Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1908-08-05


ride so furiously and laugh SO heart
lily. 1 had hard struggle between my
gratitude and the never-dying mem
DRY of the only person had ever
| loved. The eyes of his old mother fol-
lowed me anxiously and searchingly,
and yet | could not make up my mind
| to become his wife. He had a right to
heart which could belong fully and
| entirely to him. and / had no heart to
give. l entreated him with many
| tears not to think me ungrateful, but
could not be his. He yielded; / saw
it gave him pain, but in spite of all he
| has been a true friend to me his whole
life long.
1.-TWO years later he brought home
to his mother a young bride, fresh and
rosy, whose blue eyes hung blissfully
on her husbands grave face. Then we
| decided-his mother and Ito leave
| the young couple and to move into my
| old home. And so we did; we fitted
up the parsonage comfortably for a
young wife, and we were happy when
we saw the blonde head sitting at the
window opposite, busily sewing or
spinning; of when she slipped across
as gay as lark, with her jing1tng
bunch of keys at her waist to ask some
important advice from her mother.
$50 we lived On quietly, We two
women, and I could talk cheerily
| again, except when the memory of
| past times came back to me, and then
I thanked God that l had once expert
enced such happiness. One day was
sent for to the castle-the baron was
| dying. l nursed him for five long
| weeks, day and night. I closed his
eyes, which looked at me gratefully
once more, and so repaid a small part
of the debt, at least, which l owed for
the old happy days I had lived
through.
"The baroness was inconsolable,
and in her grief she chung to me. At
| the funeral | saw Bergen and Ruth
again, both with their sons. Willy,
now Prince Bodresky, was a hand
; some youth, dark, fiery, and eager,
while Wilhelm Won Bergen had his ia
| theirs ways-simple and straightfor-
ward, but knowing very well what he
was about. Ruth was the same CO.
quettish, elegant woman as in former
| years, but life of constant excite
ment and variety had brushed off the
| bloom prematurely from her wonder
| full beauty; sometimes, in spite of her
! thirty years, she looked old and worn.
| She did not take the slightest notice
of me, and she carefully kept Eer son
away from me, which caused me some
pain. The handsome youth was shy
and strange toward me. Bergen was
all the more cordial; we talked a
great deal about Hannah and of that
/ old happy time; we remembered Eber-
| hardt, too and l cried myself nearly
i'll while he was there-he knew how
much l had suffered.
"Soon after the funeral, at Ruth's
| desire, efforts were made to sell Ben
deleben. Frau Won Bendeleben was to
go to Vienna to live, as the Prince
| Bodresky did not care to live on the
estate. Bergen had not sufficient cap
ital to admit of his taking it, and, be-
sides, he was too thorough a soldier;
and they could not wait for the child
ren to grow up, Ruth thought, and in
! the meantime careless stewards would
have ruined the property. So it was
not long before the mistress of Ben
| deleben departed for brilliant Vienna
with her daughter, the princess, and
a comfortable tradesman occupied the
aristocratic old house with the proud
escutcheon of the Bendelebens. In
the elegant lofty rooms, where for
centuries generations of Bendelebens
had laughed and grieved, there now
roamed a flock of sturdy faxen-
haired children, who shot their ar
rows at the gay gods on the ceiling of
the dining room, till the worthy father
and his good wife, disturbed by the
sight of the mutilated noses and the
missing eyes, which seemed to look
down at them reproachfully, had the
Whitewater come and wash over all
the gay gods of Olympus, and the
Via la joie' into the bargain. All, was
there every really a time when one
could cry Vive la joie?'
q felt a pang of pain in my heart
when l saw strangers roaming about
the place where l had spent my hap
piest days. The old park with its quiet
hooks, its velvety ss-plots, seemed
desecrated when l met the whole
flock of wild children one day running
about, and the ducks and geese from
the poultry-yards walking about in it.
Annie Marie had gone away with her
husband long ago, for the new owner
needed no gardeners. The order and
quiet of former days were things of
the past.
"Ah, if the baron could have seen
it, He would not have rested in his
grave, and would have cursed the
daughter who had sold his family
estate. But so it goes; the very child
of whose aristocratic ideas he was so
proud had sold to the highest bidder
the home Of her ancestors in the