Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-11-15
THE CACTUS.


| amount of reminiscence is, by common
| consent, conceded to the drowning man,
| and it is not past belief that one may
review an entire courtship while remov.
ing ones gloves.
That is what Trysdale was doing.
| standing by table in his bachelor apart
ments. On the table stood singular
| looking green plant IN a red earthen Jar.
The plant was one of the species of cacti
and was provided with long, tcntacuiar
leaves that perpetually swayed with tie
| slightest breeze with peculiar looking
motion.
Trysdale's friend, The brother of the
bride, stood at the sideboard complaint
ing at being allowed to drink alone.
Both men were in evening dress. White
favors like stars upon their coats shone
through the gloom Of the apartment.
AS he slowly unbuttoned his gloves
there passed through Trysdale's mind a
swift, scarifying retrospect of the last
few hours. 1t seemed that in his nostrils
was still the scent of the flowers that
lad been banked in odorous masses
about the church, and in his ears the
low pitched hum of a thousand well-bred
voices, the rustic of crisp garments, and,
| most insistently recurring the drawing
words of the minister iTrevocably binding
her to another.
From this last hopeless point of view
he still strove, as ii it had become Il
habit of his mind, to reach some con-
lecture as to why and how he had lost
her. Shaken rudely by the uncompro-
missing fact. he had suddenly found him
self confronted by a thing he had never
before faced--his own innermost, uu-
mitigated and unchecked self. He saw
all the garbs and pretcnsc and egoism
that he had worn now turn to rags If
folly. lie shuddered at the thought that
to others, before now, the garments OF
the soul must have appeared sorry and
threadbare. Vanity and conceit! These
were the joints in his arnor. And how
! free from either she had always been!
But Why
AS she had slowly moved up the aisle
| toward the altar he had felt an UNI
! worthy, sullen eXultation that had served
TO support HIM He had told himself
| that her palcEess was from thoughts of
another than the mcn to whom she was
about to give herself. But even that
poor consolation had been wrenched from
| BIN, For, when he saw that swift,
| limpid, upward look that she gave the
man when he took her hand, he knew
himself to be forgotten. Once that same
look had been raised TO him, and he had
gauged its meaning. Indeed, his conceit
had crumbled; its last prop was gone.
Why had it ended thus? There had been
no quarrel between them, nothing
For the thousandth time he remar-
shaled in his mind the events of those
last few days before the tide had so sud
denly turned.
She had always insisted upon placing
him upon a pedestal. and he had ac,
cepted her homage with royal grandeur.
1t had been a very sweet incense that
She had burned before him; so modest
The told himself). so childlike and wur-
shipful, and (he would once have sworn)
50 sincere She had invested him with
an almost supernatural namber of high
attributes and eNcellencies and talents
and he had absorbed the oblation as
desert drinks the rain that can coax from
it no promise of blossom or fruit.
As Trysdalc grimly wIenchcd apart
the seam of his lass glove the browning
instance of his fatuoUs and tardilv
momned egoism came wildly back To
him
The scene was the night when he had
asked her to come up on his pedest2
with him and share his greatness. He
could not now, for the pain of it. allow
his mind to dwell upon the memory of
her convincing beauty that night-the
careless wave of her hair, the tenderness
and virginia. charm OF her looks and
words. But they had been enough. and
they had brought him to speak During
their conversation She had said:
And Capt Cauuthers tells me flat
You speak the Spanish language like Il
native. Why have you hidden this ac-
Comph~hment from me? Is there any
thing Won do not know :"
Now, CauuthcrS WAS an idiot. No
doubt he tfrysdalol had been guilty Jhe
sometimes did such things) of airing at
the club some old cantiug Castilan
provtrb dug from the hotch- potch at the
back of dictionaries Carruthers. who
was one OF his incontiueut admirers, was
the very man to have macniicd this cN-
mmtjon of doubtful erudition.
but, alas. the incense Of her admira-
ton had been so sweet and gathering.
lie allowed the imputation TO pass with
out denial Without protest he allowed
her to Irvine about his brow this snuri-
Gus bay Of Spanish scholarship. He let
IT grace his conqueriHg head, and. among
its soft conyomtions. he did not feel the
prick OF the thorn that was to pierce him
later
How glad, how Shy. how tremulous
she was! HOW She futtered like a
shared bird when he laid his michtincss
at her feet! He could have sworn. and
he could swear now. that uumistakable
consent was in her eyes. but. coyly. she
would give hun no direct answer Il
viii send YOU my answer tomorrow. p
she said. and he, the indulgeut. confident
victor, smihngly granted the delay.
The next day he waited, impatient. in
HIS rooms for the word. At noon her
! groom came TO the door and left the