Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-07-16
CHAPTER I.


grateful, as Miss Dawson says. I sup
pose it is quite true that hundreds of
girls would envy me. Yet, l think I
would rather be a-mill- girl than my
self"
Ianthe Mcqueen paused in her sor-
rowful musings and gazed down the glen
and across to the lovely hills of her
Highland home. 1t was a most exquisite
scene, and certainly it seemed that any
one dissatisfied with such surroundings
must be ungrateful indeed. Yet Ianthe
was scarcely TO blame She had been
shut up in this Highland glen, apart
from all companionship, until the noun
tains had ceased to have any beauty in
her eyes and had become hateful warders
mounting eeaseless guard over a most
unhappy prisoner
Ianthe was II and had scarcely seen
a girl of her own age. Her grandfather.
who was, as far as she knew, her only
living relative, had brought her up in
accordance with his own ideas. Ianthe
never knew why she was kept so close
a prisoner, although every person in the
whole countryside could have told her
"Once bitten, twice shy" they said
The old general had suffered one bitter
and terrible disappointment in his life;
he had determined not to suffer another
Patricia, his only child, had been sent to
school in order that she might have com
panionship. The result of that had been
q most imprudent love affair, wrathful
parent, a rebellious child a handsome
lover, and a runaway match. Gen. Col
quhon had not followed the customary
course of the wrathful parent in such
matters. He had received his daugh-
ter and had made no public scandal by
casting her off. He had received, too, the
tiny helpless baby whom Patricia had
left behind when she closed her willful
eyes on this troublous world As for
John Mcqueen, her husband, Gen. Col
quhon cared not at all what had hap
pened to him. The handsome lover had
degenerated Into a most unhandsome
husband, and, finding that his marriage
with girl quite out of his own rank
had not been followed, as he had hoped,
by an immediate increase of fortune to
himself, he virtually cast Patricia off and
went to seek solace with more congenial
companions.
General Colquhon had vowed that
never should Ianthe have the chance
of following in her mothers footsteps.
He had suffered in his day many sorrows,
but none so great as this which his
dearly-loved Patricia had brought upon
him. Ianthe, he determined. should be
brought up at home under the strictest
supervision. She should have no friends
until he had her safely married to the
man whom he should choose After that.
she would be his affair no longer.
SO for seventeen years Ianthe had
lived in her grandfathers home, under
the supervision of a governess chosen for
certain special qualities which did not
altogether make for happiness in her
pupils life. Yet Ianthe was fond of
Miss Dawson, chiefly because, poor child,
she had practically no one else to be
fond of.
Once or twice the girl had been taken
TO the sea for change of air, and those
lnterludes had been times of intense Joy.
Although she might only look on at the
other children playing on the shore, it
gave her a certain sense of companion
ship to watch them from little distance
and initiate their plays and antics as
well as she could when she was alone.
1t is doubtful if she ever had a very
intense desire to speak to them. She
was so accustomed to be alone that she
would scarcely have known what to say.
Latterly, however, the girl had begun
to pine for some more suitable friend
than her governess. She was not alto
gether ignorant about life; her reading
was practically unchecked within certain
limits. Miss Dawson was perhaps grow
n &c II
her pupils natural thirst for informa-
ton about the world from which she was
so effectually cut off. Perhaps, even, she
was touched by the girls growing sense
OF captivity and ignorance Be that as
1t may, it was certain that Ianthe had
culled from books far more intimate
knowledge of the ways of the world
than her grandfather ever intended she
should have
On this lovely summer evening Ianthe
had wandered out in the grounds DOS
sessed with spirit of unrest. The do
main was very large one and contained
many varied points of great beauty. But
OF recent times Ianthe, when she was
alone, invariably chose the one place
which most other people would have
avoided. This was the barbed- wire fence
winch bordered the public road for a CON
siderable stretch. Here, hidden behind
tree, IaHthe would sit and watch the
passers-by, at no time very numerous.
LOT they were far from town of anv
description. Still, an occasional bicvcie
OF cart would pass, chance pedestrian.
one OF the servants, perhaps, on her day
out, country lad with his lass. q pedIar
with his packard from all OF those
ianthe derived a certain amount of ac-
tive enjoyment.
But this evening her mind was less
willing to be satisfied.
oh, if something would only happen
TO me as it does to lonely girls in books!
"A man on great black horse might
com come along and meet with an accident,
IKE Mr.. Rochester in "Jane Eyre" ONLY
ne couldn't slip on the ice. because it's
summer. Or violent storm might come
on and compel some one to seek shelter
with US. Only that couldn't happen be.
cause the house stands two miles from
the road. For the same reason. l can't
oe Ike that girl in the French book who,
~hiist IN a rage, threw out the image of