Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-03-04
COPYRIGHT 1el4~ 81 r1scLvras enwsnApeA sxfDicI


'.Now, the Chauffeur had been one
Of the servants that ran away. Re
turning, two months afterward, he dis
covered Vesta in q little summer pa
vilion where there had been no
deaths and where she had established
herself. He was q brute. She was
afraid, and she ran away and hid
among the trees, That night. oh foot,
she fed into the mountains she.
whose tender feet and delicate body
: had never known the bruise of stones
nor the scratch of briers. He fol.
lowed, and that night he caught her.
He struck her. Do you understand?
He beat her with those terrible fists
Of his and made her his slave. 1t
was she who had to gather the fire.
wood, build the fires. cook and do
all the degrading camp labor-she.
who had never performed mental
act In her life. These things he COM
PEELED her to do, while he, q proper
savage, elected b lie around camp
and look on. He did nothing, abso-
lutely nothing. except on occasion to
hunt meat or catch fish,
Good for Chauffeur" Hare-Lip COM
mented in an understone to the other
boys. II remember him before he died.
He was corker. But he did things,
and he made things go. You know, dad
married his daughter. an you ought
to see the way he knocked the spots
outa dad. The Chauffeur was a son
OF gun. He made US kids stand
around. Even when he was croakin'
he reached out for me once an laid
my head open with that long stick he
kept always beside him."
Hare-Lip rubbed his bullet head
reminiscently. and the boys returned
to the old man. who was Numbering
ecstatically about Vesta, the squaw of
the founder Of the Chauffeur tribe.
"And so I say to you that you can
not understand the awfulness of the
situation. The Chauffeur was serv-
ant, understand. servant. And he
cringed, with bowed head. to such as
she. She was lord Of life, both by
birth and by marriage. The destinies
ce millions such as he she carried in
the hollow of her pink-white hand. And,
in the days before the plague. the
slightest contact with such as he
would have been pollution. Oh, l have
seen it. Once, remember, there was
a Mrs. Goodwin. wife Of one Of the
great magnates. It was on q landing
stage, just as she was embarking in
her private dirigible, that she dropped
her parasol. A servant picked it up
and made the mistake of handing it to
her-to her, one Of the greatest royal
ladies' of the land! She shrank back.
as though he were leper, and indi-
Gated her secretary to receive it. Also.
she ordered her secretary to ascertain
the creatures name and to $50 that
he was Immediately discharged from
service. And such . woman was Vesta
Van Warden. And her the Chauffeur
beat and made his slave.
"-Bill-that was it; Bill. the Chauf-
feur. That was his name. He.was .
wretched, primitive man, wholly de-
void of the finer instincts and chival.
rous promptings Of q cultured soul. No.
there is no absolute justice. for to him
fell that wonder of womanhood. Vesta
Van Warden. The grievousness Of
this you will never understand. my
grandsons; for you are yourselves
primitive little savages. unaware Of
aught else but savagery. Why should
vesta not have been mine? was a
man OF culture and refinement, pro-
lessor in . great university. Even so.
in the time before the plague. such
was her exalted position. she would
not have deigned to know that l ex-
listed. Mark. then, the abysmal degra-
dation to which she fell at the hands
Of the Chauffeur. Nothing less than
the destruction Of all mankind had
made It possible that should know
her. look in her eyes, converse with
her. touch her hand-aye. and love her
and know that her feelings toward me
were very kindly. have reason to
believe that she, even she, would have
loved me. there being no other man
in the world except the Chauffeur.
Why, when It destroyed eight billions
OF souls, did not the plague destroy
inst one more man, and that man the
Chauffeur?
..once, when the Chauffeur was
away fishing, she begged me to kill
him. With tears in her eyes she
begged me to kill him. But he was q
strong and violent man. and ! was
afraid. Hfterward I talked with him.
/ offered him my horse. my pony. my
dogs, all that possessed, II he would
xive vesta to me. and he grinned in
my face and shook his head. He was
very insulting. He said that in the
old days he had been Q servant. had
been dirt under the feet Of men Ike
me and Of women. like Vests, and that
now he had the greatest lady in the
land to be servant to him and cook his
food and nurse his bratA You had
your day before the plague he said;
but this Is my day, and . damned
rood day It 10. I wouldn't trade back
to the old times for anything Such
words he spoke, but .asy are not his
words He was vulgar, low.minded
man, and vile oaths fell continually
from his lips.
ALSO he told me that II he caught
me- making eyes. at his woman he'd
wiring my neck and give her q beating
a. well. What was to do? / was
afraid. He was brute. That first