Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1903-05-29

also, champions OF the lawn, came the
short-skirted, muscular widow and her
athletic nephew. Ere the summer was
gone they knew each other in this quiet
nook as they might not have done after
years of a sitter and more formal &C
quaintance.
And especially to the admiral and
the doctor were this closer intimacy
and companionship of value. Each
had void in his life, as every man
must have who with unexhausted
strength steps out OF the great race, but
each by his society might help to fill up
that OF his neighbor 1t is true that
! they had not much in common. but that
is sometimes an aid rather than bar
to friendship Each had been an en-
thusiast In his profession, and had re-
tained all his interest in 1t. The doctor
still read from cover to cover his Ian
| Get and his Medical Journal, attended
all professional gatherings, worked
himself into an alternate state Of exal-
tation and depression over the results
OF the election OF officers. and reserved
for himself den of his own. in which
before rows of little round bottles full
OF glycerine, Canadian balsam, and
staining agents. he still cut sections
with a microtome. and peeped through
his long. brass. old-fashioned micro
scope at the arcana of nature. With
his typical face, clean shaver on lip
and chin, with firm mouth, strong
jaw. steady eye, and two little white
fiuffs OF whiskers, he could never be
taken for anything but what he was,
high-class British medical consultant
OF the age OF fifty, or perhaps Just
year or two older.
The DOCTOR in his hey-day. had been
cool over great things. but now, in his
retirement, he was fussy over trifies.
The man who had operated without the
culver Of a finger, when not only his
patients life but his own reputation
and future were at stake, was now
shaken to the soul by a mlsiaid book or
a careless maid. He remarked 1t him
self, and knew the reason. when Mary
was alive" he would say, 'she stood
between me and the little troubles.
could brace myself for the big ones.
My girls are as good as girls can be,
but who can know a man as his wife
knows him." Then his memory would
conjure up a tuft of brown hair and
a single white, thin hand over cover
let, and he would feel, as we have all
felt, that If we do not live and know
each other after death, then indeed we
are tricked and betrayed by all the
highest hopes and subtlest intuitions of
our nature
The doctor had his compensations to
make up for his loss. The great scales
of fate had been held on level for
him; for where in all great London |
could one find two sweeter girls, more |
loving, more intelligent, and more SYM |
pathetic than Clara and Ida Walker? |
So bright were they, so quick, so inter-
ested in all which interested him. that |
If II were possible for man to be COM
pensated for the loss of a good wife
then Balthazar Walker might claim to
be so.
Clara was tall and thin and supple,
with a graceful, womanly figure. There
was something stately and distin-
guished in her carriage, ''queenly' her
friends called her. while her critics de-
scribed her as reserved and distant.
Such as it was, however. 1t was part
and parcel of herself, for she was, and
had always from her childhood been,
different from any one around her.
There was nothing gregarious in her
nature. She thought with her own
mind, saw with her own eyes, acted
rom her own impulse. Her face was
pale, striking rather than pretty, but
With two great dark eyes. SO earnestly
questioning. so quick in their transit
ions from joy to pathos, so swift in
heir comment upon every word and
Iced around her. that those eyes alone
we're to many more attractive than all
he beauty of her younger sister. Hers
vas a strong, quiet soul, and it was her
irm hand which had taken over the
luties of her mother, had ordered the
ouse. restrained the servants, comfort
d her father. and upheld her weaker
lister. from the day of that great mis-
ortune
Ida Walker was a hands breadth
mailer than Clara, but was a little
uller in the face and plumper in the
CURE. She had light yellow hair. mis-
hievous blue eyes with the light of
umor ever twinkling in their depths.
nd a large. perfectly formed mouth,
nth that slight upward curve of the
orners which goes with keen appre-
Iation of fun. suggesting even in re-
ose that a latent smile is ever lurking
I the edges Of the lips. She was mod
I'm to the soIes of her dainty little
igh-heeled shoes. frankly fond of dress
nd OF pleasure. devoted to tennis and
D comic opera. delighted with a dance,
Thich came her way only too seldom,
'nging ever for some new excitement
nd yet behind all this lighter side of
er character a thoroughly good
ealthy minded English GIRL the life
nd soul of the house. and the idol OF
er sister and her father. A peep into
ne remaining villa and our introduce
nns are com nlefe