Evening journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1907-1913, 1912-09-02
The Vanishinu Portrait.


old Boston Post Road. between Green'
wich and Stamford, gave me mes
sage from her uncle. That is the
logical beginning of this story; though
to make everything quite clear from
the start it may be better to bark
back a few months, to the day on
which Evelyn Grayson and ! first met.
Then, as now, We We're each driving
our own car; she. a great sixty horse.
power machine, all glistening pale vel
low, and |, compact siX-cylinder
racer, of duh dusty gray. But we We're
not on any such broad, roomy thor
oughfare as the Boston Post Road. On
the contrary We were short-cutting
through a narrow, rough lane, beset
by stone wallis and interrupted at in.
teryals by series of sharp and
treacherous angles.
| know l shall never forget the mo-
mentary impression I received. Out
of the golden sunlight, it seemed to
me, there had emerged suddenly a
tableau OF Queen Titania on topaz
throne-the fairest Queen Titania i'm.
agitation ever conjured-and l, in my
mad, painting speed was about to
crash into the gauzy fabric of that
dream creation and rend it with
brutal, torturing onrush of relentless,
hard-driven nickel steel. | take no
credit to myself for what I did. Wolf.
ton was absent. My hands acted on
an impulse above and beyond all tardy
mental guidance. For just a flashing
instant the gray nose of my car rose
before me, as in strenuous assault il
mounted half way to the coping OF
the roadside wall. | felt my seat dart
away from beneath me. was conscious
of my body in swift, unsupported
aerial flight, and theu-but it is idle
TO attempt TO set down the conglom
crate sensations of that small fraction
of a second, When l regained con.
sciousness, Queen Titania was kneel'
ing in the dust Of the lane beside me
"a very distressed and anxious Queen
Titania, with wide, startled eyes, and
QuiVeringly sympathetic lps-and
about US We're a half dozen or more
of the vicinal country folk.
Between that meeting in mid-May
and this meeting on the old Boston
Post Road in mid-September, there
had been others. of course; for Queen
Titania, whose everyday name. as l
have said was Evelyn Grayson, was
the niece and ward of my nearest
neighbor, Mr.. Robert Cameron, gen
,tleman recently come to reside on
what for a century and more had been
known as the old Townsbury Estate,
extending for quite a mile along the
Connecticut shore of Long Island
Sound in the neighborhood of Green
witch.
t The intervening four months had
witnessed the gradual growth of as
near an approach to intimacy between
Cameron and myself as was possible
considering the manner of man that
Cameron was BY which statement l
mean to imply naught to my neigh
boris discredit. He was in all respects
admirable gentleman of education
and culture, widely Travelled, of eXalt-
ed ideals and noble principles to which
he gave rigid adherence. Butt was
about to qualify this by describing
him as reserved and tacituru. fear,
though. to give a wrong impression.
He was scarcely that There We're
moments, however, when he was unre-
sponsiye, and ba was never demonstra.
tive, He had more poise than any
man l know. He allowed you to see
just so much Of him, and no more. At
times he was almost stubbornly reti-
cent. And yet in spite Of these @pal-
tiles, which appeared TO be cultivated
rather than inherent, he gave repeated
evidence Of a nature at once so sim.
pie and kindly and sympathetic as to
command both confidence and affec-
ton
To the. progress Of my intimacy
with Evelyn there had been no such
temperamental impedimeut. She was
fearlessly outspoken, with frankness
born Of unspoiled innocence. barely
six weeks having elapsed between her
graduation from the tiny French CON
vent Of Sainte Barbe near Paris and
our perilous encounter in that con
tracted, treacherous, yet blessed little
Connecticut lane. And she possessed
moreover, a multiplicity Of addition
al charms, both Of person and dispo-
sition-charms TOO numerous indeed
to enumerate, and far too sacred to
discuss. From which it may rightly
1 be inferred that We understood each
bther, Evelyn and l. and that We were