The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1909-12-31

the most beautiful scenery In the
world, and after the excitement Of
settling down, Of furnishing, Of ar
ranging, of putting all your future
life in order, there is apt to follow
certain blank, somewhat disconcert-
ing consciousness that all expectation
is now over, when you are left alone
with everything completed to live
that life to whsch you have been for
so long looking forward. Lady Car
was very conscious of this in her
sensitive and delicate soul, although
there was for long time sustain
ing force of expectation Of another
kind in her that kept 1 )er up. AL the
people in the neighboi hood, 1t is need
less to say, made haste to call upon
Lady Caroline Beaufort, and she
found them little fat, as country So
ciety is apt to be. She went out with
her husband number Of times to
dinner parties, especially convened in
her honor, and did not find them en-
livening. She was one of those wom-
en- who never get rid of the ideal, and
always retain vague hope in COM
ing to a new plan in beginning any
thing new that the project is at last
to be revealed to her. The good So
ciety, the spirits d'elite, whom she
had so longed for but never yet en-
countered, she not did encounter
here any more than in other places,
and sense of dull certainty settled
down upon her, after while, which
was depressing. Such impressions
are modified after time when the
idealist finds out that however much
his or her surroundings may cost the
reputation, there is always certain
pond of goodness and of the agreeable
and sympathetic in the dullest mind
when you come to know 1t. Surrey,
however, no more than any other
place, discloses these homely, COM
forting qualities all at once, and the
pride of disenchantment came. The
real light upon the glamor of the
Imagination may come, and Carry
felt herself settle down. 1t is pro-
cess which every dreamer has to go
through.
But it was long time before her
mind would consent to the settling
down, which took place slowly, but
surely as the days and years went on.
Beaufort was In reality little stirred
up at first BY the revival of so many
old plans and thoughts, though 1t was
in his mind, not In hers, that they re-
vived. He was constrained by hum
3snQ ~ n%.
least the attitude Of a student, Her
voice, which was so pretty, the gen.
tie feminine music of true though
small singer, was such a reproach to-
him as words cannot describe. She
had picked up her thread, so slight,
so fragile, as it was, and resumed her
little melodious strain with enthusi-
asm not less, but greater, than when
she had dropped il In the despair of
parting with her lover. Her little
form brought back to him faint un-
sayable echoes of that past which
seemed to be a thousand years off.
What was it that he had intended to
do that she remembered so we'll,
which to him was like a forgotten
dream! He could not pick up his
thread; he had smiled at himself by
turns during the progress of the in
tervening centuries. lover the futility
of his forgotten ;mbition. II, too,
used to mean great things he had
said with a. laugh and sigh to the
younger men-the sigh had been
fictitious, the laugh more genuine.
What a fool any man was to think
that he could do! What Silly busi-
ness to think that with your feeble
hands you could upset the economy
Of ages! The conceit. too! but he
had been very young. he had said
to himself, and youth is an excuse
for everything. That any faithful
memory should preserve tho image of
him as he was in those days of de-
fusion, ambition and self-opinion,
had seemed incredible to him. He
was half affronted, as well as aston
ished. that Carry should have re-
tanned that visionary in her mind.
but still her expectation was curious
stimulus. And the first steps into
which he was forced by it deluded
her as well as himself He began to
arrange his books, to search. as he
persuaded himself. for old notes.
search which occupied great deal of
time and involved many discoveries.
amusing to him. delightful to her.
For weeks together this investigation,
through all manner of old notebooks.
occupied them both and kept Carry
very happy. She was full OF excite
ment as to what each new collection
would bring forth. He had a great
many notebooks, dating not only from
his college days. but even from his
school times, and there was rarely
one OF them out of which some little
fossil Of the past. some scrap Of verse
or translation did not come. Garry,
delighted. listened to them all as to
so many revelations. She traced him
back to his boyhood, and found a