Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1914-01-07


then he chuckled softly.
Tut, tut, my boy" he said at
length, don't be downhearted. I
haven't engineered carriers in wheat
for these last 20 years without be-
ing able to manage a girl, l hope.
Wants career, does she? Thinks it
would be romantic to work, and starve
in a garnet for the sake of her art
does she? Well, it shall never be said
OF me that / was one to smother the
fire of genius.
You mean?" asked Wharton earn
estly.
Il mean replied the old man,
just that. Dollie yearns for career.
I'm going to let her go up against
the career proposition so good and
hard that she will be cured for life
There's no such incubation against
the measles, my son, as having had
it,
To Dollie's surprise she suddenly
found all opposition to her going
east to study art removed More
than that, instead Of mocking at
her declaration that she was going
to devote her life to the study of
art as had been his wont, her ia
Their appeared to accept it in perfect
good faith, only for the first time in
her life she found him almost penuri-
Gus in money matters with her.
If you are going to make a serious
study OF art" he said to her. you
will not Of course have time to go
into society, and won't need fine
frocks, and fal-lals and that sort
of thing. l have written to an old
friend of mine in New York who has
engaged you board in a nice, decent
house, where lot of other students
live. It's plain, of course, and l be-
Heve your room is on the fourth
floor, but as the artistic atmosphere
is all you care for, you won't mind
climbing up that high. There are
no elevators, of course. Now, figur-
ing it all up, think a pretty small
allowance is all you will need l
shall send you a check the first of
every month, and 1 shall expect you
to live within it,
When Dollie reached New York
her first feeling was one of exulta-
ton. She had really embarked
on her career at last She saw rosy
visions of fame so close she could
almost feel the laurel wreath upon
her young brow. Her next emotion
was one of blighting disappointment.
She found the ugly, dingy, cheap
boarding house to which her father
had recommended her, and climbed to
the dark little room that was to be
her home, and that was so different
from the sunny chamber with its silk
en- hanging, and luxurious fittings, to
which she was used. She turned away
in reyulsion from the ill-cooked food
on the untidy table, and shrank away
from the frowsy girl students, with
matted pompadours and weird gowns,
who attempted to disguise a vulgar
curiosity as Bohemian lack of con-
yentionality. This was not what
she had meant by the artistic at
mOSphere.
She also found, as many another
clever amateur does, that talent isn't
genius, and that the gift that our
friends applaud and prophesy hope
full things about, cuts sorry figure
when measured against the profess
sional skill that is paid for in hard
dollars. Dollie's teachers told her
bluntly that she knew nothing of
even the rudiments of drawing, and
that she would have to begin at the
very beginning if she expected to
succeed even as a common illustra-
tor.
In every way the winter was a
hard one for the girl. She missed
the comforts and luxuries to which
she had been accustomed all her
life. She missed the flowers, the
bon bons, the theaters, the pretty
gowns that had been so much a part
of her life she had not valued them
until they were taken away from
her. Then slowly and insinuously it
began to dawn on her that she was
missing Tom. Her first realization
of it was when they had written her
that he was paying great deal of
attention to Maysie Harmon.
"The cat" cried Dollie to herself,
and then she added, las if l cared"
but she knew that she did care, and
when letter after letter reached her,
each with it's bit of gossip about
Maysie and Tom, she realized that
all that art could be to her, or fame
give her, were as nothing compared
with his love.
Pride kept her silent for a long
time, and made her stif1e her home
sickness and hide her disappointment,
but finally she wired her father:
Il am sick of art. Send me enough
money to come home on.
''DOLLIE."
Tom answered the telegram He
found her homesick little bundle
of nerves in a dingy back room, and
he gathered her into his strong arms
and let her sob out the story Of her
disappointment and mistakes on his