Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-09-26

with a weight Of sorrow in them, -limpid,
melting eyes, calculated in their turn to pro
duce sorrow and suffering.
Mr.. FOrdyce bent those eyes on Meb. His
voice grew tender and gentle. In his musical
generalizing he had alluded to the power Of
the human voice to stir the heart. "You
look tired, Mrs. Wright"
81 am always tired-lately!"
This old friend of the days when she played
the church organ, and took lessons in French
and water-colors, he seemed so well fitted to
sympathize with her!
Two or three bright irreprossible tears fell
over her cheek. Agitatedly, she laid her
hand upon the sofa arm. Mr. Fordyoe's
chair was at the end of the sofa.
Very reverentially Mr.. Fordyce bent over
the hand.
You don't wear the moss-ngatc, now"
Il cant, my fingers have grown SO large
with doing my own work"
Mr.. Fordyce's eyes rested for a moment in
! Mebs.
She drew her hand away but Mr. Fordyce
understood that his sympathy was not often
sive.
After this, constraint slightly stifrened
Mebs manner. They talked of agate and
onyx, opal and jacinth, and all the secondary
! stones Mr. Fordyce said n design once cut
| in jacinth was never obliterated. He was
sympathetic and grave, and tender to the
! very last step over the front-door threshold.
! Then he whisked through the gate, and but
| toned up his coat with the comfortable assur-
ance Of IA man who had successfully enacted
the part Of n lady charmer his pay going on
! all the same.
Meb stepped into an adjoining room to as
! certain by the mirror how her hair looked d,
and whether the cardinal loops under the
chin were not disarranged Gentlemen of
-
of cardinal loops against 4 back ground Of
white illusion.
As she turned away satisfied, through a
half-open door she saw pair of coarse boots,
| heels set against the wall, and toes point
ing accusngly outward OF a worse looking
pair of boots it would be difficult to conceive
worn in the wet and dried hard and red
hard wrinkles above the short nstep. A re-
vulson, strong as Nemesis, seized Meb.
She crept into the other room and sat down
alone What had She said to that man, For
| dyce; What liberty Of perception had she
accorded and lac taken? What sympathy had
she been 50 deficient in self-respect as to 80
licit, and he so daring as to accord
She sat down again. The snow had melt
ed of the circular verbena mounds. Winn
helped her set those borders He had always
helped her She covered her face with her
hands, conscious only Of her ingratitude.
The silence began gradually to thrill with
premonitiOns. The hushed world outside,
with its unreasonable sunshine and warmth,
seemed waiting for cold and storms. For
what was she waiting? Drip of caves, tick
Of clock, chirp of canary, everything press
cd an unntelligible utterance upon her.
The prolonged whistle of II locomotive at
the station startled er,-only n call for
switch.
Suddenly loOmed i'll the doorway tall
woman with folds of black wrapper trailing
behind her, woman with deep, glistening
eyes, and that luminous intensity of pale
face frequently accompanying over wrought
nerves. Mebs neighbor, "A woman who saw
visions and dreamed dreams.
Was your husband well when he left
home, Mrs. Wright ?"
Meb threw out one hand. Don't tell me,
Mrs. Weir don't ~
The woman turned and trailcd back through
the kitchen
AIeb sat for a few minutes her face buried
in her palms then parted her hands and
looked out, to see soaked snow stitfcning
water filled foot prints and wheel-marks
growing blue and chilly; the street full of
returning shop-hands. From out the moving
figures one stood within the gate. sOrtOH
Orton was employed in very humble capac-
ity at the office. He was sometimes ridiculcd
for his religious zeal. In class-mceting, only
the previous evening, he had followed the
ejaculation 80, Lord, thou knowest how
apt we are to prone ~ with the fervent peti-
ton: Remember us not accordingt to our ink
qHities but deliver US from all our trdHSac-
tOtS t'
Nevertheless the company had habit of
falling back upon Orton when bad news was
to be communicated.
Meb had strength to open the outer hall
door; then sank back upon the lower stair
Don't tell me, Orton don't Is he dead?
Is he deady"
The Lord help you, Mrs Wright; We
don't know how bad it's The Bucephalus is
off the track, down Deep Gully, thirteen
cars down. They hadn't taken him out when
the last telegram came"
Meb clutched her nails into her cold
palms
Il must 60 Has the wrecker started"
"Just gone but Ellis ill find you all en-
gine to take you up. Perhaps you'd better
not 20, though. 1t may be pretty bad"
Mrs. Weir entered, put ON Meb's hat and
shawl, drew on her Overshoes, supported her
to the door, and took the key.
Meb grasped Orton's arm, and was con-
scious in daz,d sort of way Of slipping over
the ice and water to the depot
The Flyer" was just steaming through,
fired up to go out on the Riverview branch
run her OH to the turn-table, and come up
headed for the Gully.
Superintendent Ellis handed Meb into the
cab Engineer Baboock nodded, speechless,
and turned to his engine, pulled out the
throttle, struck the bell,-knell-like in the
clear air,-and the Flyer" shot out across
the plain with its withered brown mowings,
patches of dark ploughed land, and shallow
pools rejecting the purple twilight.
I. L., nj,
pounds of steam. The stoker began shovel
ing on the coal. Meb, from her perch inside
the cab, looked out and saw dreamily n town
or two set away in its happiness from the
death dealing track. Early lamps glimmered.
o, Winn, Vim, will the early lamp never
more glimmer for you
With many sharp curve, with many
shrill screech, the Flyer struck in between
the hills, ascending grade now smoke and
sparks flying past the cab windows, the lit
tie pointer of the steam gauge around TO one
hundred and ten. They were laundering
across the bridge where Lemoyne and Stark
lost their lives; they had entered the little
dell peaceful as June Sabbath, where Ar
thur Bells young life went out in dreadful
holocaust
''Do you know, did they say, was the
Bucephalus moving any petroleum. Meb's
white face quivered from forehead to chin.
BabcOck shook his head he didn't know.
A whistle,-a shrek rather, struck the
side of Mt. Ebal, reverberated to Gerzarim,
and was again thrown back across the swoll-
en- mountain torrent at the right of the track.
At Blees the river was full of great blocks
of ice, foaming, champing, jostling each 9TH
er. mill-reseryoir above had "broken up"
The reservoir itself lay still as death, black
and lonely as the dark river. A yellow moon
peered wierdy over the top of steep noun
tain-side. Steam up to one hundred and
thirty now, and kissing from the safety
valve. Gray-rock faced sides of Bear noun
tain echoed the rush and the roar Pine
plumed crests of Gobble shook through their
ranks.
On now to the Gully Every racing rock
and tree in the approach left Mebs heart
beating faster and more suffocatingly.
The Flyer, as she came to a stand-still,
seemed to shiver through every heavy driv-
ing-wheel, through every polished rod and
cylinder
6rgt on tho cyroun1 raachad m,