Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1894-05-04

ctal-i'- '- ~" aiful'.y. we hav,
l.-.s--. i'- suI-',' sufficiently. Now
i.Y' a-k Va O. ,Ncu>r me. II,
VT =. ii~ b r-' All r,u, united II.
WHt A.i. 4 few minutes. auI will
s.iii a carr .I-:c o. TAX" va home"
'HNpTrE Nix
utI >ItIE'uN-UIE Ny love"
Then. a.tI h'-u n'ariy week e in,
c'-~aAt lam. \ darn Iall # cloud,
gloomy AMI c!auG,l,s~, ovcrhung tn,
earth hk" vault f solli lead hut
tr'>-"i NJ. II Tia. mountains whose peaks
w"r" hidden from view. odd, gray
mt, rrawl.i a..u- tn" heights. tan.
CLING 'h"m~ 'V'~ among the pines ~
lNInE " down IN the valleys. level and
motion l'~~. lr'>'utins g. III" d-luded
-" iA, api' srlnce of wide. calm lakes
ri. cling IN" hue of the sky above.
IT,. sril va. sodlen, the unwary foot
tr-aGius upon N" solid seeming turi
sank deep III lurking pools Of mud
thick ned water. The meadows were
inundated, every hollow "A pond, every
trench and ditch a frothing brook. The
single street IF the village was a narrow
riI"r covered with refuse among which
padded the ducks and geese Of the COM
munity. snuffed at enviousIy by SILVER
ing dogs ami moaned over by bedrag-
gl,ti. hou,.ltss cats.
Down all the hillsides roarcd foaming
! torrents Gentle dripping cascades,
+ fio,n who's" messy Drinks the small
! lords learned to drink, were transformed
into destructive foods bearing down
from the Businesses above splintered logs
and uprooted trees. Those who had
lived all their lives in that region con-
fessed with ominous shakings of the
head never to have seen such a storm
/ before.
Up at tho Monckton mansion the
young proprietor sat at his library win
dow, listening to tne wall Of the wind
and the ceaseless sound of the rain, in a
/ sorrowful mood, decpened and darkentd
by the funeral aspect of the weather.
Never had life seemed so fruitless and
fiavorless as now. Never in his sternest
self arraigument had he felt himself 90
unnecessary in the world, 80 objectless.
During his residence in the French cap
ital he had acquired the fashionable
pseudo cynicism. but that philosophy
comfortably allows you to despise all
mankind excepting yourself. You are
the solitary spectator Of a masque Of
fools, and your privilege Of sneering
rests upon your own conscious emanci-
| oil oh
faiths. 1t is sort of sublimated CON
ceit. affected by young people because
1t looks like experience, and natural to
old people with bad tempers and worse
digestions. With Ralph Monckton il
had never been genuine, but donned
first to conceal his boyish provincialism
and the honesty and sincerity which he
saw doubted or disdained by all about
him it had become a second nature,
hardened by his real loneliness in the
midst Of his gay associates, the light,
the glitter and the hollow laughter, his
enforced idleness and his fathers igno-
rant pride.
Now as he sat gazing out at the driv-
ing storm it was simply savage self dis
gust that he felt. loathing of the past,
WEAKNESS of the present and hopelessness
of the future. 1t was a state Of mind
that had fallen upon him first ON that
wretched afternoon when he had offered
himself to Imogene Duke and had spread
and widened within him ever since. As
he thought of his careless, foppish pro-
posal-and he was always thinking of
it now-he shuddered and felt sick.
And beneath the shame Of it was hard,
reDding pain-a dry, cold agony-for he
loved her, as he had known he loved her
when sho turned upon him that day.
With her love, what could he not dor
Majestic visions of great deeds, noble
and glorious works. the splendid rising
Of new dawn for mankind. crowded
his brain. oh. if she loved himl
His meditations were broken IN upon
by a sharp rap at the door. and Joyce
entered, followed by man clad in a
dripping suit Of miners habiliments.
Monckton recognized the latter as one
of the superintendents, John Turner by
name, formerly one of North's stoutest
henchmen.
He refused to submit a written re-
port, SIR" explained Joyce, with an in
jured air, but insisted upon seeing you
in person.
Because, retorted the man, twisting
his sodden hat round and round in his
big fingers. there ein't no time to
write reports. even SO be it as had my
copy book for the letters and my Web
ster's spelIer to get the words correck. "
"Slt down, Turner" said Monckton.
land tell me what you want"
II don't want nothin, myself" re-
piled Turner, numbering into the chair
placed for him. I'm out Of 1t and don Z
propose for to risk my skin agin by 60
ing back, at no ones orders, meaning re-
speckful to you all the same. sir.
What is it now?" inquired the pro-
iprietor. Some new trouble at the
mines?"
NO." was the response, nothing
new, insomuch as l reported the same
to Mr.. Joyce here weeks ago. said
then, says. that wall in the Ten Foot
Drive has water behind it, and, says l,
that water is bound for to force its way
out, and when it do. says i. there'n be
widders and orphins in this village, un-
less, says l, timber bulkhead is put up
agin that wall. But Mr.. Joyce, in his
Judgment, seen fitten for to refuse, and
now no bulkhead of no sort, sir, will
prevent what is going to happen. dead
sure, before the day is out"
lyon remember. Turner" said
Monckton quietly, that attempted to
put up that bulkhead and that your
friend North prevented me from doing
So"
with due respeck, sir, replied Tur-
ner. Matthew North has ceased to be
my friend. being pigheaded and obsti-
| lb
g. ST.