Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1921-09-01
The Infatuation of
Dacey
By MURIEL BLAIR
&eS>>~S~~~~~~~~~~~
O9. 1921. Western Newspaper Union.J

and eyes as tender as the softest
moonlight. 1t affected the heart like
enchanted music. The hushed dreams
of youth were awakened and his pulse
bounded at the alarm.
He sat now--he, Norman Daeey-
young, rich In money but dissatisfied
of SOUL. telling the story of it all to his
closest friend, Elliott Hughes. AS he
spoke his subdued tones reminded Of
poet traversing some sweet and ten
der lay, for into his barren life had
come a purp0Se--to find one woman
he had seen and to tell her that he
loved her.
1.-TWO months he was saying, "and
it seems like two years. 1t was just
beyond the village that the team took
fright at passing automobile. / was
thrown out. It was the cash from a
deep cut that was the most serious. |
was stunned. Then between that and
the hospital there was one supreme
moment. 1t was when | saw her."
"You have told that, Dacey," broke
in Hughes in tone of slight raillery.
"She was lovely as an houri and all
that"
"She was simply girl, an innocent,
beautiful girl" resented Dacey grave
ly. "a man stood at little distance,
probably relative. She had torn a
scarf from her throat and was trying
to staunch the blood from my wound
| recall one look into those plying
soul-like eyes. Then the blackness of
death again.
"And nothing of the girl since?
questioned Hughes.
Nothing" replied Dacey.
"Well, | am at least glad to see your
mind reused out of the torpor of your
habitual ennui, Hughes. IL you can
take any interest in pursuing this ex-
trayagant phantom, keep 1t up. Let
me see, thought believe you told
me that the accident was costly to you
in more ways than one?"
"You mean the trifie l lost?" OBJ
served Dacey.
"You call five hundred dollars In
money trihe!"
'The money does not trouble me-"
replied Dacey carelessly.\"I may have
lost it before the accident"
The friends separated, Hughes to go
home to his wife to smile over "the
ridiculous infatuation of Dacey," the
latter to still more determinedly seek
some trace Of the mysterious unknown
whose bonny face was with him every
where.
After that he spent days and then
weeks in constant effort to trace
down the being he could not dismiss
from his thoughts. And then one chill
clustering November night, as he SAT-
in the library of his lonely home, he
saw forlorn form appear before the
easement and faIter there. He saw a
wan. agitated face and dripping,
Storm-beaten garments. In an instant
he had drawn open the window, and
she, the lady of his dreams, tottered
into the room and fell to the nearest
chair. where she dropped like wlted
flower N
otiC idtStu CNOS at iaNl W
muir his name, to draw from her bosom
the pocketbook he had lost.
"You are Mr.. Dacey," she faltered.
This is yours, | must 60"
mo- MOI" cried Dacey, blocking
the way. Then he saw her reel with
a terrified cry. The windows behind
Dacey opened and a rough-looking
man intruded--the man he had seen
once before with the girl.
"Ah. have found you, have l, Clio
ria?' Kissed the intruder. "You had
that all of the time"
The speaker made dive for the
pocketbook Dacey put out his strong
arm.
DO not harm him." pleaded the girl
piteously. HE has kept me pris-
oner he has nearly starved me be-
cause would not give up the pocket
hook which wrenched from him. But
he is my brother-and it was all his
cruel lust for gold"
Take 1t and-go," said Dacey to
the brother
With a gloating cry of JOY the man
sped from the room, holding the COW
eted money to his breast like a wild
beast clasping its prey. Dacey re-
closed the windows, pressed Il button
In the wall and told the servant who
answered to summon his widowed sis
ter.
"Sit down. please" spoke Dacey. as
wondering Leah Davelin entered the
room. II have a story to tell"
How sweetly soft he told I'll How
The sympathetic-tears came to his low
ing sister, how the eyes of the breath
less, marvellng Gloria Burley seemed
to take 1t all In as If It were some
beautiful dream.
Abruptly Dacey left the room, the
woman he loved in the friendly charge
of his sister. II was new Gloria,
revived whom he met the next day
the happy day, the day Of his life inn
memorial that he asked her to become
his wife.