Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-09-18
CHAPTER 1.

is TO say, nobody who is anybody. 1t
Iies-but no matter where. Mine shall
not be the hand to ruin it's simplicity
by advertising it's beauties and adVan>
tages and directing the madding crowd
to it's sylvan retreat. At present the
golden sands which line the bay are in
nocent of the niger troupe, the timer
ant conjuror, and the monster in HUI
man form who posters you to pur-
chase hideous objecLs manufactured
from shells and cardboard.
A time may come when Portmaris
may develop into an Eastbone or
Brighton, a Scarborough or Hast
ings; but, heaven be praised! that
time is not yet, and Portmaris, like an
unconscious village beauty, goes on it's
was still ignorant of it's loneliness.
At present there are about dozen
houses, most of them fishermen's cot
tages, a church hidden in hollow a
mile away from the restless sea, and
an inn which is satisfied with being an
inn and has not yet learned to call
itself a hotel.
Two or three of the fisher-folk let
lodgings, to which come those for
tlrnate individuals who have, quite by
chance, stumbled upon this out-of-the-
way spot and in the sitting-roOm Of
the prettiest of these unpretentious
cottages was young girl
Her name was Leslie Lisle; she was
nineteen, slim, graceful, and more
than pretty. There is a type OF
beauty which, with more or less truth
is generally described Irish. 1t has
dark hair, blue eyes with long black
lashes, a clear and colorless complex
ion of creamy ivory, and chin that
would seem pointed but for the ex-
quisite fullness of the lips.
1t is a type which is more fascinat-
ing that the severe Greek, more 'hold
ing than the voluptuous Spanish,
more spirituelle than the vivacious
french; in short, it is the kind or
beauty before which most men must
go down, completely and forever van,
4uished; and this because the wonder
full gray-blue eyes are capable of an in
finity of expressions, can be grave one
moment, and beaming over with fun
the next; because there turks, even
when they are most quiescent, a world
of possibilities in the way of wit in the
corners of the red lips; because the
face as you watch it, can, in the course
of few minutes, flash with spirit,
melt with tenderness, and all the while
remain the face of a pure, innocent,
healthy, light-hearted girl.
The young men who crossed Leslie
Lisles path underwent sad expert
ence.
At first they were attracted by her
beauty; in a few hours or days, as the
case might be, they began to find the
attraction lying somewhere deeper
than the face, then they were restless,
unhappy, lost their appetite, got to ly>
ing awake at night and lastly went to
pieces completely, and if they pos
sessed sufficient courage, flung them
selves, perfectly wrecked and over
come, at the small feet of the slim
girlish figure which had come to
them even as that of the one woman
in the world. And to do Leslie Justice,
she was not only surprised, burt dis.
tressed. She had said nothing, and,
what is more, looked nothing, to en-
courage them. She had been quite
herself-a frank, yet modest English
girl with an Irish face and that in
describable sweetness which draws
mems hearts from their bosoms be-
fore they know what has happened to
them.
She was seated at the piano in the
sitting-room of the cottage, which the
fisherman who owned it had christened
Sea View, and she was amusing her
self and a particularly silent and
morose parrot by singing some of the
old songs and ballads which she HAD
found in arickety music-stand in the
corner, and for all the parrot glared at
her disapprovingly with his CLASSY eye.
she had sufficiently a sweet voice, and
sung with more than the usual
amount of feeling.
While she was singing the door
opened and tall, thin gentleman en-.
tered. This was Francis Lisle, her
father. He was a man this side OF
fifty, he looked older In consequence
perhaps of his hair which was gray
and scanty, a faded face with a
dreamy, PARKWAY look in the faint blue
eyes. and "a somewhat bent form anu
dragging gait. He carried a portable
easel in one hand and held canvas
under his arm.
AS he entered he looked round the
room as if he had never seen it be.
fore, then set the easel up in corner,
placed the canvas upside on it, and
crossing his hands behind his back,
stood with bent head gazing at it for
some moments In silence; then he said
in a voice which matched the dreamy
face:
Leslie, come here"