Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1915-01-20

Shirley" Said Her Mother, "The
Majors Brutal"
by her mothers chair. what was it
he said, dearest?"
He thinks / ought to wear wor-
sted shawl and arctics." Her mother
thrust out one little thin-slippered foot.
with it's slender ankle cleaning
through it's open-work stocking like
mother-of-pearl Imagine! In May.
And he knows I'm vain of my feet!
Major, if you had ever had a wife,
you would have learned wisdom. But
you mean well, and I'll take back what
I said about the julep. You mix it,
Shirley. Yours is even better than
Ranston's."
"She makes me one every day, Mon
ty," she continued, as Shirley went
into the house. "And when she isn't
looking, pour it into the bush there"
Major Bristow laughed as he bit
the end off cigar Cali the same"
he said in his big rumbling voice,
''you need 'em, reckon. You need
more than mint-juleps, too You leave
you take Shirley and pull out for
Italy. Why not? A year there would
do you a heap of good"
She shook her head. "No, Monty.
1t isn't what you think It's-here."
She lifted her hand and touched her
heart. cts been so for long time.
But it may-it can't go on forever,
you see. Nothing can"
The major had leaned forward in
his chair. Judith" he said, and his
hand twitched, cit isn't true!" And
then, "Iow do you know"
She. smiled at him. "You remember
when that big surgeon from Vienna
came to see the doctor last year?
Well, the doctor brought him to me.
I'd known it before in a way, but it
had gone farther than 1 thought No
one can tell just how long it may be.
1t may be years, of course, but I'm not
taking any sea trips, Monty"
He cleared his throat and his voice
was husky when he spoke. Shirley
doesn't know?"
Certainly not. She mustn't" And
then, in sudden sharpness: "You
shan't tell her, Monty. You wouldn't
dare!"
mo, indeed" he assured her quick
ly. "Of course not
TITS just among uT three, Doctor
e;outhall and you and me. We three
have had our secrets before, ell, Mon
ty?"
eyes, Judith, we have"
She bent toward him, her hands
tightening on the cane. after all,
it's true. Today I am getting old. I
may look only fifty, but 1 feel sixty
and I'll admit to seventy-fve. It's
JOY that keeps us young, and I didn't
get my fair share of that, Monty.
For just one little week my heart had
it all-all-and then-well, then it
was finished. 1t was finished long be-
fore l married Tom cambridge. 1t
isn't that I'm empty-headed. It's that
I've been an empty-hearted woman,
Monty-as empty and dusty and DESC
late as the old house over yonder on
the RIDGE
II know, Judith, I know"
You've been empty in a way, too"
she said. ''But it's been a different
way. You were. never in 1ove-really
in love, I mean Certainly not with
me. Monty though you tried to make
me thiaK so once upon time, before
Sassoon came along, and-Beauty Va
liant
The major blinked, suddenly
startled. 1t was out, the one name
neither had spoken to the other for
thirty years! He looked at her a lit
tie guiitily, but her eyes had turned
away. Everything changed then"
she continued dreamily, everything"
The majors fingers strayed across
his waistcoat, fumbling uncertainty
for his eyeglasses. For an instant
he, too, was back in the long-ago
past, when he and Valiant had been
comrades. 1t had been a curious
three sided affair-he, and Valiant and
Sassoon. Sassoon with his dissfpated
fair and ungoyernable temper ana
strange fits of recklessness; clean,
high-idealed straight-away Valiant;
and he-a Bristow, neither better nor
worse than the rest of his name. He
remembered that mad strained season
when he had grimly recognized his
own cause as hopeless, and with burn
ing eyes had watched Sassoon and
Valiant racing abreast. He remem-
bered that glittering prodigal dance
when he had come upon Valiant and
Judith standing in the shrubbery, the
candle-light from some open door en-
goldening their faces: hers smiling, a
little flippant perhaps, and conscious
of her spell; his grave and earnest,
yet wistful.
''You promise, John?"
Il give my sacred word. What
ever the provocation, l will not lift
my ha~5 L:u Nc~,~z. e.