The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-06-19

4
practical, the heroic and the humbled
exiled gentleman of Athens, stepped
In front of moving train one evening
as he was trying to cross the tracks
which run through the Dallas streets,
and then lay staring up at the sky, his
hair and beard brushed back as If he
faced tempest.
III was the doctor who carried the
news to Brena He stood beside the
engraving Of the .Acropolls in It's frame
battered with many packings and I'M
packlngs and many hangings and re-
movals and many journeys In the bot
toms of trunks.
You do not weep" he inquired.
NO. said Brena, looking at him
with her blanched face
The doctor was little dried up
southerner, whose manner straddled
between his Kentucky birthright and
the Prussian medical schools where
he had acquired his education.
HE was noble man." he said, "He
was haunted man, as WELL"
| Brena said nothing.
IF he had lived another six months,
he would have been totally blind. Only
knew that. He would tell no one.
And what would have supported you
both then, Ell? The public funds, i
reckon"
The woman, who was still child.
shivered.
He was sorely tempted-your IA
ther," said Doctor Gregory. "He had
insured his life and he would have
killed himself to provide for you. Yes,
that was his plan. He asked me about
1t. Such mani Hesitating to blow
his brains out because of what? Honor.
Not to defraud soulless corporation,
Ell! Not doing it, either. Too virtu-
GUS! Too, just! Splendid! Magnlfi-
cent! Like his own forehead-noble,
classicp'
Brena covered her face with her
hands.
"Ah, WE'LL" said the doctor, at was
well to know such a man. You must
be brave-a good girl, Ell? Your father
may have been killed in answer to his
prayers. One cannot grope his way in
front of moving train.
| did he die-without-a word?" she
asked.
mo; l was going to speak of that,
said Gregory, chewing harder than
ever on his ever-present toothpick. "He
was conscious for time-quite con-
scious. He said that you never knew
how much he loved you-some awk-
wardness, he said, prevented He
asked me to tell you that something
would protect you from danger. He
didn't say what. Something would.
He said that you must not be afraid"
The doctor sighed and looked about
the room with its few books, pictures,
ornaments-the shabby remnants of a
life Of discriminating taste, high pur-
poses and poverty.
There isn't much for you to begin
on he said, refectively. Five hun
dred life insurance. The rest had
gone because he didn't pay the premi-
ums. Too honest to take it by blow
ing his brains Out-a noble mantle
timbers Of a noble human craft desery-
ing better of life's sea 20
| He was proud of that phrase.
81 think you will find that Mrs. VIII
kie on the corner will take you in for
WHILE" he suggested. "You will
find work"
Yes, Brena would find work. The
| granddaughter Of the proud and intel
lectual Tom Vaughn, the daughter of
the man who in America called himself
Demetrius Selcoss, once the teacher of
chemistry in the National Institution
of Greece, who had the right to wear
royal decoration and who bore on his
body the marks of battles for liberty
she was now merely girl alone in the
world, without friends, money, back
ground, training, experience A great
| democracy had leveled her. Pos
sessed only Of that sun-ripened beauty
Of fruit coming into Its prime with
untouched bloom upon 1t, to which was
added the charm and the dangers of
| immaturity and innocence, her assets
were hazard. Her mind and its
capacities and its rich supply of aca-
demic learning were not currency
which passed as legal tender among
| the persons she would know. Her IA
Their, who had said that he always met
life unprepared, might well have added
that he left it without provision.
Brena went to live with Mrs Wilkie.
She remembered that lady as an in
tensely practical woman who was al
ways in hurry. On haste, she had
| grown almost unpleasantly stout, and
4 one Of the disagreeable memories of
Brena's tragic stOrehouse is the pic
| ture Of this wOman's absurdly small
mouth, which would not stay fixed in
one spot between her fat cheeks and
her fat chin, but moved about, appear
| ing to be located first here and then
there, like a newly punched orifice 1t
never moved so unpleasantly as when
she was talking of her ancestry, her
relatives who had great wealth and
her husbands injustice and brutality
in making her give up society. Her
husband had given up her society; he
had gone to parts unknown. She
brooded upon her fancy that she could
have been a kind Of dOwager grandess
If she had been born under luckier
star or had rejected Sam Wilkie.
She would not have been of any
particular Importance In the life of
Brena Selcoss had 1t not been for two
other distinction, she could have that
of giving refuge at so much and so
much for room and board per week to