Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1925-05-21

when Demet-ius, the learned and I'm
practical, the heroic end 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 IL he
faced tempest.
| 1t was the doctor who carried the
news to Brena. He stood beside the
engraving of the Acropolis in its frame
battered with many packings and I'M
packings and many hangings ana 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, s'He
was haunted man, as we'll"
| Brena said nothing.
IF he had lived another six months.
he would have been totally blind. Only
I knew that. He would tell no one.
And what would have supported you
both then, Ell? The public funds, /
reckon"
The woman, who was still child,
| shivered.
He was sorely tempted-your IA
ther," said Doctor Gregory. s'He had
insured his life and he would have
killed himself to provide for you. Yes,
that was his plan. He asked me about
it. Such mani Hesitating to blow
his brains out because of what? Honor.
Not to defraud a soulless corporation,
eh? Not doing it, either. Too virtu-
Gus! Too just! Splendid! Magnifi-
cent? Like his own forehead-noble,
classicr'
Brena covered her face with her
hands.
'.Ah, well,' said the doctor, sit 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.
sDid he die without-a word?" she
asked.
mo; was going to speak of that"
| said Gregory, chewing harder than
/ ever on his eyer-present toothpick. "He
was conscious for a 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, refiectively. 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 deserv-
| ing better of life's sea y
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"
vas proyo would fnd ,,,o~1- I'M. :
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 it's prime with
untouched bloom upon it, to which was
added the charm and the dangers of
immaturity and innocence, her assets
were a hazard Her mind and its
capacities and its rich supply Of AGA
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
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 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 kind of dowager grandess
If she had been born under luckier
star or had rejected Sam Wilkie.
She would not have been of any