Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-09-25
q Woman' S Faee
FLORENCE WARDEN

at work all day riding ABOUT the estate
on his various duties, and that his
life, involving as it did long waiting
for his dinner-which he considered
the greatest of the ills which flesh is
heir to--was very trying even to the
best of tempers. So dinner was
brought in for him, and Armathwaite
sat by and talked to him, while the
other two placed themselves by the
fire behind the master of the house,
with each dog for company.
Every moment that he sat convers-
ing with this man, who seemed at
this stage of the acquaintance to be a
person of strong passions, narrow
mind, and conventional ideas, Arma-
thwaite became more interested in
the singular union of the two human
beings whose natures seemed on the
| rurface so utterly antagonistfc as
those Of the husband and wife. He
glanced furtively from time to time at
the lady, as he could do without fear
of detection, for Mr.. Crosmont's inter
est in the viands before him was alb
sorbing and sustained; she made an
enhancing picture as she sat with al
most statuesque tranquility by the
| fire, her white hand resting on the
head of the retriever, her eyes cast
down as if in deep thought, while the
! flames threw a softening glow on her
| somewhat set features, and made the
beaddrops on her dress glisten like
fire-fies. 1t seemed to the young
| Yorkshireman, who was chivalrously
ready to believe her a gentle and
! faultless martyr to the Indifference of
soulless boor, that the very curve
of her fingers around the dogs shaggy
ears revealed capacity for tender
ness unexercised, unsought: the shape
of her heavy, dropping eyelids, of her
red-lipped and not very small mouth,
seemed to him to denote depths of
| feeling, of sentiment, of passion which
to the eyes of her negligent lord and
master were as invisible as jewel in
room without light. These musings
| filled his mind even while his lips
were busy asserting to sucn broad
principles as that "You can't expect a
man whose days are occupied with
numerous and harrassing details of
management to be able to interest
himself in dry and abstruse subjects
in the evenings" Armathwaite Won
dered whether these and kindred re-
marks were directed at Mrs. Cros-
mont, the intellectual cast of whose
face suggested that the numerous
and harassing details" of domestic
management would still leave her
mind room for more elevated sub
jects.
still, the world would be a dull
place if we could not sometimes for
get our own immediate surroundings
and the wearisome routine of perhaps
distasteful duties by the help of art
and books, wouldn't it?" ventured
Armathwaite, addressing the husband,
but aware that he was appealing to
the wife.
Even as Mr.. Crosmont. who had
now risen from the table and was
stretching himself, returned a charac-
teristic answer to the effect that by
Jove! books only made life duller, and
he didn't think the world would be IL
penny the worse if all the writer's ana
artists in it were drowned in Conis-
mere tomorrow" Mrs, Crosmont
raised her eyes and conveyed, with
! one straight look. her entire, her pas
sionate concurrence in the stranger S
views.
My wife reads a great deal, but it
certainly doesn't make her any
livelier," continued Mr.. Crosmont,
who had not seer his wife's look for
the reason that, as Armathwaite par
ucularly noticed, he Systematically
avoided meeting her eyes. Il con-
slider that it's a very poor head that
can't get ideas of it's own, without
going to books for somebody else's.
II you read q book of travels. which
is supposed to tell you facts. why how
can you answer for it that they are
facts? And as for novels and poe try
1t is my firm belief, which nothing
can alter, that it's to their pernicious
influence we owe the deterioration in
our daughters and wives"
AS Mr.. Crosmont was evidently still
a year or two short of thirty, II was
plain that his firm belief could not be
founded on heightened experience
OF the decadence of womankind.
What is the use of spending
money and patience teaching a girl to
paint a picture that nobody d have
on their walls while there are
chromos to be bought, when in half
the time she might learn how to
make a very good pudding?" he con-
unued, with the solemn arrogance
which creeps over even a young man
at the conclusion of very heavy
dinuer.
But then the chances are that the
sTl who couldn't learn to paint n
picture of more value than chrome
would never get beyond a bad puo.
ding" remarked Armathwaite.
And, Ned, helped TO make the
fritterS you have Just eaten. Do Won
tank they would have been lighter if
had MOI learned to paint?"
For the first time a shark of good.
humcr came into Mr. Crosmont ;
- H..