Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-03-08

anu cigars Which tasted like bits of the
atmosphere. Here be the ladies.
gents he announced, and rwo OF three
women, false in hair, complexion. be
d1Zenment and smile, uipped in and
made themselves at home in way
which showed their conception of that
unloSt paradise.
Little Dobbs grinned and seemed to
think once more that the shank of the
evening had just arrived, and old Mar
vim and Banning, being among Ro-
mans, adopted the Roman style; but
Flemming sat back, half hid behind
the curtain, and contemplated the
box at the opera.
Yes, the boys and girls Were frolic-
some, but oh, what boys and what
girls, and oh, what frolics! Was it
possible that he and they were akin,
sons and daughters of Adam and
ShhrerS in a common mortality? Could
they think as he thought and suffer as
he might suffer? Then We're man
the fig leaves of shame, and TO one and
all was the common substance of
bruHiShnass. Egbert abhorred, vet
why should he condemn? Truly, the
men were ruftians, cowardly, obscene,
muderous; truly the women We're
beasts, without the decent instincts of
a beast. But what then? Their days
We're SO trivial, so few! He and they
and all mankind were so insignificant
Did the gracious sun discriminate as to
the ephemera SwHrming in his shrine
because some were bred in the meadow
and others in the miIe? What, after
all, was life? a vapor that appear
eth," thing transparent, eval aScent,
the sport of the elements! What did
it signify whether it arose from the
dungheap or from the hearth of home?
Hail, brothers and sisters about to
die.'' soliloquized Egbert. II, ,shar-
ing your fate, salute you with pity!'
The heavy door of the box opened
threshold, swaying to and fro to the
beat of the music, and scanning faces
within.
Come to me, my DEAR cried little
DObbs, who was warm with wine, eX-
tending his stl1bby arms. The girl
shrugged her shoulders and tossed her
graceful head.
Not much" she retorted. III go
with the brown gentleman over in the
corner"
''Oh, Egbert, are you here?" asked
old Marvin in wOnderment.
Egbert arose and drew UP a. chair.
He handed the young girl TO it, passed
around behind, and seated himself by
rather deferentially bent, as if about
to listen to agreeable talk. His eyes
had rested on her mOmentarily, and
without boidness, yet they had assured
him that she was fresh and pretty,
with blue eyes ahght with excitement
and cheeks in which a natural color
ebbed and flowed. Her black dress,
too, though dingy in places, was neat
and well set, and about her neck was
a snowy kerchief.
The twain sat for a few moments
in silence, the young girl furtvely
studying her companions aspect, and
gradually becoming bewldered by it.
Below, the music had ceased and
those of the jewellers who had rolled
on the floor in the last giddy plunge
We're picking themselves up and stag
gering to the tables along the sides,
there to gain poisonous vigOI' from
the vended poisons. Within the box
little Dobbs had just led to compile
ton a rolGcking chorus, and was now
effectively whistling the air to the
skirt dance.
At length Egbert spoke. DO you
like Thackery?" he asked. The girl
started as if at an unknown tongue
ME is it!'' She faltered Sure I
don't know him. Does he come here?"
MOP" continued Egbert with wonted
composure. Il suppose you share In
the dislike of all womankind. He is
too analytic, and, excuse me, too can
And yet he had a true conception of
the nobility Of your sex and a rever-
ence for it. Think of Laura and Het-
ty, for instance, and even, if you
please, Of the Little Sister I am
sure the more you read him, the more
you will detect tears of kindness
subduing his cynical expression.
"Ohr' exclaimed the girl "And
did you really and truly think that
/ read books? Why, don't know n
word of print. But how nice of you
to think so''
Egbert looked disturbed. You sure
he said, with a glance toward the
floor, where the whirling had been
resumed.
Don't Ir' she cried, and her lit
tie foot kept rhythmically tapping.
why, it's all I have to live for.
That music seems to catch me up and
bear me like % child-angel in the
clouds. I forget who I am and what
I am, and all the horrible things that
belong to my life. seem to be free
from myself just like flame is sep
arate from the Oil and the wick.
Don't i? Well, just try NE once"
Egbert ignored the invitation. 'sBut
the men," he objected, with an ex-
pressive gesture
1.-The men, she pouted. "of course