Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1905-02-03

| Miss Wickly, for heavens sake don,t
tell me that even now, knowing what 7
perceive you to have OWNED. you are So
rlously affected toward-toward-
| Toward your employer? Toward Mr.
duntIey she said, with great bitter
ness, and emphasizing her manner with
conclusive clutch upon Mr.. Mason's
arm as she pronounced the relationship
| ana the man. 1T is, perhaps, the very
poetlc revenge Of fate~upon you and upon
| me that L do not know; that l cannot
determine. When on yesterday a dim
suspicion of the truth dawned upon
| She paused, and almost sprang forward
lii sudden caprice of anger, impotence
and distraction. He pressed her arm
strongly and restrainingly against her
| side, until she could not fail to recog-
nlze the calming and reassuring influ-
ence that he had over her.
Go on he said in tone that pre-
supposed an accompanying smile of ex-
pectation. Tell me fully and without
reservation all that you thought when
you began to see the dawn of the sus-
picion to which you allude and which
had imagined must have reached it's
zenith long ago."
There was something peryading all his
words and actions. and his whole man
ner, so very, very different from what she
had known of Mr.. Mason. Must she be-
gin By telling him this? Yes, plainly,
if she entered into such a complete I'M
burdening of her mind, she must tell him
this. and tell it first
But she must know to what it would
hn Oh ol- sol,
pect she thought him best, she would be
compelled to give the genuine and uni
Yersal wOman'S answer.
Even to a woman of education and
some degree of refinement with superior
talents and requirements, this haf-mili-
tary. bold confident, smiling and jaunty
cavalier was infinitely better, more at
tractiye. than the plain, unassuming,
philosophic assistant to the geologist, no
matter how learned and thoughtful.
She had begun to tell him something
of this--choosing her words as carefully
as she could. SO as to preserve for her
own reflection and self-commendation
that attitude of womanly dignity and
self-poise which she actually imagined
she had maintained throughout this short
but momentous interview.
She had said perhaps enough to COM
nit her to the whole opinion of him as it
has here been outlined, from her last
brief cogitation, differing as radically as
it. does from her more deliberately pre-
pared and expressed opinion as shown in
the beginning OF the walk, only few
moments ago; and which opinion surely
must have been the public opinion of all
Sandtown, rather than her own.
The first opinion which she imagined
was her true estimate of Mr.. Mason was
in fact but her version of the verdict of
SandtOwn upon him, given upon ec parte
testimony, it is true.
The last estimate which she had for
mulated, and had even expressed to all
;ntents and purposes, although she was
preparing to formulate it in twenty diff
ferent ways, perhaps, was in reality her
own opinion, and one that she may have
really entertained from the first
So strange are the apparently contra
dictory and wholly irrecOncilable work
ings of the human mind, and especially
that particular quality of the human
mind evolved from woman's brain.
She had scarcely begun to recite some
of these impressions when in the now
almost quiet woods there leaped up the
distant but perfectly distinct report OF
rife keen and penetrating in its WHIP
Ike echoes about the resonant aises OF
TIC forest Mr. Mason stopped instant
tr. and turning his head, listened intent
lS.
Il hope these men have not been fool
ish enough to gather up force OF the
l-lffians of Big Rattlesnake Greek to
rake an attack he said, still leaning his
Read little, in the listening attitude.
4 will have to go back instantly, Miss
S.izzy Can you run on alone and join
Mrs. Redden? l saw her a few minutes
ago. not more than fifty yards i'll advance
of us. Well, then, good-by till | see you
sgain, which will be soon-quite soon, II
have any control of the matter.
He pressed her hand warmly. as he
Sisengaged it from his arm, and then
started to walk rapidly back.
But, as if under an uncomfortable I'M
,,uIse. he turned and ran back, and
raucht her in his arms for an instant,
ressing his lips again and again to her
eWn.
Then, with some inaudibe murmur OF
apology and entreaty, he turned once
more. and was gone.