Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1925-04-30

knows how he succeeds in expressing
through some extensively fashionable
and unimaginative tailor so much of
his own brand of distinction in dress.
Evening clothes or bathwrap, majors
uniform or lounging fiannels, 1t is al
ways the same; Peters clothes and
Peter are one. An envieus broker in
New York named Moore once said
that Peters clothes even expressed
Peters moods-they could be limp,
soft and contented in his idleness;
they could stiffen into fine dignity
with a turn of his thought. MuriePs
father had given attention to clothes;
the hunter's-pink riding coat that still
hangs in the hall closet in BecOnshire
Heath reminds his successors of the
dominant, rare-roast-beef personality
Of Sir Austin. His daughter, like other
women who are In the profession OF
being women, gave importance to the
decorative qualities of a male; she
only forgot about Peters face and fig
ure and clothes when they had been
swallowed by his complete whole--a
whole which defied her methodjcal
judgment and made her eyes swim and
began to turn within her heart and
body the elementary machinery that
two hundred years Of Benham tradi-
ton had kept locked in neutral.
peter, | saw you before breakfast"
she said. 'From my window"
"You saw me?" he said. 'Why
didn't you call to me and say one of
your CHEEKY good mornings?"
She leaned SO close that he could
catch the faint aroma of the lavender
! which Mrs. Benham, with a beaming
face, sprinkled In the drawers. She
said, Because / was waiting to see
what you were doing
What was 1 doing?" said Peter.
"The telescope fathers telescope"
"Oh yes-the telescope" repeated
Peter, as If he had been accused of
stealing the sQueaky old glass. Il did
have the telescope, didn't II"
He was thinking that one could not
very we'll tell hosts like these two
women who had treated him as If he
were the owner Of the estate and of
the old stone house and even quaint
Spode coffee cups which came on at
breakfast, that he had come to Becon-
shire not to see them. He was think
Ing that If they had not chosen to men,
ton an acquaintance other than the
rather stiff and dull and correct per.
sons who had come to tea almost every
oft nd fhYnn or 10
dinners, saved by the Chateau YQuem
graciously left by Sir Austin as a
legacy in the wine cellar, he could
not very well mention this acquaint-
ance Furthermore he had begun to
feel that Muriel in some strange man
sner Of her own had created an atmos-
phere of a proprietress without any
other intimacy than calling him Peter
and, upon one occasion, dressing cut
of hawthorn on the back of his hand
with a peculiar tenderness mixed with
all the care of procedure that one can
find in "What to Do in an Emergency"
He shrank from making the one in
quiry he would have wished to make.
He now had a chance to make this
inquiry, because Muriel said: "You
were standing there under that beech
tree. I thought
what did you Think"
"That you were looking through the
glass across the. fields toward that
place under the big trees-the place
we call the Curate's because one used
to live there"
Peter might have spoken then to ask
who now occupied the little gabled
house with It's guardian trees. 1t was
the opportunity to hear name he had
not heard since he had heard it from
Colonel Benham's lips; Peters char
acteristic perversity that often made
him allow life to set it's own pace and
bring events at it's own whim, added
at this moment to his disinclination to
disclose one of his reasons for idling
under the Benhams roof It prevent
ed him from speaking. The sun was
warm, there was a fatalistic assur-
ance that he would hear the name
soon enough, and there was the pos
sibility that look of pain would come
into Muriel's face and he would hurt a.
girl for whom he had acquired a good
natured, companionable and almost
paternal affection.
He only smiled, and Muriel's pink
fingers being near upon the glass, he
touched them lightly. After a long
pause, he said: Il was looking around
the country"
81 do not believe you," the girl said
jumping up with startling suddenness
Where are you going?' he asked.
Into the house. 1 have ahead.
ache"