The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1915-03-17
'R:M

inc COmUut2ttOu6 VI dctAOuOmCAop ~
a certain extent the human mind could
grasp the distances but could not com
prehend them. It was mere than
chance, Chance alone had not brought
him to the crumhling ledge. There
was 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 salient
recollections of Arthur and his moth.
er: First. the day the two had called
regarding the purchs ,e OF house that
her father had just put on the market
"a rambling old colonial affair, her
own mothers birthplace. Sixteen; she
had not quite been that, just free from
her school days in Italy. With the
grand air of youth she had betrayed
the fact almost instantly, while wait
ing 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
another Mrs. Ellison turned out to
be a schoolmate of her mothers, and
she, Elsa. had inherited their very
room. What more was needed?
The Ellsons 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 ad-
mittance. but waited in vain. Mrs. FL
lison never went anywhere. Her son
Arthur was a student and preferred
his books. So eventually society intro.
duced itself Persons who ignored 1t
must be interesting. When 1t became
known that Mrs. Ellison had been the
schoolmate of the beautiful and aristo-
cratic wife of General Chetwood;
when the local banker quietly spread
! the information that the Ellisons were
comfortably supplied with stocks and
bonds of a high order, society con-
cluded that it could do very we'll with
out past history. That could come
later.
With her father dead, Elsa became
as much at home in the Ellison house
as in her own. But never never any.
where in the house. was there indica-
tion of the existence of brother, so
like Arthur that under normal condi-
tions 1t 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 trifling krickknacks 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
I valley in order to leave behind the
scene of their disgrace and all those
who had known them. Arthur was an
inveterate traveller. Half the year
found him in Europe. painting little,
! writing little less, frequenting the
lesser known villages in France and
Italy. He 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-hood
ed hills, with his painting kit over his
shoulders and his camp stool under
! his arm. Later, Elsa began to under
stand that he was a true scholar, not
merely an educated man. He was be.
sides linguist of amazing facility, a
pianist who invariably preferred as
his audience his own two ears. Ar.
thur would have been great drama.
tist or great poet, if II he
/ had fought for prizes coveted by man
kind, if he had thrown aside his
dreams and gone into the turmoil If
/ he had taken up a mans burden and
carried 1t to success Elsa, daughter
of man who had fought in the great
! arena from his youth to his death,
I Elsa was not meant for the wife of O
! dreamer.
Paul Ellison. What was his crime
I in comparison to his expiation of it?
He had built bridges. fought torrents.
hurricanes, himself No, he was not a
scholar: he saw no romance in the
multifarious things he had of neces.
sity put his hand to; these had been
daily matter-of-fact occupations. A
strange gladness seemed to loosen the
tenseness Of her aching nerves.
Then. out Of the real world about
her. came with startling distinctness,