The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1906-08-01

oDe ndu Deen absent from AntlOcn
four years. These years had been
spent in the east and in travel abroad
with widowed and childless sister of
her fathers. She was, on the whole,
glad to be home again. AS yet she was
not disturbed by any thoughts of the
future. She looked on the world with
serene eyes. They were a llmpid blue
and yelled by long dark lashes. She
possessed the poise and mistaken self
confidence that come of position and
experience. Her father and mother
were not so well satisfied with the
situation; they already recognized that
1t held the elements of a tragedy. In
their desire to give her every oppor-
tunity they had overreached them
selves. She had outgrown Antioch as
surely as she had outgrown her child
hood, and 1t was as impossible to take
her back to the one as to the other
The doctor patted Oakley on the
shoulder.
Il am glad you've dropped in. hope,
now you have made beginning, we
shall see more of you."
He was portly man Of fifty, with
kindly eyes and an easy, gracious man
ner. Mrs. Emory was sedate and
placid, handsome, well kept woman,
who administered her husbands affairs
with steadiness and economy that
had made it possible for him to amass
a comfortable fortune from his strag
Cling country practice.
Ill
was not at all like the young men Of
Antioch as she recalled them, nor was
he like the men she had known while
under her aunt's tute1age-the leisurely
idlers who drifted with the social tide,
apparently without responsibility OF
care.
He proved hopelessly dense on those
matters with which they had been per.
fectly familiar. 1t seemed to her that
pleasure and accomplishment, as she
understood them, had found no place
in his life. The practical quality In
his mind showed at every turn Of the
conversation He appeared to hunger
after hard facts, and the harder these
facts were the better he liked them.
But he offended in more glaring ways.
He was too intense. and his speech
too careful and precise, as il he were
uncertain as to his grammar, as, in.
deed, he was.
Poor Oakley was vaguely aware that
he was not getting on, and the strain
told. 1t slowly dawned upon him that
he was not her sort, that where he
-.
quite foreign. with interests he could
not comprehend. but which gave him
ranking sense of inferiority.
He had been moderately we'll salts
fed with himself. as, indeed. lie had
good reason to be. but her manner was
calculated 10 rob him of undue pride.
He was not accustomed to being treat
ed with mixed Indifference and patron
age He asked himself resentfully
how it happened that he had never
before met such girl. She fascinated
him. The charm of her presence seem
ed to suddenly create and satisfy a
love for the beautiful. With generous
enthusiasm he set to work to be en-
tertaining. Then realization of the
awful mental poverty in which he
dwelt burst upon him for the first
time. He longed for some light and
graceful talent with which to bridge
the wide gaps between the stubborn
heights of his professional erudition.
He was profoundly versed on rates.
grades. ballast. motive power and roll
ing stock, but this solid information
was of no avail. He could OH occasion
talk to a swearing section boss with a
grievance and n brogue in way to
make that man his friend for life. He
also possessed the happy gift of in
spring his subordinates with a Jealous
sense of duty but his social RESPONSE
bilties numbed his faculties and left
him bankrupt for words.
The others gave him no assistance
Mrs. Emory. smiling and good humor-
ed. but silent. bent above her sewing
She was not an acute person, and the
situation was lost upon her, while the
doctor took only the most casual part
In the conversation.
Oakley was wondering how he could
make his escape when the doorbell
rang The doctor slipped from the par
or. When he returned he was not
alone He was preceded by dark
young man of one or two and thirty
This was Griffith Ryder. the owner of
the Antioch Herald.
my dear" said he, "Mr. Ryder"
Ryder shook hands with the two ladies
and nodded carelessly to Oakley. Then.
with an easy careless compliment, he
lounged down in the chair at Miss
Emory's side.
Constance had vturned from the
strenuous Oakley to the newcomer
with sense of unmistakable relief
Her mother. too. frightened visibly
She did not entirely approve of Ryder,
but he was always entertaining In a
lazy. Indifferent fashion of his own.
Il see, Grff.' the doctor said, ''that
you are going to support Kenyon.
declare ii shakes my confidence IN
you" and he drew forward his chair
Like most Americans, the physician
was something of politician, and. as
Is also true of most Americans not
professionally concerned In tie hunt
for office. this interest fuctuated be-