Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1906-05-18
CHAPTER II.
Science

The tide closes around little Paul.
and his mother, without misgiving
at her heart, walks onward through
the verdant, summer-smelllng lanes,
the blue sky smiling overhead, the
voices of the haymakers ringing mer-
ry through the fields; earth and heav-
en-, one would say. keeping holiday;
no place for danger. and loss, and
swift irrevocable despair in world
SO harmonized to joy as this!
Throughout every season Of the year
the Jersey lanes have some unique
charm, some duodecimo beauty of
their own that we miss amid the wide
horizons Of stateller countries. Now.
in mid-June they are at their zenith.
The flower of the hawthorne has
passed, and still, in come few sheltered
positions, a flush of hectic serves to
-7ssy~lnd you Of east winds and of May.
The foam-like. drowsy-scented alders
are in fullest blossom. The dwarf-rose
fills every sandy bank or bit of common
with its wax-like petals and lemon
favored odor. Great balls Of honey
suckle, here budding crimson, there
over-blown pink and buff, hang pro-
fusely from the hedges Of acacia, sy-
eamore and wild cherry, which, to the
horror Of scientific farmers and the
satisfaction of the remainder Of man.
kind, form the boundaries Of the fields.
Daphne saunters on, now in sun,
now in shadow, amidst all this wealth
of color and Of fragrance; herself not
the least fair accessory Of the picture,
but unwittingly as any flower along
the path of her own fairness.
A book Of extracts might be filed by
some dIligent extract cutler with the
pretty fancies INDUCED in by the poets
about unconscious beauty. l would
make bold to say that no healthy girls
heart of two-and-twenty was ever cal
lous on the score Of personal attraction.
Daphne Chester's state Of feeling is
morbid, "her account with the world
closed;' there Is the secret Of her self
Indifference. Dress itself, that sure
barometer as to a woman's heart, in
life gives her scanty pleasure. With
the very country girls In the hayfelds
disporting tunlcs, paniers and the like,
she wears a skirt fashioned upon the
model of a dozen years ago; wears a
straw hat that shades her face and
plainly braided hair, when every farm
er's daughter holds her head up in hon
orable consciousness of Pamela or
Rubensl Nlnety-nine men out Of hun
dred, in short, would pass Mrs. Chester
by without a second glance-so weH
has the age educated mems eyes to
meretricious charms-and to escape
second glances is pnecisely the result
at which she aims. But the hun
dredth.
The hundredth. a sketchbook under
HE arm, cigar between his lips.
breaks upon Daphne's disconnected
sight just as she has reached the one
absolutely lonely bit Of all her walk.
a footpath leading through fields of
ripening barley, with thickly-boughed
apple orchards on either side; not the
echo Of a voice to be heard, not so
much as the outbuilding of farm
house In sight
"An exeurslonist," she thinks. and
the carpation mantles hotly over her
face and neck.
Il should explain that, 10 the inhabi-
tants of this district the word "excur-
sionist" is a generic term of reproach
for all male human creatures. strang-
ers. who may be seen abroad among
tbe lanes or fields between the months
OF May ane October. Il eoIpprcheGds
cockney ga"antry toward women;
disregard of garden fences; a five
pound return ticket t. Victoria Sta
ton! loud tweed suits; rainbow-col-
ored bat-scarfs, and vile tobacc>
What shall Daphne Chester do? She
has no choice but to set her features |
into the most forbidding expression !
those soft features are capable OF /
wearing, fix her eyes to whatever mu-
sic hall compliment the stranger may
think fit to bestow upon her, aud brush
by. Literally brush by, for the path,
at no time broad, is now scarce pas.
sable by reason of the barley that
sways across it in feathery, encroach'
ing waves from either side.
The earnation deepens on the girFs
cheeks, but she holds her head up |
bravely and proceeds.
The stranger is within dozen yards |
of her-a well-knit young fellow OF |
1--WE or six-and-twenty. bronzed. hardy. |
looking. a soldier you could hardly fail |
to prognostieate by profession. with an |
air of boyhood. lingering look OF
Harrow or of Rugby giving pleasant |
brightness to his face and bearing.
"And not-not an exeursionist,"
thinks Daphne on the instant.
What subtle sense. unclassified by
,,h,-siolnnist nnnhlas a .vnman with