Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1906-04-12
THE GHOST OF
A CHANCE
BY Martha McCuIIoch-wiIIi0ms
Copyright, 1905, by P. c. Eastment


Everybody else is going" Selma
said, with a sigh. ooh. dear Won
der why we have TO skip all the good
tines
1T is in punishment for our uncom-
mitted SINS" Bess answered. with a
| toss of the head. "All our sins must
be uncommitted. I'm sure we've been
brought up more strictly than ever
nuns We're. Sometimes when l think
| over it all get fairly afraid for us two
We've been so proper from our cradles
we must break out after awhile"
"Hush Aunt Wilton would have q
| fit if she heard you,' Selma said. DO
you think she was ever young, Bess?
l can't fancy her less than sixty and
severe, yet | do believe she means only
TO be kind and really wants us to be
happy"
Yes, in her way. which isn't mine
nor anybody else's," Bess broke out
passionately. Her way is to have
everything just so 365 days in the year.
We have all sorts of material good
things-we eat well, sleep well. dress
well-but no liberty to get the good of
/, them. How many times did we wear
our best frocks last summer? Not
once. And its going to be the same
this season. People never ask us to
things any more because they know we
won't come"
Il don't mind that so much as the
flowers. Shouldn't you like, just once,
to run riot in the garden, pulling what
ever you liked?"
you hereto! Aunt Wilton would
have serious doubts as to your sanity
If she heard that. l think she loves
flowers, not because they are flowers
and beautiful, but because they are her
own
THE same as her nieces,' a deeper
voice said from an ambush of lilac
hedge. Next minute the hedge shook
violently. 1t was old and gnarly, be-
ing party hedge and therefore beyond
Wilton control The end of the shak-
ings was young man, slim and mer-
ry eyed, who bowed very low to the
two young women, then said deprecat-
ingly: Don't freeze me because
eavesdropped. l know how bad it is,
but really this time the end justifies
it. I'm committee of one, self ap-
pointed, to find out just why the incest
girls in town stay out of everything"
''Will you Isteni'' Bess adjured Sc
lima, whose eyes We're dancing, though
her face was preternaturally grave as
she answered, Everybody overlooks
Joe Hartweli's fibs because he fibs so
nicely"
Hartwell laughed His father being
Aunt Wilton's lawyer, he knew the
Ford girls, Aunt Wilton's nieces, better
than anybody in Caswell town. 1t was
knowledge that ran back to the mud
pie period, although the Fords know
no more of mud pies and their making
than could be gathered from watching
him enviously through crannies of the
hedge
Now, for two years he had been Won
dering how they had escaped their
bringing up. Selma, he was sure, was
full Of mad longings for life and free
dom. About Bess he was not so sure.
She sang and laughed like a human
sunbeam-sang and laughed herself
into the deepest depths of his heart.
Therefore he resented bitterly her iso-
lation. The sisters would some day
Inherit Aunt Wilton's more than CON-
Portable fortune. 1t CALLED him TO think
that people would say Bess had mar
ried him through lack of other lovers;
maybe also that his father had encour-
aged his client to keep her heiresses
SO secluded out of regard for the inter
ests of his son. Beyond all that,
though, was the rebellion against thus
winning by default How could Bess
be sure she really loved him when she
had had no chance of measuring him
against other lovers?
1t was with hope of giving her that
chance he had asked his chum, Denni-
son, for a months visit. Dennison was
handsome witty and winning His
coming. duly advertised, had set social
Caswell all a-nutter. There were al
ready things planned for all the first
fortnight Selma and BesS had been
discussing the most spectacular of
them, the lawn party at the old Yer
non place. 1t was TO come off by moon
light, aided and abetted by japanese
lanterns. There would be dancing, of
course, and supper in the big hall of
the deserted mansion. Everybody was
to go In costume and masked. Except
for that, Selma and Bess might have
had faint hopes. But Aunt Wilton's
face was flint toward masking. 1t
Bavored to her so much OF acting and
the theater.
If Hartwell had known that - but
speculation is idle. He looked blank
indeed when Selma let him see how
the land lay. "And l got it up mostly
so you might dance your FILL" he said
sorrowfully. "How l wish l could
wash the slate clean and begin all
over! Such great lark l hoped we
might have, and now to think"-
"Such great lark we will havew
cried Bess. springing up and whirling |
about IN front of the garden bench. |
Hartwell stared at her. Selma looked |
puzzled. Bess stopped short in her |
dancing TO put her finger on her lip |
uiu say hoNuiHS SdStiy btiNCSh tiS |
words: promise not to faint when |
you see US, Joe. 1 think we're coming, |
though we have just the ghost Of |
chance"
The lawn party had to take its full |
moon on trust. So many clouds sailed |
in the sky the lantern lights shone all |
undimmed The thick, lowery night 1
kept the crowd close about the house. |
1t was big and substantial, and, il the |
worst came In the shape of rain, dane
ing could go on inside True, a few |
nervous persons said that would hard
ly do or course it was all idle talk.
None the less there had been talk Of
Vernon ghost.
Two ghosts indeed-those of the Yer
non twin sisters, who had loved the
same sweetheart and had refused to
marry him out of regard for the other.
They had lived to a great age, fading
and falling Mt last like withered roses
there in the family mansion. They had
been dead twenty years, with none but
good words to follow them. If they
did not sleep peacefully in their sunny |
graves, then were pure lives and good
deeds vain. Notwithstanding there |