Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1898-02-17
Continued.

and Wrangling OF porterS and cabmen,
confused her not little,--and the bold
looks of admiration bestowed on her
freely by The male loungers sauntering
near the doors of the restaurant and
with shame. She had never travelled
entirely alone beforehand she began to
De frightened at the pand amonium of
sights and noises that srrged around
her. Yet she never once thought of
returning,-she never dreamed of going
to any of her London friends. lest on
hearing of her trouble they might re-
proach Philip-and this Thelma would
not have endured. For the same reas-
on, she had said nothing to Britta
In her then condition, it seemed to
her that only one course lay open for
her to follow,-and that was to go quiet
~ Monochrome to the Altenfjord. No
one would be to blame for her depar-
ture but herself, she thought, and
Philip would be free. Thus she rea-
soned.-if. indeed, she reasoned at all.
But there was such frozen stiffness
In her soul-her senses were so numb
ed with pain, that as yet she scarcely
realized either what had happened or
what she herself was doing. She was
as one walking in sleep-the awaken
ing, bitter as death, was still to come.
Presently a great rush of people be-
gan to stream towards her from one of
the platforms, and trucks of luggage,
heralded by shouts of, "out of the way,
there!" and "By'r leave!" came trund
ling rapidly along-the tidal train from
the Continent had just arrived.
Dismayed at the increasing confu
sion and uproar, Thelma addressed
herself to an official with a gold band
round his hat.
Can you tell me-" she asked timidly,
where l shall take ticket for Hull?"
The man glanced at the fair, anxious
face, and smiled ood-humoredly.
you've come to the wrong station,
MISS" he said. you want the Mid
land line"
"The Midland?" Thelma felt more
bewildered than ever.
"Yes,-the Midland" he repeated
rather testify. tits a good way from
here-you'd better take a cab"
She moved away,-but started and
drew herself back into a Swallowed
a rich, mellifluous voice, which she In
stantly recognized, smote suddenly on
her ears.
"And as before remarked, my good
fellow" the voice was saying, 81 am
not a disciple of the semi-obscure. If
man has thought which is worth
declaring, let him declare it with free
and noble utterance-don't let him wrap
1t up in multifarious parcels of dreary
verbosity! There's too much of that
KIND Of thing going on nowadays-in
England, at least. There's kind of
imitation of art which isn't art at ALL
a morbid, bilious, bad imitation. You
OILY get close to the real goddess in
Italy. l wish l could persuade you to
come and pass the winter with me
tLere!"
1t was Beau Lovelace who spoke, he
was talking to George Lorimer The
two had met in Paris,-Lovelace was
on his way to London, where matter
of business summoned him for few
days, and Lorimer, somewhat tired of
the French capital, decided to return
with him. And here they were, just ar
rived at Charing Cross,-and they
walked across the station arm in arm,
little imagining who watched them
from behind the shelter of one of the
waiting-room doors, with a yearning
sorrow in her grave blue eyes. They
stopped almost opposite to her to light
their cigars, she saw Lorimer's face
quite distinctly and heard his answer
to Lovelace.
"Well, I'll see what / can do about
1t, Beau! You know my mother al
ways likes to get away from London in
winter-but whether we ought to infiict
ourselves upon you,-you being liter
airy man too"
Nonsense, you won't interfere in
the least with the flow of inky inspira-
tion,' laughed Beau. "And as for
your mother, I'm in love with her, as
you are aware! l admire her almost
as much as / do Lady Bruce Errington
and that's saying great deal! By
the-by. If Phil can get through his
share of this country's business, he
might do worse than bring his beauti-
full Thelma to the Lake of Como for
while. I'll ask him!"
And having lit their Havanas success
fully they walked on and soon disap-
peared. For one instant Thelma felt
strongly inclined to run after them,
IKE a little forlorn child that had lost
its way,-and. unburdening herself of
all her mseries to the sympathetic
George, entreat. with tears, to be taken
back to that husband who did not
want her any more. But she soon
oyercame this emotion.-an calling to
mind the instructions OF the official
personage whose advice she had sought,
she hurried out the Of huge. brilliantly
lit station and taking a hanson. was
5~;,.ar &c she reuupSted. to the Mid