Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1902-10-22
CHAPTER XVII.

IN the way to Miss Grlerson's
''evening" Griswold amused himself
by specializing upon the probable
barbarism of a country reception.
Without suspecting it, he was insu-
lar to a degree little short of
Britannia; but he meant to be very
good-natured and charitable, and to
do what one man might toward
the barbarisms.
Wherefore he was properly humili-
ated when they were met at the door
of the Grierson mansion by trained
servants and announced in the draw
ing-room with such pomp and cir
cumstance as was neither countri-
fed nor barbaric. In good truth the
revulsion was so great that it was
he and not Miss Grierson who was
embarrassed when Raymer intro
duced him.
How good of you to come to US
on your first day out, Mr.. Griswold.
Let me make you comfortable" She
piled the cushions in a corner of the
wide divan and made him sit down.
'You are just to be an invalid this
evening, you know. I'm not going
to let anyone bore you.
Griswold gasped once or twice, and
grappled manfully with the facts. A
young girl was at the 2tcno; there
was a pleasant hum of conversation;
everybody, himself excepted, seemed
quite at ease; the lights were not
glazing; the furnishings were not in
bad taste; in, word, the keynote
was altogether well-mannered and
urban and conventional.
And his hostess. Griswold had
met beautiful women, but none to
compare with her. She shone upon
and dazzled him. The charm was
purely sensuous, and he knew it, but
he basked in it like lizard in the
sun. But he was forgetting to thank
her
Forgive me, Miss Grierson; I'm
not usually tongue-tied. But it is all
so charmingly homelike; so vastly"
She supplied the word with a sill
very little laugh.
different. I know. You thought
we were barbarians, and so we used
to be. But we're improving. I wish
you could have known the old Wa
haska."
II can imagine it," he said.
II wonder if you can. They used
to sit around the edges of the room
and behave themselves just as hard
as they could, and bore each other
to DEATH
Its miracle" he said, giving her
full credit. I'D like to know how
you did it,
She laughed lightly and did not
deny her handiwork. 1T was simple
enough. When we came here I
found a lot of good people who had
fallen into a way of boring one an
other, and a few who hadn't; but
these last held aloof. We opened our
house to the many and tried to show
them that a churt h socfablc wasn't
exactly the acme of social enjoy
ment."
Griswold saw in his minds eve a
sharply etched picture of the rise Of
village maguate. Verify, Miss
Grierson had imagination.
ut is all very grateful and delight
full to me-" he said. 81 have been
out of the social running for long
time, but I must confess that I am
shamelessly epicurean by nature, and
only an ascetic of necessity
II know" she assented, with quick
appreciation. "An author has to be
both, hasn't he?-keen to enjoy and
hardened to endure"
I'm not an author" he corrected,
with vanity struggling to muzzle the
protest. II have written. but one
book, and that has not yet seen the
light"
''But it WILL" she asserted, con-
fidently. ''Tell me about it,
Now, Griswold was no babbler, but
the charm of her personality was
upon him, and before he knew what
he was about he was telling her OF
the: dead book, it's purpose and its
failure.
."But you are not going to give it
up" she said, when he had made an end.
mo; it's my message, and I shall
yet deliver it,
Bravo! That is the spirit that
wins always. And when you get
blue and discouraged, you must come
here and let me cheer you. Cheer.
ing people is my mission, if I have
any," ~@ae~.