Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-09-02
The MetamOrphOsis of Colin.

He had left home four years before
giving out that he was going abroad for
pleasure the pleasure, scandal mongers
had it. being that peculiarly immoral de-
light which some men find in the evasion
of cIamorous and inconsistent creditors.
He had done himself fairly well, had
Colin Harrington, in the three years that
lay between his coming of age and his
abrupt departure from England. He had
done a little-a very little-work; made
littlc love and spent little money
the little. in this last case, being all that
had been left him by the none too
althy gentleman who had had the
honor of being his father.
Abroad he had worked Lacking the
means to pursue an enjoyable idleness-
and there are few things more costly
he turned to the cultivation Of the gifts
he unqucstionably possessed, but which
he seemed to prefer in their latent con-
dton lie had sent his work home. Ii
had found ready market, grown in
value. and in four short years brought
him enough fame to turn the head of
any ordinary young man of p. But,
then, Colin was not an ordinary young
man, and success left him Geld and UNI
changed
In measure, perhaps, it Strengthened
out that moral obliquity of his touching
his debts--but only in measure. Some
OF the larger ones he forgot-if, indeed,
we may be allowed to use the term
where accident had no part. And so il
happened that a few of his creditors,
who had hailed his triumphs and his
Homecoming as the heralds of a settle
ment, discovered that they had run be
fore their horse to market"
Some went the length of boarding him
with their claims, but he wTiggled and
slipped through their hands just as he
wriggiel and slipped through everything
else that was unpleasant.
He was sorry-there were at times
tears in his voice when he protested it
he was desperately sorry for" the incon-
vcuicnce they might be suffering, but he
besought thcm-a here his accents
would grow seductive as a siren's-to
give him time. He had nothing to speak
of, and if they pressed him they would
only disgrace him to no purpose; while
if they waited until he should have
earned something he would satisfy them.
Fame WAS his, In the wake of Fame,
Fortune has at times been known to
journey. Let them give him a chance,
and they would see. He was not quite
specific concerning what they would see,
and the last thing they thought Them
selves likely to see was their money,
but realizing perhaps how feeble a reed
is the law for the creditor they con
scented to wait,
And while those poor creditors waited
Colin Harrington spent his not incon
siderable earnings with that iovial reck
lessness characteristic of his happy 90
lucky nature.
How long this atroeious state of things
might have prevailed but for the inter
vention of Mary Escott there is no saying
with any degree of certainty, though-by
basug a presumption of the future upon
our knowledge Of Collins passive might
hazard Il guess that il would have pre-
vailed until a second fitting from Eng
land became imperative.
She, however. was destined to work
his metamorphosis, arresting his progress
along the road of unconscious dishonesty
that leads to perdition in the abstract
and the county court in the concrete.
In the years of his adolescence Colin
had been very fond of Mary. There had
been certain tender passages between
them, and the budding of a love which
Collins financial shortcomings had cruelty
nipped, Abroad he learned that she had
married. At the news he had sighed
prettily. and smiled with fond RETROSPECT
tive amusement-for he had known one
or two other, and even greater, passions
since that which Mary had inspired
Later, he had heard that her husband
was dead, and this time he had sighed
parliamentary and without smiling, be
heving himself genuinely affected by the
mental picture he drew of her widow
hood Thereafter he had forgotten her
which. platitude mongering cynics tell us
is human natures vile way.
And now of sudden he came face {,
face with her again. 1t was ut regi
mental ball in his native town of Stoil
bridge. and the colonel's wife had hustle,
him across and presented him It's the lion
of the hour. They had smiled upon eacl
other the quiet smile, fraught with neye
so little sadness, of souls stripped of thei
illusions.
The coloners wife had withdrawn, an,
Colin. seating himself beside her. wa.
scribbling hieroglyphs on her dance ear,
with a clunsiness that would never hay,
led YOU to suspect that things he vrot.
were worth something like six-pcnse .
word.
Then he looked at her ntentlv for
moment and-"Molly," he whispered
"how beautiful You have growu!'
The genuineness of his accents robba.
the words of all yestige Of impcrtincnc,
Colin" she Knocked back. how cleyc
you have becomc" And they lauobe,
together. Tell me" ~hc added .bov
does it feel TO be lion 2"
"One longs for the mousc to e,,o, an.
gnaw the cords, and allow one to ast -,
and stretch ones self"
She knit her brows
what an artificial spersht~
Believe me, it describes am artifo;,
condition" lat