River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-10-23
Winifred's
Career
By JULIA MAGRUDER
TEMPLEToN had gone

mind that she could never be satls-
fed without 'career"-but she had
not gone far enough to decide what
that career was to be. She was %
years old, and as she had been from
the hour of her debut" an object
of ardent attention from the young
men with whom she came in contact,
she had had an amount of experience
in that vapid sense of the world, that
made her feel that she had pricked
the bubble Of social success and dis
closed to herself the fact that it was
filled with air.
As a matter of fact, her experience
was q very limited one, but her field
of vision was too limited itself TO
make her aware that this was so. She
lived in picturesque suburb of large
city, and certainly she had run the
gamut of all that life offered there.
IT was because she found no satisfac-
ton in it that she assumed that there
was no such thing as satisfaction in
the ordinary social life of young
girl, and so she decided that she must
have a career.
The fact was Winifred had been
stimulated to this resolve by a sense
Of resentment which she felt toward
a person in whom she would fain have
found the mental ambition and activ-
ity which was so super-abounding in
herself. This person was young Muir
ray Graham, who had loved her from
childhood almost, and whose only
drawback in her eyes was that he
lacked earnestness in the pursuit OF
this same all-important obJect-a
career.
Murray's father was doctor, and
so, almost involuntarily, as Winifred
declared, he had studied medicine and
taken his degree. This done, he had
fallen back into a life Of what VIM
fred, at least, considered demorallZ-
ing inertia. His father was still In ac-
tive practice, and Murray, as he put
it. covered the field at home; so, when
Winifred inquired why he did not then
20 away, the answer was of nature
that was equally tender in its terms
and irritating in its effect.
This state of affairs it was that led
to Winifred's decision that she must
have a career, augmented by further
decision that that career should not be
marriage. She knew very well that
this resolution of hers added vastly
to the sting of her rejection of Muir
ray GraEam-and she further and de-
lberately sharpened this sting by sug-
costing that it might be that Of a
trained nurse. She saw that this made
Murray frantic, and SO she gave it the
preference over several other
careers" that had occurred to her,
or at least, so she told Murray when
she announced her intention of going
off alone to the country for her sum-
mer vacation, to consider and decide
the important matter.
1t was a lovely old-fashioned place
in the deep country to which she be-
took herself An old great aunt lived
there alone, and when Winifred ar
rived with the avowed determination
of spending the whole summer, and
declared that she not only desired no
young companions, but wouldconsider
any such a nuisance, old Miss Temple
ton-who lived here alone with her
servant-made her very welcome and
told her to enjoy herself in. her own
way. 1t was Winifred's intention to
do a vast deal of reading this summer,
and she had brought with her a great
lot of rather ponderous-looking books.
These were chiefly on the subject of
advanced womanhood, or general
economics.
One afternoon when the sun had sunk
in the west, leaving a rich glow behind
him through the distrant trees, Win
fired lay in her hammock and gazed
out across the river to where
the full round moon was rising white
and transparent looking. There was
no denying the fact to herself, she was
Just as lonesome as lonesome could
be. There was Aunt Kitty up at the
house, but Aunt Kitty was used to
being alone, and besides, that was not
the sort of companionship that she
wanted. What sort, then? she asked
herself, but she stifed the reply be-
fore it could take shape in her mind.
She began to wonder what her
various girl friends, who were off at
CAV summer resorts, were doing
lust now, and at the thought of the
dancing and boating and bathing and
swimming, she had a kind of turning
of the heart toward the repudiated
fleshpots that made her angry and
ashamed of herself. Still it prompted
her to think, what did she want with
career anyway? What had put the
notion into her head? 1t was not real
Nv for her own advancement, and she
knew it. Some one else's place in the
world was dearer to her far than
that, and it was just for this reason
that he would not take that place and
make for himself a career that she
knew he would do honor to-that she
had felt determined to make the most
Of her own capacity, inferior as she
knew it to be when she compared it TO
his. Oh. dear, dear, it was very lonely
here in this beautiful spot! The fad
ing sunlight and the waxing moonlight
were almost too exquisite. Her heart
expanded under the spell of their
beauty, but it also ached and longed
almost unexpectedly.
The hour was intensely still. Had it
not been so she would not have heard
the faint patter of the mules feet on
the towpath as he came in sight pull
ing leisurely at the rope that lost it
self behind the bushes. Winifred kept
perfectly still. She always avoided
making any movement when the canal