Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-10-27
THE EVENING STORY.

q & NJ Il.
THE EVENING STORY.
THE MARcEAu MISTAKE.
BY MARTHA M'CULLOCH WILL
IAMS.
L Copyright, 1910, by Associated Liter
ary Press.)
"He will be famous" Monsieur Mar
ceau said, watching his son, Eustace'
at work with brush and graver.
He will be RICH" Madame Marceau
always countered, tossing her head.
There was the measure OF difference
in the pair. Monsieur was all for the
great things, madame for those OF the
comfortable earth. Since the boy was
born she had striven and thriven Tor
him. The florist shop under her minis
try was modest gold mine. Il only
monsieur had not been bitten with
idle doctrines-the Brotherhood OF Man
and such like-they could long ago
have bought the house, as we'll as the
garden behind it. Monsieur had hello
his hand until the garden was secure
he loved the earth and pampered IT 80
he could not bear to think OF 1t In other
hands.
"some day you will be big man
remember then, 0 said So" Eileen
O'Brien, Eustace's girl comrade, said TO
him often as she stood In the backyard
shop watching his deft fingers.
Eileen was not prettya slim slip OF
a thing, with a tousled, fiaxen head,
alert gray eyes and succession OF
hand-me-down frocks, patched ana
faded. She was the youngest OF nine
her mother had earlier taken In wash
ing. The fact stuck in Madame Mar
ceau's crop, even though now. that pls
Terence was in politics and rising last.
his mother washed for nobody but the
family.
Eustace, an only child, moreover the
brightest lad in school, might have
chosen among the richest girls there:
It was hard to have him take instead
this wild Irish creature. who had
nothing to recommend her but her
warm heart. her unflinching courage
and her respect for elders.
She knew madame disdained her but
always showed her sweet, even an.
eager. Difference.
Monsieur gave her tolerant patron
age he was too gallant to look unklnd-
" upon anything feminine which SO eve
identity held him in admiring awe. Inc
boy would outgrow Eileen-of tnat
monsieur was certain. Meantime sne
amused him, helped him IN his games
stood patiently to be sketched or mod
eled over and over and over and never
asked more than the happy privilege OF
service.
Sometimes, to be sure, she got more
when the flowers bloomed riotously
and trade was none too brisk, monsieur
sent her home with laden hands. Also,
upon holidays, she was sure OF nose
gay, even though it were scrappy
one-fo then the O'Brien generation
went to the cemetery to keep Baby
Philomena. who had followed Eileen.
and gone away very quickly, from feel
ing up in heaven that she was forgot
ten on earth. -
Life went we'll and easily with the
Marceaus until Enstace came to seven
teen Then his mother wanted him to
go to her brother in the city to learn
the trade OF decoration. Monsieur in
|clined to an arts course. Eustace HIM
self for a while said nothing. Then,
with much hating and stumbling, he
made them UNDERSTANDINGS art but
architecture was his passion. He
wanted to study IL seriously first as
an apprentice then abroad amid the
great achievements Of the great
He had his way. though madame
|.wept bitterly and monsieur aged al
most visibly the day his son left. But
time. the healer, brought them pale
comfort did letters full OF hope and
courage.
Don't ask me to come back-not for
long and long, their lad entreated.
s.Not until I am ready to prove myself
q man through mans work.
It was hard-but they made the sac
rtfice. comforting and cherishing each
other as best they might.
Eileen helped them nightly. She
lived far away now-quite beyond the
outer edge OF town. Big Terence, still
climbing, had taken his people all to
the green country. He was in real es-
tate and developing suburb after
suburb. !.
But Eileen said nothing OF that ana
monsieur and madame, who never read
and had no gossips more literate, knew
only vaguely Of the change. they did
not dream that the O'Brien fortunes
were now SO far beyond their own.
Eileen had pretty way OF coming 70
them, not patched and faded, TO be sure
but in the simplest plain garments, the
most demure bonnets. She told them
she had studied stenography, that by
and by she might get regular place
and earn money Of her own. They lis
tened, nodding approval, but gave the
matter no thought they were too rapt
in contemplation OF Eustace and his
career.
He was getting on-in Paris by this
and had won honorable mention
more than once, and once third prize
Ia bronze medal. But he had not be-
gun making money that was the sore
spot. His parents did not grudge what
they spent for him, but they had the
thrifty artisan instinct that, after all,
1