The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1897-12-23
Duncan took The engineer into the

Il
teners in the room above. ~Thorndyke
turned TO the old mountaineer. "iou
see, now. Mr.. Kilgrow, what these men
will do. Your safety lies in keeping
out OF their reach. Come with me n
I'll let you out the back way"
When Kilgrow had gone. r%horndyke
went down to the sitting-room. but
neither there. nor afterwards at supper.
did Duncan or Protheroe refer TO the
unwelcome visitors; and Thorndyke
knew that the wary Scot had succeeded
in satisfying Protheroe's curiosity
without duplicating Kilgrow.
The young engineer brought letters
for Philip, one of which was reserved 10
I've read in the privacy of the attic bed
room. II was from Helen. and Philips
| conscience bit him when he tore IL open.
Then he smiled Mt his misgiviugs as he
read through the clo~scly-written pages.
9Th Mortons were here TO dinner last
night" she wrote. "and they wanted 20
know all about you; where you were and
what you were doing. You know best how
little we could tell them, but they thought
IL odd that you should prefer the wilds OF
Alabama I'm summer TO Lenox or Newport
They have taken n cottage just below us
| TOT the StuSOn. anu iftTTlNh Nioi'Nn a
brought his yacht around from Mount
Desert-I won't say Bar Harbor. That is
| gossip of the time and place., and ] could
fill pages with II. but I suppose YOU care for
none OF these things now. And really !
don't know just what you do care for: you
seem farther away IN Alabama than You
would II you were In Europe, but ] fancy
thai is because We are so utterly unfamiliar
with your present surroundings.
one thing | must tell you. however A
few OF us here-Derrick Morton. the Van
Ruyter girls, Arthur Haxten and his
brother Tom, Dorothy and John Berkeley.
and one morc-have undertaken to redeem
the frivolities of our corner of Newpor by
forming n reading circle. We read none
but new authors, and then we pick them 10
pieces with a refinement of criticism hat
would humble the most conceited beginner
II he could only hear us. ] think It's a pity
that some of them can't. don't your !
wish you could be here to help us. ! believe
you would make n distressingly acute In
quisitor, and the fact that you once tried
your hand at authorship would lend a pc
culiar zest to your censure. II II be true that
the best critics are the unsuccessful
writer's. Apropos, what ever became OF
your much-rejected manuscript? ] should
like to submit II as the effort OF one OF the
submerged.
IT suppose you have no present thought
Of coming back to civilization. From what
you say In your letters ] infer that you are
enjoying yourself, after some primitive
fashion, and, better than all else, that your
health is improving. Because ] can believe
the latter, j can continue to spare You
while the need exists: and since the separa-
ton has TO be, 1t is better that we should
bear II contenteuiy. ] should Re sorry TO
rave the good effect Of DIR. Perevin's pre-
scription marred by any repining Of mine,
and so long as you feel that the out-of-ooor
life is helping you, l hope you VIII not let
any strained sense of your duty 10 your
mother or to mo make you abridge II. We
shall get along famously without our preux
chevalier, and you are not to suppose thar
we are obliged to 20 about uncared for be
cause you happen to be buried In the forests
OF Alabama.
Write often. II you feel like II. but don't
let II become n bore. There Is nothing more
dreadful than having to write to some one
when you want to do something else. At
fectionately, as always. HELEN.
"P. ST. have been invited to Join a party
on Derrick Morton's yacht. and II you don't
hear from me again for two or three weeks.
you'll know l have accepted and that post
offices are not to be had for the skiing
Philip put the letter down with a
smile hat was more than half q sheer.
When one sets out to make himself the
advocate of an unworthy cause, mental
short-sightedness stands ready to dis
tort and confuse the Judgment; and in
the case of n letter, the dispassionate
Journalism of written language lends
itself easily to i%nferential m%isconstruc'
ton.
How could / ever have fancied that
she had any warmth or depth apart
from the intellectual side of her char.
ncter?' he asked himself. Tn sure ]
don't know. any more than / know why
| always DOL IL for granted that we
were divinely appointed TO be the com
ponent partsofthat Mysterious creation
I which the marriage service declares &c
be one person, but which all experience
says is still more than ever two. Conlt
Elsie Duncan write such a letter as
that to the man She loves? Would sh,
turn neat phrases and Bah! thu
comparison is absurd! And yet, on the
. other hand, it isn't fair to blame Heller
because ! don't happen to be the one
> man in the universe who is capable o
calling out the best there is in her; ant
! don't blame her. She may find th'
right man yet; it's barely possible thi
cruise in Morton's yacht will turn GU
; to be more yearly q divine appointment
than an agreement made by our father
: while we were in swaddlin Clothes"
Thus Philip, in a plausible attemp
: to justify himself. How should he know
g that the cool and dispassiona,e lette
was only a part and parcel of the hare
J task Helen had set herself in the begin
!. ming? How was he to guess that sh'
had steadily resolved from the first Il
! say nothing that would tempt him t.
turn back to his hurt? BY what innel
5 prescience should he rave been enabled
10 read between the lines the passionat,
: yearHing that was so resolutely effacet
? in the written words? As he stood a
his window looking out into The cain
D stiffness of the moonlit night, wha
Z good angel was there to tell him that "A
another window in far-off New England
the writer of that letter knelt with we
eyes, beseeching the Merciful One Il
protect and preserve the absent lover
: There was none; nor was there any in
ward monitor 10 hint that propinquity
the charm of an inherent face, and
r simple %outpouring of womanly sym
patty had united with his own mora
and physical weakness to turn hin
aside from the plain way OF rectitud
a and honor.
e lTo DE CONTINUED
Must he an Astroioger.