The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1918-01-03
True Blue

By R. Knorr

SS!~>NN~\~\\N~~~ \~N\~NNN~N.t
"What fine sunset!' Harry Still
well pointed to the red and orange
western sky. His companion sighed,
but said nothing, as with his back to
! the window he was carefully putting
away his engravers tools.
"Poor fellow, I forgot he's color
blind" Harry muttered then contin-
ued louder: ''But, say, Ed, don't you
see any of the colors out there?"
! Edward Dalton shook his head.
life is to me one long gray day. OF
course, don't know just how you nor
mal-eyed people see things. I distin-
guish what you call blue, such as the
sky on clear sunny day, and flowers
like the violet and bluebell, and also
perceive what you call yellow. But
all the other colors you speak of are
to me only so many variations of gray,
more or less luminous. What you call
color, call degrees Of light and
shade"
"And there you have the immense
! advantage over us in our profession"
said Stillwell, to smooth away his
thoughtless question that had panied
his friend. "When in engraving we
don't know whether a color should
come out light or dark, you see the
right tone at once. Are you going to
Maud Lenders dance this EVENING""
He had abruptly changed the subject.
"She asked me to come, so suppose
I must" answered Dalton, with little
eagerness to go.
The two young men left the studio
together. For the length Of whole
block Stillwen dilated on the charms
of Miss Leander, limiting that he was
the preferred sutton to the hand Of the
heiress. Dalton listened in silence;
but at the first corner he turned down
by-street to escape from his loqua-
cious companion.
Edward Dalton, the congenial color
| blind, spoke truth when he said that
life was to him one long gray day.
Morbidly sensitive to his visual defect,
he was becoming moody and unsocia-
bic. He imagined that he lost more
of the joys of life than he perhaps
really did. And he found scant COM
pensation in the fact that his eyes were
exGuisitely alive to form, to the lumi-
Mostly Of the colors he did not see and
hence to gradations of light and shade
imperceptible to his many friends. The
latter gift, characteristic of the color
blind, made him invaluable to his en-
ployer and had won him a fine posi-
ton. And yet his hours away from his
work were more than ever given over
to gloomy thoughts. For he felt him
self handicapped in striving for the
prize of life. And the fairest of these
was at that very moment an object
of rivalry among his friends.
Maud Leander was the prettiest girl
| in town and an heiress besides. A
handsome fortune had been left her by
| an eccentric maiden aunt on condition
that she be engaged on her twenty-ffth
! birthday. Otherwise the money was to
| revert to some charity. An easy
| enough condition to fulfill, one would
think, for girl of Maud's popularity.
| And, indeed, suitors were not lacking.
| Many of them were merely fortune
! hunters. Annoyed by the persistence
of these Maud had grown to dislike
them all, and had vowed not to marry
any one among them.
There was only one young man in
town Maud cared to think of as her
future husband. But Edward Dalton
kept aloof. The sense of his infirmity
hung over him. And, moreover, the
thought Of her money kept him back.
He detested fortune-hunting. Had she
been poor as he was he might have
asked her to share his growing pros
poets. The heiress could not ask. Yet
he loved Maud and was miserable be-
cause he would not tell her so.
Maud OWNED his feelings from the
shy Difference with which he ap-
preached her, in grateful contrast to
the tongue worship of her suitors. She
therefore made up her mind either to
marry him or to let the money go and
remain bachelormaid. But he would
not speak, and she dared not, for fear
Of seeming unmaidenly in his eyes.
while the fatal birthday was fast ap-
preaching, and a score of young men
hung on her decision.
Dalton went unwillingly to the
dance. 1t tormented him to see her
surrounded by that throng of Aatterers,
all unworthy Of her, one of whom
would soon carry off the prize. It
never occurred to him that he stood
| a better chance than any of them.
AS he entered the room Maud was
chatting with Stillwell. But she olsen
gagged herself Immediately and beck
Oned to him.
"Im so glad you've come" she said
cordially. 'aThis first dance belongs to
you,'' and off she went with him, leav-
ing Stillwell to gaze after her as if his
rightful property had been snatched
from him. His frowns promised moth
ing good to his friend. AS he watched
them swing around the room an ugly
thought took shape in his mind. Seiz-