Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1894-02-17


pour out his confession, his en- srea ties
hs hopes, his fears, and in moment
more IL was oil over, and the. great,
strong fellow stood white-lipped and
quivering. conscious that ne had
chpnccd his whole life ON the cast of
die.
Ma thalic had not raised her ewes.
The vision of silk stockings and lace
trimmed skirts was in her m;,d little
brain again Who may know what
the rvSult might have benz But at
that inStnnt the young man put out a
blind, tender, passionate hand to draw
her ter him and the spell snapped
u, undcP.
What mattered silk stockings, and
the like, now? Nathalie loolledI up
and started back as though she had
been stung. Never had this man
Peters, Bill Peters, forsuoth. seemed
so 'ungainly, SO uncooth us then!
Never had she been so repellantly
aware of his gaunt frame, of his care.
lcssIy worn clothes, of his sallow Wis,
age and large hands,
"Don't touch mn," sho painted out.
"Don'S dare to- touch me! ] don't
care fT you and couldn't care ih
we lived l0J years. knew you were
y
thing. Thought could marry you
on the strength of that! But | can't
/ ntvei shall"
AS the last word dropped froRr her
lip she had Il peculiar sensation She
had not meant to say SO mmch-to,
make that confession She was now
seized with u curious sense of having.
been violently arrested.
VIII Peters had not moved muscle
Hut, somehow the girl could not take.
her eyes, in the pause that followed,
fcom his face. The silence seemed to
her So last an eternity. Then Peters
tuvacd
shall we go bsnelo?" he asked, with
his quiet. unfailing courtesy. "The
tite is coming in"
'0h yes, these large resorts are all
commun-so mixed, you know" Mrs.
Chandos would say, in her dainty,
touch me-not fashion, every now and
then. Il Shall take my voung sister
to some quite different place next
season. But the dear child is anus
ing herself in her gir.ish way now,
and SO, for the moment, stay on. /
let matters drift"
Nathalie amusing herself! The
pretty women in airy toilets laughed
as soon as Mrs. Chandos' well-shaped
back was turned, and Mrs. Chandos
knew they did. Some very Young
girls and very young men there might
be who amused themselves in the big,
garish ballroom, where tho band
played with hollow, mechanical HI
larity, on the hot, glaring piaz+a and
the great public expanse of beach, but
q al...
why not? When they were alone In
their own apartments Mrs. Chandos
would ask the question, vindictively,
sarcastically. What did she expect?
Had she not had, in two months, more
good luck than often befell a girl with
no fortune but her face in n life
time? Fate had given her what
she assuredly never deserved when
it threw the handsome son of
millionaire, this young Acton Rad
sky, in her way. Immediately upon
her dismissal of William Peters. She
had objected to the latter because of
his name, because of his ill-fitting
coat, because of his plainness and
what she called his Western wildncss
Could any of these charges be brought
against Radsky? He had everything
that women worshipped = wealth.
good looks, the prestige of a slayer
of hearts-and he had put everything
at her feet, and she, moping about
with face long as her arm, had an
air of dsdaining it all! Mrs. Chandos
repeated, eXasperated: What did she
expect?
Mrs Chandos' nervous tension grew,
| at last, unbearable. The summer was
at IAN end; people were scattering.
Radslly had not declared himself-ap.
peared to be growing discouraged,
and Nathalie would not, could not, be
aroused to a sense of her responsible
ties! Something brusque, decisive,
must be done. But what? Mrs. Chan
dos took desperate advantage of the
first opening that offered to bring the
young man to Il full confession of his
sentiments, and repaid the confidence
! by II bland assurance that those senti
ments were reciprocated, as he would
find if he openly declared himself
Then she assembled to Nathalie's S room
! pale with determination, resolved tc
frighten the girl into submission by
threatening to throw her off il moth
ing else would accomplish her purpose
She found the room empty.
Looking about her in some surprise
| she nOtlced signs oil disorder all aDou'
such as are left by person in grea'
haste. On the pincushion was letter,
which Mrs. Chandos seized. 1t wa.
addressed to her and contained, briefly
the information that Nathalie had gon,
up to town to spend the night with &
girl friend and would not be back un
til the next day.
Mrs. Chandos stood angry and dis
mayed. Never had Nathalie so cman
cipatcd herself from authority be
fore. AS the elder sister continued t,
stare in front of her. her eye fell on I
crumpled newspaper lying on tn,
floor. She mechanically took it up
The first words she saw were those o
William Peters name. The article
which was a lengthy one, gave an nc
count of gigantic failure in whicl
the young Western capitalists fortun
had been almost entirely engulfed
There followed n supposed interview
with him at his hotel, out of which
transpired that he was to leave for tn
West on the following day.