Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-06-19
CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIII.
lighter are tramping through the
quiet suburban streets and squares
the streets and squares that are
never quiet from early morn 10 dewey
eve The weary man Of business is
vending homewarG from the great
city in omnibus, train ar.l tram. I'm
DER foot the pavement is moist AMI
damp; the usual misty haze which
crowns our glorious metropolis at this
season is hanging like pail over.
head; the day, the busy, moiling, toll
ing day is over and London which
never sleeps, pauses, as it were, to
take a breath before it dashes into
the roaring, restless night.
Very little of the roar and excite
ment, however, reached Hanley street,
Bayswater, and the only sounds that
penetrate into Mrs. Boxalls front par
lor are the tolls of the muffin bell and
the tramp of the lamp-lighter.
A month, just four weeks, have
passed since Samuel Dalton fell down
dead in the library of his grand coun-
try house. Four weeks only, and yet
they seem months, years, to the two
girls sitting by the fire in Mr.. Boxall's
little parlor.
Many changes may be worked in
four weeks. Excepting the loss of
their father and their fortune, how
ever, the two girls do not look much
changed.
According to the well-known canons
OF romance, one at least Of them, May
should be wan and white, and exhibit
ing every symptom of dying shortly
of broken heart But, though Mays
heart may be broken, she does not
look like it.
"Men have died." says Shakespeare,
'and worms have eaten them, but
not for love," and May looks as if life
held a strong grip Of her Both
girls are dressed in black a short
cashmere, which, much to IRIS. Box
all's secret dismay, is innocent of
Grape.
Just as there is no Grape, SO there
are no weeping and wailing. Both
girls have borne the double, and, in
Mays case, the treble blow, woman
fully Not word of repining for all
that is lost has escaped the lips of
either of them. They sit sometimes,
as they are doing now, looking at the
gre in silence, but it is not the silence
of despair. Despair comes only when
the digestion is ruined, and-truth is
truth, their digestions are unim-
paired.
Still, though they do not repine,
they are given to wonder 1t is so
marvellous and astounding, this trick
which tickle Fortune has played
them-one day nursed in the lap Of
luxury, basking in the sun OF haPpi-
ness, the next bereft. and thrown up
or the mercy of the cold world!
It is so sudden, so Overwhelming,
that it is hard sometimes to realize
that it is not the fantastic freak Of
a dream. Very often during these
four weeks May has awoke, expecting
to find herself in Woodbine Villa or
the dormitory at Mrs. Browns Semi
nary. The Gresham House period
was so short, so unreal, that she never
even dreamed of it; all that is blank,
save-ah, save those few too short
days of her first passion!
To those few days of rapturous de-
light she goes back-how often!--in
the stiffness of the night, goes back
with an Infinite longing, an Infinite
despair.
There has been no ripenfng, no fret
full wailing about better days and a
cold-hearted world.
| II don't believe in cold-hearted
world she said, one night when the
two sat talking over the strange
events. ''These dear, good people
can't be the only generOus-hearted
ones in the world. There are more
Boxalls than ours, and while the
world holds them it can't be very
cold"
For Mr.. Boxall and his wife have
proved themselves to be pure gold
tried in the furnace. 1t was he-the
| little palefaced man-who came uI