The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1890-10-02
I.-FOUND AT LAST.
By ". q. BALL0U. Illustrated by FER
NANDO MIRANDA.
Copyright. Al rights reserved. !

learn that thy life has been happily end
ed"
Thus soliloquized young Mr. Henry
Henshan as he reclined, day dreaming,
against the cushions of his seat in the
forward section Of Wagner car
The New York Central train was
speeding him on and on, to which fact
he was utterly oblivious.
He had secured the forward section to
escape observation. He sat with his
back to the passengers. Himself was
companionship enough He desired only
to think and to dream.
He had but few days since put Co
lumbia college, so to speak, among his
stock of "reminiscences, with her highest
honors in his trunk.
He had mentally given over his fathers
great manufacturing interests, which
invited him to take immediate posses
sion and give the aged sire his desired
retirement, to the devil and the deep
blue sea.
He loved his ideal best, his art next,
ideal was now his quest; art he could
achieve between times. 1t was of her
he dreamed-his ideal.
AS he sat there gazing at the end of
the car, deep in the contemplation of
this yet unseen but ever clearly outlined
celestial ideal girl, with all the glamour
of youth, the words OF the great Solon
to envious CroeSus would thrust them
selves between his thoughts and seize
him like some grim specter, Happy
may not call thee until | learn that thy
life has been happily ended"
why need what old Solon or any one
else ever said concern meT' he unused
What difference does it make what
people say or who says it? \ fact is a
fact, and theory a theory. One mans
theory is as good for his own purposes as
another's theory. The fact in my case is
that | am satisfied to paint, notwith-
standing dads wrath and the business
he would thrust on me. Let dad earn
the money. or who will desire only to
spend it.
$50 much for the fact. My theory is,
and prefer it to Solons, that to marry
my ideal will be the acme of happiness
and will insure happy ending to my
life. IF never find her more or less of
my life will be miserable and will end
unhappily."
The young man failed to see that he
had exactly cOnformed his theory to
Solon's, that he had expressed the same
theory precisely with variations in form
only. Youth is deluded and ignores re-
| semblarces, those trifes which made
Darwin immortal He continued to
muse:
"As an artist my preferences run to
browns. They are my favorite colors,
because to me they are most beautiful,
most quiet, most sincere and the least
suggestive of either gaudiness or gloom.
Ny ideal, unseen, unknown love is a
| symphonyin browns-brownh hair, brown
| eyes and a complexion tinted brown
rather than white or red.
''She is very small in stalu~e, hence
sure to be superbly perfect in form. Her
| little head is beautifully rounded and
symmetrical, likewise her dimpled arm
and her sweet little. hands Her little
feet are incased in child's boots, not
| larger than child's No. -. She is
He paused abruptly, startled, for he
saw her. His eye had been wandering
among the gorgeous tapestries of the
car, the beautifully wrought woodwork,
the superb French plate glass panes in
the windows, the oil painted ceilings
and the blue and gold woven velvets of
| the cushions.
| At last it rested on a mirror in front
and above his head that slightly inclined
from the top toward him sufficiently to
expose the entire car and all its occu-
pants in dim image, dim because his
curtain was drawn, darkening the light
from the window at his side.
He thought several times to change
his position to ,obviate the annoyance
but he unconsciously seemed deferred
from so doing. He was being slowly
fascinated by shadow as yet underlined
but momentarily growing more startling
He stared through the dim light at the
mirror until his eyes became accus-
toned to the shadows above, and the
picture among the other images gradual
ly defined itself.
What he saw, that which wound
round and round him silken threads OF
fascination, might have been reflected
through dozen mirrors from side tC
side and from end TO end of the car.
Suddenly he turned and attempted &c
discover the original among the passen,
gers Failing in this he again sought
the mirror, giving himself entirely tC
the study of one dim outline.
What he saw was the head and bust
of young girl. 1t so exactly conformed
to the ideal of which he had dreamed
so long that he concluded the image
must be a conception merely-a pSy
Geological ghost, as it were.
There was his dream face, surely; the
symphony in browns; the brown hair
every thread as delicate as the dew
catching gauze of a spider; the large
brown eyes, in which was the very sou
of the loftiest conceivable intellect, th'
highest genius of music, perhaps; th'
complexion slightly tinted brown, bu
cut by the sweetest red lips; the evi
IDENTIFY small stature and perfect form
the beautifully rounded and sy1nmetrica
head and dinpled arm.
He only lacked a glimpse of the fee
to complete the spell of fascination, ez
cept of course the realization of his at
sorbing desire-possession. he close
his eyes an instant to more completed
imagine it all dream. Again he locke
to revel in the picture, but madness
was gone.
Startled, the young man turned in di'
may, when, to his almost uncontrollabl
joy, the girl in all her ideal beauty slow