The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1894-07-11

back the courses; and the old bathers,
the yearly hsbitues, with whom the
season was far advanced, kept close
watch on the door each time it opened,
hoping for the coming of new faces.
New faces the single distraction of
all pleasure resorts. We go to dinner
chiefly to canvass the daily arrivals, to
wonder who they are, what they do
and what they think. A restless de-
sire seems to have taken possession of
us, longing for pleasant adventures,
for friendly acquaintances. perhaps
for possible lovers. In this elbow-to-
elbow life our unknown neighbors be-
come of paramount Importance. Curi-
osity is piqued, sympathy on the alert,
and the social instinct doubly active.
That evening, then, as on every
evening, we waited the appearance of
unfamiliar faces.
There came only two, but very
peculiar ones, those of man and wo-
man-father and daughter. They
seemed to have stepped from the pages
of some weird legend; and yet there
was an attraction about them, albeit
an unpleasant one, that made me set
them down at once as the victims of
some fatality.
The father was tall, spare, little
bent, with hair blanched white, too
white for his still young countenance,
and in his manner and about his per-
son the sedate austerity of carriage
that bespeaks the puritan. The daugh-
ter was, possibly, some twenty -four
or twenty-five years of age. She was
very slight, emaciated, her exceedingly
pale countenance bearing languid,
spiritless expression; one of those peo-
pie whom we sometimes encounter, ap-
parently too weak for the cares and
tasks of life, too feeble to move or do
things that we must do every day.
Nevertheless the girl was pretty, with
the ethereal beauty of an apparition.
It was she, undoubtedly, who came
for the benefit of the waters.
They chanced TO be placed at table
Immediately opposite to me; and
was not long in noticing that the
father, too, had strange affection
something wrong about the nerves, it
seemed. Whenever he was going to
reach for anything his hand, with a
jerky twitch, described a sort of zig
gag before it was able to grasp what he
was after. Soon the motion disturbed
me so much kept my head turned in
order not to see it. But not before /
had also observed that the young girl
kept her glove on her left hand while
she ate.
Dinner ended, went out as usual
for turn in the grounds belonging to
the establishment. A sort of park, /
might say, stretching clear to the lit
tie station of Auvergne, Chatel-
Guyon, nesting in a gorge at the foot
of the high mountain, from which
flowed the sparkling, bubbling springs,
hot from the furnace of an ancient
volcano. Beyond us there, the domes,
small extinct craters-of which Chatel-
Guyon is the starting point-raised
their serrated heads above the long
chain while beyond the domes came
two distinct regions, one of them nee
dle-like peaks, the other of bold, pre-
cipitous mountains.
It was very warm that evening and
I contented myself with pacing to and
fro under the rustllng trees, gazing al
the mountains and listening to the
strains of the band, pouring from the
Casino, situated on knoll that over
looked the grounds.
Presently, / perceived the father
and daughter coming toward me with
slow steps. 1 bowed to them in that
pleasant continental fashion with
which one always salutes his hotel
companions. The gentleman halted
at once.
''Pardon, me, sir, said he, "bui
may l ask if you can direct us to 8
short walk, easy and pretty if posi-
blew
Certainly" 1 answered, and
offered to lead them myself to the val
ley through which the swift river
Aows-a deep, narrow cleft between
two great decliYities, rocky and
wooded.