Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-06-25

L ucTs
This is the best picture your father
ever had taken. He was ADJUST your
age. The sands of his life ran a long
time. He would have been ss in June"
Gerard took the case. The grave eyes
seemed looking back into his own with
familiar kindliness.
"Tell rue about it. Was he i'll? Did
he suffer much"
Had he been i'll should have writ
ten so. My letters told you of his grad
ual weakening of body and mind
through many months. He missed you
and Henry greatly as he failed. He
would sit hours at a time by his window
here and look down the road. think
he was watching for one or both of you
to come. And then, toward the last, he
sat oftenest on the back porch, with a
lingering expression in his eyes. He
seemed to be taking q farewell of the
hills he had always known and so soon
must leave. He did not speak often Of
you or Henry. You know he was a
reticent man.. The morning of the day
he died he asked when you were coming
home, and then he said: If I could
only know them reconciled-my two
boys An hour or SO later came In,
and he was sitting where you sit now,
with the album on his knee. spoke,
but he did not answer" Tears were fall
ing fast over Miss AIMS withered
checks. "He had died looking Mt the
picture of you and Henry, taken togeth-
err as children"
A blur passed again before Gerard's
eyes. He could not see the tintype in
his fingers. .... ....
"Do you think that Henry will be
herein timer
HE has been here through it all. He
came the day his father died." .
| The pronoun chs touched Gerard.
It seemed to put him at an immeasura-
BILE distance from the still form which.
without asking, he knew lay in the
closed parlor. AS mischievous little
boy, as wild young lad, he had received
the larger measure of tenderness, per-
haps because followed by the larger
measure of anxiety, BUT in the ten years
Of enlargement between the brothers
Judge Boynton had turned most to the
elder son. This had not been unnoticed
by Gerard, though his rare visits home
kept him from feeling the difference,
New interests had crowded out the old
Excitement of hours spent on 'changa
had put the even tenor of Bloomington
days far in the background. Until this
moment he had not realized with what
strong bonds home associations still
held him. The life Of which he had
grown to think as narrow and primitive
and slow now seemed to have held the
essence of true existence. The rich
broker, noted among business men for
his keenness and sagacity, having al
influence that extended widely beyond
his palatial home and that had brought
him many responsible positions, sud
denly felt himself pitifully alone. He
thought of the woman upstairs with the
beautiful face and the haughtily-poised
head, but the thought brought no sense
of nearness to any human being. Their
he met his aunt's eyes-still wet an.l
shining with almost maternal tender
ness. He was not alone, after all. He
got up and went over to her, putting q
hand on her shoulder.
81 will go in and see him now"
Shut into the darkened parlor-be
fore him only that coffin covered with
the costly flowers which he himself had
chosen, Gerard Boynton stood still. He
felt something keeping him back
something that stood between him and
the dead man, and that would not lei
him look upon the quiet face. And he
knew what it was. The estrangement
that had grown between two brothers
fronted him now like visible thing
1t was haunting him with it's power tc
hold him await was reminding him
that his was the blame.
He remembered we'll how it began
He had come for a summer vacation
and found at the old home girl whom
Henry had brought as his fiancee
girl delicate and shy, with the sweetest
smile in the world. And because of tho
smile, because Miss Ann petted her
and his father talked of her, and Henry
followed her with looks of devotion, he
had slipped into way of trying tc
please her more than anyone else could
please so we'll that one day
Henry paused in the library door
with gray eyes blazing black in color
less face, and quivering lips hurting
such words as traitor" and "scoun
drer' at the brother who stood thu;
holding q frightened girl in his arms
and giving back defiance for indigna
ton. There were tears from Miss Anr
and reproaches from the judge; Henry
, shut the bitterness of heart made void
) into his own room for days; the CIR
, with the smile went back TO her people
, and Gerard went also.
But while with Henryit had been the
love of life time, with Gerard it wa,
: only phase. His passion dulled with
distance; his letters grew less frequent
and stopped altogether after one even
, ing at club reception when pair o.
: magnificent black eyes looked into hi:
own. He married the eyes and for
, tune with them. The fortune invested
had been many times doubled, had
} brought him the reputation of being
: | i