Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1905-08-04
CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER V.
All the flowers were dashed and drag
gled. Three days of wind and rain storms
had beaten the hearts out of the roses,
their petals lay scattered, dank and
| ragged upon the sodden earth. The birds
had forgotten to sing, the very sunshine,
as it crept out tmidly from behind the
rain clouds, looked pale and sickly.
And a week ago 1 was happy" cried
Kitten aloud, as she leant out of her
easement window. GA week ago the
world was all golden, a good place to
live in, the days were so full and SO
short, and now they are empty and, oh,
SO longw
Kitten, Kitten" cried voice in the
garden below her, "why will you persist
in shutting yourself upstairs? Come
down to me Kitten, l want to see you
so much
| Roy Grantley stood beneath her on the
wet grass, his fair curls wet with the
rain, his face ruddy with the wind, his
blue eyes shining with delight because
they had caught sight of her at last.
cit is raining" said Kitten without
moving.
'No, it has left off, besides you can,
at least, come into the verandah and talk
| to me. Oh, Kitten, it is more than three
weeks since I have seen your
"Is it? 1t seems like three days"
| She left her window and came down
| to him in the verandah, as he had said.
Old Keziah was a stickler for propriety,
and would not allow young Mr.. Grant
| ley admittance into the house while her
| master was away.
''Why did you shut yourself up all
| these days that l have tried to see you?
What were you doing? Who were you
writing to-"
''To nobody. 1 was turning the 'Es-
say on Man into prose-"
II don't believe that; may I see it ?"
81 have torn it up. Besides, you would
not understand it. Boys don't care
about that kind of thing"
Il wishsyou would not always call me
boy, Kitten he said rather sadly. 81
! am twenty-one is no longer a child at
my age; I shall soon be twenty-one, then
| shall be man, and I shall come and
tell your father that love you"
| ''What would be the good of that?'
said Kitten, calmly pulling a Cape jes-
samine flower ruthlessly to pieces with
| her tiny hnger tips.
"You know l do love you," he persist
ed. bending down to look into her face.
81 have heard it very often" she an
swered, with cold Indifference.
''You are but child, dear" he re-
piled, very softly and tenderly. ''You
do not understand yet what love means,
but as you grow older you will know and
| feel it; and then, Kitten, that cold little
| face of yours will light up when it meets
mine your heart will glow with joy when
it hears my footsteps, will ache when it
listens in vain for it, and all the world
will seem desolate to you when | am
not there; that is what you will feel by
and by, Kitten, when you are older"
She laid her hand upon his sleeve.
SIS that what love is like, Roy?' she
asked him eagerly. THAT craving for
some one who is not there, that sick long
ing for the sound of one voice, the sight
of one face, without which all the sun
shine seems gone out of the heavens?''
''Oh, you know it, you know it!'' he
cried. clasping her hand in both his
Dear Kitten. yes, that is love, and that
is how you felt for me when / was
away?"
For you-are you mad, Roy? She
wrenched away her hand angrily; II feel
that for you' l long for your
She had no pity, she did not even
guess that she made him suffer. He
looked at her blankly.
But how. then, do you know it? Why
should you have described these things if
you have not felt them? Surely, surely
you said that because that is what you
thought when I was away"
All. can nobody be away but you?"
she cried angrily, and then because she
was but a child after all, the tears rush
ed in torrent from her eyes and she
turned away hastily from him to hide
them.
Then Roy began to understand. There
was some one else! He remembered his
sisters words: he had scoffed at them
and disbelieved in them at the time, but
now they came back to his memory. He
turned very white and stood quite still
for Il few moments, while the first storm
of the hideous agony called jealousy
swept across his young heart. Then,
presently, he followed her; she stood at
the other end of the Notwithstanding
veranda, stripping the tiny green leaves
off long spray of Banksia roses.
Kitten, have been very dense,'' he
said with forced calmness. Il was GER
tainiy told of a stranger who had been
staying here while have been away
friend of your father. who walked
about the garden and the lanes with you