Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1905-02-10
CHAPTER XVII.

CHAPTER XVII.
Far in the night the mother and daugh-
ter again lay down to sleep that came
readily to the elder woman, and far more
tardily to the younger. In Lizzys CEN
trail thought two opposite and irreconcila-
BILE solutions of one problem contended
for sole recognition. Had Mr.. Mason
| played parts in everything he had done,
as she had charged him yesterday even
ing, and which he had not denied in so
many words? She had charged him with
this, and much more! She had charged
him with studied and persistent eulogisms
of an unknown man for the purpose of
piquing her wOmanly curiosity, and there
by amusing himself. He had gone on
with it day after day, week after week,
and month upon month, until he had
fully succeeded in bringing her to love
him and to yearn for him.
How many and many anxious hours
she had passed in doubts and fears for
his safety! How eagerly she had pOred
over chance newspapers from the great
city, and from remote parts of the coun-
try, hoping and fearing that she might
see some mention of the beloved name.
And how she had beamed with gadness
at each return Of the absent man, an
n0unced always by his assistant, and by
no one else!
What a fool she had been. Even he
said last night, something about her su5-
picion reaching it's zenith weeks ago in
stead Of beginning to dawn only the day
before. when she had seen him driving
through the streets of Sandtown, and
without his principal.
His principal, indeed. She had thrown
that fraud at~him hard enough, she hop
cd. She had given him to understand
that there was no longer the slightest
chance to continue that imposition upon
her.
Mr.. Huntley, the man of straw! The
myth' The creation of the man who had
palmed himself off on her as the assist
ant of his man Of straw! \ noble and
a worthy work for a man Of his attain
mcnts! All this merely to amuse him
self. while he was living in an enforced
exile from the city! She had hoped she
lad thrown that at him hard enough
But again, there were many, many sin
cere looking and earnest-sounding things
that he had done and said, all along. He
had sought her company from the first
day. and persistently and continuously
kept it. His manner was not that OF
the languid and impatient man of the
world, tired of his enforced seclusion.
No. He had set himself about a Iabori-
ous task of bringing her to see some
glaring deficiencies in what she had
thoupht was her all-sufficient self. lie
had gone further. He had shown ms
great liking for her. He had, in effect,
|, -Iot
long before said again and again-that
If was the plainest of all plain PROPOSE
tions that he loved her! She had laugh
ed at that. She had even confessed her
love for his principal-Huntley, the man
of straw; the myth; the creation Oh an
idle fancy! Not only so, but she mao
told him plainly that she could not tneh
foil whether she were not irrevocably
bound. by a strangely romantic passion
to what she at last recognized as the
mere creature Of another man lule
fancy. That had gone home to INN! mat
had hurt-if he could be hurt.
And here. upon this very point, were
few things that she could not help go
inc over and over And never did she,
in Renaissance, approach the chlei Vi
those episodes that her heart did not leap
and her ultimate HDfliS IlioiN'
thing closely akin to happiness
First, that sudden and unexpected APP
pearance in that cone of light that seem
ed TO have been photographed upon hei
retina. so constant was the picture. ho Nv
we'll he looked, How tittingiy that ,ali
military engineers dress became nm
Ana what Il startling transformation was
there in everything that had made the
= assistant ceologist tame and colhliioii.
place. Even to the black, close-cuI n,lil
She had forgotten that among nc.
charges of duplicity. Pc'haps the l"e'
that she admired black hair had pee.'
tokon rs silent conformation OF the o.
tense to having concealed II uiluei .
brown wig. Had he really loVeo hel
when he was playing his many pai's "a
the little Sandtown stage! II sue ns,a
been sure of that would she NAY
raigned him so BITTERLY 10
Had she been shrewish! hao
shown an ugly temper? She d.dn pe
Hove she had IN ugly temper. I'ut VIA,
lad be thought of it? Certainl1 ne h'o
soon no display Of it in all ms ioline'
ocouo;ntsnce with her. And III tha' ~
innate relation that must exist "uione
people who gather IN the SAINT - .,lla
erv evening. and eat at the sailie 1t ~
three times every day-not forget,ins -
Sundays in which he had hardy iei' g
s;da half an hour for the whoie uas :
~ had known this. what a splendld op-
, nn 70 have appeared at her very