The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1922-12-08
III.


astonished me to find that Miss Ap-
perthwaite was a teacher of mathe-
matics except that Ito my inexperi-
enced eye) she didn't look it. She
looked more like Charlotte Corday!
| had the pleasure of seeing her OPP
posite me at lunch the next day (when
Mr.. Dowden kept me occupied with
Spenceryille politics, obviously from
fear that would break out again).
but no stroll il the yard with her re-
warded me afterward, as l dimly
hoped, for she disappeared before I
Nleft the table, and I did not see her
again for a fortnight. On weekdays
she did not return to the house for
lunch, my only meal at Mrs. Apper-
thwaite's Il dined at restaurant near
the Despatch office), and she was out
of town for little visit, her mother
Informed us. over the following Satur-
day and Sunday. She was not alto
gether out Of my thoughts. however,
indeed, she almost divided them with
the Honorable David Beasley.
A better view which was afforded
Of this gentleman did not lessen my
interest in him; increased it rather !;
it also served to make the exrraordi-
nary didoes of which he had been the
virtuoso and / the audience more than
ever profoundly .inexplfcable. My
glimpse of him in the lighted doorway
had given me the vaguest impression
of his appearance, but one afternoon
a few days after my interview with
Miss Apperthwaite-I was starting for
the Office and met him full-face-on as
he was turning in at his gate. took
as careful invoice of him as l could
without conspicuously glaring.
There was something remarkably
taking" as we say, about this man
something easy and genial and quizzi-
cal and careless. He was the kind of
person you like to meet on the street |;
whose cheerful passing sends you on
feeling indefinably little gayer than
you did. He was tall, thin-even
gaunt, perhaps-and his face was long,
rather pale, and shrcwd and gentle !;
something in its oddity not unremind-
full of the late Sol Smith RUSSELL. His
hat was tilted back little, the slight
est bit to one side, and the sparse,
brownish hair above his high forehead
was going to be gray before long. He
looked about forty.
The truth is, had expected to see
Il cousin german to Don Quixote; /
had thought to detect signs and
CLEANS OF wildness, however slight
something a little "off." One glance
Of that kindly and humorous eye told
me such. expectation had been nom
sense. Odd he might have been-+Gad-
zooks he looked it-but "queery
Never The fact that Miss Apper-
thwaite could picture such man as
this sitting and sitting and sitting"
himself into any form of mania or
madness whatever spoke loudly of her
own Imagination, indeed The key to
4 "Simpledoria" was to be sought I'M
der some other mat.
As / began to know some of
my co-laborers on the Despatch. and
to pick up acquaintance, here and
there, about town, l sometimes made
Mr. Beasley the subject of inquiry.
Everybody knew him. ooh yes, /
know Dave Beasleyl" would come the
reply, nearly always with chuckling
sort of laugh. gathered that he had
a name for ''easy-going" which amount
ed to eccentricity. 1t was said that
what the ward-heelers and campbell
lowers got out of him in campaign
times made the political managers
cry. He was the first and readiest
prey for every fraud and swindler that
came to Wainwright, heard. and yet,
in spite of this and Of his hatred of
"speech-making" GILES as silent as
Grant!' said one informant), he had
a large practice, and was one of the
most successful lawyers in the state.
One story they told of him Cor, as
they were apt to put it, ION" him) was
repeated so often that saw it had
become one of the towns traditions.
One bitter evening in February, they
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