Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-08-02

won't admit it. And when it Is all
over, when they have done their worst
to me-"
With quick little twist she broke
away from the encircIing arm.
John, dear" she said, and her voice
was trembling between a laugh and a
sob, TIN the wickedest, wickedest
woman that ever lived and breathed-
and the happiest! I knew what you
would do, but I couldn't resist the
temptation to make you say it. Lis
ten: this morning colOnel-daddy got a
night-letter from Billy Starbuck You
have been wondering why Billy never
came out here to see yOu-it was be
cause he and Mr.. Stillings have been
in Lawrenceville, trying to clear you
They are there now, and the wire says
that WatrOus Durham has been arrest
ed and that he has broken down and
confessed. You are a free man, John );
you"
The grass-crOpping pony had
widened it's circle by a full yard, and
the westward pointing shadows of the
frs were growing shorter and more
clearly defined as the August sun
swung higher over the SUBMITS of the
eastern TimanyOnis. For the two on
the house bench, time, having all its in
terspaces filled with beatifc silences
had no measure that was worth record
ing. In one Of the more coherent in
tervals it was the man who said:
"Some things in this world are very
wonderful, Corona. We call them hap
penings, and try to account for them
as we may by the laws of chance. Was
it chance that threw us together at
your cousins house in Guthrieville
year ago last June?
She laughed happily. ST suppose it
was-though I'd like to be romantic
enough to believe that it wasn't
''Debritt would say that it was the
Absolute Ego" he said, half musingly.
"And who is Mr.. Debritt?"
''He is the man I dined with on my
last evening in Lawrenceville. He had
been joking me about my various
little smugnesses-good job, good
clothes, easy life, and all that, and he
wound up by warning me to watch out
for the Absolute Ego"
"What is the Absolute EgoY she
asked dutifuIly.
John Montague Smith, with his curl
ing yellow beard three weeks I'M
trimmed, with his clothes dressing the
part of a neglected camper, and with
a steel-jacketed bullet trying to encyst
itself under his right shoulder blade,
grinned exultantly.
"Debritt didn't know, himself; but
I know now: it's the primitive man
soul; the T. that is able to refuse to
be bound down and tied by environ
ment or habit or petty conventions, or
any Of the things we miSname 1imita-
TONS It's asleep in most of US; it
wasn't asleep in me. You made it sit
up and rub it's eyes for a minute or
two that evening in Guthrieville, but
it dOzed off again, and there had to
be an earthquake at the last to shake
it alive. Do you know the first thing
it did when it took hold again and
began to driver?
"No."
"Here Is where the law of chances
falls to pieces, Corona. Without tell
ing me anything about it, this newly
emancipated man-soul Of mine made
Decline for the only Absolute Ego
woman it had ever known. And it
found her.
Again the young woman laughed
happily eff you are going to call me
names, EgO-man, you'll have to make
it up to me some other way" she said.
WhereUpon, the moment being strict
~ elemental and sacred to demonstra-
tons of the absolute, ne did.
(THE END)