Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1896-07-11

shoot att?
II know well enough, and SO do you,"
replied the young man, nonchalantly,
going back to his chair and relighting
his cigar. "Theyall will get you some
day, if you don't get them first"
".
A VANISHING POINT OF VIEW.
When Ringbrand left the hospitable
mansion on the mountain and began his
two-mile walk to Tregarthen, he was
distracted by more different kinds of
perplexity than usually fall to the lot
of man of his temperament. The
friendly footing upon which he was
established at ''The Laurels" gave HIM
opportunities for constant association
with Hester which had swept away all
his earlier doubts as to the depth and re-
atty of his attachment for the girl; but,
assuming that he could win her-and he
was by no means sure that it was SO
written in the book of possibilities
was different enough from his ideal to
demand very disconcerting readjust-
ment of the lines upon which he had
formed his somewhat indefinite plans
for domestic future. Like most other
men, he had painted for his life a pos
sibe matrimonial background, but in
this picture the colors harmonized
artistically with the neutral tints of his
own studious habits. There was to be
q quiet home, with books and works cf
art, and an atmosphere of thoughtful
refinement whose peaceful calm should
be ruf11ed by no rude blasts of passion; a
home which should be u small city OF
refuge from the din and turmoil of the
strenuous battle for existence. The
central figure in this ideal retreat had
never been quite clearly defined, but
she was to be intellectual and endowed
with quick sympathy, and she was to
embody the artists ideal of the other
half of himself which should divine
with sensitive intuition the subtitle
thread of genius in his work. A hasty
review of the results of his acqua;nt
ance with Hester Latimer brought out
with alarming distinctness the fact
that she possessed none of the attributes
of this ideal, save that, perhaps, her
charming individuality made it i'm
possible to say that she was not intel
lectual. She was positive and limo.
Gently self-assertive; and she had al
ready given him shock by avery frank
and ingenious criticism of one of his
stories which had appeared in recent
number of one of the magazines. She
was essentially of her own day and gen
GRAFTON; and she apparently knew little
and cared less about the subtler dis
tinctions of motives and of character
which SO torment and perplex the
student of his kind. Without in the
least suspecting it, and being, on the
contrary, quite fully resolved to keep
in touch with bristling activity of
modern life, Hugh Ringbrand was
already beginning to acquire the intro,
spective habit of closet-student; peace
and quietness, and well-selected IL
brary, seemed to comprehend the con-
ditions most necessary to his well-be-
ing; and such an environment with the
breezy personality of Hester Latimer
for the central figure appeared almost
laughably homogeneous.
To do him full justice, Ringbrand
tried very earnestly to reason his way
out of the emotional tangle in which he
found himself-the NOR. insistently,
perhaps, because he felt his powers OF
resistance slipping away from him in a
closer acquaintance with Hester. The
experience of those few weeks was EN-.
tirely without precedent in his well.
ordered life. He had said to himself
in certain self-congratulatory moods
that he had successfully passed the age
when passion usurps the place of i'm.
partial judgment; that an artist must
be SO far removed from the emotional
side of life in his own experience as t.
be able to look upon it with the cool and
dispassionate eye of a critical student;
and up to that unlucky moment when
he had seen Hester Latimer trip across
the platform at Chilwanee Junction he
found little difficulty in conforming to
the artistic requirement. Now, how.
ever, the point of view seemed to have
veered so suddenly that it left him CROP
ing in mist of uncertainties, in which
he was sure of nothing but an over
desire which contemptuously pushed
aside the arguments of reason as of nc
weight and quite unworthy of the
smallest consideration.
And then the incident of the evening
the indistinct shadow in the bushes
Henry's nasty and vlndictlve intention
the colonel's interference, and Hester
| sitting unmoved through it all. What
was the meaning of this warlike episode
Were such things of SO little moment
| in the daily life of the south that they
| could be passed over without comment
| 1t would appear so, since his hosts had
| Immediately ignoWd the incident rs
though it had never been. Even Hester
had been able to take up the thread OF
inconsequent conversation again with
no visible sign of perturbation or en-
| barrassment. What was the reason for
Henry's sudden and savage wrath
| Could the intruder have been a common
marauder of chicken-coops, or was he
q sneak thief hoping to find the house
Il