Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-05-17
should be big enough to hold all the

face lost the guarded, almost strained
expression which it had worn sine,
they had first begun to talk. ooh
yesl' he said, Il had forgotten. l;
was apropos of old Dakin. You will
recall it, for l used often to speak of it
and Dakin, being a hunchback, and
so egreglously out of proportion il
every way, was special eyesore to me.
l thought that he had not been properly
doctored, and told him once that he
ought to go to my father, and have his
case attended to. l shall never forge;
his harsh laugh when l said it. and
how he flung back to me some such re
tort as this: I'll have to wait till | get
wings, boy, before | gets rid of this
blessed hump l askel my father j:
this was true, and he told me that il
was, and explained to me that, if Dakin
were to pay him thousand dollars, he
could not do anything for him. Thel
L began to scheme, myself, and hence
the colossal enterprise, of which l am
fattered to have you remember SO much
But alas II am no near to curing old
Dakin and his ilk than my father was.
Mop she breathed forth wearily,-
and for moment they both sat silent
Then there was sudden hush in
the parlors outside, which recalle,
them to themselves. A woman's voic
began an operatic aria.
1T is Madame Chamouni," she said
quickly. I'VE have stayed too long.
Mrs. Wing will expect us. Come"
George Dover was cold man by ma
ture, and he thought that his moro
than thirty years of life and its varie
experiences had steeled him to the ten
der influences of love; but Eleanor
Perry had always had peculiar infu-
ence over him. He had decided, de-
cidel in cold blood years ago, when they
were both of them but twenty, that he
could not afford to marry poor girl
and he had gone out into the world to
seek his fortune. Rumors had come to
him that she had grieved for him--one of
his sisters had even told him that
Eleanor had been i'll, and it was moth
ing in the world but his going which had
affected her." and then she had written
to him once or twice-pretty, girlish let
ters. He remembered just how they had
looked. He had answered one of them
briefly and coolly, in accordance with
the policy which he had marked out for
himself. Then he had heard that she
had married rich old General Perry, and
had thought how much better that was
for her than long engagement to a poor
young fellow like himself, to be followed
by wearing life of small economies and
uncertain social and professional strug-
giles. Then he had heard, through the
gossips in the little island-town where
their love dream had spent itself, that
the old man was dead, and that his rich
young widow would live abroad here
after.
But she had come backbone back
with all her beauty-all that subtle
charm of manner which had made him
love her rs he had never loved any other
woman-as he now began to see that he
never could love any other woman
and, after all that had passed, she had
still been kind to him He felt glow
Of shame-hard, wise, polished, sue
cessful as he was-when he remembered
the sweet, girlish blush which had
swept over her face when that unmiti-
gated snob of Mrs. Langdon Wing
had brought him up to her.
Only few days passed before he stood
at her door. A storm was raging. and
he had felt pretty sure of finding her at
home and alone. and he was right.
Her sisters were away, and she was
reading under lamp in front of her
open fire, amid surroundings of such
luxury that selfish Dr.. George Dover
beamed and expanded in a sybaritic
refinement of pleasure as he stretched
himself on divan opposite her, and
listened to the sound of the sleet on the
plate-glass windows.
All of the Embarrassment which
he had fancied that he detected in her
manner at Mrs. Wings was gone now.
She was the woman of the world
bright elegant, anxious to please If
there had been any sentimentalism in
her bearing the other night, it was all
gone now. He was not sure that she
was not more charming that ever in this
mood, as she sat before him. in Ian
guild yet perfectly graceful attitude
which she had always dropped into, he
when she was talking
in marvellous gown of
some sort of silky black stuff, with
glints of white in it.
She gave him little time to think. and
he was contented to sit and look at her,
and hear her clever talk, in which she
led him on to speak freely of his life
abroad; she initiated the patois of peas
ants, the shallow chatter of the salons.
and the slang of the studios; he
told her of his studies, his am
bitions-they touched everything but
that strange past--and he was in sort
of dream until the striking of wonder
full clock, with tuneful chime and a
little clash of bells at the end. awoke
him to the fact that he was staying too
late.
After her visitor had gone, Eleanor
Perry, who was at heart one of the
most trustful and loving of women.
and who, on that little island out in
the sound, had cherished for this cold.
proud, intellectual man love which
ha nar1l o,,1,