Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-04-24
CHAPTER ".

CHAPTER ".
 When Ida Fairbanks sent that white | iaponica futtering through the air and waited kiss and smile to the pretty ! child in John Lorimer's village cart, she was acting a part with consummate skill and effect.
 When she turned her back on the White Cliffs people, and, picking up the heavy basket of flowers, walked off \ with it, with fine assumption of ab- sorption in her responsibilities as 6 \ flower merchant, she was consciously \ posing for effect.
 When she had found a stump com \ pletely hidden from the grass grown | road, whose almost effaced wheel marks might have forewarned trespassers, she | planted her fragrant burden upon it and seated herself on a neighborlng | stump, facing in the direction from which old Cato, her carrier, must pres- ently come shambling. Ostentatiously \ opening her book, she spread it upon her lap and fastened her eyes upon its printed characters. They might have been Greek or Hebrew characters for all the meaning they conveyed. She was still acting part Her smooth fore head was rumpled by @ frown.
 The dog was sound asleep beneath her feet, and to all appearances she was reading historically, when the lazy shuffling of Cato's mule along the road way made her look up.
 "This way, Cato," she called, in her clear, commanding voice, and delivered
 her basket of flowers with strangely curt directions. ''This is packet day.
 You must be there before the upcoun-
 try boat gets in."
 Then, seating herself once more, she opened her book where her handker- chief kept the place. Mechanically she
 finished the interrupted passage. It
 was one of Goethe's sage aphorisms.
 She read it aloud in a student voice,
 somewhat as if resolved to drown every
 other voice in that of the sage:
 ''The thoughts we have had, the pie
 lures we have seen, can be again called
 back before the imagination, but the
 heart is not so obliging; it does not re
 produce it's pleasing emotions"
 She looked up. Cato was entirely out
 of sight. The mask might safely be
 thrown aside. While she drew one
 Hong, half sobbing breath, with hyster-
 ical energy she turned, lifted the book
 high in her right hand and sent it
 hurtling into the thorny, brambly undergrowth.
 With a sharp note of surprise, Step
 niall scrambled to his feet and sprang
 to the rescue. Ida watched him with
 glittering eyes. It would not be an easy search. The thorns were thickset
 where it had fallen. She laughed at
 his frenzied zeal until she grew wearied
 o of it. Then she called out to him, , angrily:
 "Let it be, sir! I do not want it.
 am sick of it. It was written by fool. Only fools try to keep their brains and hearts alive.''
 She was tearing her handkerchief into ' rags with nervous, trembling hands. Whenever the embroidered edge offered . any resistance, she brought her strong white teeth to the task of destruction. - Her cheeks were af1ame, and her eyes f were dry and brilliant. She was trem- t Hbling violently from head to foot. This S Twas not the first time that she had - yielded to the over-strain her nervous Isystem was perpetually enduring, out l there under the trees, with no breath. 3 ing thing near but Stepniak. Nature is
 fond of her own revenges.
 e Stepniak came back finally, triumph a ant. She had almost forgotten his ex l. istence. He laid the book at her feet ] and looked up for some word of com : mendation. She looked down upon hin
 frowningly, then stopped, and, fasten
 ing one hand in his. brass collar, struck $ him sharp blow over the head with 1t the book. Then she sent it once moro y spinning among the briers. Stepnial IS looked at her, but made no motion t. J. go after the discarded volume second 1t time.
 s- "You have learned your lesson, hay
 you, boy?"
 The dog wagged his bushy tail acqui P escingly. Plainly, he disapproycd O
 the disrespect shown the sage, but di, l. not propose rislring any more blows il
 his defense. Ida rescatcd herself upo
 the stump md drew him close to her b
 his collar. She looked him stcadfastl st in the eye. His glance quailed befor
 hers. She freed one hand from his co t, lar to pass it caressingly over his hug m head. There was. an apology in it an
 in her next words:
 Don't drop your eyes before min'
 Stepnials. You are wiser than I. an is truer. You learn your lesson of sul se mission after one blow. It takes gres at many for my teaching, and then th es lesson is but half learned. You neve lie, Stepniak. I do. I don't do an, iy thing else, in point of fact" or A single clear buGle-note rang ot