The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-01-01

Gertrude wouldsmove the s1nultsh tenaci-.
ty Of their great uncle. But no; Van
Doren doled out Just SO much each
week for expenses" and no more. The
meals there in State street were almost
like those in some private prison where
i've convicts daily assembled at the
board. Everybody's clothes grew rusty
and pathetic. The big house, though
kept passably clean, assumed an aspect
of dingier desuetude.
AS for Stanfield, his features, his
walk, his voice had all notably altered.
Though unconscious of it his drawn
countenance betrayed look of constant
mingled WEAKNESS and expectancy. To
his wife he was like man whom some
stealthy insanity keeps enslaving with
subtle and threatening thraldom. Often
he would show by his eyes a hungry
eagerness which was like nothing so
much as that of an eavesdropper
crouched at the keyhole of a door when
he hopes to hear tidings of tremendous
import. And now to Martha a new and
distressing quality became manifest in
his behavior. This was seeming sym
pathy with his uncle's deplorable mean
ness. As the months amassed them
selves into years he showed a tendency
to talk with Van Doren on the subject
of investments in bonds and mortgages
and rents. All day he would either
aimlessly wander the streets or else
hold converse with his kinsman of just
this coldly mercenary kind.
In vain Martha demonstrated. In
vain she tried to rouse HIM from the in
toxication of his hard materialism. He
would soften towards her for few
minutes. Don't get out of patience
with me-" he would say. ''In little
while now you'll find me such differ
ent man. He can't last much longer.
Don't you see? He hardly eats any
thing, as it is. He scarcely ever even
stirs out of doors. Why, it's touch-and-
go with him; fool could see that"
Martha would shudder. "Touch-and-
go!" and he was now long past eighty.
Stanfield himself had become a middle
aged man, she, his wife, was no longer
young; the children were ceasing to be
children.
One day, in his eighty-fourth year,
Van Doren was taken violently ILL., 1t
was winter, and many cases of pneu-
mon+l( inflammation of the lungs, they
still called it then, in the year 1S30) had
broken out, and proved fatal. Against
his will physician was summoned, and
the verdict given his nephew was
against his living twenty-four hours
longer. Martha attended him with all
4 Ill r L.
time her husbands conduct Mortified
her. He hung about the door of the
sick chamber, with that eager look ac-
centuated in his wan face. There was
one day when it seemed as if Van Doren
might at any instant breathe his last.
| During this period fits of delirium as
sailed him. in which he raved of money,
money, nothing except money.
On the morrow he was surprisingly
| better. Soon afterwards he began to
recover, and within fortnight his
| health was more vigorous than before
the seizure occurred. For days after
wards it tortured Martha to observe
her husbands face.
"And this" she thought, twas the
strong, clear-headed, high-principled
man l married Whoever first said that
money was a curse hit on the most
pregnant of truths"
The years went on. At lightweight
Van Doren was feeble, bowed in figure
very dim of sight, and yet mentally as
keen and alert as he had ever been
Perhaps he Rugged his money little
closer and made those about him lit
tie more disconnected in consequence.
Martha felt only too acutely now the
CHASTITY contagiOn that her husband haC
caught. He still waited, but his wait
ing had become hideous mockery
What could he do with the money now
even if he survived his rsncle? Nothing
except hoard it as Van Doren was do
ing. He had grown old before hi
time; he was prematurely wrinkled
and into his features had crept strin
gency of pallor, covert fierceness
which meant Unsuitable greed.
Night after night he now did what tt
his wife was revolving thing. Thu
game of solitaire which Van Doren haC
been wont to play with his gold coin
had now become game in which hi
nephew joined. They would sit to