Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-04-01

cotIlon leader, and a frst-famI1ies
scion and Civic Lacquer and all that
sort of thing condescending to honor
my poor shanty--"
My aunt, Mrs. Conover, wrote, ask
ing me especially to come, as favor
to her." replied the younger man stiff
ly. / thought
s'And you were O. K. in thinking it.
know Lefty wrote, because / die
tated the letter. | wanted to count
you in with the rest tonight, and
had kind of a bashful fear that your
love for me, personally, might not be
strong enough to fetch you. You've
got too much sense to think the invite
will score either way in our feelings
to each other, or that I'm going back
on what said to you four years ago.
Now that you're here, chase in and
enjoy yourself. This place is like
heaven, tonight in one way. You'll
see a whole lot of people here you
never expected to, and you'll miss
more'n few you thought would sure
belong Good-by Don't let me block
your job of heavenly recognition.
The wiltul coarseness and brutality
of the man came as no surprise to
Standish. He had expected something
of the sort, and had braced himself for
it. To please his aunt, whom he sim
cerely pitied, he had entered the Con-
over house tonight for the first time
since the Homeric quarrel incident on
his refusal to avail himself of Caleb's
prestige in his law work, and, incl
dentally to enroll himself as one of
the Railroader's numberless political
yassals. That the roughness to which
Conover had subjected him was no
more a part of the Railroader's real
nature than had been the nervous eff.
fusivenesS of his greeting to the
Greers, Give well knew. 1t had been
memories of former and somewhat
less strained acquaintanceship; and
as such it-like most of Conover's
moves-had served its turn.
So, resisting his first impulse to de-
part as he had come, Standish moved
on. The formal receiving phalanx was
crumpling up. He paused for mo-
ment's talk with little Mrs. Conover.
exchanged a civil word or two with
his cousin Blanche and her prince, and
then came to where Anice Lanier was
trying to make conversation for sew.
eral awed-looking, bediamonded per-
sons who were evidently horribly ill
at ease in their surroundings.
At sight of the girl, the formal lines
about Gives mouth were broken by
a smile of very genuine pleasure. A
smile that gave younger aspect to
his grave face, and found ready an
swer in the brown eyes that met his.
Haven't you toiled at forlorn
hope long enough?" he asked, as the
awed beings drifted away into the UNI
comfortable crowd. carrying their
burden of jewels with them.
"a forlorn hope?" she queried, puz-
zled.
"You actually seemed to be trying
portentous gathering into a semblance
of life. Don't do it. In the first
place you can't Saloonkeepers and
Pompton Avenue I. % Won't blend.
In the second place, it isn't expected
of you. The papers tomorrow will
record the right names just as jeal-
ously as if everyone had had good
time. Suppose you concentrate all
your efforts on me. Come! 1t will be
real work of charity. For Mr.. Con-
over has just shown me how thorough
ly I'm the prodigal. And he didn't
even hint at the whereabouts of a
fatted calf Please be merciful and
make me have good time. It's
months since I've seen you to talk
to-
"Then why don't you come here
oftener?" she asked as they made
their way through the press, and
found an unoccupied alcove between
two of the great rooms. "Im sure
Mrs. Conover--"
my poor aunt? She'd be fright
ened to death that Conover and
would quarrel. No, no! Tonight Is
an exception. The first and the last.
I persuaded myself / came because
of Aunt Letty's note. But really
came for chat with YOU"
She looked at him, doubling how to
accept this bald compliment. But his
face was boyish in its sincerity.
'You and / used to be such good
friends" he went on, 'and now we
never see any more of each other.
Why don't we?"
ct think you know as well as /
You no longer come here-you have
not come, I think, since year before
arrived. And ! go almost nowhere
since"
Since you gave up all your old
world and the people who cared for
you and became drudge In the Con-
over household? If you were to be
found anywhere else you would see
so much of me that I'd bore you to ex-
tinction. But it would be even I'm.
pleasanter for you than for me II |
were to call on you here. / miss our
old-time talks more than / can say"
II miss them too. Do you remem-
Der how we used to argue over poll