The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-02-07
REIMBURSEMENT
BY ALICE WEBER.

was q struggle to reach out for COM
mon sense after the blind unreason OF
affection and there was nothing to help |
except the neWneSS of the life about |
her 1t was as if she had gone back
to the very beginning of things. IN q |
way she had. She and her father were |
living outside a French village in |
weather-beaten house across the Dor
der from New Brunswick, with a COOK
stove, two beds, a rough table ana
couple of chairs. Her father was like |
boy in this environment and did the
cooking, while Ann made a determined
effort to find glimmer of light other
wise called sanity, in the darkness that
encompassed her.
| When she reached st. Attegat, dur
| ing the early days of June, she had
| been too Indifferent to care for the
| quaintness of her surroundings. Her
father had been alarmed about her
/ health, and the family physician, I'M
able to discover cause for her illness,
had sent her where he knew the air
I was sweet and pure.
As she sat liStless under the shadow
of a sugar maple, Ann thought Of his
words She had honestly tried to bring
herself into touch with the life about
her, but health was as yet too far away
for her to have any other feeling than
one, OF indifference.
Her life was primitive in the ex-
IRENE She was miles from a rail-
road and the mail came but once
month. She and her father we're de-
. pendent upon a neighhor, Mr.. Chandler,
for that and he had brought it for the
5 first time that evening. There were
! no letters. She had expected none, but
I the longing of the spirit cannot always
! be subjected to pride and there We're
times, like the present, when it seemed
as if nothing mattered but the sight
of the man she cared for. And she
had given him up. The cruelty of it
was that she had learned she was but
: the means to an end, had stumbled
upon the knowledge within a week of
n her wedding day.
2 In the Corcoran art gallery she had
i paused beside the entrance to one Of
G the rooms when the murmur of voices
g caught and held her attention.
{ no, l do not love her." she heard.
Fortunately | am interested in no
:. other woman. else it might 90 hard
!, with me. Her father is wealthy. She
nI is rich in her own right and | will be
q able TO crafty ambitions hitherto mere
n ~ dreams" AS he finished speaking
e two men came face to face with Ann
IS and she looked directly into the eyes
1t of the man she had expected to marry
= Pride came 70 her aid in her effort TO
= adjust herself to her new outlook upon
life, but in the end she was bundled
! off TO St Attigat, and here she met
II Mr.. Chandler, with whom her father
10 found congenial companionship. He
III had a way of watching her that was
O. disconcerting, and this, in time, made
IN her conscious she was not good to loob
le1 at. She became oversensitive about
her lack of color and one day rum
10 mayed through her trunk for her van
= ity box and was chagrined not TO fine
: it.
\, This incident marked a change. I'm
II perceptibly the outdoor life was max
h. ing a difference in Ann. She tool
On long walks and would stroll off 70
hours alone. One evening she did no
SIS return. Chandler, with her father
a found her on the edge of the rive
ny with twisted ankle and disIocatet
OF shoulder. She had slipped from tn
ne rock where she had been fishing. sh
told them later.
i When they discovered her Mr.. MOI
IN gan promptly went to pieces. She wa
of all he had, and if anything happene
ed to her he was of no more use than
We baby. Mr.. Chandler carried her HON
ra- with about as much feeling as if sh
had been q bundle of rags, she though
iii the moment when a glimmer of re:
- son made her try to recover her dignit
and Slip from his arms. 1t was the
he gave her little shake and told he
TO lie still.
Just the merest jingle, but it ser
needles Of fame all over her, and ST
knew nothing more until she was G
eW her bed with the two bending over he
Between them she was made cor
/ 41,I
or in her mind. She could not unde
) a stand the odd look in Mr.. Chandler
Of eyes when she had first opened h,
md own, and now, after a month of ina
ate tivity, she was still puzzled She hs
ars not seen it since. He gave her unde
W. standing and pleasant friendship, b
nv that was all.
80 And she had begun to care. I'll
III thought troubled her. Was she lackil
IN in consistency that she could so sot
mr.. forget one man for another? But
viii she looked back upon those feveri
days, she told herself she had been
in love with love. That, she knew, W
ter not the real thing, and she had disco
ON cred this, here in the midst of II
ing ture-had learned to distinguish [
oe tween the false and the true, and wi
9" all her heart she prayed that the thi