Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1908-01-10

tree hesitated, but presently retreated
to his room without word.
The dog was spared. They sat down
at last TO cool dishes that should have
been hot. and their mutual ardor had
suffered with the viands. Daintree
was very solemn and very stiff, his
hapless companion quite certain that
he had given mortal and everlasting Of
Tense. But the incident was never re-
ferred to again. and Tom soon forgot
the solitary occasion upon which his
champion displayed himself In so SIN
lister light.
Not that the other lights were all
rose colored. The man had foibles In
Vulnerable and in their way as ex-
traordinary as his inexplicable kind
ness to Tom This continued and In
creased, and yet there was n some
thing ostentatlous. vainglorious. ego
tistical even in his klndest acts. Tom
hated himself for seeing it, but there it
was. 1t became the more noticeable
as Tom himself grew more regenerate
and SO made fewer demands upon the
others consideration. And then the
gloomy vanity of the man! His lit
erary pretensions! His solemn beller
in himself and all he did!
Heaven knows he has done enough
for mcr' sighed Tom, quite ashamed.
"I must try to see nothing else. but
what can't help seeing shall never,
never, never make any difference TO
my regard for him."
Tom wanted to get to work at once,
in the house, In the garden. anywhere
and at anything, but the other would
not hear Of 1t for days. He was TO
rest and forget and to enjoy his life.
They made excursions together in the
| curricle or In Daintree's boat. Tom
would have been almost happy II ne
only could have given his kind compan-
ion the heart whole admiration which
the latter took for granted. And his
inability in that respect was so real a
grief to him he could have wept at IT
| and at the others kindness put togeth-
err but there was still not tear In his
heart. He often wondered was there
any heart LETT in his body. What he
deemed his ingratitude seemed some
times to prove that there was not.
There were qualities he could honest
iy admire in Daintree. but they were
not those qualities upon whose posses
sion Daintree most prided himself. He
was man of iron nerve and Will.
That was undoubted. One day In a
souaIl near the Heads he handled the
boat with magnificent GOODNESS and
| skiIl-when Tom thought they must
| both have gone to the sharks. When
they landed safe and sound, he infict-
ed SO many of his poems upon Tom,
whom the salt breezes had overcome
with drowsiness, that the pantry and
the knives to clean seemed preferable
"a such nightly ordeals. Tom asked to
be put into livery and to work at once.
He insisted upon it and gained MS
point through the accidental touch or
"livery."
They drove into Sydney next day
with specimens Of the family crest
which Tom was to bear on every but
ton. Daintree being magistrate,
| cockade was duly included in the Or
der, and for time the master was IN
high feather at the prospective dis
play. But 1t recalled family troubles
IRE long, and all the way home he
talked dismally Of himself as an exile
like Byron-my literary second SELF.
Somebody had once called him own
brother to Byron" He never tired or
quoting the phrase. He was destitute
of humor and made Tom blush Tor
him where he would have shaken with
laughter at another.
His contrariety was unique. Not
only was he good magistrate spollt
through neglectlng the bench for his
| desk. but an old athlete who Dragged
about the poetry he could not write
| instead of about the races he had real
| ly won. On the top Of his bookshelf
stood the row of furnished silver cups,
and his proud eye climbed no higher
than the volume or two OF mediocre
! verse underneath He made little
enough of his genuine triumphs, his
real abilities, but he would talk with
bated breath Of few stanzas which
often rhymed as false as they rang.
Once Tom cleaned the cups when DAM
tree was out, and he few into some
thing very like a rage when he came
in and saw them. He was the most
unaccountable Of men.
"Still he is the Sindest," was Toms
reflection on the top Of that conclusion,
and the same night he not only made
another of his poor attempts at thank
ing Daintree for all that he was doing
and had done; he at last put the ques-
ton which seemed to mark stride
I'm his slow and uphill return from
brute to man. And yet even now 1t
was no very sincere curiosity, but
rather an uncomfortable feeling that
he ought to seem curious, which
prompted him to say:
81 can't understand your kindness to
me. Why did you begin It? Why 90
you 60 on? wonder what made you
1 take all interest in me at the start!
Wonder was the word, for wonder
he did, but keenly inquisitive he was
not, and the stride was shorter than
it had looked.
"I believed in your innocence" re-
piled Daintree with elaboration; "that
was all"
81 can't think why. You were the
only one. Yet you knew nothing about
me, it seems" And still his tone was
that of purely impersonal speculation: !,