Wallowa County chieftain. [volume] (Enterprise, Or.) 1909-1911, 1909-05-27

profusion-that prodigal hospitality OF
former times which had entailed such Dlt-
terness in his present daily bread. Ills
wife naturally an extremely sensitive
woman. shrunk also from mixing in so
ciety in a much more humble and modest
way than she had been wont to do. She
was not of the temperament TO race the
half-whispered comments and upraased
eyebrows of her country neighbors: Poor
thing | hear he has run through every
thing: even the carriage horses have 10
be put down" Remarks OF this kind
were past her endurance, and so II 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 II
they could not induce Mrs. Denison TO
come TO their houses and chaperone her
own daughter: but all such invitations
| had been met with 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
il? II 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 1t may
stand the makeup" that fashion seems
to have decreed in these daysf How dark
eyes and eyelashes will go with golden
hair is, of course, an open question.
can fancy the nervousness Of those dusky
Indian bellies till they have ascertaineC
the effect of paint and pigments, and what
anxious moments our remote ancestresse'
must have had when they first put OF
their woad
Thus it came about that Maude Denisor
had been out but on very few occasions
and had 1t not been that her godmother
who having gold to bequeath, was too i'm
portant a person to be trified with, hat
insisted on bearing her off, she had neve
seen that memorable Xminster ball.
Twelve o'clock, and the sun shine
brightly into Mrs. Denison's boudoir
throwing rich tints through Maude'
brown tresses, and lighting up the pal
face of her mother; that joyous, fearful
capricious, womanish April sun-so lik
a woman in its glowing strength so lik
her, again, in its overclouded weakness
Poor Mrs. Denison is still pondering o.
how to begin the dread task her lord ha
set her. She knows that glozing phras
of mot wishing to coerce the girls de-
cision," is but the meanest mockeres
she can look back upon that airy prefac
of mot that | wish to sway you, m
dearest Eleanor" In so many cases, an
remembers too well that whatever ma
have been her misgivings or dislikes, tn
program has generally been carried ou
In Its original integrity. She has born
these things meekly. They concerned br
herself now they threaten her daughte
: Weak woman as she is, she would fai
stand at bay here. Still, though intu
lively knowing that 1t was false, there
the specious reasoning of her husband
that the thing ought to be submitted
Maude herself. Again the tendrils of h,
affections are twined round dear o.
Glinn; she feels what bitter wrench
would be to say farewell to the old plac
Above all. there is the strong will Of thu
e selfish husband, whom she still loves
= dearly, under whose thrall her life hi
j passed.