Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-05-29

Valiant touched the young fellows
arm. YES" he said, 81 think I know"
TITS no new thing, with me-" said
the other hoarsely. Its been three
years. The night of the ball. I thought
perhaps that don't mean to ask
what you might have a right to resent
but I must find out. Is there any
reason why I shouldn't try my luck?"
Valiant shook his head. mo-" he
said heavily. "there is no reason"
The boyish look sprang back to
Lusk's face. He drew a long breath.
why, then I WILL" he said. "I-Tm
sorry If l hurt you. Heaven knows l
didn't want toll"
He grasped the others hand with a
mans heartiness and went up the road
with a swinging stride; and Valiant
stood watching him go, with his hands
tight-clenched at his side.
.
A little later Valiant climbed the
sloping driveway of Damory court. 1t
seemed to stare at him from a thou
sand r~eproachful eyes. The bachelor
red squirrel from his tree-crotch
looked down at him askance. The
redbirds, flashing through the hedges,
futtered disconsolately. Fire-Cracker,
the peacock. vas shrieking from the
upper lawn and the strident discord
seemed to mock his mood.
The great house had become home
to him; he told himself that he would
make NO other. The few things he had
brought-his books and trophies-had
grown to be a part Of 1t, and they
should remain. The ak should not be
laid to the walnut grove. AS his IA
Their had done, he would leave behind
him the life he had lived there, and
the old court should be once more
closed and deserted. Uncle Jefferson
and Aunt Daphne might live on in the
cabin back of the kitchens. There
was pasturage for the horse and the
cows and for old Sukey. and some
acres had already been cleared for
planting. And there would be the
swans, the ducks and chickens, the
peafowl and the fish.
A letter had come to him that morn
ing. The corporation had resumed
business with credit unimpaired. Pub
lie opinion was more than friendly
now. A place waited for him there,
and one of added honor, in a concern
that had vigorously cleansed itself and
already looked forward to a new ca
reer of prosperity. But he thought of
this now with ne thrill. The old life
no longer called. There we're still
wide unpeopled spaces somewhere
where a mans hand and brain were no
less needed, and there was work there
that would help him to bear, If not for
get
He paced up and down the porch I'M
der the great gray columns, his steps
spiritless and tagging. The Virginia
creeper, trailing over its end, waved
to and fro with a sound like a Sigh.
How long would 1t be before the lawn
was once more unkempt and draggled2
Before burdock and thistle, MULLEN
and Spanish-needle would return to
smother the clover? Before Damory
court, on which he had spent such
loving labor, would lie again as 1t lay
that afternoon when he had ratified
thither on Uncle Jefferson's crazy
hack? Before there would be for him,
in some far-away corner of the world,
only Wishing-Ho and the Never
Never Land?
In the hall he stood a moment be-
fore the fireplace, his eyes on its
carven motto, II clinge:" the phrase
was like a spear-thrust He began to
wander restlessly through the house,
up and down, like a prowling animal.
The dining-room looked austere and
chill-only the little lady in hoops and
love-curls who had been his great
grandmother smiled wistfully down
from her gilt frame above the console
and in the library a melancholy
deeper than that of yesterdays trag-
edy seemed to hang, through which
Devil-John, drawing closer the leash
Of his leaping hound, glared sardon-
ically at him from his n cold eye,
The shutters of the parlor were
closed, but he threw them open and
let the rich light pierce the yellow
gloom, glinting from the figures in
the cabinet and weaving a thousand
tiny rainbows in the prisms of the
great chandelier.
He went upstairs, into the bedrooms
one by one, now and then passing his
hand over a polished chair-back or
touching an ornament or a frame on
the wall: into The ,Hilarium with its
records of childish study and play.
The dolls stood now on dress-parade
in glass cases, and prints in bright
colors, dear to little people, were on
the walls. He opened the shutters
here, too, and stood some time on the
threshold before he turned and went
heavily downstairs.
Through the real door he could see
the kitchens, and Aunt Daphne sitting
under the trumpet-vine piecing a nine
patch calico quilt with little squares