River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-08-14


young man stretched out shaking
hand towards his visitor. with the
feeble but exulting cry:
Then you do not blame me for her
wretched and mysterious death. You
hold me guiltless of the misery which
nerved her despairing arm?"
quite guiltless."
Oswald's wan and pinched features
took on a beautiful expression and
Mr. Challoner no longer wondered
at his daughters choice.
Thank God!" fell from the sick
mans lips, and then there was a 81
lence during which their two hands
met.
1t was some minutes before either
spoke and then 1t was Oswald who
said:
Il must confide to you certain facts.
l honored your daughter and realized
her position fully. Our plight was
never made in words, nor should
have presumed to advance any claim
to her hand if I had not made good
my expectations, Mr.. Challoner.
meant to win both her regard and
yours by acts, not words. l felt that
l had a great deal to do and / was
prepared to work and wait. ! loved
her" He turned away his head
and the silence which filled up the
gap united those two hearts as the
old and young are seldom united.
But when little later Mr.. Challon-
er reioined Doris, in her little sitting
room, he nevertheless showed a per-
plexity she had hoped to see removed
by this understanding with the
younger Brotherson.
The cause became apparent as soon
as he spoke
These brothers hold by each
other" said he. Oswald will hear
nothing against Orlando. He says
t1lat he has redeemed his fault. He
does not even protest that his broth
er's word is to be believed in this
matter. He does not seem to think
that necessary He evidently regards
Orlando's personality as speaking as
truly and satisfactorily for itself, as
his own does. And l dared not unde-
ceive him."
"He does not know all our reasons
for distrust. He has heard nothing
about the poor washerwoman."
mo, and he must not-not for
weeks. He has borne all that he can. .
His confidence in his older brother
is sublime. I do not share it.; but
cannot help but respect him for it. .
1t was warmly said, and Mr. Chal-
loner could not forbear casting an
anxious look at her upturned face.
away with sigh.
"This confidence has for me a very
unhappy side," he remarked. ct shows
me Oswald's thought. He who loved
her best, accepts the cruel verdict 81
an unreasoning public"
Doris large eyes burned with a
weird light upon his face"
"He has not had my Dream she
murmured, with all the quiet Of an
unmoved conviction.
Yet as the days went by, even her
manner changed towards the busy in
ventor. 1t was hardly possible for II
not to. The high stand he took; the
regard accorded him on every side;
his talent; his conversation, which
was an education in itself, and, above
all, his absorption in a work daily ad
Vancing towards completion, removed
| him SO insensibly and yet so decided
ly, from the hideous past of tragedy
with which his name, if not his honor
was associated, that, unconsciously
to herself, she gradually lost her icy
air of repulsion and lent him a more
or less attentive ear, when he chose
to join their small company of an eve
ming The result was that he turned
so bright a side upon her that tolera
ton merged from day to day into ad
miration and memory lost itself in
anticipation of the event which was tc
prove him man of men, if not one
of the worlds greatest mechanical
geniuses.
Meantime, Oswald was steadily i'm
proving in health, if not 20 spirits
He had taken his first wiki withou
any unfavorable results, and Orlando
decided from this that. the time haC
come for an explanation of his device
and his requirements in regard to it
Seated together in Oswald's room. ht
preached the subject thus:
Oswald, what is your idea abou
what I'm making up there?"
THAT it will be a success"
81 know; but its character, its u&-e
won fhinlx If lie 20
sI've an idea; but my idea &oesn'
fit the conditions"
"How's that?"
1.-THE shed is too closely hemme,
in. You haven't room"
For what?"
ITO start an aeroplane."
"Yet ii is certainly a device TO
flying"
st supposed so; but"
1T is an air-car with a new an
valuable idea-the idea for which tn
whole world has been seeking eve
since the first aeroplane found its wa
, up from the earth. Ny car needs n
room to start in save that which
occupies. If it did, it would be Blu
the modification of a hundred others.
; Orlando
| As Oswald thus gave expression t
his surprise, their two faces were
study: the fire of genius in the one
; the light of sympathetic understand
ing in the other.
IF this car, now within three day
, OF its completion" Orlando proceeded
] docs not rise from the oval Of m