The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1914-02-02
~

II never saw how much like his
father Hugo is getting to be-" said
Mrs. jerks.
She had risen To go when she caught
sight OF Il photograph on a side table
and paused to examine it. Being
very e sighted she had to bend
close to the picture, and her sharp,
ovcrtlushed features contrasted start
ling with the clear. smooth, young
face under her scrutiny. The photo
Erapher had lone we'll by Hugo and
given a good account of him.
IIugo's mother also looked at the
picture. h stood very firmly on her
ached no one could have guessed it
from her face. Her hands. clasped
before her. seemed to be clinging to
an invisible something that supported
and strengthened her. She appeared
to be holding herself in. to be guard
ing herself even in expression. But
her eyes,. IL one could read them. told
denied. They were blue eyes, faded
with tears and dull with endurance,
in tho face OF an old And
now as they looked at Hugo's picture
they We're full of passionate love and
%Ncarning.
YES" sighed Mrs. jerks. Hugo
is terribly like Mr.. Creston-on the
outside. What he is inside j suppose
we'll have to leave for time to tell.
| near he hasn't settled on anything
yet"
'No. he hasn't. He's looking
around. Its a pretty big business,
choosing ones lifework, and it isn't
ooms IN a hurry. you know
again. Well. Tn sure l wish him
success. Any one as handsome as he
is ought to be able to win his way
anywhere. Good-by, Matilda. Do
come to see me-
II will, thank you," promised Mrs.
erosion. Her hand held her callers
Tor an instant, then they parted. leav-
ing behind a sense of Formally that
almost amounted to GOODNESS.
Having shut tho front door. Ma
t1lda Creston came back into the par
Tor and sat down in a chair near the
side table whereon Hugo's picture
stood. The doors between the rooms
We're open and the interior of the
house below was within range Of her
vision. The general effect was at
tractivc. but it easily could be seer
the rugs and curtains We're dropping
To pieces II the furniture was de-
crcpit. Matilda Creston had lived in
this house among these poor sticks of
furniture all her married life, which
had begun twenty-five years ago. She
-" "hEiN every udTn ana NOr0ak
and mended place was. She knew
also every secret and subterfuge Of
her Ions endeavor to keep up appear
ances-an cndeavor almost sickening
sometimes in its hopelessness. And
there in the midst of all this conglom-
Grafton of poverty and inability set
6 marvellous picture, like "A
diamond caught in Il tanglc of filthy
rags. Her glance went to it visit
ruby. lie had such a high, noble
look: and yet his father had had that
same look when she married him. And
Sophia jerks had said he was like
his father and she knew that with
each word she was piecring the heart
Of the wOman 10 whom she played
the friend.
Matilda Creston knew that i'm her
heart Sophia jerks was no friend of
hers, nor had been since, twenty-five
years before, II had married George
Creston. Sophia had wanted George
herself. and though She had been a
wife many years o and had raised
children and had seen what he had
come to she had never forgotten Ma
tiida for taking him away from her.
Yet n kept up a show of good will,
She called regularly. and always gave