Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-10-27
CHAPTER XIII.
Be- nitifIIl d GAil

Be pltlful, y Goal
Frank, left alone. sat down by Mad
caps little table, all thought of Mr..
Eyre gone in the delight that her words
had given him.
You have made ne very happy" she
had said, and more than that he could
not have done, even to giving her up
his life, AMI Tonight it seemed to him
very little thing that he had taken up
on himself, and tine reward out OF all
proportion to the sacr.i3e.
HIS thoughts went back to that day
in the cOpsP. when she had known her
one short. sharp. bitter space of misery
misery SO quickly turned to Joy as TO
be over almost before she had tasted it;
and if afterWdrd she had s0rrOWed for
HeStars sake, and his sin, that sorrow
had touched no vital part Of her life.
and she was Madcap still, in her bright
ness. innocence and youth, as she
should always ne in heart so long as he
lived to guarl her. AID this PRESENT.
n Mt, though scarcely of evil, that
seemed 10 Pc ;Se55 n1r tonight, meant
nothing: it was On,y n passing mood,
and Tomorrow she would be as bright
as she had been that morning. And
then his thoughts travelled back over
the day that had begun happily by his
meeting her with the boys III the viii
taGe, and he had persuaded her to go
with him to see pretty sight that he
had CHANGED upon an hour before.
1t was no less than group of three
young cheStnuts THAT had burst out in
a comnlete new suit Of leaves and flow
erS. aft )rCl.ng q marnad contrast to- the
ruSSet-br0Wn matr0ns staining by, who
had an air OF by no means approving of
such OuC-Of-SHaSUn frivOifty.
They had stood silent before the Curl
0ns AMI beautiful sight, then M&dcap,
looking I'D with something very sweet
and solemn III her face, nad said to him,
Frank, don't these trees make you
think Of a human life in more ways
tnan one? OF life that h IS been hap
py. and all at once trouble came to it..
and stripped it Of eyerything-just as
tile CHAPTERS came i'll spring and de-
StrOyed the leaves of these treeS-leav-
ing them bare when those around were
beautiful and happy; but now, in au-
tumn. just when all the Others are sober
and dull, these have their youth renew
ed, just as that life might be even more
beautiful and happy in its autumn than
its spring"
But there are some lives, as there
are certain trees, that cannot be so re-
newed," Frank had said sadly; "once
stripped of happiness, the heart never
stirs in them again, and after all these
seem to me the grandest trees, the
nOblest hearts,"
NO" Madcap had cried; "that which
has once loved for loves sake, been
happy for anOther's sake, may have
thought it has lost all, but yet carries
in itself the power to produce as beauti-
fui fruit as any that have gone before,
and a second youth is possible as to
that tree which has so boldly reversed
! the edct of fate"
But Frank had shaken his head: there
could be no second Madcap to him in
the world.
And then they had stood still to watch
the children 60 down the glade, dancing
over the yellow leaves with feet as light
as the hearts that winged them, and no
instinct told the mother that this was
the last time the little brothers would
pass that way-the last time her eyes
would follow them.
He wished now that he had gone all
the way home with her, and SO have
averted that meeting which he feared
had taken place. and that accounted for
the eXcitatlon of mood Mr.. Eyre had
displayed that night. To Frank it was
mind. the inceSSant fear of what Hes
ter might say or do; but he forgot that
Mr.. Eyre had only seen her in those
tiercer moods when anger had sWayed
her, Or when that mad, reckless deter
minatiOn to move him, that will often
make woman Willfully degrade her
self in a mans eyes, had carried her be-
yOnd both truth and honor. And to-
night all his sleeping dread of that ca
tastrOphe to which he had feared Mr.
Eyre'S violence of hatred might imral
him, was once more awakened. This
lethargy that Mr.. Eyre had thought to
mean decay, Frank knew to be natural
as the snOW-wreath that covers the
earth, while, beneath it. busy life is at
work, silently preparing its forces
against the coming struggle; for even
inanimate creation, as in our inSOlence
we term it, does not achieve existence
at a leap; and while brain and heart
rested suggiShly, Mr.. Eyre'S strength
was secretly renewing itself, whether
for good or evil. The Necessarian, in
effect, SAYS. "Given the whole of the
antecedents. the action can be predict
ed" The Fatalist adds. that the man
uIIDseII mas noCnfng 10 40 Win Uue an
tecedents. DemOcrituS teaches that
chance is at the bottom Of all things,
and so reduces Iife-all things-to very
barren issues; not strength. truth. couT-
age. nor ability. winning the race, but
chance. And Frank wondered if this
same chance had taken Mr.. Eyre to
Synge Lane that night; but the thought
was too horrible to be pursued; and
Frank, pacing the room restlessly.
longed for the library door to open, and
his host come out to reassure him.
But Mr.. Eyre. sunk deep in sIumber,
| with the pen in his hand, could not
have awakened if he would. so power
/ fully in species of nightmare was he
| held: and when Frank, after restlessiy
I waiting another half hour tried tue