Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1893-05-13
In LATER YEARS.
Ethel Harcourt's Story and tho
Reward 1t Brought.

Ethel IIarcourt sat on n sunny soutl
veranda, idly looking out on a typica
southern California landscape in early
spring The Cuyamaca was still white
with the lately fallen snow, and rugged
El Cajon showed to advantage in the
foreground. The lower slopes and the
valleys were green, occasional patche.
of yellow showing where the violet
now past its prime, or the poppy, in al
its richness, found a congenial home.
Miss Harcourt listened to the wilt
songs of the birds, and underneath the
gay melody there ran n minor strain
like some half forgotten song which is
recalled by an old association.
Her mind glanced swiftly over the
last ten years in her California home
Her mothers illness and death, her
fathers loss, not only of wife, but OF
fortune Their retirement to this lone.
ly ranch among the hills. "Yes," she
said to herself, "the gay, unrcflecting
girlhood in New England seemed like
something in another age. Not feel
ing, not hope, not desire in common
with that young creature" She
thought with a smile, as one might
think of another, that in those years
she was fair to look upon. The clear,
bright eyes, the softly rounded checks,
the mass of rebellious HAIR which tan
glcd and curled in spite of her plaits.
Why did those years, especially those
months spent at the Atlantic View,
come back with such vividness? Sud-
denly she was seized with an overpow-
1neS,.n 70 -, -,
of the landscape, not the nameless pro-
ductions of the soil, not the present
but the past made her pen fly swiftly
She feltas if impelled by power from
without, and described the first ro-
nance, with its sad little ending,
which she experienced that summer at
Atlantic View.
The years rolled back on either side
and she saw clearly as a woman what
she failed to understand as child-lil5e
girl. AS she wrote she found herself
making Arthur Lindley one of the nam
figures and herself the other. The tall,
impetuous young fellow, free, rich,
handsome. He was courted by many,
and admired by all. How, then, did it
happen that he should have shown such
eager delight in her society, flushing
with pleasure when she appeared and
attending her like her shadow? The
young Ethel was led to believe in the
sincerity of the lad, when he told her
frankly that there was no girl to be
compared with her, not one. No one
was so true, so honest, so unaf-
fected. What series of scrapcs the
boy did get into, to be sure, and how
he confdcd them all to her and asked
her advice for he had no mother and no
sisters. But / don't want you for my
sister" ka had said, with twinkle in
his blue eyes.
Those long mornings on the beach,
when the bathers made merry and the
loollers-on lined the sands, those after
moons of idle swinging in a hammock
till the long shadows made game of
tennis possibility; those soft evenings,
when the cottages looked like fairy
places and the band played dreamy
music in the park; they all fioated
through the halls of memory.
Ethel Harcourt wrote spontaneously.
She saw, with the perception of mature
years, the tangled web in which her
girlish feet were caught. She remem-
bered the days when there crept into
and between the comradeship an alien
note. How or when it began she could
not tell, but her instinct warned her of
the approaching danger. Arthur Lind
ley no longer came with his outbursts
and condolences. He seemed to be
watching her, to be weighing and COM
pairing her words, holding her ut a
hostile distance. There was nothing
which could have been told, no one
word or sentence which separated them,
only growing atmosphere of distrust
on one side, and maiuen shyness and
reserve on the other. At last there
came an outbreak from him; bitter,
unlSind words and mysterious illusions,
Ethel tried to have him explain himself.
but it had no effect. She had treated
him shabbily, he, who had been her
best friend. No one could bear such
things, and he would not bear them
any longer. There could be no expla-
nation: no, he would not hear one
word, but would bid her good morn
ing" After this they wotld meet as
strangers.
Ethel was girl who held hes head
very high, and she would not for mo-
ment have young Lindley think that
she missed his faithfulness. 1t was
very easy to accept Mrs. Hoarst's view
OF the matter, and drift into intimate
companionship with her nephew, AL
Hearst, young man whom Ethel had
always shranlt from, but who was now
a gift from fate. She saw now how
easily she was entangled, how the ap-
pearances were against her, and how
she lent herself to her own misery, For
IL was misery for few days. She could