Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1909-05-28

nothing to be very sad about"
am afraid Maude Denison is display
ing an ignorance of the world and a dis
'egard to the vanities and gewgaws there
'f, that may seem a little high-strained;
but recollect that she is but eighteen,
that the Xmbinster was her first ball, and
that, owing to her fathers pride and
straitened circumstances, she has lived
very secluded life.
Few were the strangers that came with
in the gates of Glinn of late years. Har-
old Denison scorned to entertain unless
he could do so with all the old lavish
PROFESSIONALISM prodigal hospitality of
former times which had entaied such bit
terness in his present daily bread. His
wife, naturally an extremely sensitive
woman, shrunk also from mixing in So
ciety in much more humble and modest
way than she had been wont to do. She
was not of the temperament to face the
half-whispered comments and appraised
eyebrows of her country neighbors Poor
thing / hear he has run through every
thing; even the carriage horses have to
| be put down." Remarks of this kind
were past her endurance, and so it was
that since she left school, some two years
ago, Maude had led very secluded life.
True, many an old friend of the Deni-
sons had offered to take care of the girl
to various gaieties in the county, even if
they could not induce Mrs. Denison to
come to their houses and chaperone her
own daughter; but all such invitations
had been met with a brief though cour-
teous refusal. Poor lady, she had more
than once pleaded in her darling's behalf
but, wrapped in his own selfish pride,
Harold Denison said fiercely, he would
be patronized by no one.
And so Maude grew up like some wild
flower, though not born to bloom and
blush unseen" For are there not already
two who would fain pluck the wild flower
and gather 1t to their bosoms If they may?
Did Maude know she was handsome?
OF course she did. She wanted no Xmin
ster ball to tell her that. What girl
over fifteen, in the most primitive of
nations, having beauty, is unaware of
it? If there are no looking glasses, are
there not deep pelucid waters that will
serve as such Natures mirrors where
by to wreath wild flowers in the hair?
Maidens of our advanced civilization may
be haunted with misgivings. Given the
face of an angel. can we tell how it may
stand the makeup" that fashion seems
to have decreed in these days? How dark
eyes and eyelashes will go with golden
hair is, of course, an open question. l
can fancy the nervousness of those dusky
Indian bellies till they have ascertained
the effect of paint and pigments, and what
anxious moments our remote ancestresses
must have had when they first put on
their woad
Thus it came about that Maude Denison
had been out but on very few occasions,
and had it not been that her godmother,
who having gold to bequeash, was too i'm
portant person to be trihed with, had
insisted on bearing her off, she had never
seen that memorable Xminster ball.
Twelve O'Clock, and the sun shines
brightly into Mrs. Denison's boudoir,
throwing rich tints through Maude's
brown tresses and lighting up the pale
face of her mother; that joyous, fearful,
capricious, womanish April sun-so like
a woman in its glowing strength, so like
her, again, in its overloaded weakness
Poor Mrs. Denison is still pOndering on
how to begin the dread task her lord has
set her. She knows that glozing phrase
of mot wishing to coerce the girls de-
cison," is but the meanest mockeries
she can look back upon that airy preface
of mot that l wish to sway you, my
dearest Eleanor" in so many cases, and
remembers too well that whatever may
have been her misgivings or disikes, the
program has generally been carried out
in its original integrity. She has borne
these things meekly They concerned but
herself now they threaten her daughter.
Weak woman as she is, she would fain
stand at bay here. Still, though intui-
lively knowing that it was false, there is
the specious reasoning of her husbands,
that the thing ought to be submitted to
| Maude herself Again the tendrils of her
affections are twined round dear old
Glinn; she feels what bitter wrench it
would be to say farewell to the old place.
Above all, there is the strong will of that
selfish husband whom she still loves so
dearly, under whose thrall her life has
passed.