The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1897-03-05

catln' aud jamie Juneau IOI ItSlStdu
The officers O. the law, would We, Rob
bie?" i.
What officers? Those fellows?
hey're no more officers than you are.
hat were they trying todo?"
Duncan took the engineer into the
house, and his reply was lost to the lis
teners inshe room above. Thorndyke
turned to the old mountaineer. You
see, now, Mr.. Kilgrow, what these men
win do. Your safety lies in keeping
out of their reach. Come with me and
I'll let you out the back way"
When Kilgrow had gone, Thorndyke
vent down to the sitting-room, but
Aeither there, nor afterwards at supper,
,ld Duncan or Protheroe refer to the
unwelcome visitors; and Thorndyke
anew 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 to
he read in the privacy of the attic bed
room. 1t was from Helen, and Philips
conscience bit him when he tore it open.
Then he smiled at his misgivings as he
read through the closely-written pages.
"The Mortons were here to dinner last
night" she wrote, land they wanted to
know all about you; where you were and
what you were doing. You know best how
little we could tell them, but they thought
it odd that you should prefer the wilds of
Alabama in summer to LenoX or Newport.
They have taken a cottage just below us
for the season, and Derrick Morton has
brought his yacht around from Mount
Desert-I won't say Bar Harbor. That is
gossip of the time and place, and 1 could
fill pages with it, but suppose you care for
none of these things now. And really I
don't know just what you do care for you
seem farther away in Alabama than you
would if you were in Europe; but fancy
that is because we are SO utterly unfamiliar
with your present surroundings.
One thing I 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 more-haVe undertaken to redeem
the frivolities Of our corner of Newport by
forming reading circle. We read none
but new authors, and then we pick them to
pieces with a refinement of criticism that
would humble the most conceited beginner
if he could only hear us. / think it's pity
that some of them can't; don't you? [
wish you could be here to help us. believe
you would make a distressingly acute in
| quisitor and the fact that you once tried
your hand at authorship would lend pc
uliar zest to your censure, if it be true tina!
| he best critics are the unsuccessful
0-riters. Apropos, what ever became Of
ycur much-rejected manuscript? ! should
| ike to submit it as the effort of one of the
| submerged.
II suppose you have no present thought
| of coming back to civilization. From what
| you say in your letters infer that you are
| anjoying yourself, after some primitive
| fashion, and, better than all else, that your
lealth is improving. Because 1 can believe
| the latter, I can continue to spare you
while the need exists; and since the separa-
lion has to be, it is better that we should
Dear it contentedly. 1 should be sorry to
nave the good effect of DR.. Perevin's pre-
cription marred by any repining of mine.
ID SO long as you feel that the out-Of-dOor
lie is helping you, 1 hope you will not let
my strained sense of your duty to your
aother Or to Inc make you abridge it. We
hall get along famously without our preuX
3evalier, and you are not to suppose that
re are obliged to go about uncared for be-
ause you happen to be buried in the forests
of Alabama.
write often, if you feel like it, but don't
let it become 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. 81 have been invited to join party
on Derrick Morton's yacht, and if 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 asking"
Philip put the letter down with a
smile that was more than half a sheer.
When one sets out to make himself the
advocate of an unworthy ca use, mental
short-sightedness stands ready to dis
tort and confuse the judgment; and in
the case of letter, the dispassionate
Journalism of written language lends
itself easily to inferential misconstruc-
ton.
"How could I ever have fancied that
she had any warmth or depth apart
from the intellectual side of her char
acter?" he asked himself I'm sure I
don't know, any more than / know why
I always took it for granted that we
were divinely appointed to be the com
>onent parts of thatmysterious creation
which the marriage service declares to
he one person, but which all experience
says is still more than ever two. Could
| elsie Duncan write such a letter as
that to the man She loves? Would she
turn neat phrases and Bah! the
comparison is absurd! And yet, on the
oTher hand, it isn't fair to blame Helen
because [ don't happen to be the one
man in the universe who is capable of
calling out the best there is in her; and
don't blame her. She may find the
ght man yet; it's barely possible this
luise in Morton's yacht will turn out
10 be more nearly divine appointment
than an agreement made by our fathers
While we were in neutrality-suspicious..
Thus Philip, in a plausible attcmrt
10 justify himself. How should he know
mat the cool and dispassionate lettc,
las only a part and parcel of the hard
task Helen had set herself in the begr
hlng? How was he to guess that she
aad steadily resolved from the first t.
'aF nothing that would tempt hin
nm back to his hurt? BY what r. 81
fescIcnce should he have been enablea
. lead between the lines the assicnat.
earning that was so resolutely offacc
4 the written words? AS he stood Z
rs window looking out into the cain.
stiffness of the moonlit night, wha
good angel was there to tell him that a.
another window in far-off New Enrlay 4
the writer of that letter knelt with 1ret
eyes, beseeching the Merc;ful O,,e r.
protect and preserve the absent lover.
There was none; nor was Their, anv IN
ward monitor to hint that pr opinouitv.
the charm of an Innocent TO-