Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-03-04
THIRTY YER8UB TWENTYl0NE.
ny =. @. CrA1gfe, ,


ny r. 9. Craagfe, II.
Copyright. 1soc. by Daily Story Pub. Coz
Miss Nelson, aged thirty. was not
untutored in the ways of man. For
many years she had reigned in her
fathers house, where he. proud sire,
from early days had brought his many
friends (for he was very rich) that
they might see how beautiful she was.
And they saw and came again. So
she grew in wisdom and in stature
naturally enough-in favor with man.
OF her favor with woman perhaps the
less said the better.
1t takes man three score years and
ten to live the fullness of his time,
after which his life is but little blessed.
Using language somewhat the same, it
takes woman not more than one score
learn the fullness of mans heart; after
which her life is often greatly damned
at least, so we have been told.
Bearing all these things in mind, it
can readily be seen that by nature and
by training Saying nothing of the
wealthy, Miss Nelson held the field,
armed to the teeth and armored we'll
about the heart. Not so was Berton
Goodrich. Though reared, even as was
she, in a fathers wifeless house, no
hollow square of adulation ever com
passed him about. The women who
had come to see his mother never
crossed the threshold after she was
buried. Dame Goodrich, although her
father wore a corenet, and her family
tree (eminently Blackstonian) fixed its
roots fairly about a kingly neck, was
greatly lamented when she died, but
SHINY mourned when her will was
read and promised requests were prov
ed to have been forgotten.
This one SON of a silent Stern-faced
father carved his own staff of destiny.
He had brain and muscle, judgment
and courage and self-eonfidence. He
held his head high, as becomes a man,
and women, speaking to other women,
called him handsome. None had told
him so; for he had kept beyond their
reach. This was bad, for knowing
little of them, he took too much for
granted, which, in later days, made
him believe a great deal that they
said.
He came to the Nelson's house at
shutdown, and, with his host, walked
about the place through the twilight.
When they went to heir supper his
eyes, slightly dazed by the splendor OF
the lights, saw something after the
nature of an angelic vision at the head
of the table. He bowed and murmured
the usual ~inarticulates rs the father
made them known the one 70 the
other. Then he went to the seat at
her right hand and partook of the
things before him.
Women sometimes come close to the
truth of things, and the Misses Wythe
who sat opposite Goodrich during the
meal, dialogued the matter after the
lights went out at eleyen-fifteen.
Martha said the elder, poking the
broom beneath the bed, for tramps,
I'm perfectly disguised"
so am l." replied the other, battling
with the patent shannholder. But isn't
it just as l told you? Did you ever see
such a woman? Caught him before he
even knew. what she looked like; and
he never noticed that she hadn't fixed
her hair after her nap, that her neck
ribbon was full of black holes from her
silver pin, that her finger nails weren't
polished, that"
"That her slipper wasn't tied
but he tied it afterward in the par
Tor. Oh, Belle. it was simply disgrace
full. When he tied that shoe she
showed" Her voice was lost in a
whisper.
why, Martial"
YES, she did! But, Belle, dear, how
does she make men like her SOP" The
question was an anguished wall, for
Martha was thirty-three and lovers
stayed afar off. Belle, who was forty
years, save one, banked a pillow to
greater softness and sighed.
All that these two maiiens said was
meant to mean that Goodrich was be-
yond all hope.
For a week things went their smiling
way. Wherever nature had half-form-
ed a masterpiece of Gene there would
Goodrich and Miss Nelson sit together
on a broad rock and finish out the pic
lures. If the moon dropped a blank
ray upon the lawn between two trees
there a hammock would be swung.
Thus they went the gamut of the
poses; and under all was the talking,
talking, talking of things not meant
for other ears. Sometimes, between