Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-10-04
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NtnE ASTORY OF MYSTERY
NNV chamberlain
EANAANS AuAsoref THE COAST OF CHANCE
EYaIk1AHf Tho BoDos Meutn Company
AulhrofTHE COAST OF CHANCE
Copyright. 1909. Tho Boobs-M esdn Company

things went on IN the city. we coulu
see the signals run up Telegraph hill
when ship was sighted. And then
the express" would go dashing furl-
ously down some street below us, the
pony at gallop; and the line would
form In front Of the postoffice ana
stretch like black snake up Washing
ton street. Or we watched the vel
low omnibuses laboring down Wash
lington street like clumsy beetles. 1t
seemed to me that city was the
most delightful and absorbing play
thing child could have, and 1t was
hard arbitrary blow of fate that took
me from 1t to the convent school at
Santa Clara.
But If to leave the city was hard,
1T was terrible indeed to leave the
house, the familiar rooms, the familiar
footsteps and voices that / loved, and
listened for. I had never been away
from father and Abby In my life, and
thought Halle Ferguson and Estella
Mendez went also, / was very home
sick.
There was nothing at all interesting
at the convent-nothing but pepper
trees, and nuns black hoods, and
books. Even when we walked out
there were only the dreary Santa
Clara flats with the mountains so
distant on the horizon that their far
Fawayness made me want to cry. The
only nice thing about the convent was
the vacation that took us away from
1T, back, out Of the burning summer
valley to the bay, the rows of gray
faced houses, the shipping and the
vvyiv1 To q
with the rapture one must feel return
ing to some long felt, beloved place
and finding it unchanged.
The palm, the cypress hedges, the
sunny conservatory, the low, long
rooms beyond it, the dark hall, and
narrow, precipitous stair were always
adorahly the same. But around them
the city was growing with such speed
that each time returned / had to
learn to know 1t afresh Already there
were several blocks of houses beyond
ours, and the second year came home
from the convent Halle Ferguson told
me her father was going to move be-
cause there was a gambling house go
ing up across the street from them,
"and build" Halle expressed it, in a
more fashionable neighborhood.'
It was at the foot of Chestnut street
hill their new house was building and
that vacation we used often to walk
over with Abby strella. Halle and
across the city and across the
North Beach district-to play in the
building house. 1t was going up with
the same furious speed that was ac-
complishing the whole city. It seemed
that we had hardly stopped looking
through the skeleton supports at the
bay before, the plaster was drying on
the solid walls; that we had hardly
ceased walking on the great naked
flooring beams before the smooth floor
itself was palpitating under the feet If
the dancers at the housewarming.
I remember sitting up with Halle
through the earlier part OF that even
Ing, and with a sort of worship, look
Ing for the first time at women with
uncovered necks and arms emerging
white as wax from their diaphanous or
glittering gowns. To me they were
radiant, transported to sphere OF
existence beyond my own, something
l never could attain to. I recall them
as vague, dreamlike spectacle. In
all of it there is but one incident. that
l remember clearly, and that is, when
whirling out of the crowd and into an
empty space, that the dancers had left
clear for moment, came couple-a
large blonde girl and young man, a
boy, hardly as old as she, but so hand
some, so dark, so full of life, and a
sparkling sort of mischief, that it
made one feel quite gay just to look at
him. AS they danced past the place
where Halle and were sitting he was
holding his partners gauzy train in his
long, fine fingers, and they went by
us laughing.
"Who Is that?" whispered.
That's Johnny Montgomery" Halle
whispered back.
who's he?"
"Why don't you know" Halle cried.
She, dearly loved to give information.
"The Montgomerys were one of the
very best families here; and he's the
last Of them Old lady Montgomery
died the year we went away to school,
and he had heaps Of money-but he
lost it."
My sole performance in this line
had been the dropping Of two-bft
piece down crack in the board walk.
and before had time to ask Johnny
Montgomery had managed to lose sight
of heaps" Mr.. Ferguson came up and
asked, Don't you little girls want some
ice cream" so forgot to say any
more about it.
That some season there was another
notable occasion, when Halle led me
to the bedroom Of her grown-up sister,
and exhibited to me with awe-struck
pride the dress her sister was to wear
to the summer light guards ball that
night. It was blue tulle with fine
frost Of spangles over the bodice, and
it seemed to dazzling to belong to a
creature less wonderful than a fairy.
But when Halle went on, In cautious
whisper lest we be discovered, to con-
,fide to me that when she was grown
up and out Of school her mother had
promised to give her party, and that,
since was her best friend, of course
she was going to invite me first of all,
l began to realize that I, too, might
some day grow up into young lady,
and be laced into grown, perhaps as
beautiful as the one spread out on the
bed before us.
Such a dazzling idea gave me an en-