Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1925-05-14

"Oh, no. Not at all. Does that make
any difference?'
"Why should it?" Peter had inquired
with sincerity. He had come to the
point Of departure from his first ideas
of his destined relationship with Bre-
ma Selcoss.
In the days which had flowed on.
Peters coming and going at the new
hotel to which he had moved so that
no one luight attach themselves to him,
attracted the attention Of the doorman
with the woIn livery, brass buttons
and chronic apoplexy. "A very pc
culiar young 'un," he had said to the
porter. "A very odd 'airpin! Els
in an hout at hall hours l think 'e's
gaming"
Perhaps he was. That might have
been how he began. But the. delight of
a concentrated nothing to-do settled
| over the two and Peters steamer at
| last left the dock at Liverpool with
! American soldiers disappearing be-
| tween decks like a swarm of hornets
returning to their hive and purser
scratching his head over the name OF
one DeWolfe who was printed on the
passenger list but did not claim his
telegram. Peter had lost himself and,
| like a runaway child, he was glad OF
| it. There was only this difference
! for Peter no one but his lawyers
would make search.
~ T. h 20 ~
breaking down of conventions had
gone, it is only necessary to point out
| that upon one occasion where laugh
ing Sunday crowd had gathered about
hectic man preaching revolution
| from a stepladder in Hyde park, Peter
had sat down with the girl to listen.
The sunlight was comfortable, the
voice of the orator rose and broke with
/ the regularity of waves upon long
warm beach, and Peter, dropping back
with his head on the grass, watched a
| silvery airplane up from Hendon
wheel about like a gray beetle who
couldn't decide where to light, until
he fell asleep.
When he awoke he was generating
| apologies. He intended to say that
Brena and he, like fairy folk, had &C
quired the magic exemption from
sleep but that, of course, occasion
ally
None Of his embarrassm emit was ne
! gotiaIle: she, too, was asleep; her
hair with its red-brown variations OF
autumn leaves, was alive with the
sheen of the sunlight, her arm was
under her forehead. The orator had
spun his web to the end and all the
crowd had /buzzed away like escaping
flies; but a little stray dog, with a
face badly needing soap and water,
had gone to sleep at her feet with Its
face on its paws, whining over dream
OF a piece of meat with legs which
could run faster than he.
To them life had become abundant
with those unnoticed values, neglected
by the commiserable blind beings who
run along the ruts of unimaginative
existence with their hands put into
| the coarse fist of some conventional,
vulgar purpose. Together they went
| to the docks at night and listened to
Chinese coolies in the galley of a
tramp steamer from Hongkong, where
up from the yellow smoking interior,
as from a yellow smoking volcanic
crater, arose the strange grooming,
bubbling, wailing songs of the Far
East. They went to Hampstead and
laughed at the SNUG little houses with
their washed, respectable faces. They
strolled through the National gallery,
where they found a room of portraits
of men of the time of Pitt, all of
whom, as If by manner Of the time,
had their hands thrust palm down into
their buttoned coats; they called it the
Stomach-ache gallery. They sat on
strange doorsteps while Peter wrote
verses to the unknown inmates behind
the barrier. They invited a match
woman to dine with them and were
well repaid by hearing from her lips a
discourse upon the conceit Of each
age which always flatters itself into
belief that it is the worlds crisis. They
said goodnight at all hours, they ate
when hungry, and were as skillfully
silent when the mood came as they
were spontaneously chattering when
their minds danced together.
Peter might have guessed, but he
could not have known to what crisis
this would lead.
"We have not forgotten how to
- .oid RI hop
A look of pain had come into her
face and into her eyes the old look of
fear.
81 don't like it when you look like
that" he had said.
"How2'
afraid"
"I'm afraid of nothing, Peter-noth-
inc which makes ordinary fear in
ordinary hearts, Peter. You will see
some time that am not afraid"
She had laughed at his perplexed
expression, but without joy.
Don't you bother about me-" she
told him. you've promised that you
wouldn't, you know
He nodded. 1--WE kept my word.'
~ ~; ~ =s.sss
Fond of Old Customs
4