Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-10-23


One tried to control the bushes that
foren
we'll" she stsmI,ed.
Philip Fayrer laughed 'cheerfully. His
WlIes tender matrimonial plottings
We're not entirely unknown to him.
!, Don't trouble to worry after why
that viii blindfold your obtuse dad. No
doubt you women know best how to
arrange such things But by all that
Is sober earnest, you-half boy in my
estsem-have played your poor parson
very sorry trick"
She lavished no kisses or feminine
endearments on him-this calm, strong
girl OF twenty only laid her hand on his.
And the next day the village cab rat
tied Miss Fayrer over five miles of
dusty road, and deposited her on a
wayside station, whence, by detours and
many changes, she arrived finally in the
remote corner of Devonshire, where Ma
thaniel Crockett, uncle and godfather of
Philip Fayrer, had been busy for four
score years in building up a reputation
Tor eccentricity and miserliness. Combe
crockett was five miles from the station,
and when Diana reached it in the dusk
a SOFT, line drizzle was falling, believing
the iuxuriant lanes with moisture, and
wrapping up the blue hill and ruddy
sou IN delicate gradations of gray.
blakemoor was dry and sunny, and
had the smallest rainfall of all England.
Dlana's tired eyes viewed the gossamer
mists distastefully.
In the deep-banked lanes it became
presently twilight, and throughout the
long and lonely way only the creak of
Uncle Mats unoiled carriage wheels and
the soft, disconsolate pit, pit. pat of
persistent raindrops on the ferns, greet
ed the travellers ears.
Soon they were in the thick of a
dense pine wood, where the twilight be-
came night and the raindrops fell in oc-
casional thuds of accumulated moisture.
At this time in Blakemoor parsonage
they were all gathering for supper-a
happy informal meal, when the lamp
cleaned on bowls of roses and posies and
the evening air stole sweetly through
open and uncurtained windows.
Resolutely Diana shut her eyes to the
dear and banished scene, rehearsing the
few amiable platitudes with which she
must presently stem Uncle Mats irrita-
BILE catechism.
She had just in ina gination turned
the current of his curiosity by a neat
evasion, when, with Jolt, she found her
self rolling down the long avenue to
Combe Crockett.
By soft and gradual descents the
drive curved and fell till it reached a
bosky hollow, full at summer noon of
sweets and sunshine, but now STEPPED in
white mist that wrapped trees and house
in a shroud.
Never did ancestral home-seat of
wealth and pedigree frown more de-
pressingly on wayworn traveller than
Combe Crockett this night on Diana
Fayrer.
what loneliness! What gloomi" she
unused. "a hermitage is cheerful hos
telry to this. What must it be to face
it alone at nightfallI"
Fifteen years ago her fathers arm had
borne her up the hchen-clad steps into
the gray vault within, and the sensa-
ton of that entrance was upon her still.
Twenty pounds' she said aloud with
q smile. "And possibilities of all sorts
to follow. Dear mother!"
By this time the decrepit coachman
had descended from the box; and, hav-
ing. pealed an echoing bell, was wrestling
with the carriage door.
Diana came to the assistance of his
wet and ancient fingers; and, with a
def jerk, freed herself and sprang light
ly down upon the steps
Come in, madam" said the lugubrious
voice of venerable person in spectacles.
And Diana came7-up old, old steps,
through an old, old hall, beneath worm
eaten banners, under the conduct of an
DID, old woman.
The vast hall bare to the roof-whence
hung the tattered pennons of bygone
knights and crusaders-was chill and
dark, lighted only by a dim oil lamp.
Brave and healthy minded as was
Diana Fayrer, an involuntary sigh part
ed her lips.
On the threshold of the drawing room
something suddenly rushed about her
feet; and, STOPPING to greet the four
footed friend, with a hope that in this
small creature she might find a dumb
playmate at times. she saw a dyspeptic
pug, blind and lame, tugging at her
skirts.
"oh, Dodo, Dodo, my prettyi Come
here, come herei" cried the thin voice
of Mrs. Crockett. Push her away,
child. Your skirts are quite wet, and
Dodo catches cold as easily as con-
sumptive. Therel Bring the dear love
to me- You are treading on her toes.
Can't you see nay poor pet is blindi"
Diana, of quite secondary interest to
the pug, lifted the ancient favorite to
her arms, crossed the floor, and set it
down in the basket to which Aunt Jane
pointed.
When Dodo was safely ensconsed there
her owner lifted her eyes and sllowed
herself to remember her great niece.
"Humph!" she said, putting on her
spectacles and peering at Diana by the
light of a feeble reading lamp. 'Humph!
SO it isn't Gillian A good thing. /
guessed you would be the one 10 come
at your uncle's call. Pink-and-white
women are no good to anybody in the
world. I suppose Gillian is still pink
and-white and fancifuli"
"She is much the same as she was
when she met you at Bath two years
ago"
"Ah, and not married YETI"
no"