Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-12-23

l nave Deen thinking so constantly OF
his mother and it seemed to me that 1
have never seen her more distinctly.
How lovely she was-and how she
loved himr'
If Lucy had not written this letter
Eugene might not have done the odd
thing he did that day. He was an ad-
venturer; If he had lived In the six
teenth century he would have sailed
the unknown new seas, but having
been born In the latter part of the
nineteenth, when geography was a
fairly well-settled matter, he had be-
come an explorer in mechanics. But
the fact that he was a "hard-headed
business man" as we'll as an adven-
turer did not keep him from having a
queer spot in his brain. because hard
headed business men are as suscep-
tible to such spots as adventures are.
Two weeks after Isabel's death, Eu-
gene was in New York on urgent busi-
ness and found that the delayed ar
rival Of steamer gave him day with
nothing to do. His room at the hotel
had become intolerable; outdoors was
intolerable; everything was intolera-
Bile. 1t seemed to him that he must
see Isabel once more, hear her voice
once more; that he must find some
way to her. or lose his mind. Under
this pressure he had gone, with COM
plete scepticism. to ''trance-medium"
of whom he had heard wild accounts
from the wife Of business acquaint-
ance.
The experience had been grotesque.
and he came away with an encourag-
ing message from his father, who had
failed to Identify himself satisfactor-
lily, but declared that everything was
ION higher plane" In his present
state of being, and that all life was
continuous and progressive" Mrs.
Horner spoke Of herself as a
"psychic;;" but otherwise she seemed
oddly unpretentious' and matter-of-
fact; and Eugene had no doubt at all
of her sincerity. He went to Mrs.
Horners after his directors meeting
today. He used the telephone booth in
the directors room to make the APP
pointment; and he laughed feebly at
himself, and wondered what the group
of men in that mahogany apartment
would think if they knew what he was
address, but he found the new one,
and somebody purporting to be niece
of hers talked to him and made an ap-
pointment for Sitting" at five o'clock
Mrs. Horner appeared in the door
way, wan and unenterprising look
ing woman In brown, with thin hair
artificially waved-but not recently
and parted in the middle over a blush
forehead. Her eyes were small and
seemed weak, but she recognized the
visitor.
"Oh, you been here before" she said,
In thin voice, not unmusical. II rec
ollect you. Quite time ago, want
it?'
"Yes, quite long time"
II recollect because / recollect you
was disappointed. Anyway, you was
kind of cross" She laughed family.
I'm sorry If / seemed So" Eugene
said. "Shall We"
"All right" she assented, dropped
into the leather chair, with her back to
the shaded window. "You better set
down, too, I reckon. hope you'll get
something this time SO you won't feel
cross, but dunno. / can't never tell
what they'll do. Well"
She sighed, closed her eyes, and was
silent, while Eugene, seated in the stiff
chair across the table from her,
watched her profile, thought himself
an idiot, and called himself that and
other names. And as the silence con-
tinued, and the impassive woman in
the easy-chair remained impassive, he
began to wonder whatNhad led him to
be such fool. What had brought him
back to this absurd place and caused
him to be watching this absurd wom-
an taking nap in a chair? In brief:
What the devil did he mean by it? He
had not the slightest interest in Mrs.
Horners naps-or in her teeth, which
were being slightly revealed by the I'M
conscious parting-of her lips, as her
breathing became heavier.
How long was he going to sit here
presiding over this unknown woman's
slumbers? 1t struck him that to make
the picture complete he ought to be
shooing flies away from her with a
palm-leaf fan.
Mrs. Horner's parted lips closed
again abruptly. and became COM
pressed; her shoulders moved a little.