The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1902-08-19

Retrospect" circumstance" or "If,'
which gave its name to his volume OF
collected verse.
If had known-bah-there 1t isl
What does it matter now?
Yet this pressed spray of clematis
Again reminds me how
But, never mind-it's gone and past
What does 1t matter now?
Had you but spoken or l not stayed
There on the lawn with her
This clematis had been, 1 wis,
A different messenger.
Perhaps-heigh ho The play is done
And you in Peshawur.
If they had told me what was true
Or had eyes to see,
Earnest been gone or 1t been you
There on the lawn with me-
Bah! What's the odds? Or rose or rue
What Is the odds to me?
Richard Elliott wrote a preface al
most entirely of margins for the book
commenting favorably on the re
straint suggestiveness and perfect
good breeding of Mr.. Haviland's lines
and Paul had great fun in his OWE
way In writing them in the evenings
while the judge had great fun in his
own way in seconding motions and In.
Producing politicians In long, heavy
addresses at political clubs.
1t was curious circumstance OF
PauPs art that. while he himself was
of a very sensitive and impressible
nature, the attitude he chose to assume
in hicsx Il Nv Dfab 4
Elliott in a magazine article on ''Hav-
Hand and Indifferentism," was exactly
Judge Parker's attitude, and that gen
tleman might have asked with fal
more sincerity:
Bah! What's the odds? Or rose or rue
What is the odds to me?
In the spring Of Paul Haviland's
stay at the old Parker house Margaret
Alden came to visit Chicago, and al
the time of her visit she and her lover
passed through a long period of mental
suffering
Their trouble arose on the day of 9
heavy spring rain. They were to have
met in the Art institute, and Pau
Haviland. supposing that Margaret
Alden would not keep her tryst in the
worst storm of the year, had not kept
his.
He was overwhelmed with contrition
at his mistake when he visited her in
the evening.
But when he said. at never occurred
to me that you would be there" and
she replied. Where there is a question
l always do the more strenuous thing,
he was wouDded He disliked being
less strenuous than any one. even than
Margaret Alden. He did not enjoy
himself in her presence as he ordina-
rlly did. and he began thinking that
the first beauty of their feeling had
vanished and wrote verses called
sThe Lost Treasure" "Ashes" and
.Disillusionment"
Meanwhile Margaret wrote in her
diary:
april IA.
paul was here today, but not the
Paul of yesterday. Something is gone
between us-just what l cannot say,
but something.
can never be again to me what he was
before his reconsideration of today.
do really love him when l cannot
any longer perfectly admire him? Must
question myself further on this point.
sit is true l am disillusioned, but |
feel 1t more dignified on the whole to
keep our relations as they have al
ways been. The world need not know.
This is not sincere, of course. but |
am disturbed and In doubt"
Paul Haviland, too, was disturbed
and in doubt, and it was while he was
in this mood that he went one morning
to the law office and found, with as
tonishment, that a blow had fallen on
Judge Parker.
He had been responsible for a broth
er living in Wisconsin, bank cashier,
who, after a long probity, had alb
seconded with the bank funds, leaving
behind enough debts to ruin the judge.
The men in the office said that II
such a thing had to happen to some
one it might as well happen to Judge
Parker. as he never took anything
hard
Paul felt the incident. an instance of
the injustice of life, already symbol.
lied to him in his own wrongs. He
mentioned his friends disaster to Mar
garet in the evening, considering it an
episode in keeping with the melan-
choly tone of their meeting. but they
%oIbod vary littIo a to,1t ~ hoir0 still
too occupied with their own delicate.