Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1906-03-26

and shudder. 1t was an insult TO the
love that lay dormant in her bosom
the love for Yorke.
One day she got out her money and
spread it on the table, and counted
it. With the greatest care it would
not 60 very far, and it was all that
sood between her and the grim wolf,
starvation; for she felt she would
rather die than appeal for assistance
to her fathers relatives.
I'm the struggle for life we forget
the dead" says the philosopher; and
the problem of what was to become
of her gradually drew her away from
the sad brooding over her Bereavement
What should she do? She could
not dig, and beg she was ashamed.
The question haunted he day and
night, as he sat by the window, or
walked up and down the room or lay
awake at night listening to the null
titudinOus London clocks striking the
hours.
One afternoon she summoned up
SlI6IlSlH
plain black clothes, and her veil
closely drawn over her face, she
walked through the square into Ok
ford and Regent streets. She felt
weak and giddy at first, and soon
tired The vast thoroughfares, with
their eager, giddy crowds, confused
and bewildered her. 1t seemed to
her as if every one was looking at
her, as if every individual of the
throng knew of her trouble, her double
loss, and was plying her; and she
turned homeward, faint in body and
spirit
AS she reached No. %, she saw
cab standing at the door. The cab
man was carrying a wooden box into
the house; as she passed into the mar
row hall, a young lady who was talk
ing to the landlady made room for
her.
Leslie concluded that it was a new
lodger, and went up to her own room
for her.
Leslie concluded that it was a new
lodger, and went up to her own room
to take up the perpetual problem;
what should she do?
She recalled all the works she had
read in which the heroines had been
left alone in the world, and sought
some help from their own expert
ences and course of action. But
most if not all of these heroines had
been singularly gifted beings, who
had at once STEPPED into fame and
fortune as singers, actors, and mu-
sicians; and she, Lelsie, knew that
she was not gifted in any of these
ways.
THERE'S nothing l can do she told
herself that night, as she undressed
herself, YEARLY and hopelessly-
nothing! I am a cumberer of the
ground"
She had tired herself by the walk,
and slept the whole night, for the
first time since her fathers death;
but she dreamed that she was married
to Yorke, and that she was surround
ed by a crowd-the crowd she had
called her your grace" and ouch
ess;" and she woke to a sense Of the
reality with a heart that ached all
the more bitterly for the pleasant
dream.
Was it years ago, that drive to st.
Martins, when he had sat beside her
and shown her how to hold the reins?
or did it never appen, and was only
phantasy of her imagination?
So great a difference was there be-
tween then and now, so wide gull,
that only the present seemed real, and
the past vision of a disordered mind
She unlocked the small box and
took out the diamond pendant, and
looked at it and the scrap of paper
with the precious words, "From
Yorze," written on it, until the tears
hid them from her sight. But they
recalled the joy, the delight, the
sacred ecstasy of the past all too dis
tinctly.
It was true. She, Leslie Lisle, help
less, friendless, with only few
pounds between her and want, was
the Leslie Isle who had basked in
that short sunlight Of happiness.
She thought she would make an
other attempt to go out that morning;
and afer dressing slowly, and putting
off the dreaded moment of leaving
the house and facing the outside
world, she went down the stairs AS
she did SO the door of one of the
rooms on the floor below hers opened,
and the girl she had seen in the nall
yesterday came out.
To be Continued.