Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-08-21

hurried-like on your journey"
yes, it's more than queer, it's mad,
and l shall do the best | can to bring
myself back to saner thoughts and
saner conduct by staying at Mereside
tonight and returning the first thing
in the morning to Conismere to con-
tinue my journey"
He was speaking with impotence
which seemed unnatural to him, and
his companion observed that his feet
tapped the floor of the cart in a rest
of the sleigh-bells grew louder and
louder behind them, and the dull
sound of horses quick steps upon the
snow; while the bright notes of a NO.
mans laughter rang out clearly, and
filled the young Yorkshireman with a
strong curiosity to see this lakeside
siren, the very sound of whose voice
bore eXhilaration to its hearers. In
a moment more the sleigh had dashed
by, with its twinkling lights, it's jng-
ling bells; and all that the doctor
could see through the darkness was,
that it contained two people, sitting
side by side. But as it passed with
whir-r-r and rush of cold air, some
thing, light and soft and scented,
fiuttered up like a curled white leaf,
and fell on the young mans knees
like an unconscious challenge of fasci-
mating, warm-blooded coquetry: a
ladys handkerchief, filmy and lace
edged, sweet with perfume that
whispered through the senses to the
imagination, and brought up fancies OF
delicate white fingers that had held the
dainty toy. The old villager, how
ever, was not troubled by superf1uous
poetry; on catching sight Of the hand
kerchief, he began to call out Justify:
Hey! Woa! Stop! You've dropped
summet. Your ladyship, hey"
The sleigh was rapidly approaching
dip in the road where group of
rough stone cottages, one of which
was an inn of the humblest kind,
broke the straight line of the roadside,
and threw little streams of light across
the snow through their latticed win
dOWs. At the sound of the old mans
cries both occupants of the sleigh
turned their heads, and at last. as he
still shouted, the jingling of the bells
subsidized to a faint tinkle. the sleigh
drew up just out of the CLEANS OF
light from the cottage windows, and
a mans voice called out impatiently:
What is it?"
The young doctor, holding the hand
kerchief, had already leapt down from
the cart, and was running over the
snow as fast as limbs stiffened by cold
and a cramped position could carry
him. Even as he ran, and the rapid
movement dispersed the fanciful
reveries which novel circumstances
and his new and strange perversity
had induced, a superstitious and
dreamy idea took possession of him
that this trif1ing accident had some
meaning for him, some bearing upon
his future life; and at the same time
an entirely mundane and applicable
curiosity arose in his mind concerning
the companion of the lady. His voice
was young, therefore he was not her
husband; it was that of a gentleman,
therefore he could not lie the coach
man. The Yorkshireman was filled
with interest by the time he reached
the sleigh, which was drawn up on
the left-hand side of the road. 1t
was the lady who held the reins, sit
ting high on cushions at the right
But if, on the strength of the old vii
layers tattling stories, the doctor
had scented a scandal, he was disap-
pointed; for the man beside her, sit
ting respectfully upright with folded
arms, was in livery, and could be no
other than the groom.
''Well, what do you want?" asked
the lady imperious1y, before the
stranger had appeared beside her.
Hard times, I suppose, and you've
been out of work for weeks, and have
a hungry family, and want a nights
lodging. Well, here you are, but you
ought not to stop people on the public
road, you know; it looks like an at
tempt at highway robbery without the
romance of it,
To be continued.