Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1905-02-08
Returning the Presents. !
90 600
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BY ARNOLD GOLDSWORTHY.
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COPH1E MEADOWS sat in the little
- parlor at the back of her mother s
shop and gazed dismally out into the
garden where the last brown leaves
were falling from the limbs to the
6oggy footpath below.
The scene was not altogether an un-
sympathetic one for Sophie, since she
was sad at heart that dull, misty after
noon. Indeed, there were signs that
she had been crying; and when Sophie
cried, her nose grew very red indeed,
and woman will rot incur a risk of
that sort without the most acute
proyocation.
; In the spring it had all been so diff
4erent. David Trotter, who managed
the village -four mill for his father,
and who was beside a most eligible
young man in every way. had asked
Sophie to be his wife, and the earth
had seemed so fair to her then.
Summer had been spring intensified;
and the brightness of her life had
seemed quite dazzling. And now
Everything was cherries and damp,
the sun was cold and the fire of true
and only love had spluttered out and
left Sophie with bruised heart and a
red nose.
I Everybody knew it was David's-
that is, Mr.: Trotter's-fault; or, at
least, everybody to whom Sophie had
mentioned the matter
Sophie's mother had perhaps not
quite grasped the full meaning of the
awful crisis in her daughters bright
young life. The good soul had even
spoken lightly Of it, affecting to treat
It as mere lovers quarrel, and that
ut time when Sophie had been seri-s
ously considering whether she ought
to go into a nunnery or just pine away
and die In the back parlor Of home.
Sophie knew for fact that David
or, rather, Mr.. Trotter-had been seen
flirting with Faith Duker, the creature
who set her cap at everybody. The
thing had been seen in the village;
hnd after likely bit of scandal had
gone the round Of village like Dun
stead its own mother would not have
recognized; it at the finish. 49,
David had gone so far as to meet the
creature second time by appoint
nent, and that, Of course, capped his
aniquity. Everybody knows that no
sef-respecting girl can put up with
soings-on like that.
It would not have mattered so much
It he had admitted his error, and had
endeavored to earn forgiveness by a
fitting display of contrition. But David
had had the effrontery to deny the
charge, and had actually punched
young Harper about dreadfully for just
casually mentioning the matter to a
circle of friends at the Blue Anchor
Which just shows you the true char
acter of people like Darid-I should
Say. Mr.. Trotter:
And yesterday Sophie had taken her
pen in hand. and after laboriously
Studying the dictionary so as to be
sure that she had got the long words
right, had intimated to Mr.. Trotter in
gold and dignified terms that all was
now over between them, and he would
receive per bearer the presents he had
made her, and henceforth they were
strangers forevermore. Amen.
On other days Sophie would have
been helping her mother In the shop;
but to-day she could do nothing but
hit and watch the leaves fall, As, it
grew dusk she got up and lit the lamp.
There was her knitting on the table.
The woolly squares hanging from the
needles were the foundations Of 4 pair
of socks that had been intended for
him. Now, Of course, they would go
to the heather via the parish church
and the missionary society. No doubt
the heather would be more apprecia-
tive. though perhaps woollen socks
in the tropics might be . little. trying
to the untutored savage mind. And
then ~ I'>S'a
"sophie!" 80 3 ..''. ::
It was the voice Of Mrs. Meadows.
calling from the shop. And 4 moment
later the good soul put her head into
the parloF and added: - Ezs:'
Sophie! It's David. He's come to
zee you" =.
Tell him I don't want to see him,
mother" she said. after what's; 'ap-
pened I don't want to speak to him
again." am
Mrs. Meadows turned back to her
shop, but before she could repeat the
portentous message, David was already
at the parlor door. Mrs. Meadows was
about 10 retire again, discreetly, when
Scribe stopped her impatiently.
"D0n't. go, mother" she said, with
the imperiousness Of the spoiled child
that she was.
David was big, sy-cheeked fellow
with plenty of confidence. The last
was made evident by the deliberate
way In which he put his hat on chair
and then lifted a couple of brown pa
per parcels on the table. With q quiet
good evening" addressed to Sophie,
he proceeded, to deliberately unite the
string Of one Of the parcels.
The knot was q little hard and %