Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1908-02-13

thirds witteds woman who had been
charged with bigamy.
The Tocsin made what 1t could Of
this, and so dexterously that the wrath
Of Canaan was one farther jot increas-
ed against the shyster. Aye, the town
was hot, inside and out.
Let us consider the forum. Was
there ever before such a summer for
the National House corner? How
voices first Numbered there, then
cracked and piped. is not to be rem
dered in all the tales Of the fathers.
One who would make vivid the great
doings must indeed dip his brush in
earthquake and eclipse" Even then
he could but picture the credible and
must despair of thistle silence of
EsleW Arp. Not that Eskew held his
tongue, not that he was chary Of
speech-no! o tempora, o mores! Mol
But that he refused the subject in
hand. that he eschewed expression up
on it and resolutely drove the argu-
ment in other directions. that he
achieved such superbly un-Arplike in
consistency. and with such rich mate
rial for his sardonic humors, not at
arms length. not even so far as his
finger tips, but beneath his very palms,
he rejected it. This was the impossible
fact
Elsewhere is no option but to de-
clare-was no longer Eskew. 1t is the
truth. Since the morning when Ariel
Tabor came down from Joe's office,
leaving her offering of white roses in
that dingy. dusty, shady place. Eskew
had not been himself His comrades
observed it somewhat in physical diff
ference, one of those alterations which
may come upon men of his years sud
denly, like "sea change" His face
was whittier, his walk slower. his voice
filed thinner. He creaked louder when
he rose or sat. Old always from his
boyhood, he had in the turn of hand
become aged. But such things come
and such things go. After eighty there
are ups and downs. People fading
away one week bloom out pleasantly
the next, and resiliency is not at all a
patent belonging to youth alone. The
material change in Mr.. Arp might have
been thought little worth remarking
What caused Peter Bradbury, Squire
Buckalew and the colonel to shake
their heads secretly to one another and
wonder IL their good old friends mind
had not .'begun to go" was something
very different. To come straight down
to it, he not only abstained from all
argument upon the "Cory murder and
the case of Happy Fear. refusing to
discuss either in any terms or under
any circumstances. but he also declined
to speak of Ariel Tabor or of Joseph
Louden or of their affairs. singular or
plural, masculine, feminine or neuter,
or in any declension. Not word COM
initial or noncommittai. None!
And his face when he was silent fell
into sorrowful and troubled lines.
The voices of the fathers fell to the
pitch of ordinary discourse; the dr0wsy
town was quiet again; the whine of the
planning mill boring it's way through the
sizzling air to every Weakening ear. Far
away on quiet street it sounded faint
ly, like the hum Of bee across a creek,
and was drowned in the noise Of men
at work on the old Tabor house. 1t
seemed the only busy place in Canaan
that day, the shade of the big beech
trees which surrounded 1t afforling
some shelter from the destroying sun
to the dripping laborers who were saw
ing, hammering, painting. plumbing.
papering and ripping open old and new
packing boxes. There were many
changes In the old house pleasantly in
keeping with It's simple character-airy
engagements now almost completed so
that some of the rooms were already
finished and stood, furnished and i'm
maculate, ready for tenancy.
In that which had been Roger Ia
boris studio sat Ariel. alone. She had
caused some chests and cases stored
there to be opened and had taken out
Of them few of Rogers canvasses and
set them along the wall. Tears filed