Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-01-11
err || * i
[;l!laS4s a:)!l1!

tram ride over to Nice and find
them both at the villa, maid and lug
gage. .Mayhap night or two, and of
they'd 60 again; never word ABOUT
their former journey, uncommunlca-
tive, rather quiet These absences, TO-
gether with the undemonstrauve re-
appearances, used to hurt Fortune
dreadfully. 1t gave her clear proof OF
where she stood, exactly nowhere. me
hurt had lessened with the years ana
now she didn't care much. Like as not
they would drag her out OF Eden TOT
a month or two, for what true reason
she never could quite fathom, unless 1t
was that at times her mother liked to
have the daughter near her as Toll.
At rare intervals she saw steel-ey ed.
grim-mouthed men wandering up ana
down before the gates of the VIVA
Fanny, but they never rang; the bell,
nor spoke to her when she passed
them on the street. II she talked OF
these men, her mother and the major
would exchange amused glances'
nothing more.
If, rightly or wrongly, she hated her
mother, she despised her uncle, VINO
was ever bringing to the villa men OF
money, but of coarse fiber, ostenslply
with the view of marrying her OH. But
Fortune had her dreams, and she was
quite content to wait.
There was one man more persistent
than the Others. Her, mother calleo
him Horace, which the major mel
lowed into Hoddy. He was tall, blond
good-looking, a devilmay-care. edu'
Gated witty, amusing; and in even
ing dress he appeared to be what II
was quite evident he had once been,
a gentleman. At first she thought it
strange that he should make her, in
stead of her mother, his confidante'
AS to what vocation he pursued, she
did not know, for he kept sedulous
guard over his tongue; but his past,
I'D to that fork in the road where man
hood says good-by to youth was hers.
And in this direction, clever and art
full as the mother was, she sought IN
vain to wrest this past from her
daughters lips To the mother, 1t was
really necessary for her to know VINO
this man really was, had been. Know
ing thoroughly as she did what he was
now. -.r'
b Persistent he undeniably was. but
never coarse nor rude. Since that time
he had come back from the casino at
Monte Carlo, much the worse for VINE
she feared him; yet, in spite OF this
fear, she had for him a vague liking,
hazy admiration, Whatever his faults
might be, she stood witness to MS
great physical strength and courage
He was the only man, among all those
who appeared at the Villa Fanny ana
Immediately vanished, who returned
again And he, too, soon grew TO De d
part of this unreal drama, arriving
mysteriously one day and departing
the next. u i.
That a drama was being enacted un-
der her eyes she no longer doubted
but it was as though she had taken
her seat among the audience In the
middle of the second act. She could
make neither head nor tail to 1T.
Whenever she accompanied her
mother upon these impromptu jour
neys, her character, or rather her at
titude, underwent a change. She swept
aside her dreams; she accepted the
world as it was, saw things as they
were. laughed, but without merlin ent;
tested but with the venomed point. IL
was the reverse Of her real character
to give hurt to any living thing, but
during these forced marches, as the
major humorously termed them. ana
such they were in truth, she could no
more stand against giving the cruel
stab than, when alone in her garden.
she could resist the tender pleasure or
succoring a fallen butterfly. She was
especially happy in finding weak spots
in her mothers armour, and she
never denied herself the thrust. Mrs.
Chedsoye enjoyed> these sharp en-
counters, for 1t must be added that she
gave as good as she took, and more
often than not her thrusts bit deeper
and did not always heal.
Fortune never asked questions rela-
tive to the family finances. If she mar
bored any doubts rs to their origin, 10
the source of their comparative lux
ury. she never put these into speech.
She had never seen her father, put
she often heard him referred ito as
that brute" or that fool or that
drunken imbecile" If portrait OF MIN
existed. Fortune had not yet seen 1t.
She visited his lonely grave once a
year, in the Protestant cemetery. and
dreamily tried to conjure up what
manner of man he had been. One day
she piled her old Italian nurse with
questions. ~
Handsome? Yes. but it was all so
long ago. cara. mia. that l can not
describe him to you"
did he drink" Behind this ques-
ton there was no sense OF moral
obloquy as applying to the dead.
"Sainted Mary! didn't all men drink
their very souls into purgatory those
unreligious days?"}
Had he any relatives?''
81 never heard of any"
WAS he rich?" -.
"No. but when the signora, your
mother. married him she thought he
was" "A -. ..r.s.y1
1t was not till later years that For
tune grasped the true significance OF
this statement. It illumined many
pages. She dropped all investigations,
concluding wisely that her mother, if
she were minded to speak at all.
could supply only the incidents, the de-
tails
IL ~ "a