The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-03-17


ing generosity with prudence. The
need had passed. AS he spoke of money
matters l became slowly aware that
my personal expenses We're to be any
thing that | might choose to make
them; that the trust fund was no Ion
ger precious for its yield, but because
my mother had given it to me.
When we were lodged in a hotel
with a luxury that appealed to me es-
pecially after a prison hospital in the
Transyaal and the StaterGomS of third
rate steamers, he told me definitely
what provision he had planned to make
for me, and | sat silent, hanging on to
the arms of my chair as if they had
been the handles by which l gripped
the reality of all this, that it might not
fly away into drcasE9land. There vas
nothing that | might not have inferred
from his letters, and yet the spoken
words We're worth an ocean of ink,
backed, as they We're, by the spectacle
of my fathers renewed youth and alb
solute freedom from care.
Could / mediate the crime of disap-
pointing this man in the best hope OF
his remaining years? l was SO far
from it as to be occupied principally
with anxiety lest Sibyl should not care
for me. / took high resolutions to be
a good fellow and one that she would
find worthy. l ceased to be distressed
by the thought of what she might lack
in looks and began modestly to consid-
err my own deficiencies. The chances
were that she would find me rough in
my ways. l had gone little into soci-
Ill I,nI
been to break rocks in a laboratory,
and South Africa had surely not i'm
proved me except in size. There was
at least third more of me than there
had been, but the quality was no bet
ter. l might brighten away some of
my rivals, but one of them was cler-
gyman and protected by the cloth.
We had a delightful day together,
driving in the afternoon, and dining
with great good cheer in the park, with
the scented trees for walls and the mild
stars of June lighting the infinite alti-
tude of the roof. AS luck would have
it, some fellows 1 had known in col
lege were dining there, and they Joined
us. My father was the best fellow at
the table, the life of the party, giving
fine, high spirit to all the talk, and
was proud of him.
Near midnight, after 1 had put
him aboard his train, [ walked back
to the hotel in excellent humor, and
then, through the perversity of dreams,
passed a miserable night, beholding
Sibyl in fifty different guises, each of
them more libelous than its predeces-
sor. I saw her blue eyed, brown eyed,
one eye blue and the other brown;
faxen haired, dark haired, calico
haired; a wonderful fantasy, based in
the manner of musical composition,
upon the theme of lanky girl sitting
at a table and hiding her skeleton
hands under the cloth. A heavy sleep
followed these distressing visions, and
1 awoke barely in time to keep an en-
gagement that l had made with Bob
Cushing one of the men who bad
dined with us in the park.
Gushing and | had never been close
friends in college or afterward, but we
had met in Europe, which was a bond
of sympathy, and it appeared that he
had followed my fortunes with an in
terested eye. He had known what
steamer was bringing me home and
had been prevented from meeting her
only by his failure to receive the news
that she had been sighted. L was sur
prised when he told me this and still
more by learning that he had made
plan for my entertainment. He and
some of his friends of both sexes were
to attend a golf tourney on the West
chester links and were to ride out in
ITO ha continued)