Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1903-08-06

!. The Quest:
!. of Helen ~ y :
1 BY THOMAS EARLE :

"H4#HaH 1HAEAA q kAeH#@
ure-loying and worldly person, and
had he suspected the heart burning
and misery it would cause he
never would have done it. But,
being wholly city-bred and know
ing only the life Of the me
tropohs where the women are even
wiser than the men, how was he TO
suspect the absolute simplicity and
trust Of the country maiden, where
girls are girls until they reach ma
turity and not young women before
they attain their teens. He had gone
20 the country on an enforced vaca-
ton by his physicians orders, accom-
panied by the warning that unless
he give up Immediately and for a
considerable season the strenuous
business responsibility, supplement-
ed by the feverish pleasure which
combined had put the gray into his
black hair at the age Of p, the end
was not three years ahead. Always
~clear-headed and not at all ready yet
TO relinquish HIS hold on the life out
Of which he had absorbed so much
pleasure and in which he held so
much hope, he had adjusted his bust
ness affairs with a jerk and fed far
from the cares and gayeties Of city
life, finding a refuge in a homely
farmhouse in the far west, miles from
a railroad and as remote from a
pleasure resort as from the grind Of
the city. II promised TO be very dull
for him until he became interested
in Helen, the daughter Of the house.
Helen was 10, but acted and felt
nearer -. She had grown up with
out youthful society, and had never
viewed the opposite sex as In any
way different from her own than in
the matter of strength and the ma
ture Of the duties pertaining thereto,
She was faIow ground indeed for the
experienced beau who had expert
enced affair IN the capitals OF two
continents. Nor was she the less
charming because Of her ignorance.
Nature had done much for her-he
saw that plainly the first time he set
eyes on her. Her skin, despite her
careless o~ut-of-door life, was as fair
and peaehy as the dream of a painter,
and into il the sun and the fresh air
in which she had lived so much, had
PAINTED a bloom that would have
been the despair Of my lady" with
all the rouge and massage. Perfect
health and freedom from the pervert-
ing and disfguring dress Of conven-
tionalism had rounded her maiden
form into the alluring lines Of ply
steal perfection. and the effect was
none the less effective because Of the
loose and simple garments she wore.
How il happened Seaman never could
figure out, but this daughter of these
rough and Woodworking farmers had
somehow inherited possibly from
some patrician ancestor many gener-
| atoms removed features as perfect
as a Greek goddess, and her eyes
were flashed with the fires Of album
dant vitality and natural intelligence.
Seaman was not an inmate of the
| Hudson home for many days before
he found himself making violent love
TO this simple Maud Muller Of the
p%rairie farm. At first they were only
good comrades, and he helped her
milk the cows and feed the horses
and drive the cattle and churn the
butter and do all the other chores
which fell 70 her lot on a farm where
everybody was working their hardest
70 lift the mortgage and keep the
family fed and clothed. But she was
so new a specimen TO him and alto
gether so inviting and charming and
simple that he soon fell TO teaching
her the dangerous game of love.
He meant no harm. How was he
10 know the tremendous power of the
numbering passions he was awaken
ing9 He had never known a woman
who was not altogether competent
| 10 take abundant care of herself in
n Irritation or a love affair, and it
had generally been the man who was
the victim in the affairs which had
fallen under his observation.
To Helen the summer was like a
chapter from Fairyland, and the
handsome and debonaire man of the
world wa the v%eriest hero Of all the
knights of chiyalry. Not that she
knew anything about the knights OF
chivalry. even from books, but he
/ awoke all the slumbering romance
and passion in her starved nature.
She gave him all the burning o " OF
a newlv-awakened passion, and as the
months passed the man began to re-
alize that il was somewhat different
from anv affair in which he had yet
been hitherto involved.
OF course, the end had to come,
ne II does to all dreams, and one
fine day in the early late fail he
kissed her a fond good-by, swore 10
he true to her and went back to the
excitement and gayety Of the city
and forgot her.
Then came TO her the dreary months
Of waiting and watching, the first
shadowy doubts, the "Reminiscences
T-a-aan of NEnNnTNnm