The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1898-12-23

''He turned his back on the past as il
1t had never existed. 1t broke his happi-
ness and changed the whole current Of his
life. They say the girl married well, for
Trescott was a wealthy man."
"And Merrill is fast becoming a rich
one, tooY
yes taking it all together, he should
be rather satisfied man, for his success
has been phenomenal"
The lone figure at the table near by half
thought this same himself-as the world
goes, it had dealt very kindly with him.
Through the plate glass windows he can
see the street crowds hurrying by in the
chill winter blast-many thinly clad, hun
CRY featured, without home or prospect of
work.
For him there was warmth, light, the
presence of tempting dishes, the company
of cheerful friends if he coveted it
wealth to spare, luxury at the wish.
| Yet with sigh Arthur Merrill opens
| a newspaper and spreads it before him, to
scan it's pages leisurely as he discusses
the meal at his elbow.
| New Years eve, and time for counting
up success or failure tried to catch the
old-time spirit Of joy, for he is one of the
favored few in the category of success.
| Suddenly, as he reads, self, surround
| ings, everything seems to fade as in a
dream.
| Once more he is in the not far distant
village where love made an humble home
palace, and meager earnings blessed be-
cause they were boarded for the girl he
expected to make his wife.
What blurs his sight so suddenly, what
for an instant checks his heart beats like
! q shock and then starts them up again
wildly, feverishly, is the first news he has
deigned to notice from Warren since the
last New Years days.
| 1t is the brief announcement Of the
death Of one Alvin Prescott
The woman Arthur Merrill had loved
still loved-is q widow.
What impulse of folly urges the man I
Like lurker, a culprit almost, Arthur
Merrill breasts the storm, drawing his
high collar about his face more to shield
them than to protect it.
-Four hours, and a strange, an cratic
| transition has taken place. He Is In the
| village Of Warren.
/ Looking back to dusk, the shrewd, dig
nihed business mind can scarcely analyze
the emotions that filled his mind with
longing and impulse, and sent him from
the city on the evening train.
/ Of course it was that little newspaper
item. OF course it was a memory OF
| Gladys.
And yet, he well knows she is not here
in Warren. q,
1t seemed, though, as he read Of that
death. that certain high barrier was
downfall the situation had seen 8
change.
i At all events, he felt that he could now
better endure to once more view old famil-
lar scenes, perhaps make few inquiries
as to the distant Iowa town where Alvin
prescott had just died, where he had mar
ried GLADYS Thorne.'
bis Warren friends might not readily
welcome him, however.
j Two had called at his city Office during
the year, and he had been ''too busy
several letters had come postmarked
Warren" and he had tossed them into
i the waste basket without reading them
determined to turn his back sternly. effec.
lively, on all the past.
i And now he was here, and there was
the old church, and right beside it the
former home of winsome Gladys Thorne
Nearly midnightr' murmured Merrill
"All the betterl will meet no one at this
late hour, and can get to the village hotel
! unperceived."
! Nearly midnight, the tower clock
told, vet late as it was, stormy as
it was, at that very moment from out OF
the house that Of yore held the bonny
treasure of Arthur Merrilrs life, came 3
woman.
She bore lantern, and thin old shawl
| enveloped her head. and she hurried, as il