The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-08-04
A DISAPPOINTMENT.

perhaps inexplicable-the face of Helen
Barton q year ago is not her face today.
Hers was q background figure in that half
farcical sketch of justice of Justice Will
kinshaw's Attentions" in my book of
English Episodes" / pleased myself by
picturing, behind the vulgarity and tricki-
ness of one or another of the persons of IA
trivial drama, the fine, refreshing presence
Of the tall and suave and violet eyed book
keeper at the hotel at Scarborough wo-
man who was popular and yet desirable, a
favorite, yet unspoiled. But she is no Ion
ger the same And it is the change IN her,
and it is nothing else, that constitutes her
sordid tragedy.
1t is a matter for rejoicing perhaps that
she may live-indeed, may eat, drink, walk
and sleep and work and chatter, too, and
pretty often, with forced or n chance
gayety-for many long year that seems
to casual observation not unprosperous, not
void, certainly, of all life's purchasable
pleasures. Hers is a tragedy no less. She
has not in these 12 months lost all beauty
and ell goodness. To have done that would
have been difficult Much had been given
her of both and much remains. Yet there
is something - important, underlined
which has essentially altered, for as you
look at her this certainly you feel she is
another Helen Barton.
If you don't like her, If she was never
sympathetic TO you, or at least If you have
never acquired the habit of observing WON
en- closely, you will put IL down TO health.
You will say: Perhaps this short time
since we last saw her, perhaps one bad i'll
ness has made certain ravages The trace
of them may pass" Or you may say still
less and sagely recognize that the poor girl
Is tired, or that the weather, with its
abrupt transitions. tries Miss Barton like
the rest OF us Wide of the mark anyhow.
Her health is buta symptom of her spirits
condition; fatigue mere excuse, the
weather not to be charged with all the mis-
chief that it's the fashion to believe These
things have wrought no vital change In our
still fine looking young friend people would
still pay court TO- You are not at the root
of the matter certainly. Helen Barton
keeps her secret
She has somehow lost heart. If you are
one of those who really like her, that you
know though you know nothing else. Her
life, IL seems, Is a dull machine. The
wheels CRATE dry. Or, more, somewhere a
chain has broken, or handspring snapped
suddenly.
She happened to have changed, few
months since, the place of her abode In
stead of hotel at Scarborough the scene
of her day IS doings has shifted to hotel at
York But the company that gathers
round her in the evening hours, or in the
idle times in the long afternoon, is Of the
nature that it used to be, and Helen Bar
ton is the recipient now of cheap admira-
ton, now of fervent, transitory regard.
The attention paid to her she sometimes
wildly encourages. Much oftener it ap-
pears only to bore her; it is SO much a
matter of course it does make so little diff
| ference; it is the same practically And
she is sought perhaps all the moro because
| it is her habit TO be inaccessible.
What, then, is the reason for the occa-
sional transformation of her manner-for
| the listlessness, reaching to sadness, and
then again for the encouragement
wild did say?-that here and there
she Offers Notice herr
Under the influence of great emotion or
of some experience profound and prolonged
the eyes of certain women change their
color. From day TO day, as you notice her.
the eyes of Helen Barton change but little
They have changed, though, very much
since year ago They are good eyes still,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS with which, If she were
so minded, she could make an appeal eff
fectivcly. But they are not quite the
suave and violet eyes they used to be at
Scarborough, The world was in front of
them then, and they feared nothing, and
they trusted much They are now of q
colder, less bewitching, more ordinary blue,
| n color tanner, more effaced. They seem to
have past In them that you cannot ex-
plain. Put two and two together, though,
and sooner or later you will get at her his.
| tory.
With character intelligent, yet quite
unintellectual, with small capacity for
solid thought and a great power of feeling
kccnly, through frame magnificent and
| splendidly attuned, Helen Barton may not,
in the medical phrase, have been "a ia
yorable subject" for an attack OF love
fever Her life perhaps travelled upon lines
/ too few TO give her average chances of di-
version and escape. She was n handsome
| girl. and healthy, so organized, indeed,
| that she could scarcely fail to like the pass.
| ing pleasures of the hour and day. She
stuck to her work admirably, was won
derfully exact In her accounts, but ac-
counts are scarcely fascinating. She had
never read one good book steadily, or loved
nature, or cared for any art. Had, then,
that love fever, attacking her, found her
resourccless9 And she who, not flirt at
ALL and counting, as IL seemed, so little on
| the admiration of many-had she come one
| day TO set tremendous store on the admira'
| ton of oneg
1t would he hnzarding too much perhaps
| TO saw such admiration had been given and
had been withdrawn; some coveted care,
some superficial appreciation at least-with
tawdry show of passion--bestown and sud
denly ended Part of the change in Helen
Barton might DO explained by that, any
how. But the student of the young wom-
an. as she lives and suffers today-though
why do / say suffers" when all that Is
| quite evident Is that she is often intoler-
ably bored and sometimes inconsistency
| eauer and Is not quite as beautiful-the
student OF this young woman must not ex
oect ga lead"ltoo obvious In the solution
| Of her problem. The tone (half fippant, Il
| II not2) Oh that last sentence already jar,
on me. For, when think of Helen Bar
tons face as IL Is today, so sad, II seems
in its absence of all deep satisfaction, th,
elasticity of youthful nature hardly thcr,
any longer, the spring and heart of tn,
/ woman so much gone.
am, IL happens, on somewhat confiden
| tial terms with waiter at Scarborough
| He Is n waiter at the inn Miss Barton ha,
now left. And having real interest u
her,-liking her genuinely, and being sorr,
for whatever may have happened amiss-
I said to him week ago, with a seductive
frankness intended to elicit information
civilians. saw Miss Barton the other da,