The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-11

l brought the scent of fresh fields and
flowers. Looking from his window over
: the sweeping river Magnus said:
Here is rest. 1 do not want human
} companionship-a cultivated mind
l needs only itself. Surrounded by these
eternal Mills, amid which dwell a simple
people, solitude should bring happiness.
Their ways are not our ways, their souls
are half-developed, but we need not
clash
He fell readily into the habits of
the household 1t consisted of Mrs
Loudoun. a silver-haired widow, her
granddaughter. Elfreda Loudon, a
brown-eyed girl of eighteen, with a de-
licious figure mass OF brown na an
and a frank smile, and a man-of-all-
work, who ate enormously and never
said word.
The two women gave him no conf
dences, for which he was grateful. He
was forced to admit that their man
ners were perfect, but set this down
to innate female refinement. They
/ made no effort at all to entertain him.
! He paid his moderate bills and kept
himself to himself.
He discovered a boat in n small house
which. stood by the river. and used to
pull laboriously a half mile up the
/ stream of evenings, then float lazily
| down.. The heart which was in the
right place began to show some dispo-
sition to stay steady when sudden
In two weeks, however, he realized
that cultivated mind needs something
more than itself. He was bored. Fur
thermore, his conscience oppressed him.
| He told himself that he was ungenero'Is
| in Withholding himself from these two
lonely women, who knew nothing of
books, society, critics, or the great
world without.
He was not conscious of a desire to
alleviate the loneliness of MrSLoudoun.
but he thought the girl would improve
nightly by converse with a man of
. -I-sIs Nrvs0r
She was plump. and her weight in the
! boat made the rowing more difficult,
but hel endured the extra labor for the
pleasure of watching her intellect eX-
pand like a flower
He noticed that in the half-light of
the evenings she was a singularly pref
ty girl nor could he see that she lost
any of her attractiveness in the full
light of day.
She listened to his talk of books with
every appearance of interest. He found
all her comments apt, and some of them
shrewd. He felt the unconscious charm
of her innocence.
One evening three weeks after the
beginning of their friendship, she as
sumed guidance of the conversation. 1t
was done in a spirit of MISCHIEF, out
the eyes of Magnus did not see it, He
lacked the perceptive faculty
She astonished him much by a sound.
if not brilliant, monologue upon the
Elizabethan poets as compared with
those of the earlier era, and, in mild
discussion of the reputed authorship OF
the Shakespearean plays, she Worsted
him badly. She said they were the
work of Sir Walter Raleigh during his
IS years of confinement in the Tower
of London.
Next day she invited him into a part
of the house he had not visited, intro
ducing him to a sitting room, fur
nished plainly but in perfect taste,
seated herself at an old but tuneful
piano. and played for him, with feel
thoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn. Chopin,
Verdi, Donnizetti, Wagner. De Koven,
Willard, Sullivan, and Dave" Bra |
ham
The town man dinly recognized
that he might possibly have been
guilty of Understanding the simple
farming family. A little later he be
gan to hold her in his thoughts and |
to speak of her, when on his rambles, |
as a Devon rose"
This was a bad sign. In all his |
thirty years he had seen no one like |
her-so simple, so unaffected, so SYM
pathetic. so beautiful. This was a |
worse sign. He measured mentally |
the height of his bank account, and |
found it sufficient. This was the
He laid his approaches with what
he conceived to be consummate art.
In his story Heart to Heart at Even
tide published in the Beacon |
Light" there was a scene in which
Lord Ronald de Cholmondeley had |
said to Lady Blanche de Courtney:
II love you wildly, madly, passion
ately. Your being has entered into
my being. AS the dewdrop trembles
in the flower chalice, so trembles my
soul in your beauteous presence. Be
mine-and there shall be
no sun. nor stars, nor the opa1-tinted
heights of heaven, nor the crimson
abysses of hell. There shall be in the
wide universe only you"
He thought this rather fine, and
wondered how it would sound if softly
yet intently, spoken amid the muir
muir of the river down-rolling to the
sea-,
1t was late in September There was a
slight chill in the air. The girl, wrapped
in heecy light stuff. sat, was her Gus
tom, in the stern of the boat which made
no sound as it drifted. In the moonlight
her brown eyes looked like Jewels Be
low them shone the windows of the farm
house. Not a word had been spoken for
half an hour. Then he said:
thought you ignorant country folk
know now what a fool 1 was. I must go
tomorrow, and 1t makes me sad. 1 can't
bear to think may never see you again.
have never told you that I love YOU,
but do sincerely. You must have seen
Il. Will you marry me?''
She did not answer. She had grown
suddenly pale and was staring intently
at the landing place not a hundred yards
away Suddenly she clasped her hands,
and wave of crimson rose to her face.
A happy smile curved her lips. Then she /
yazed earnestly at her companion.
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