Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-04-10
CHAPTER XII.

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he ever looks Dack-say when he is
smoking his after-dinner cigar, for il
is then that a man travels into the
regions of the past, and calls up fol
his special delight the sins and the
follies of his youth-lf he ever looks
back, it is on picture which must
needs be anything but pleasant. Sill
Heron has his own cupboard full OF
grisly skeletons and gliding phantoms
He has sown his wild oats-those oats
which spring up into harvest which
not seldom, other people have to
gather-but, as he stands under the
dripping trees, he can call up tho re-
membrance of no pleasure which has
yielded him tenth part Of the delight
which he has drunk so deeply of to-
night.
Through these past years he can
search in vain for dead and gone
pleasure which can compare with
this.
For the first time in his life he has
tasted love-through three seasons of
beautiful women-almost any of whom
were ready to Vavasour herself-the
beauty before whom the fashionable
world has knelt with awe-stricken
homage. has been powerless-and now
this little brown-eyed girl, with her
hooking laugh AMI rose-red lips, this
daughter of a parvenu, has caught
him and holds him fast and sure.
There is no denying it! Sir Heron
acknowledges, as he stands in the pelt-
ing rain, putting at the cigar, which,
with the greatest difficulty, he has sue.
ceeded in lighting, that he is in love.
Even now he can feel her soft, warm
arm around his neck, hear the shy,
Heron. love you," in his ears, and
snatch a mysterious delight from the
remembrance.
An hour passes and stills finds him
pacing up and down in the rain, look
ing at the many windows of Gresham
House. and wondering which is hers.
1t is only the striking of the stable
clock that awakes him from his de-
lightful dream, and recalls him to the
fact that he has to break that dream
to others.
His greatest enemy would not ven
ture to call Sir Heron timid, and yet,
as he thinks of his proud mother, and
the manner in which she will receive
the tidings, his spirits sink
"Why folly it isl" he mutters,
aloud. GAS if she were not good and
sweet enough to grace an emperors
throne"
But all the same he shrinks little
and as he turns toward home, he
realizes, for the first time, that 1t is
raining hard, and that his light over
coat is wet through.
THAT won't improve matters" he
thinks, grimly. ''The mother would not
think any woman worth getting wei
for"
So, when he reaches home, he goes
to his room and changes his wet coat
for loose shooting jacket, and, with
a grim smile, goes into the drawing
room. But even as he passes through
the hall, he stops and looks around
and thinks, with a thrill, how sweetly
the graceful figure and beautiful face
will light up the somber, oak-carvet
walls.
Then he pushes aside the curtain
and enters the drawing-room.
Lady Letchford is still sitting, up
right as a dart, in her high-backet
chair; Rose Vavasour is reclining, II
an attitude that sculptor might copy
on a couch before the fire; Vane, with
a shadow of a smile on his hand
some face, is Longing on an ottoman.
All look up as the tall figure enters
and Vane leans forward and pokes the
fire.
Have you only just returned
HerOn" asks Lady Letchford.
1t is needless to say that she has
been listening for his footsteps in thu
hall
"On1y just" he said, lightly.
"Then-you must be wet through,
she says, grimIg.