Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-04-16

comely figure silhcuetted momentarlly
/ against the pendent ivy, was the agree
able answer to this query
AS We have both come very long
distances, and iEdisputably upon the
same quest" she began, lit is but fair.
indeed, the right and civil hing to do,
think, to ask you if you have come to
any decision about the house? | be-
lieve-here her eyebrows went up and
she showed a CLEAN Of teeth-..in all
business matters man takes prece-
dence."
But in matters of sentiment" he
interrupted her, woman"
Sentiment" she said. do YOU
think, then, even in her business trans
actions. a woman is necessarily senti-
mental?"
Il certainly do he answered.
she moved on down nearer the
Tagged edge of the reach, and stood
looking away across it to the green
! meadows opposite, each detail of her
charming person duplicated in the
All. If you knew me better" she
said, you would find that | am a most
, prosalc creature. | threw aside senti-
ment ten years ago, when | threw aside
my youth. My head at this moment.
II yOu could see the workings of it, is
full OF the prosiest speculations as to
the drainage of the cottage. the exact
o. II or, Of
stands, fer I have a strong suspicion
that l. is built upon clay; I am pro-
pounding, too, whether | like the
Kitchen range. The scullery strikes
me as having been thought of after
ward; and about the bathroom fittings
/ am just wondering. 1t seems to me
they are inadequate, as compared with
the fioWery suggestion of sanitary per-
lection conveyed in the Daily Tele-
! graph; anG-well, the drawing and
dining rooms are certainly rather cir.
cumscribed, aren't they?"
Yet, at the same time. you are
agreeall,' pleased on the whole?" he
suggested
"On the principle that nothing. even
in slx-room cottages on the banks of
the Thames, can entirely reach the
tullness Of our expectations, yes"
He smiled and spread his hands.
In that respect the best of us are
but as little children, ever searching
after what is absolutely impossible in
this world-perfection," he answered
'Yes-why is it? We should not like
it if we could get it, either Yet we
search, search, search, and waste our
whole lives
She turned her arch glance toward
! him and waited
1T is cur disease Perhaps it is put
! there purposely, and here comes the
irony of tiff everything were perfec-
ton we shouldn't know it,
mo, we should want counteracting
fOils, like mileStones, to show us it is
perfection" Her eyes travelled up the
green slope toward the house, and she
added, Tevert1ng to it: But you-you
also like this by no means faultless
bijou residence. Yes, I can see by
your face-your face assures me that
you have seen something today that
pleases you"
He dropped his hazel eyes upon her
and leaned on his cane.
Yes he said, slowly; ''I have Ger
tainly seen something that pleases me
today. But" he added, quickly, 81 am
willing to waive priority, if l have it,
which I doubt, in your favor and back
out of all competition with regard TO
the bijou residence. After all, what
does it signify? l am a bachelor,
anything will do me-"
And ] am a spiL ster," she said with
a smile. why should not anything
do for me?"
For all their never 'avin' met till
this ere morning they seem to be
mighty friendly" observed the care
taker, watching their departure down
the shady road together later. ct
seems to me to be more question of
taking each other than taking the
house They amt said nothing about
the house one way or t'other, but they
have said a good deal about each other
judging by their eyes"
The woman picked more wild
flowers as she went back, the man as
sisting her. Midway down the dusty
lane they rested on fallen oak, the
victim of recent cyclone, and told each
ether their biographies. At the inn,
close to the railway, they lunched to-
gether in the inn parlor, criticising the
proprietor's ideas of art afterward, a
task of elastic quality according to the
degree of opportunity for lingering de-
sired. And she-she never looked
prettier, even in her palmiest days.
Have you ever traced the genesis of
an acquaintance? 1t may be quite as
capable of wide advances and un-
dreamed conclusions as the genesis of
speech. You may begin in the troplc
of Cancer and end in Siberia or you
may begin in Siberia and end in the
tropic of Cancer; it's all a matter of
chance. But this man and this woman
began and ended in the tropic of Can 7
GER, and so there was a marriage in
the paper; but the bijou residence is
still unlet.-St. Paul's.