The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-08-18
a W0MA S WAY.
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BY LARRY FRALICK.
Copyright, 1906, by Daily Story Pub. Co..

4\oopy AA6AS, 4SVO, Dy
The girl stood on the threshold of
life looking forward into its vast
v1stas through the gold-hued glasses
of youth. She was not what would
be called a pretty girl, but the gods
had endowed her with the divine
quality Of imagination and id9ality.
To the unobserving her rather thin,
pale and irregular features, surmount-
ed by wonderful shock of red hair,
marked her as, distinctly common
place. The more observing and ana
lytical who took time to look into
her bright, restless, sparkling eyes
paused and said: ''Theres something
IN that Graceland girl
1t remained for Frederic Walling
Hapgood, a man of the world, con-
noisseur and dilettante, to discover
the true worth and vital beauty
which lay within her.
1t happened at the Springs, where
She was taken by her grandmother,
with whom she lived-being an or
phan, and who regarded Marie sim
ply and wholly as one born to min
lister to her comfort and convenience.
For the first time in her lonesome,
narrow, provincial life the girl had
an opportunity to see life as she
had dreamed it: 1t was not sup
posed to be a pleasure trip for her
oh, not at all. Grandma Graceland
had heard that the Springs held
wonderful curative properties for her
rheumatism and straightway had hied
herself hither-taking Marie along to
as sort of necessary evil.
But Marie was not servant in any
sense of the word, and nobody would
have resented an insinuation to that
erect more than her aristocratic old
grandmother, who treated her as such
in their personal relations, but who
would have f1ayed alive any person
without the Graceland family who
dared put slight upon one of 1.-The
royal family" And so Marie plunged
into the great world and saw it at
close range-for the Springs was not
exclusively health resort. More peo-
pie, perhaps, came for pleasure and
recreation than for the curative prop
critics of the waters.
Well, ultimately, Fred Hapgood,
tired Of all things and at the Springs
for rest and change, met this
curious damsel-and with the true
scent of the thoroughbred detected
the great things which lay hidden
within her. Where others saw her ir-
regular features he saw the the es-
sential vitality flashing from her eyes.
Where others saw her pallid complex
ion he saw the seductive lines of her
lithesome figure. Where others saw
her shock of red hair he saw her
ardent, imaginative, girlish soul. Her
very ignorance and innocence attract
ed him and it pleased his humor to
pay deft and scientific court to this
budding bit of femininity.
To her it was as incense sent by
the gods. Never had she had court
paid her even by the callow youths
Of the village-she was not the tyne
to attract the average youth and her
nature was such as to repel rather
than to gain admirers. But when
this polished gentleman bowed over
her hand and used all the arts of the
man of the world she responded with
an ardor which nearly carried him
OIL his feet. 1t was a new experience
to him as we'll as to her, and it in
terested him more than he supposed
it possible to be interested in any
woman affair-at his time of life and
his stage of experience
Being so unique an experience, he
pursued it the more industriously.
and it was not many days before the
most ardent love scenes were being
enacted in the quiet groves and dells
about the Springs.
1t was an epoch in her career when
one moonlit evening he threw his
arms about her and drew her to him
with all his strength while his eyes
looked down into hers and spoke VOL
umes. Without hesitation she twined
her arms about his neck and raised
her scarlet lips to his. In. the mo-
ment of that passionate kiss all her
dreams, all her hopes, all the fancies
of her imagination were realized
and she passed from girlhood to wom-
anhood.
There were but few days of this
delirious joy for her, however, and
then the old, old story was reenacted.
Hapgood was called back to the city
on business. He went away-and
faded from her life. There were
few letters, it is true, but of most
non-committal sort and growing more
cold and informal on his part as
they grew more infrequent.
At last she understood and then she
realized that the great passion of her
life had come to her and had passed
by. She knew that while to her it
had been the great thing of all her
life, it had been to him but a holiday
sport. She knew that she had been
to him a mere pastime, and, ah the
pity of it, she knew that faith in
mankind had passed from her life.
Now even if the true knight came she