Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1914-07-03
CHAPTER vi.
southIook.

Southlook.
Sara Wrandall's house In the coun.
try stood on wooded knoll overlook
ing the sound. II was rather remotely
located, so far as neighbors were con-
cerned. Her father. Sebastian Gooch,
shrewdly foresaw the day when land
In this particular section of the sub
urban world would return dollars for
pennies, and wisely bought thousands
of acres: woodland, meadowland.
beachland and hills, inserted between
the environs of New York city and
the rich towns up the coast. Years
afterward he built commodious sum-
mer home on the choicest point that
his property afforded. named it South
look, and transformed that particular
part of his wilderness into a million.
aires paradise, where he could dawdle
and putter to his hearts content,
where he could spend his time and his
money with prodigality that came so
late in life to him that he made waste
Of both in his haste to live down q
rather parsimonious past.
Two miles and a half away, in the
heart of a scattered colony Of purse
proud New Workers, was the country
home of the Wrandalls, an imposing
place and elder by far than South.
look 1t had descended from we'll
worn and time-stained ancestors to
Redmond Wrandall, and, with Others
of its kind, looked with no little scorn
upon the modern, mushroom struc-
lures that sprouted from the seeds of
trade. There was no friendship be-
tween the old and the new. Each had
recourse to bitter contempt for the
other, though consolation was small
In comparison.
It was in the wooded by-ways of this
despised domain that Chailis WraR-
dali and Sara, the earthly daughter Of
Midas, met and loved and defied all
things supernal, for matches ara
made in heaven. Their marriage did
not open the gates OF Nineveh. SebaS
tan Gooch's paradise was more COM
pletely ostracised than 1t was before
the disaster. The Wrandalls spoke Of
1t as disaster.
Clearly the old merchant was not
over-pleased with his daughters
choice. conclusion permanently es-
tablished by the alteration he made
In his win year or two after the mar
riage True, he left the vast estate to
his beloved daughter Sara, but he fast
ened stout string to 1t. and with
this string her hands were tied. II
IN. IN no Ehnis
lis was a profligate In more ways than
one, for he deliberately stipulated in
his will that Sara was not to sell
foot of the ground until a period OF
twenty years had elapsed. very
polite way, it would seem, of making
his investment safe in the face OF con-
siderable odds.
He lived long enough after the max
ing of his will. am happy to relate
to find that he had made no mistake
AS he preceded his son-in-law into the
great beyond by a scant three years.
1t readily may be seen that he wrought
too well by far. Seventeen unnecess
sary years Of prescription remained
and he had not intended them lo[
sara alone. ne was uOe oAAo
Sara, but for her.
When the will was read and the con
dition revealed, Challis Wrandall tooA
1t in perfect good humor. He had tls
grace to proclaim in the bosom OF us
fathers family that the old gentleman
was a father-in-law to be proud OF. a
canny old boy" he had announces
with his most engaging smile, quilS
free from rancor or resentment. Cna.
lis was we'll acquainted with himself
And so the acres we're strapped W
gether snugly and firmly. without -
much as town lot protruding.
So impressed was Challis by the ,Al
sightedness of his father-in-laW ina
he forthwith sat him down and maus
a win Of his own. He would not nav
Il said that Sara's father did WI"
better by her than he would 90. ho
left everything he possessed 70 ~.
wife, but put no string to it. oianus
implying that all danger wouia y
past when she came into possessiOn'
There was a sort OF grim humoi =
the way he managed to present pu1
self to view as the real and ts@Ns
source Of peril