Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1895-01-17
Continued.

satisfied. aud our life will return to
MS. This maternal feeling must Ger
tainly be very powerful and very
precious factor in wonlans making,
or such an one as my wife woull not
he so touched aud shaken ~ its adj
vent and growth in Der. 1t Is mys.
ferry. In truth, thus TO come so late,
born out of due season as 1t were, ahd
SO strongly to take possession OF her.
certainly never should have classed
her among the true mothers, the pro
ducing women; they should he OF 4
more robust, more animal type alto
gcthcr 1t Is Il most remarkable case
with curious complications. 1t IS the
daughter-the feminine part Of her
my wife yearns and pants for, the
masculine element seems to affect her
but little; when our son Dacre visits
us have In vain looked for any symp-
toms of satisfaction or restfulness.
II feel so unusually depressed and
aged, this afternoon" he went on
slowly, laying down his fruitless pen,
and gazing with sad eyes out OF the
window, "even my ordinary lucidity
of brain seems clouding and thiclSen-
ing. It cannot be that | have already
reached the ultimatum, and that the
period of decadence Is now upon me-
that cannot surely be! Only Just forty
seven" he cried softly and his face
sank down in his hands on the study
table
He raised 1t again, and went over TO
his cabinet and touched his heaps Of
manuscript one by one with loving
lingering tenderness, but little shak-
lily
"Ths but Just begun" he murmured;
''this but just wanting the veritication
OF new work, the most comprehen-
sive. the most exact we have yet made
--ahl this book would have been very
close up to the truth, nearer to Il than
anything yet produced. looked
with such keen, such very youthful
pleasure TO the ligh'er task cf com
pilaton; that yollthfulness IN her In
tellectual pleasures is very precious
gift of my wife,
"Here Is a little satltdcal skit she
wrote In playful moment. how
charming II is. how delicate! All, my
sweet young wife, More notes more
and 80 few worked out to their final
conclusion! Must then take these
symptoms as those of untimely decay.
he whispered sitting down again, Il,
who looked to long year Of honest la
Ia. In. t,Fit9s al, stAf.r hat fAr on
farther than my fellows, ana have
erected some fresh flnger-post on the
road 10 everlasting truth? To stop
now, when the world Is crying and
walling In the darkness of It's gnor-
ancc, when men grasp any scrap Of
straw, and must | be swept down
the hill before | have breasted the
crest? Must | sink 10 oblivion with
my work but Just begun, and with the
heal of battle strong upon me-and she
my wife, my own, my helpmeet-Do
none Of these things strike and touch
her, does this overmaStering strange
tumult of new emotions shut her
heart to the awful beauty of truth2
ut is strange he repeated, strange
and vary sad. The swift-rtinnlng
smooth course Of life has been par
alyzel for me, ! ann oppressed with
torturing doubrS. and and believe
II is not age, 1t Is not the years which
have stunned my powers, | believe 1t
is this new phase of her life; then
comes the consideration: Is this pass
Ing phase, or is 1t permanent? | can
not face the question: he cried with
n Goan holding his head In both
hands 70 steady 1t.
Then he took his hat and stick, and
made mechanically for the Recrofy.
She always came from that dlrcc.
ton, and always sadder than when
she went forth
But today she was different When
she saw Der husband she did not keep
TO her ordinary soft listless movement
and then when she reached him. slip
her maud into his mechanically from
mere reflex action, and strike out
eagerly into an infant anccdote.
She started and flushed. and ran
toward him with outstretched hands.
and looked wistfully up III Ms face.
and her mouth tremhled as. fer the
first time. the great change In the man
flashed into her, and her heart stood
still and her brain reeled
Henry" she cried, "My Henry. yon
are tiredr'
He stopped wonderlngly closer to
4