanted to talk, and
what was more, he meant to.
First, he asked concerning the win
dows, whether his travelling companion
minded having them down; next, he
grew discursive on the fact that it was
not smoking compartment, but that
he meant to smoke. After which, OBJ
serving with a genial smile and North
Country infection:
Eth. but it's good to be in England
again. he stretched out his feet across
the seat opposite, took several whiffs at
his pipe and pre- pared himself for con-
versation.
1t was in vain that the other man shut
his eyes. opened them with stony
glare, took out letters to read, or affect
ed to be absorbed in making calcula-
tons in his note book. "Teddy" was re-
solved to talk and was soon in the mid
die of slowly delivered description of
the perils of one Of his last Yachting
excursions. and Of the heroic bravery
he himself had displayed therein
Getting used to the deep, monotonous
voice, his tellOWtraVeleTs Thoughts
went off on their usual journey. His
eyes were fixed on the cushion facing
him; but his mind conjured up the Wis
ion of a woman with soft brown eyes
full of sadness, voice like the sweetest
notes of a violin, and touch so charged
with magnetism that bis very soul
seemed to culver at the memory of it.
He was on his way to her; and once
IN her presence he would scatter her
objections, her protestations, to the
winds, by the force of his passionate
pleading. She was miserable, misun-
derstood and neglected; eating her
heart out among dreary and uneympa-
thetlc surroundings. For four years she
had been beating her wings against the
coolest and dulleet of cages; and he
WAS on his way now to set her free 1t
would be an injustice to her for him to
listen to her circumstances, and