The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1905-03-07
In the Stocks
By Martha
McCuIloch Williams
Copyright, 1904. by Martha McCuToch- Williams


cry as he was amazed to find himself
in Cupid's tolls. He had got almost
through this house party as through a
hundred others scot free, unburdened
by more than passing memories Of
black eyes or gray or blue. Indeed he
had passed up Mildred Gore as impos-
sible two minutes after he took her in
to dinner, regretfully too. 1t was en-
many counts so desirable that he
should find in her the woman he
wished to marry.
She was his equal in birth, in for
tune in position; his people approved
her thoroughly; moreover, there had
descended to him q burden of obliga-
ton to her blood which it was impossi-
bic that money could discharge Her
father had come to his fathers rescue
in day of trouble that otherwise must
have ended in disaster, forcing his way
through mob of clamoring depositors
in the elder Karsens' bank, with bags
of gold in either hand and a ready
promise of ten times as much at need.
That had stopped the senseless run.
Men who had been ready to fight for
their money had begged abjectly to
have it kept in the vaults.
This, of course, had been in the days
of provincialism, before Banker Kar-
sens had come to the city to prosper
and die millionaire. His son Herbert
had only the haziest memory of the
fitting of Minton. the little home town,
and haziest of all of Mildred as a wisp
of long, white clothes with something
red and squirmy at the top of them,
from which he had turned away in dis
gust sticking small fists into his first
pair Of pockets and saying grandly,
I'm man now; don't kiss girls any
more"
Until two hours before they were to
leave Hidaway, the Barton country
house, he told himself the Gore girl
was out of the question.
His wife must have. above all things,
beauty and brillianee Mildred was
quiet. lumpish even, he thought, con
tent to play wall flower or happy with
Dicky Barton for company. Dicky was
an infant terrible, aged seven. All the
other girls Stunned him as much as
they dared
He had somehow sensed it that Mil
dred might be beauty if she chose be-
fore he saw her come home from a
rapid ride with cheeks like damask
roses and tendrils of soft brown hair
framing her glowing face. A crown
Of wild grape blooms lay lightly above
the tendrils; a sheaf of pink wild roses
was crushed against her dark green
coat just below the throat She was
laughing, too, as merrily as happily, as
Dicky himself-Dicky, who rode at her
elbow, impishly happy over having
brought both their horses to the edge
Of running away. Dicky it was who
had. crowned her, after pulling off her
hat and letting down her hair He
scowled at Karsens as that gentleman
made to help Mildred down, saying
shrilly: "You go way and stay with
your no-goods! She," nodding toward
Mildred, belongs to me. I'm goin to
marry her when Pm grown up. That
will be about Christmas after next"
"Dicky, don't you think it might be
next Christmas?" Mildred asked, her
eyes dancing. 81 hate long engage
ments. They're always dreadfully sor-
rowful, besides being unlucky." Dicky
| IooI, cd OF hay. dot1htf11I1v
How do you know?" he asked. Are
you begaged to the fellow you carry
round in your locket? l saw you kiss
it the other day. Let me see what he
looks like; you know you said you
would"
$50 1 will-some time" Mildred an
swered, catching him by the shoulders
and swinging him back and forth. Kar-
sens noted how soft yet firm her hands
were, the fine modelling Of wrists and
palms, the whole pose of grace and
strength. But he hardly knew that he
did note them-he was so blindly, so fu-
riously jealous of the fellow in the
locket. When Dicky at last ran away
to his mother Karsens stood before Mil
bred, asking imperatively, Are you
really engagedY
whats that to-Hecuba?" Mildred
countered, her paling roses suddenly
red again.
"Everythingr' Karsens said, with a
thick undernote. Mildred, Mildred, .
he went on, Il have been blind this ten
| DAYS. Now that | see is it quite too
/ late?"
81 don't understand" Mildred said
suddenly, prim and pale She half
turned away her face as she wound
up her thick hair and massed it high
on her head Il must CO." she muir
INJURED. ''Dicky has every hairpin in
some of his pockets. He says he means
to keep them so l cannot go with the
others. My hair, you see, is unruly;
it defies ordinary fastenings, so unless
can get the pins back before he thinks
| to hide them the chances are | shall
really be prisoner until tomorrow"
4 All this in huddle, with flight after
it. Karsens stood staring after the
vanishing figure in a scowling daze. He
was angry clean through. If it was
| fate's decree that he should be thus
bowled over, why had it not come to
pass at first? Then he might have had
a chance now, when he had
shown himself a condescending ass, of
course she would never look at him,
much less listen. There was also the
man in the locket. She had blushed
| furiously when Dicky told of him. Who
| could he be? Some Minton manikin,
no doubt Though Mildred had been
/ strange to him, ne knew how she had
grown up there, the light of her fathers
/ eyes, the stay and comfort of an in
4 valid mother. They had no business to
keep her there. 1t was that which had
made her so silent, so pale and ungirl-
ish instead Of beauty as glorious as
delicate
She was, after ALL the wife for him,
yet they had given her no chance He
i had been likewise defrauded. How was
he to know that aught so nunlike could
soften and brighten like a gray sky at
dawn? Until train time he asked him
I SSil THESE things anu luduy uOre over
and over. He meant to have them
answered in part before he got back to
the city. There fate baked him. AT
the very last minute Mildred decided to
stay another day. Dicky howled de-
light and triumph when he heard 1t
and instantly carried her Off from
everybody. Karsens made his adieus
with what grace he might and went
home more than ever dazed.
He did not sleep that night Next
day betimes he sped him back to Hid
away. He found the house deserted.
Mrs. Barton was out driving, said the
butler. Miss Gore? He was not sure.
She might be in the grounds. She was
not in her own room or anywhere