Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-01-01
GUoman S F ace
FLORENCE WARDEN

all eduy uioCOfSItu ludI lie III IulS
quiet town was an egg-dance, in which
! the slightest unguarded movement
might nave disactrous consequences.
1t was rather surprise to find that
| the woman who excited the most
| jealousy among dowdy matrons and
dowerleGs maidens was not the brill
| liant Lady Kildonan, who, having been
| born in the purple as the daughter of
a country magnate, was regarded with
pride as a creditable local lion, but
quiet Mrs. Crosmont, whose sad-eyed
beauty had reused a fluttering sensa-
ton of compassionate admiration in
several rustic gallants. These gentle
men having been choked off by what
they called her Internal coldness, had
conceived an absolute fear of her
which, while perfectly comprehensive
| to A mathwaite, seemed to the unmag-
netic ledies of BIarksome the result
of veritable sorcery. To the autocrat-
ic and deep-voiced Mrs. Peele, Alma's
peculiar gentleness of speech and
manner was especially distasteful, and
it was to the influence of this Lon
don-brel madam with her finicking
ways that she sttribrted Ned Crcs-
mont's undertake deterioration. When
| therefore Armathwaite, recognizing
the impcssibility of his visiting Alma
himself, and yet deeply anxious to
know how things went with her, sug-
gested to the DOCTOR wife that she
should take Millie, who was too shy
to go herself 10 see the lonely lady,
Mrs. Peele, drawing her voice up as it
were from her boots according to an
| appalling custom of hers when she
was offended, informed him in cutting
tones that she never obtruded her.
self where she wa not wanted, and If
DR.. Armathwaite was so very much
concerned about Mrs. Crosmont's
| solitude. he had better cell upon her
himself az she would probably rot
| drive other men out OF the house so
| vigorously as she did her own huG-
| band"
Armathwaite bore this onslaught
with prudent meekness, refraining, in
the interests of the unlucky woman
attacked, from the mild but firm ex-
preston of his own opinion with which
he usually followed Mrs. Peele's tyran-
nous sallies. The next person he tried
was the old doctor whose unfulfilled
| promise to show him into the local
; skeleton-cupboaId was never absent
! from his mind. But here he also failed.
! Whether DR.. Peele regretted his con-
fidences, or thought that the time for
completing them ives not yet come, he
evaded any reference to the promised
secrets and glanced aside from any
allusion to Alma with such unmistak-
able persistency that the younger
man, afraid of seeming anxious to
force his confidence, had to let those
subjects rest, even while he feared,
as he watched the gradual change in
the elder man, that death would soon
put it's black barrier between himself
and the knowledge he desired so eager
ly. On every other subject DR.. Peele
was kind, open and communicative,
interested in every detail of his young
colleagues progress in the esteem
of the neighboIhood pleased with his
suNNSSS, odSc anu SShelou~ III MS
counsel
AS the incidents of his eiilval, with
out fl ding from his emory. got
pu> he'd into tn BACKGROUND OF his
mind by the rush of petty necessary
duties which row filled his everyday
life, AImathws tie had begun to feel
| all sorts of doubts as b. the sacred
championship CT en- ill-used wife which
at fist he had believed himself called
upon te take up. Cold common sense
began TO tell him thst his coming was
not the result OF mysterious attrac-
ton CT en- unknown woman who
proved on acquaintance tc be inter
estii 6 er ougn to encourage such
belief, brit a N1r-timed rcn entrance
of DR.. Peele's vicinity, ard CT the
fact th2S he ives S owing old, and
n yht possibly Ii We al opening for
yourg Practitioner cf whose telert he
had elwGys held h'Sh opini IL. He
he'd rlr> ady begun to toke hih self to
task fer daring 20 conceive the pos
sibility of interfering between e young
husbend and wife, when on the after
noon of the day on which he hid re-
ceived Lady Kildonan's invitation. he
IVES seized while sitting quietly by
the fife as Millie made the tea unde~
her mothers din ections. with an I'M
comfortable restlessness which seemed
TO make every limb culver with the
effort TO keep still. After about ten
minutes of this, during which he
looked at the clock twenty or thirty
times, Mrs. Peele fixed upon him
CLASSY eyes of displeasure. and wanted
TO know what he was fid letting for.
He jumped up, put down the cup of
tea he had just received but scarcely
tasted. and inventing a beautiful
fiction on the spur of the moment.
said he had just remembered that he
had been particularly asked to call
upon patient whom he had quite for
gotten until a few minutes ago.
We'll" said Ms. Peele. lowering
her head as she did when she felt sus-
picious. in the knowledge that the up