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

She should have gone away and done
| something, not sat whining all the time.
Perhaps if you wish things very hard,
they might come true. Some people be.
lleve they do. shall try. l wish with
all my heart that some one who is gall
liant and good and handsome would
come galloping along and would look up
and see me here, and that he would fall
in love with me and call me his fairy
princess and take me away, and we
should be happy ever after"
The girl paused and looked intently
down the road. Everything was still.
"Oh, comet" she cried. ooh, comet"
Then in the distance the sound of a
| horses feet was heard, coming nearer
and nearer as fast as a horse could trot.
He is coming!" cried Ianthe, leaning
over the fence, trembling with excite
ment, rosy with expectation.
The horseman rode swiftly round the
corner at good hard trot.
will he see me" thought Ianthe, and,
quick as thought, she pulled out her
handkerchief and waved it wildly in the
air.
The rider pulled up suddenly and
turned his face inquiringly up to the
high bank whence the signal flew.
"lanthe" he cried in amazement. Can
that be your"
The girl looked at him for q moment
and all the beautiful glow of excitement
faded from her cheeks. Her lips trem-
bled pitifully, and, after moments
struggling, she hid her face in her hands
and burst into tears.
The rider dismounted, and, with the
reins over his arm, climbed up the bank
and stood beside the weeping girl, the
wire fence between.
"Ianthe, what is the matterf" he
asked in agitation. what has made
you cry? Why are you here?"
The newcomer was q dark, handsome
young man of about six and twenty. He
was Denis Ingraham, the eldest son of a
neighboring landowner, and Ianthe had
known him well from her childhood He
was, in fact, the only young being with
whom she had ever been allowed to be
on terms of intimacy and friendship.
There was probably reason for this.
but Ianthe did not know it.
Denis Ingraham stood in dire perplex-
ity, for Ianthe made no reply to his
questions, but only sobbed more pitiful-
ly than before. For a few minutes he
waited, and then, judging that she was
more fit to answer, he again put his
question
'Ianthe, what is the matter? You
must tell me. Has anything happened
to make you unhappy"
cob, mol" said the girl. "There is
nothing really. 1 thought you were
somebody else, that is all, and l was so
bitterly disappointed when I saw it was
you"
'Thank you'll" said Denis a little dryly.
She had the eandor and simplicity of a
child
"Oh," said Ianthe, seeing at once that
her words had not given entire satisfac-
ton, II did not mean it in that way! !
only meant that l was expecting one
! person, and another rode up, so of course
/ was little disappointed"
Her lips trembled slightly. For the
moment she had blindly believed in her
hero and her little romance; the return
to everyday life had been cruelty swift
and unexpected.
| Meanwhile a flush of dismay had
! flooded the young mans face.
"Ianthe, are you in the habit of wait
ing for people here and of waving to
them over the fence?" he asked gravely
| Ianthe looked up in establishment when
she heard his tone. His gray eyes looked
into hers searchingly and her face
! famed.
ooh, dear, what shall I do?' she cried
in distress. "How could you think |
meant such a thing ?"-and the tears
| flooded her eyes anew.
"Ianthe," said Denis, 81 know you were
doing nothing wrong. But you said you
were expecting some one, and you seemed
so awfully-disturbed when ie-she did
not come" Denis stammered a little
over this part of his speech; then, taking
the girls hand he said earnestly,
"Ianthe, you have always seemed like a
| little sister to me, even though / have
not seen SO very much of you. / know
you have nobody very much to confide
| in. Wont you tell me what you meant ?
Perhaps l could help you in some way,
and, in any case, l should feel more at
ease if l knew"
at is only that l am very stupid" she
said humbly. 81 was imagining myself
a fairy princess shut up in a castle and
the fairy prince was coming to find me
and take me away. When | heard your
horse I think really believed it was the
prince coming. Then when it was you,
it seemed so ordinary and everyday, and
knew that nothing would ever happen,
but that l must Just live and die here
all alone Oh. Denis why must l be
kept like prisoner? Why will grand
! father never let me see a living soul ex-
cept Just two or three? Oh, I am so
| miserable! I wish with all my heart
that l were dead"
She burst into a fit of passionate
weeping, no longer like the crying of a
child.
"Ianthe!" cried Denis, moved to the
heart by the sight of her grief. Don't
cry like that, implore you'll will
speak to your grandfather; I will see
that something is done. II is shameful,
sinful, to keep you like this. Ianthe
dear, don't eryl"
81 know l am silly and wicked said
the girl in a moment at is very good
/ of you to care. had really forgotten
that you were my friend. l thought l
/ had no one hut Miss Dawson and grand