Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-06-26


ceived. 1t had left her dull and be-
wildered.
The name echoed and re-echoed
through her mind; Paul Ellison. 1t
should have been an illumination; in
stead. she had been thrust into utter
darkness. Neither Arthur nor his
mother had ever spoken Of brother,
and she had known them for nearly
ten years. Two men, who might be
twin- brothers, with the same name: 1t
was maddening. What could it mean?
The beautiful white-haired mother,
the handsome charming son, who
dolized each other; and this adven-
turer this outcast, this patient, brave
and kindly outcast with his funny
parrakeet, what was he to them and
they to him? 1t must be, it must be!
They were brothers. Nature, full OF
amazing freaks as she was, had not
perpetrated this one without calling
upon a single strain of blood.
She lay back among her pillows, her
eyes leveled at the few stars beyond
her door, opened to admit any cooling
breeze. Her head ached. 1t was like
the computations Of astronomers; to a
certain extent the human mind could
grasp the distances but could not COM
prehend them. 1t was more than
chance. Chance alone had not brought
him TO the crumbling ledge. There was
a strain of fatalism in Elsa. She was
positive that all these things had been
written long before and that she was
to be used as the key.
Paul Ellison.
She drew from the past those sali-
ent recollections of Arthur and his
mother: first, the day the two had
called regarding the purchase of a
house that her father had just put on
the market-a rambling old colonial
affair: her own mothers birth place.
Sixteen: she had not quite been that,
lust free from her SchOol-days in
Italy. With the grand air of youth she
had betrayed the fact almost instant
ly, while waiting for her father to
come into the living room.
Italy" said Arthur's mother. whom
Elsa mentally adopted at once. The
stranger spoke a single phrase, which
Elsa answered in excellent if formal
Italian This led from one question to
Mrs. Ellison turned out to
be Il schuolmate of her mothers. and
she, Elsa, had inherited her very room.
What more was needed?
The Ellisons bought the house and
lived quietly within it. Society, and
there was a good deal of it in that
small Kentuckian city, society waited
for them to approach and apply for
but waited in vain. Mrs.
Ellison never went anywhere. Her
son Arthur was a student and prefer
red his books. So eventually society
introduced itself. Persons who ignor-
ed it must be interesting. When it
been the schoolmate of the beautiful
and ariStocratic wife of General Chet-
wood: when the local banker quietly
spread the information that the Eli
sons were comfortably supplied with
stocks and bonds of high order So
cicty concluded that it could do very
we'll without past history. That could
come later.
ro,e
as much at home in the Ellison house
as in her own. But never, never any
where in the house, was there indica-
ton of the existence of a brother so
like Arthur that under normal Condi =
tions it would have been difficult to
tell them apart. Even when she used
to go up to the garret with Mrs. Eli
son. to aid her in rummaging some old
trunk, there came to light none of
those triiling knickknacks, which any
mother would have secretly clung to,
no matter to what depth her flesh and
blood had fallen. Never had she seen
among the usual amateur photographs
one presenting two boys. Once she
had come across a photograph of a
smooth faced youth who was in the
act of squirting along the top of an
engineers tripod. Arthur had laugh
ingly taken it away from her, saying
that it represented him when he had
had ambitions to build bridges.
To build bridges. The phrase awoke
something in Elsa's mind. Bridges.
She sat up in bed, mentally keen for
the first time since dinner. Il have
built bridges in my time over which
trains are passing at this moment. !
have fought torrents, and floods and
hurricanes, and myself"
He was Paul Ellison, son and broth
er and they had blotted him out of
their lives by destroying all physical
signs of him. There was something
inhuman in the deliberateness of it,
something unforgivable.
They had made no foolish attempt
to live under an assumed name. They
had come from New York to the little
valley in order To leave behind the
scene of their disgrace and all those
who had known them. And they had
been extremely fortunate. They were
all gently born, Elsa's friends and ac-
quaintances, above ordinary inquisi-
tiveneSs. and they had respected the
aloufneSs of the ElliSonS Arthur was
an inveterate traveller. Half the year
found him in Europe. painting a lit
tie. writing a little less. frequenting
the lesser known villages in France
and Italy. He let it be understood that
hc abhorred cities. In the ten years
they had appeared at less than doZ-
en- social affairs. Arthur did not care
for horses. for hunting, for sports of
any kind. And yet he was sturdy
clear eyed. fresh skinned He walked
always: he was forever tramping off
to the pine-hooded hills. with his
painting-kit over his shoulders and
his camp stool under his arm. Later
Elsa began to understand that he was
4 true scholar. not merely an educated
man. He was besides linguish of
amazing facility, Il pianist who invar-
iably preferred as his audience his
own two ears Arthur would have been