Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-02-22
A LITTLE REBEL
By "THE DUCHESS.
CHAPTER l.
Perplex' d in the extreme.

Lie )IOl0SSOi, SllIlIS UGlOIc HIS III
tasted breakfast, is looking the very pic
ture of dismay. Two letters lie before
him; one is in his hand. the other is on
the tablecloth. Both are open; but one,
the opening lnes-that tell of the death
of his old friend-are all he has read;
whereas he has read the other, from
start to finish, already three times 1t is
from the old friend himself, written a
week before his death, and very urgent
and very pleading. The professor has
mastered it's contents with ever-increas-
ing CONSERVATION.
Indeed. so great a revolution has it Gre
ated in his mind, that his face-the index
of that excellent part Of hlm-has, for
the moment, undergone q complete
change. Any ordinary acquaintance now
entering the professors rooms land those
acquaintance might be Whitfield down to
quite a little few, would hardly have
known him. For the abstraction that, as
a rule, characterized his featureS-the
way he has of looking at you, as it he
doesn't see you, that harnesses the SIM
pie, and enrages the others-is all gone.
Not a trace of it remains. 1t has given
place to terror, open and unrestrained.
"A girlv murmurs he in a feeble tone,
falling back in his chair. And then
again, in a louder tone of dismay-'A
girln' He pauses again, and now again
gives way 10 the lear that Is destroy
nina grown girl!'
After this, he seems too overcome to
continue his reflections, SO goes back to
the fatal letter Every now and then
groan escapes him, mingled with mourn
full remarks, and extracts from the sheet
in his hand
poor old Wynter! Gone at last"
staring at the shaking signature at the
end of the letter that speaks SO plainly
of the coming icy clutch that should pre-
vent the poor hand from forming ever
again even such sadly cratic charac-
tiers as these. "At least glancing at
the half-read letter on the cloth-'this
tells me so. His solicitors, l suppose.
Though what Wynter could want with
a solicitor-poor old fellow! He was
often very good to me in the old days.
| don't believe [ should have done even
as much as / have done, without him.
1t must be fully ten years since
he threw up his work here and went to
Australia! ten years. The girl
must have been born before be vent
glances at letter. My child, my beloved
Perpetual, the one thing on earth l love,
will be left entirely alone. Her mother
died nine years ago. She is only II, and
the world lies before her, and never
soul in it to care how it goes with her.
| intrust her to you-(a groam. To you
| give her. knowing that if you are liv-
ing, dear fellow, you will not desert me
in my great need, but will do what you
can for my little one.
But what is that?' demands the pro-
fessor, distractedly. He pushes his
spectacles up to the the top of his head, and
then drags them down again, and casts
them wildly into the sugar-bOwl. What
OH earth am | to do with girl OF IL
If it had been boy! even that would
have been bad enough-but a girl! And,
of course-I know Wynter-he has died
md 70 do
that, as he always lived without one.
Poor old Wynterr'-as if little ashamed
of himself II don't see how / can at
ford to put her out to- nurse He pulls
himself up with a start. ''To nurse! a
girl of II! She'll want to be going out
to balls and things-at her age"
As if smitten to the earth by this last
awful idea, he picks his glasses out of
the sugar and goes back to the letter.
you will find her the dearest girl
most loving, and tender-hearted and full
of life and spirits.
Good heayens!' says the. professor.
He puts down the letter again, and be
gins to pace the room. Life and spir-
it's A sort of young kangaroo no
doubt What will the landlady say? /
shall leave these rooms''-with a fond
and lingering gaze round the dingy old
apartment that hasn't an article in it
worth ten sous-''and takes small house
committeeman But-er-it
won't be respectable, 1 think. I've
heard things said about-er-things like
that It's no good in looking an old
fogy, if you aren't one; it's no earthly
use''-standing before a glass and rue
fully examining his countenance- in
looking fifty if you are only thirty-four.
1t will be a scandal" says the profess
sor mournfully. They'll cut her, and
they'll cut me, and-what the deuce did
INV mo his
daughter? A real live girl of II!
It'll be the death of me-" says the pro-
fessor, hopping his brow. what
wrathfully-" that determined spend
thrift meant, by finging his family on
my shoulders, Lob! Poor old Wynterw
Here he grows remorseful again.
Abuse man dead and gone, and one,
too, who had been good to him in many
ways when he, the professor, was young
err than he is now, and had just quar-
relied with his father who was always
only too prone to quarrel with anyone
who gave him the chance, seems but
poor thing. The professors quarrel
with his father had been caused by the
young mans refusal to accept a govern
ment ppointment-obtained with some
diffculty-for the very insufficient, and,
as it seemed to his father, iniquitous
reason, that he had made up his mind to
devote his life to science. WINTER too,
was a scientist of no mean order, and
would, probably, have made his mark in
the world, if the world and it's pleasures
had not made their mark on him. He
had been young Curzon's coach at one
time, and finding the lad kindred
spirit, had opened out to him his own
large store of knowledge, and stepped
him in that great sea of which no man
yet has drank enough-for all begin.
and leave it. athirst.
Poor Wynter! The professor, turning in
his stride up and down the narrow, I'M
comfortable room, one of the many that
lie off the Strand, finds his eyes resting
on that other letter carelessly opened,
barely begun.
From WINTERS solicitor! 1t seem RI
diculous that Wynter should have had a
solicitor. With a sigh, he takes it up,
opens it out and begins to read At the
end of the second page, he starts. re-
reads a sentence or two, and suddenly
his face becomes Illuminated. He throws
up his head. He cackles a bit. He looks
as if he wants to say something very
| badly urrah,'' probably-only he has
| forgotten how to do it, and finally goes