Connecticut western news., 1907-11-14
A Late Learned Secret.
[Original.1


 rented room and as he entered heaved a deep sigh. It was heard by Lydia Nutter. the landlady's daughter. aged twenty, who wondered what caused it. Had she, too, been forty instead of twenty, without having followed the course dictated by nature-mating and rearing children-she would have un- derstood that if translated into words the sigh would say:
 "Oh, this lonely roomw
 Eli Mulholland had in his youth chos- en athletic sports with which to beguile his leisure hours. He was a mans man rather than girls man. He re- membered a pair of bright eyes beam ing upon him when he had won the champion cup for single souls. They and the smile that accompanied them were then no more to him than passing whiff of violets. Now, as he entered his lonely room. he remembered that the girl he had failed to claim was the wife, and mother of children. of the man he had beaten in the race. He had won the cup, which he had so dearly prized, leaving for his antag- onist the girl, whom he had considered merely one of a million. Now the cup was in vault with other trinkets; the girl was the light of household.
 He remembered another whom he had played with in a double game of tennis, an execrable player, but soft voiced beauty; how he had saved the game by his skill and activity; how she had received the prize-a silver mounted racket-from his hands, with bushes that told him she would have gladly taken him instead.
 These and others with whom he had feared to become entangied contribut- ed their part in that deep drawn sigh, so unintelligible to Lydia Nutter. He was no longer the companion of young people. He had passed the mating period and had not mated.
 What troubled you last night, MT. Mulholland, as you went into your room" asked Lydia the next morning as the bachelor went out to get his lonely breakfast.
 'I troubled? What do you mean"
 ''You drew such a sad sigh"
 AS Eli looked into her sympathetic eyes something of two decades before came back to him. Was 1t too late to save what remained of his life from a loneliness intensified with each pass ing year? AS quickly as the thought came it was banished. Had he stood still for twenty years while others had grown old? He turned to pass out without reply. How could he tell this girl, who when he was her age was scarcely born, that he had wasted his opportunities, and, though he had gained the world 1t was worth less; that which he had selfishly thought he wished for himself when attained had shriveled in his hands. since he had no wife or children to be- stow 1t upon?
 When you feel that way again, come down and we'll try to comfort you" said Lydia.
 There was wistful look in his eyes as he closed the door.
 That night he sat in the reading room of his club pretending to read the newspapers, while he was watch ing the clock. He wished to go to the house where he roomed, but he would go neither too late nor too early-not after Lydia had gone to bed. not so early that he would seem to have come to be with her. for that was his in tention. He chose half past 9 as the hour most likely to conceal 1t and, aft CT two hours watching the clock, left the club. Lydia was in the sitting room with her mother, the mother reading, Lydia at some fancy work.
 "Tm in rather early tonight" he said to Lydia. There was nothing do ing at the club. I've brought some playing cards. Would you mind a gamer
 Again the smile that greeted him re- minded him of the face that had beam ed upon him when he had been an athletic victor. Then 1t had been ac- companied by the flush of victory, the plaudits of thousands. Now 1t was bestowed upon lonely soul hungering for sympathy.
 They sat down to a game ostensibly of cards, really to one of love. Lydia had admired the stalwart middle aged man whose hair was beginning to turn, but had not dreamed of being the wife of one she regarded so great. Ell clutched at what he regarded a straw to save him from a desolate old age. Neither believed it possible to win the game, and yet both had already won 1t. Eli insisted on a stake. sweet meats, and always contrived to lose. It might all have been arranged at once, but Eli, fearing to spoil his game by haste, thinking that great skill at an gling was essential, did not dare de- clare himself till the winter had pass ed and the time of the singing birds had come. Then when he had spent l months setting his trap he sprung it. Eli Mulholland is now fifty and his