Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1905-09-29
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
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His Ideal Woman
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hack from India was Ia spend
week with my people in the country
4 good deal can happen IN five years
and We naturally had plenty TO talk
about. But tore myself away at
last with a promise 10 return Tor
August and settle myself IN town IN
INV old lodgings oil ST. James street.
Apart from the various business
matters requiring my attention.
my investments had not improved
during my absence, and II Vas nee
essary TO cast my eve about Tor 9th
er securities-l.ondon at the mo-
mcnt appealed to me irreSiSubly,
There within the four mue radius
was massed the whole OF what ! had
missed during my five years IN re-
mote station in Burma-the HE,
the motion, the perpetual SENSE OF
something going on, OF beng in
close proximity, if not in absolute
contact, with the source of current
modes of thought, of hearing the
ceaseless hum of the wheels Of CIV
ilizalion. the throb of actuahty, OF
which not even the echoes had pcne-
trated to the squat white bungalow
on the banks of the lrawadl, where
the monotony had not been varied
by even so much as moment 5
fighting, and one made up for saw
inc ones intellectual by overfced-
ing ones physical instincts.
Once in town | found myself
plunged into a vortex of amusement;
There were old friends to be looked
un." When Cooked up" they in
sisted OH dinner, to be followed by
a theater or music hall. Some of the
men | had "done the town with
five wears before had got married.
| had to make the acquaintance of
their wives. Others who had been
married had been divorced. | had
to forget that they had ever been
married.
One way and another | was SO
busy that it was not till the end OF
a month that | remembered that
had not seen Wetherby. He had al
WAYS been zone of us" in the ole
DAYS at Oxford and elsewhere, pre-
pared for anything and everything
and | could not make out how i
was that | had not already come
across him.
ooh, Wetherby," said Benson, thu
stockbroker, when | asked him wha
had happened to our old friend, ''w'
never see Wetherby now. He is sup
posed to be in love. For myself,
believe he was just going to MARI,
a girl, and she died, with the resul
that he has been brooding over he
death ever since.
"AnyWay, no one ever seems t
see him anywhere, though he's still
got the same old rooms in the TEN
pie. Go and look him up by al
means, but | don't suppose you'll b.
able to see him, or, if you do, to &c
anything out of him. As | say, h
never seems to 60 out anywhere
though, as you know he used to b.
such a great ladies' man
with strong views as to the idea
woman" | put in, remembering va
rious conversations we had had OF
the subject.
eyes," assented Benson, che wa
always great on the woman ques
ton, talking about the perfcc
type and all that sort Of bosh. II
always was a bit of dreamer"
"Perhaps," | said maliciously
"that may account for his never be
ing seen now. He may have foun,
this type and be keeping her to him
self"
'Perhaps," said Benson. GLOW
ever, you 90 and see him. You an,
he used to be such terrific pals yor
may be able to get more out of hin
than we other fellows have beel
able to do"
"Well, I'll 90 anyway" | said.
went down to the temple tina
very night. My loud knock on tn
outer door of his chambers brough
Wetherby himself to open it. |
struck me that he looked half con
fused, half annoyed, as if | had sur
prlsed him at a moment when h
was occupied with other matters ant
resented intrusion. | wondered
whether, after all, the "perfect type
theory was right.
| put my suspicion aside, how
ever, when, recognizing me at las
in the semiobscurity of the stair
case, he seized my hand and SHOOT
1t warmly. "My dear fellow" h,
said, 81 am delighted to see you
When did you get back?" He over
whelmed me with questions as | fol
lowed inside and pulled a chair VI
to the open window facing his own
For an hour we sat talking over oil,
times and smoking. The converse
ton, reminiscent, as for the mos
part it was, enabled me to see tina
in some respects he was change,
from the man | had seen five year
Sefore. He spoke more deliberatel
slower. AS Benson had remarked
ne had always had a tendency t
dream. The tendency seemed &C
centuated. At times he was silen