Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-02-09
MISS BRETHDRTON|
By MRS. HUMPHREY WARD.

By MRS. HUMPHREY WARD, ever, at last tho n,onotony of the Eretat costmarils was broken by post card from Lyons We are hero for the night oa some
 business of Paurs; tomorrow VIC hope to bc nt Turin, and two three days later at Venice. By the way, where will the Brother tons be! I must trust to my native wits. l suppose, when l get there. She is not the sort of light to be hidden under bushel.' This post card disturbed Kendall not q little, and he felt irritably that somebody had Elismanaged matters. He had supposed and indeed suggested, that Miss Brctherton should inclose his note in one of her own to his sisters Paris address, giving, at the same time, some indication of place Of meeting in Venice. But if she had not donc this, it WAS very r"~v;hle that the two women might miss each c,---r after all Sometimes, %.len he had been coute !! plating this possibility with disgust, he "ould, with great effort, make himself reflect why it was that he cared about the matter so disproportionately. Why was he so deeply interested ill Isabel Bretherton's movements abroad and in the meeting which would bring her, so to speak, once more into his own world! Whyf be- cause it was impossible, he would answer himself indignantly, not to feel q lrotouud interest in any woman who had ever shared as much emotion with you as she had with him in those moments at Nurehar, who had received a wound at your hands, had wi,ced under it and still had remained gracious and kind and womanlyl II should be a hard hearted brute," he said to himself, Eff did rot feel q very deep and peculiar interest iii her-if 1 did not desire that Maric's friend ship should abundantly make up to her for my blundering!"
 Did he ever really deceive himself into i'm ngining that this was all! It is difficult to say. The mind of u man no longer young, and trained ill all the subtleties of thought, does not deal with an invading sentiment exactly as youth would do with all his ex- perience to come It steals upon him more slowly, he is capable of disguising it to him, self longer, of escaping from it into other in- tercsts. Passion is in its ultimate essence the same, wherever it appears and under what ever conditions, but it possesses itself Of human life ill different ways Slowly ani certainly the old primeval fire, the con- monest, fatalest, divnest force of life, was making it's way into kendars nature. But it was making its way against antagonistic forces Of habit, tradition, self restraint--it found a hundred other interests in possession; it had Q strange impersonality and timidity of nature to fight with. Kendall had been ac- custoned to live in other mens lives. Was lie only just beginning to live his own!
 But, however it was, he was at least con- scious during this waiting time that life was full of some hidden savor; that his thoughts were never idle, never vacant; that, as he lay flat among'the fern in his moments of rest, following the march of the clouds as they sailed divinely over the rich breadth and color of the commons, a whole brood of inn ages nestled at his heart, or seemed to hover in the sunny air before hm-visions of q slender form fashioned with Greek suppleness aud majesty, of u soft and radiant presence of looks all womanliness, and gestures all grace, of a smile like no other he had ever seen for charm, of a quick, impulsive gait! He followed that figure through scene after scene; he saw primroseS ill it's hand and the pale spring blue above it; he recalled it stand ing tense and still with blanched cheek and fixed appealing eye. while all round the June woods murmured in the breeze; he sur rounded it in imagination with the pomp and circumstance of the stage, and realized 1t as O center of emotion to thousands. And then from memories be would pass on to speculations, from the scenes he knew to those he could only guess at, from the life of which he had seen little to tho larger and unex- plored life beyond.
 And so the days went 6a, and though he was impatient and restless, yet indoors his work was congenial to him, and out of doors tho sun was bright and all the while a certain little god lay hidden, speaking no articulate word, but waiting with Q miSchievous pa tience for the final overthrow of one moro poor mortal.
 At last the old postmistress, whom he had almost come to regard as cherishing a per- sonal grudge against him, ceased to repulse him, and after his seven years of famine the years of abundance set in. For tho space of three weeks letters from Venice lay waiting for him almost every alternate morning. and the heathery slopes between the farm and the village grew familiar with the spectacle of tall, thin man in Q roS,h tweed suit strug- gling as he walked with sheets of foreign paper which the wind was doing its best to filch away from him.
 The following extracts from these letters contain such portions of them as are neces- sary to our object:
 "CASA MINGHETTI.
 'MY DEAR EUsTACE-I can only write you e very scrappy letter today, for we are just settling into our apartment, and the rooms arc strewn in tho most distracting way with boxes, books and garments; while my maid, Felicie, and the old Italian woman Caterina, who is to cook and manage for us, seem to be able to do nothlng-not even to put a chair straight or order some bread to keep us from consulting me- Paul, talk ing advantage of @ husbands prerogative, has gone off to fianer on the piazza, while his women folk make life tolerable ct home: which is very unfair and spiteful version of his proceedings, for he has really gone as much on my business as on his own. I sent his look of misery, as he sat on 0 packing case ill the middle of this chaos terribly on my mind-to see if he could find the English consul (whom he knows a lttle). and discover from him, if possible, where your friends are. It is strange, as you say, tEat Miss Bretherton should not have written to me; but incline to put it down to our old Jacques at home, who is getting moro and more imbecile with the weight of years and in6rmities, and is quito capable of forward ing to us all the letters which are not worth posting, and leaving all the important ones piled up in the hall to await our return. 1t is provoking, for, if the Bretherton party are not going to stay long in Venice, we may easily spend all our time in looking for each other; which will, indeed, be lame and i'm. potent conclusion. However, I have hopes of Paul's cleverness.