Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-01-17
q yellow Qster.
BY 10 T a

.withal.
Lets walk on, dearest, you are cold
II have such strange warnings
Henry, for baby touches and baby
kisses. |. who have never felt them
for my own, have to seek them among
babies not of my flesh and blood. l
have to find the pale ghosts of them
amongst my lost children's little
Clothes"
/ My love, not lost"
Yes. Henry, lost, more than if the
grave mad closed over them; those for
feited things do not return. 1 have a
mothers heart now when l no longer
need it." she said, with wan smile,
''and | know-ah, l know so many
things, such pitiful things. The other
day tiny baby grasped at my breast
and tried to nestle his head thereto
suck my breast, Henry-it was worse
than DEATH for l knew 1 had lost the
best sweetness of life
"My love, my love, those things are
not lost" cried her husband, and then
with sudden and surprising astutenes,
he added, ''there viii be Ovens chill
dren.
She clutched his hand in sudden
tremOr of excitement.
"Ah, and then-then, too, Gwen
might understanding she coughed
softly and broke off
But, Henry, l have you, we will
go together as we used to do; perhaps
work, regular work, may make me
feel better"
"My love-" he cried eagerly, Il am
certain it is just the thing you want
Il am going out beyond Highgate,'
Perhaps she said sadly, perhaps
it is"
One morning Strange caune into his
the very thing"
wife's boudoir with his whip in his
hand, and light overcoat ON his arm
CHAPTER NXXIV.
he said, Ito see a pointer pup, it is a
pretty drive, would you like to Gomez"
She had been thinking with a sort
of dread Of the hours that must run
before the darkness came, and of the
numbers of times she would be eX-
pected to smile, to return brilliant an
swers TO dull questions. and generally
to keep up her superb deception.
She had a dozen engagements but
she decided to go with him.
He drove a high mail phaeton that
ran very lightly.
'That Highgate hill is a bad one"
he said as they were starting. giving
the brake a sharp tug, 81 don't think
this will cave in easily, however,
Besides, Hengist and Horsa can be
trusted anywhere" said Gwen, who
knew nothing of ordinary nervous
ness"
Il wouldn't trust anything in horse
! flesh down a steep hill with the brake
off. Look down that mesh of streets.
| Taking it in patches there isn't more
hideous. sordid, mean hole in the world
than this London. just look through
that laner
Gwen gave a shrug of disgust
cts a frightful and gray and deadly
dull, but that never strikes me as the
worst part of life in these places. 1t
is the hideouS want of privacy that
revolts me, and the awful nearness of
one human creature to another, the
sheer impossibilty of thinking, or
feeling, or looking, except under OBJ
| Servation, the horrible indecent open
ness of life
"What do you know about it," he
asked laughing.
"Oh, | have done Summing in my
| time. under Mrs. Meades' wing. / like
new experiences, you know. We saw
great many frightful things while
the craze lasted, but the worst of all
was a cobbler's menage. He had a
wife and seven children, and they lived
in two rooms, he never went out, that
man, neither did his wife; she squatted
on the floor all day and cleaned things
with a patent soap which smelt worse
than they did, and he saw all she did
and thought and felt; the awful hunted
! look of that woman was a thing to
dream of.
while Mrs. Meades talked-'relig-
| ion she called 1.-THE cobbler SeWed
leather. and glanced now and again at
his wife in way to make your blood
freeze, and then he would hold up his
anvil in a CHASTITY fashion, and grin at
! ueE over II, 1t was lO Dlt VI Sttel ue
was gloating over, it was his wife's
soul held up on that awl.
Put putting husbands and wives
out Of the question" she went on.
this appalling nearness Of living is
most horrible One n ust feel forever
on a disSecting table. having ones
most hidden nerves pulled out one by
one"
"They have no nerves, and they
don't experiment on one another, those
people: they don't live enough for that,
they exist in a smoky thick atmos-
phere of Indifference"
"That man did experiment, and his
wife was not Indifferent; she was
nerves and nothing else
'These were exceptions"
The worst tragedies are made out
of exceptions"
Probably, exceptions are mostly
unnatural"
at is not unnatural to object to have
ones sensations hayed aliver
''Such sensitiveness is unnatural to
low under-fed semi-Sentient state of
life, such people have enough to do
to keep body and soul together, with,
out considering them apart
But l contend they do consider
them apart, they do make investiga-
tons"